Jim Rohn is one of the most well known personal development authors and public speakers. He mentored Tony Robbins and also influenced Brian Tracy and Jack Canfield (Author of Chicken Soup for The Soul). While I had heard about his work for a while I only got the opportunity to start listening to some of his audiotapes tonight and I am quite impressed. Here are some of my favorite parts so far.....
1. Financial Planning: The poor spend what they have and invest what is left. The rich invest what they have and spend what is left. It’s not the amount of money you have but what you plan to do with it that counts! It is vitally important to have a financial plan for your future to ensure you are comfortable. Jim suggests something called the 70,10,10,10 rule. For every $1 that comes into your hand that is earned or gifted to you, only spend .70 cents of that. Then spend .10 cents for charity, .10 cents to invest in your own business or savings (active capital) and .10 cents that you let someone else use to make money off it (passive capital - i.e stocks, shares, investments into other businesses that you are not involved with). If you are in really bad shape then don't spend any more than .97cents of every $1 and use the same formula as above. Over time this will guarantee financial independence for anyone. Don't forget the reason to make a living is to make a fortune. Have an "investment account" not a "savings account" because if you start picturing yourself making money from what you put aside you might actually do it!
2. Personal Development: Simply making consistent investments in our self-education and knowledge banks pays major dividends throughout our lives. I suggest having a minimum amount of time set aside for reading books, listening to audiocassettes, attending seminars, keeping a journal and spending time with other successful people. Charlie Tremendous Jones says you will be in five years the sum total of the books you read and the people you are around. Investing in your own self development is the best gift you can give your kids, your parents, your friends, your partner, your employer etc. The better person you are the more you have to offer other people in your life. Chances are if the parents are ok, then the kids are ok. Put your mask on first! Just like they instruct you to put your oxygen mask on first on a airplane, you should do the same in life.
3. Time Management: How much money does your TV cost? No its not $400-500 or whatever you paid for it. Really it has cost you all the money you could have made as a result of watching it. So if you could have invested that time in learning a new skill, developing your self so you can do better in your current career etc.... It may cost the average person $40,000 a year. It is also easy to be online and off-track. So much valuable time is spent wasted surfing the Internet and not getting anything valuable done!
4. Goal Setting: if you don't have a list of goals for your life, you will tend to have a very low bank balance. We are primarily affected by our environment (physical, social, political etc..), Events, Knowledge, results, dreams. Make sure the future is pulling you forward and not the past pulling you back. Dreams and goals can become magnets and the stronger the goal, the higher the purpose the more powerful the objective, the stronger the magnet that pulls you in that direction. It will help you get through the dark times.
This is just a brief summary of my favorite bits but if you want to listen to the whole thing yourself, here is the audio, which I highly recommend. What a great Christmas present to yourself or someone else that loves personal development!
