The Resilient Mind - The Day You Get Serious Is the Day Everything Changes (Original Seminar) - Jim Rohn

Episode Date: June 15, 2026

A timeless message from Jim Rohn®Jim Rohn was a renowned motivational speaker who has been widely regarded as one of the best in his field during his time. He had an incredible ability to inspire and motivate people from all walks of life with his speeches and teachings. One of his most notable achievements was serving as a mentor to Tony Robbins, one of the most successful and well-known motivational speakers in the world today.SUCCESS® presents: Jim Rohn®. To discover more powerful messages and timeless teachings from Jim Rohn, visit: 👉 https://www.success.com/subscriptions/.Licensed for use from https://mindsetdrm.com/.Take action and strengthen your mind with The Resilient Mind Journal. Get your free digital copy today: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/Download_JournalExplore tools from past guests of the podcast. Some links below are affiliate links, meaning we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you:💓 HeartMath: https://www.heartmath.com/resilient🧠 Muse: https://choosemuse.com/resilientmind🌿 Brain Ritual: https://www.brainritual.com/THERESILIENTMIND🌍 The Resilient Mind Podcast is a proud member of 1% for the Planet — building resilient minds and a resilient planet. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you should and you could and you don't, jot those little phrases down. Should, could, don't. Here's what we call that, formula for disaster. And all you've got to do to start now the process of life change is start somewhere. And it doesn't even matter where. You can start with good health or you can start with something else. The key is to start by saying, I'm going to start the process in each category of finding by my own research. And that's why seminars are so valuable.

That's why information is so valuable. That's why somebody willing to take the time to share is so valuable as to help boil it down in some form to the half a dozen few things that takes care of most of it, and then let me get on with practicing it, and where you start doesn't matter. The process of life changed and start with as simple a process as an apple a day, which means I'm on the road to cleaning up neglect. I'm going to walk around the block. I'm going to get the next book of my new library. I'm going to get a journal. She'll have taught me to keep a journal. He said, don't just let ideas get by you.

Don't trust your memory. If you're serious about really becoming an entrepreneur, if you're serious about affecting other people's lives, if you're serious about fortune, if you're serious about wealth and health, if you're serious, start collecting ideas, go over them and review them, then make them a part of your life and practice

and don't ever look back. That formula helped change my life. Brought me to where I am today. And I'm so delighted now to have the opportunity to go around the world telling the same story that I heard when I was 25 years old. There's a few basic things, and if you practice them every day, I'm telling you there's no reason why you can't have the health you want,

the relationship you want, the fortune you want, the money you want, the income you want, the sophistication you want, the culture you want, the prestige you want, the influence you want, all of it. It's wrapped up, I think, in a nutshell of what I've just explained to you, a few things. Now, let me give you one more part of it. Here it is. Once you found a little bit of it,

Once you found the few things that makes the most difference, now spend most of your time working on those few things. That now is another part of the clue. The first part of the clue is to get the information and consistently practice it. But here's the rest of the formula. Spend most of your time on it. The reason why a lot of people don't do that well

is because they major in minor things. They spend too much time on things that don't count much. And they spend too little time on things that would count. So jot this formula down. If the equation is wrong, the results can be disastrous. If the equation is wrong, the results can be disastrous over a given period of time.

Here's a guy in the last 10 years who's bought 2,000 donuts and two books. And this guy says, you know, my life isn't working well. Anybody in this audience could give him a seminar, right? Once we knew these numbers, here's what we might suggest to this guy. Hey, this may be one of your major problems. In the last 10 years, you've spent too much money on donuts and not enough money on books. You've spent too much money feeding the body and not enough money gathering food for the mind.

And it's not the miracle of your body that works out your future. It's the miracle of your mind. But if you nourish the body and neglect to nourish the mind, I'm telling you're going to have, all kinds of problems and all kinds of difficulties. So we would suggest, one of our suggestions in our seminar to this man would be in the next 10 years, spend a lot less money on donuts and a lot more money on books, food for thought, bread for the head, we call it. You gotta have ideas that feed your mind, not just your body. And the miracle of the mind is so fabulous to work out your future, to give you all the equities you could possibly hope for,

to give you every dream and every treasure you could possibly want for you and your family and the people you care most about. It's all available. But it is a very basic, simple process. Once you found the few things, spend most of your time and money working on those few things. Okay, we call these basics. Basics.

Fundamentals, another good word. If you're going to play football, you've got to learn the fundamentals. And there's about how many. About a half a dozen, right? It'll make you good at it. If you practice those half a dozen, a few other things, yes. But the half a dozen are what's important to lay the ground basics, fundamentals. Now, let's talk about the fundamentals of life.

Let me give you this little series to jot down. Number one, fundamentals of life. Number one, there's just a few. There's just a few fundamentals of life. About a half a dozen. I boiled it down to five. Fundamentals of life, there's just a few. Here's number two.

Once you know them, you know. I mean, there's nothing difficult here. It's pretty easy to figure out why people are broke, and it's pretty easy to figure out how people get rich. It's no big deal. Fundamentals of life, number one, there's just a few, number two, once you know them, you know them. Now here's number three. There's no new ones.

Written history's what? About 6,000 years. There's nothing new here. Now, there might be a new way to say it. There might be a new way to apply it to the 20th century, getting ready for century 21. But this stuff is basic. It's old, it's fundamental. So be aware of somebody who comes along says,

we've got new truth. Say, no, you can't have new truth. Truth is old. So be a little suspicious. If a guy says, we're manufacturing antiques, you've got to come watch our plan. Wouldn't you be a little suspicious? You say, no, you can't manufacture antiques.

Antiques are what? Old, so antiques are like truth. Truth is old. Now, just because you've discovered it is no sign it's new. say no, truth is old. The fundamentals go way back. The fundamentals of sewing and reaping go way back. The fundamentals, good, evil, go way back.

I mean, there's nothing new here. All we need to do, though, is to just bring our intellectual discovery process to bear and see if we can't find those few things, then the rest of it is to get busy practicing those few things. So let me give you what I think are the few things. I boiled it down to five. I finally got to the five major pieces after that long speech. But surely you must be ready now.

Here they are. We might all agree on number one, philosophy. This is where the value of human life begins to show versus all other life forms. Philosophy, the ability to develop a philosophy. I call it simply a guidance system. Settling on certain questions and making decisions about what direction in life you're going to take. setting goals, making plans, this guidance system. I've boiled it down to each one's personal philosophy, a guidance system.

And we all need a guidance system for two reasons, for your notes. Number one, to avoid the dangers. Somebody's got to give us some clues first on how to avoid the dangers. And number two, to take advantage of the opportunities. To see and understand the opportunities, take advantage, and to avoid the dangers. It's about as simple as I can put it, a guidance system necessary to do that

while we journey on the planet spinning through space. Philosophy. To develop this guidance system, we use our mind to think and to process ideas and information. It's about as simple as I can put it. That process helps us to develop this guidance system. Now, interestingly enough, only humans have this unique ability of all life forms on earth.

Dogs don't have it, alligators don't have it, spiders don't have it. Only humans have the ability to use their mind, to think, and process ideas and information and adjust this guidance system, however necessary, to make your dreams come true, to avoid more dangers, maximize more opportunities, and enrich your life. Only humans can do this. All of the life form is driven by the genetic code and instinct. A goose can only fly which direction in the winter? South. How come a goose has to go south in the winter? Because he's a goose. He can't go any other direction. But not true human beings. Human beings can go north. They can go south. They can go east. They can go west. Human beings can live one way for five years and then tear up that

script and live another way for the next five years. Only humans can do that. It's unbelievable. Humans can double their income, triple their income, live one way for, a while, totally scrapped that idea, live another way for the next few years of their life. It's unbelievable. Humans can do this. Now, let me give you my best opinion. I get paid staggering money for my opinion, so please write it down. Here's my opinion. Each person's philosophy is the major factor in how your life works out. Each person's philosophy is the major factor in how your life works out. Each person's philosophy is the major factor in how your life works out. I want that to be as emphatic as possible because I truly believe it.

Now, up until I was 25, that would never have occurred to me, that my personal philosophy was the major factor. If you would have known me when I was 25 years old and you would have said, Jim Rohn, how come you find yourself here? This is pitiful. Living in America, you're broke, you got pennies and your pocket. you got nothing in the bank. Creditors are calling.

You're behind on your big mouth promises to your family. You've been to at least one year of college. How come you find yourself in this pitiful position? If you would have asked me that question when I was 25, it never would have occurred to me to blame my philosophy. That would not have occurred to me. I would not have said to you, well, I got this lousy philosophy. What else would you expect?

Well, it would have occurred to me to justify where I was at age 25, I would have said, well, it's the government. Much easier to blame the government than to blame, to blame myself. It's those Democrats. They told us they would fix it. So that was a lot easier to blame. I used to blame the company. This is all they pay. Make the American dream come true. With this paycheck, I used to blame the economy. I blamed interest rates. I used to blame taxes. Taxes are two high. Top federal tax rate when I first started paying taxes. 91%. I used to that's too high, but now the top federal tax rate's about 33%.

But people are still saying it's too high, how could that be? If it's gone from 91 down to 33, how could it be too high? I'll tell you it isn't too high. But back then, that was a convenient excuse for me. I used to blame my negative relatives. They were always putting me down. My cynical neighbors won't loan me money. They were on my lips.

I used to blame the weather. I blame the traffic. I blame circumstances. This happens to me and this happens to me. And then on top of that, this happens to me. And they expect you to do well by your family. All of these things I thought were the reasons why I was not doing well. Then I found out all of that was not true.

Here's what I discovered that changed my life forever. Everything that happens outside of this is like the wind that blows. We've heard about the winds of economics, the winds of change, the winds of circumstance, the winds that are favorable and the winds that are unfavorable. The wind is always blowing. Truth be known, though, in America, we've probably. probably got the best wind that's blown in 6,000 years, mixing it all together.

And we all need a wind of all of this stuff happening to take us somewhere to the dreams we've got, to the money we want, to the equities we want, to the treasures we want, what we want for our family, friends, and all the rest. Here's what we want. We've got the best win in 6,000 years to take us there. But here's the clue.

If you just let the wind blow, You won't be happy with your arrival. You won't be happy with where it blows you. You won't be happy with where it takes you. You say, well, what can you do about the blowing of the wind? Well, you can't do anything about the blowing of the wind, except set a better sail. So draw you a little sail on your notes.

You cannot change the blowing of the wind, but you can change the set of the same. That's why education is so important to help you with ideas. it helps to alter a little bit the set of the sale. That's what the sermon is for on Sunday morning. That's what the lyrics of the song that prompt you to think are for. That's what the dialogue of the movie is for.

That's what conversation is for. That's what education is for. That's what satellite is for. That's what a stream of ideas are for to help you adjust and keep adjusting all of your life the set of the sale. Then I found out if you went to work on this in a concentrated way,

you could so alter the course of your life that the outcome in a fairly short period of time would be absolutely almost overwhelming. For your money, for your health, for your relationship with your family, for equities of all kinds, business, whatever. Wouldn't matter. And you could finally set such a sale

that after while you could care less any more about the wind that blows. Why? It's not going to matter to you. Because you've learned how to set the sale. And interestingly enough, the same wind that blows up. to disaster, blows others on the rocks, blows others on the beach, blows others to places they don't want to be. The same wind takes us to prosperity, takes us to all the dreams we've got and the things we want.

Why? Because we've learned to intervene and set sail. That's the key. And that's why I lecture. That's why I speak. That's why I talk. That's why I talk to my children. That's why I talk to my grandchildren. That's why I talk to every year I can get attention from. And that is, listen to ideas, whether they come from me or from someone else. Be a collector of good ideas. Get more serious about altering the course of your life. And you can, regardless of what happens the next five years, getting ready for the turn of the century, you can wind up where you want to be.

The money, the joy, the pleasure, the satisfaction. Set of sale. Now, what is philosophy if it's so important? I teach kids how to be rich by 40, 35 if you're extra bright much sooner if you find a unique opportunity. Kids say, hey, that sounds good to me. How do I do it? And I say it starts with your philosophy. So kids ask me, what is? Philosophy. It's kind of a big word. So I've broken it down for them. Made it easier for me to understand. Here's my definition of philosophy. Philosophy comes from number one, the collection of all that you know.

Gathering knowledge is the first key to developing the philosophical set of sale. And then number two, deciding which of this information is valuable enough to bet your money and your time. That's about as simple as I can put it. To change the set of sale regardless of the wind that blows, first you search for knowledge, then you got to sort through it and decide which of it is valuable enough to spend money and time. That is one of the best equations I know of. You might know a thousand things, but you can't do a thousand things. You've got to sort through a lot of information and boil it down to the things that really matter to you and utilize that as the most important pieces, deciding what's valuable.

So first of all, we've got to gather knowledge. When I'd have a chance to talk to my high school friends, first thing I tell them is you've got to have the information. Get it while you're here. Don't leave school without it. It's one of my little phrases for my high school friends. What they teach here, what you think of it, that's up to you. What you're going to do with it, that'll soon be up to you. But right now, this is the important thing, is to get it.

You can sort through it. You can cast aside whatever's not going to work for you in the future. But the important thing is to be serious enough to get it. I teach them there's nothing worse than being stupid, right? Being broke is bad, but being stupid's what's bad. And what's really bad is being broken stupid, right? Sick, broken, stupid, unless you're ugly. Life's most negative scenario.

So number one, you've got to know. You've got to have the information. Now, where do we get ideas and information? We've got this marvelous ability here like no other life form on earth has to alter the course of our life. You don't have to keep flying South. If South is not getting you the money and the joy and the pleasure, I'm telling you, You can alter the course. You're not like just a blind animal

that has to be driven by instinct in the genetic code. So if we want to change our life, we've just got to use this marvelous mechanism to gather more ideas and information and see if it'll pay off for us. So where do we get this? Jot this down. Number one, from PE, I call it, personal experience.

Just make it a point from now on to learn more from your own personal experience. That's probably the best university in the world. Your own personal experience. You've been through enough that could teach you. Personal experience. Log the questions from your personal experience. Log the answers from your personal experience. Learning is the beginning of wealth. Learning is the beginning of health. And here's where it can all start, paying more attention to your own personal experience. One way to learn to do it right is what?

Do it wrong. That's one way to learn. Now the key is don't let it take too long. If you've done it wrong for 10 years, we suggest that's long enough. We don't suggest 10 more years just to prove a point. No, you can prove any point in 10 years. In 10 years, your health disciplines will be on track or what? Off track. Your financial independence will be on track or off track.

It doesn't take that long to come to the conclusion, based on your own personal experience, whether you're on track or off track. In a few years, you've either got the breath or you haven't got the breath. got the breath. You got the money or you haven't got the money. You've got the self-esteem or you haven't got the self-esteem. I mean, it doesn't take much from your personal experience. Shof was swift to point out my personal experience. I said, let's learn from that. He said, Mr. Rohn, you've been working six years. I said, yes, sir. He said, how are you doing? I said, not very well. He said, I suggest you not do that anymore. What a swift analysis of my

current situation. He said, couldn't we find out what happened the last six years so that you can all to the course the next six years. That had never occurred to me. He said, I'm telling you we can learn so much from the last six that we can make the next six years totally different than the last six. And that's exactly what he did for him. That second six years, my life so swiftly changed.

It was absolutely incredible. At age 25, I was broke. At age 31, I was rich. And he said, Mr. O'Ne, if you'll make these changes starting today. He said, the next six years of your life will be totally different than the last six. I took him up on that. So now let me give you that promise.

In case you have to leave early, here's the promise that changed my life for your notes. He said, if you will change, everything will change for you. If you will change, everything will change for you. Before I heard that promise,

up until age 25, I used to go through the day with my fingers crossed, hoping things would change. Hoping my boss would change, hoping the company would change, hoping the weather would change, certainly hoping circumstances would change, hoping the wind would change,

hoping the economy would change, something would change, it would give me a better chance to have a better life, then I found out that's not what needs to change. It's going to be like it's going to be. Politics are going to be like they're going to be. Unlevel playing field, it's going to be like it's going to be, right? The races, the mix, it's all going to be like it's going to be.

The difference is going to be you. But he said, if you were, you will change, everything will change. But then he also gave me the warning. Here it is. If you don't change, nothing will change. And he said, the next six years of your life will be just like the last six. I was so encompassed by those simple words.

If you will change, everything will change. If you don't change, nothing will change. The next six will go on just like the last six. I took him up on that and started making those. changes. Thank you for listening. Continue strengthening your mind by subscribing and listening to our other episodes.