Year 2009, I was then 26 years old when I first listened to Jim Rohn’s lectures on YouTube. I remember being so pumped for weeks after that. He taught about writing goals, and so I did. As far as I can remember, the inspiration from his talks lasted for about 1 to 2 years. After that, once in a while I would remember some of his quotes and temporarily feel inspired. I got busy with life and forgot to keep track of my progress with my goals.
Fast forward to 2024, I am now 41 years old and I am back to listening to Jim Rohn’s lectures. This time around, I want to rewrite my goals and take actions however small they will be and keep myself accountable for getting the results I want.
This is so much easier said than done. I am one who is easily motivated, I can be so inspired after listening to a good talk or after reading a quote but then it seems to stop there.
I don’t usually take action right away, or if I do, I don’t follow through. In the last few years, nothing seems to push me to do anything anymore. I am disappointed in myself but I just feel dead inside.
A quick background about myself, from kindergarten to university, I have always excelled in school. I graduated with honors at all levels of my academic years. In 2007, I came to Canada and took a bridging program at one of the universities here and passed all the exams to get my license as a healthcare professional. I started working, and I think around the time I have been working for 3 years or so, I started to feel lost. Whether I got tired of achieving or run out of reasons to be better, I don’t know. A few more years passed, I just carried on, I still kept reading self help books and did some good things but I have that nagging feeling inside that I can be better. I just know that I can again feel as alive as I have been when I was in the Philippines.
Today, I am making a promise to myself, that I will commit 180 days of intentionally applying Jim Rohn’s teachings. He said that there are many ways to measure success, but one that is very objective is an increase in someone’s net worth. So, that is the yard stick I am using for this experiment.
Jim Rohn said, “Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines, practiced every day; while failure is simply a few errors in judgment, repeated every day. It is the accumulative weight of our disciplines and our judgments that leads us to either fortune or failure.”
My minimum ask from myself is to do 1 small task that will help me achieve the goals I have set. One small task is enough as long as it is something that will bring me closer to my goal. If I do more than one task then that will be fantastic. Usually, I feel so defeated even before taking on a task because I expect myself to reach a goal within a very short amount of time. So I almost get paralyzed and end up not doing anything at all. Jim Rohn said, ‘You cannot change your destination overnight but you can change your direction overnight ‘.
MY ULTIMATE GOAL:
Work 2 months
Off 1 month
Work 2 months
Off 1 month
Work 2 months
Off 1 month
Work 2 months
Off 1 month
To achieve my goal of being on vacation 1 month at a time, 4 times a year, I need to increase my income. Jim Rohn said, ‘You get paid for the value you bring to the marketplace ‘. So, to hopefully increase my value, I have a few interests I want to pursue like improving my english communication skills, learning a new language, dressing better, spending less time mindlessly browsing the internet, less procrastination, doing the daily tasks I have written down and so much more.
I want a schedule like this because I work in Canada and my parents live in the Philippines. I want to be able to spend time with them by going home or travelling around the world with them. Like a lot of Filipinos, I moved abroad for a better life for myself and my family. But the biggest sacrifice most of us make is being away from them. We would be lucky if we see them in person once a year because the flight ticket going home is expensive and we only have limited vacation time from work.
Jim Rohn said, ´Things are not too expensive, you just can’t afford it’. Funny and true! So, I want to be that person who can afford to buy a ticket and go home to see my parents often or bring them on vacations around the world. And I hope that I will push myself to take steps towards that.
I am 41 years old, and I constantly feel that it is too late now to make any changes to achieve my goals. I regularly think of the things I should have done so that I would have at this point enough money in the bank to bring my parents places. But the reality is I am not yet financially able to do that. In my head, I desperately want to take the steps to achieve my goals, but I honestly I don’t feel like doing it. I just want to sit down and watch youtube. That is the challenge I think. Doing the things that I don’t feel like doing if it brings me closer to my goals.
Right now, it’s a tug-of-war between my old self who feels defeated, undisciplined and unmotivated and my newer self who wants to be alive, hopeful, excited, reliable and present in the moment. Every decision I make, I should pause for a second and ask, ‘What would my newer self do?.’ Little by little, I believe I will achieve my goal. Oh, I can’t wait to see the person I will become!
Above all, I am praying that God will bless me in this experiment.
Day 1 starts today!
Leave a Reply