THE FORMULA FOR FAILURE AND SUCCESS
by Jim Rohn
(Excepted from the book The Five Major Pieces to the Life Puzzle by Jim Rohn)
Failure is not a single, cataclysmic event. We do not fail overnight.
Failure is the inevitable result of an accumulation of poor thinking
and poor choices. To put it more simply, failure is nothing more than a
few errors in judgment repeated every day.
Now why would someone make an error in judgment and then be so foolish
as to repeat it every day? The answer is because he or she does not
think that it matters.
On their own, our daily acts do not seem that important. A minor
oversight, a poor decision, or a wasted hour generally doesn't result
in an instant and measurable impact. More often than not, we escape
from any immediate consequences of our deeds.
If we have not bothered to read a single book in the past ninety days,
this lack of discipline does not seem to have any immediate impact on
our lives. And since nothing drastic happened to us after the first
ninety days, we repeat this error in judgment for another ninety days,
and on and on it goes. Why? Because it doesn't seem to matter. And
herein lies the great danger. Far worse than not reading the books is
not even realizing that it matters!
Those who eat too many of the wrong foods are contributing to a future
health problem, but the joy of the moment overshadows the consequence
of the future. It does not seem to matter. Those who smoke too much or
drink too much go on making these poor choices year after year after
year... because it doesn't seem to matter. But the pain and regret of
these errors in judgment have only been delayed for a future time.
Consequences are seldom instant; instead, they accumulate until the
inevitable day of reckoning finally arrives and the price must be paid
for our poor choices - choices that didn't seem to matter.
Failure's most dangerous attribute is its subtlety. In the short term
those little errors don't seem to make any difference. We do not seem
to be failing. In fact, sometimes these accumulated errors in judgment
occur throughout a period of great joy and prosperity in our lives.
Since nothing terrible happens to us, since there are no instant
consequences to capture our attention, we simply drift from one day to
the next, repeating the errors, thinking the wrong thoughts, listening
to the wrong voices and making the wrong choices. The sky did not fall
in on us yesterday; therefore the act was probably harmless. Since it
seemed to have no measurable consequence, it is probably safe to repeat.
But we must become better educated than that!
If at the end of the day when we made our first error in judgment the
sky had fallen in on us, we undoubtedly would have taken immediate
steps to ensure that the act would never be repeated again. Like the
child who places his hand on a hot burner despite his parents'
warnings, we would have had an instantaneous experience accompanying
our error in judgment.
Unfortunately, failure does not shout out its warnings as our parents
once did. This is why it is imperative to refine our philosophy in
order to be able to make better choices. With a powerful, personal
philosophy guiding our every step, we become more aware of our errors
in judgment and more aware that each error really does matter.
Now here is the great news. Just
like the formula for failure, the formula for success is easy to
follow: It's a few simple disciplines practiced every day.
Now here is an interesting question worth pondering: How can we change
the errors in the formula for failure into the disciplines required in
the formula for success? The answer is by making the future an
important part of our current philosophy.
Both success and failure involve future consequences, namely the
inevitable rewards or unavoidable regrets resulting from past
activities. If this is true, why don't more people take time to ponder
the future? The answer is simple: They are so caught up in the current
moment that it doesn't seem to matter. The problems and the rewards of
today are so absorbing to some human beings that they never pause long
enough to think about tomorrow.
But what if we did develop a new discipline to take just a few minutes
every day to look a little further down the road? We would then be able
to foresee the impending consequences of our current conduct. Armed
with that valuable information, we would be able to take the necessary
action to change our errors into new success-oriented disciplines. In
other words, by disciplining
ourselves to see the future in advance, we would be able to change our
thinking, amend our errors and develop new habits to replace the old.
One of the exciting things about the formula for success - a few simple
disciplines practiced every day - is that the results are almost
immediate. As we voluntarily change daily errors into daily
disciplines, we experience positive results in a very short period of
time. When we change our diet, our health improves noticeably in just a
few weeks. When we start exercising, we feel a new vitality
almost immediately. When we begin reading, we experience a growing
awareness and a new level of self-confidence. Whatever new discipline
we begin to practice daily will produce exciting results that will
drive us to become even better at developing new disciplines.
The real magic of new disciplines is that they will cause us to amend
our thinking. If we were to start today to read the books, keep a
journal, attend the classes, listen more and observe more, then today
would be the first day of a new life leading to a better future. If we
were to start today to try harder, and in every way make a conscious
and consistent effort to change subtle and deadly errors into
constructive and rewarding disciplines, we would never again settle for
a life of existence – not once we have tasted the fruits of a
life of substance!
To Your Success,
Jim Rohn
Jim Rohn
is considered to be America's Foremost Business Philosopher. To
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