Author: jakedavis1910

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The law of harvest is to reap more than you sow. Sow an act, and you reap a habit. Sow a habit and you reap a character. Sow a character and you reap a destiny. – James Allen

Next up in the principles to live by in order to leave a legacy from Jim Rohn: you reap what you sow.

Jim takes it one step further. The law of reaping and sowing actually means you reap more than you sow. Every time.

Maybe it is the overly analytical part of me, but I really like it when you can take a simple truth like this and dissect it more like James Allen did in the quote above.

In Earl Nightingale’s “Strangest Secret” he makes the point that our minds are built for growing thoughts so we must be careful what we plant. Our minds are like fertile soil that will grow a weed as readily as a beautiful flower.

Plant worries of ill health and your mind will build those up until you are actually ill.

Plant thoughts of wealth and happiness and your mind will build that reality around you.

Plant thoughts of want and need and before you know it you will be behind on your bills.

The law of the harvest works in all areas of our lives, but the starting point is usually in our own thoughts.

Make a conscious effort today to be careful of what you are planting.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Looking for something positive to plant today, here are a few of Jake’s suggestions, please feel free to share some of your own.

Norman Vincent Peale’s books – in particular “The Power of Positive Thinking”

Dale Carnegie’s “How to Stop Worrying” and “How to Win Friends and Influence People”

Listen to Jim Rohn’s “Art of Exceptional Living”

These are just a couple that have had a major impact on me, I would love to hear what has made an impact on you.

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And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom. – Anais Nin

Next up in the list of 9 principles to live by in order to leave a legacy: you must risk in order to gain.

Here in the Midwest, most of us view risk as another of those four letter words that should not be mentioned in polite company.

The quote above says it so well. At some point, the risk to remain where we are is outweighed by the risk of growth and expansion.

And this applies to all areas of our life.

We must risk our money for financial gain.

We must risk our heart in order to experience love.

We must risk our comfort in order to shed those extra pounds.

We must risk standing on our own when we stand up for something we believe in.

Are there any risks in your life that you need to take?

Make it a great day.

Jake

Here are some bonus quotes on risk that I found:

Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go. – T. S. Eliot

If you are not willing to risk the unusual, you will have to settle for the ordinary. – Jim Rohn

No man is worth his salt who is not ready at all times to risk his well-being, to risk his body, to risk his life, in a great cause. – Theodore Roosevelt

Creative risk taking is essential to success in any goal where the stakes are high. Thoughtless risks are destructive, of course, but perhaps even more wasteful is thoughtless caution which prompts inaction and promotes failure to seize opportunity. – Gary Ryan Blair

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“Everybody can be great… because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

Next in the list of Jim Rohn’s principles to live by in order to leave a lasting legacy is: life is best lived in service to others.

Martin Luther King, Jr. day is a great day to be reminded of this truth.

He spent much of his life in service to others and in the end was of great service to our nation and his cause.

The quote above embodies a truth inherent in the civil rights struggle.

Everybody can be great. Regardless of skin color, religious affiliation, or any other potentially separating characteristic. Because within us all is the capacity to serve.

Make it a great day of service.

Jake

The Phrase That Pays

No management meeting today so I thought I would do something a little different.

After reading a few quotes from CS Lewis this week I thought a good way to end it would be a few of my favorites

Affection is responsible for nine-tenths of whatever solid and durable happiness there is in our lives.

Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art… It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival.

Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil.

We all want progress, but if you’re on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.

Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.

Has this world been so kind to you that you should leave with regret? There are better things ahead than any we leave behind.

Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement.

It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.

Experience: that most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my God do you learn.

Miracles are a retelling in small letters of the very same story which is written across the whole world in letters too large for some of us to see.

Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less.

Nothing that you have not given away will ever be really yours.

What saves a man is to take a step. Then another step.

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The third in series of Jim Rohn’s principles to live by in order to leave a lasting legacy:

Maintain integrity at all costs.

I think a lot of us merely think about integrity as the honesty part of the definition.

An interesting second way to define integrity is: the state of being whole and undivided.

Part of having integrity is internal. Did we do what we committed to ourselves to do.

When we don’t meet our own standards, goals or ideals we become divided somehow. It creates a source of stress inside of us.

Integrity also comes as part of our dealings with others.

Do we do the right thing?

Jim Rohn summarizes this by saying "Do what is right all of the time, no matter what the costs."

We must develop this kind of "fanatical integrity" in ourselves in order to build the successful life we want to lead.

Make it a great day.

Bonus quote on integrity:

The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army or in an office. – Dwight Eisenhower

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Do not waste time bothering whether you "love" your neighbor; act as if you did. As soon as we do this we find one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone you will presently come to love him. – CS Lewis

The second principle in the list of principles to live by included in the Jim Rohn program is "love your neighbor, even if you don’t like him."

My favorite thing about this principle from Jim is similar to the quote from CS Lewis above. Both say that love is a form of action.

Jim says that liking someone is an emotional response, but love is formed out of action.

These actions born from love will produce that positive emotional response within us.

If we begin from a place of love for our neighbors it is so much easier to see through the differences to work together to build a better planet.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Bonus CS Lewis quote on love. This is one my favorite quotes.

"To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket- safe, dark, motionless, airless–it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.”

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I have been slowly but surely working through the Jim Rohn one year to success program and last week included Jim’s take on 9 “Principles to Live By” in order to leave the legacy you would like to.

I am going to send out each one over the next 9 DAE emails.

Consider others’ interests as important as your own.

Turning your thoughts and actions from selfish to selfless is such a powerful driver for positive change.

Even at 34, this lesson still hits me all the time as I go about my day.

Realizing that the other driver has somewhere to be as well.

Realizing that the person in the grocery store line is in the same hurry as I am.

Realizing that the customer or coworker who just asked for help is just as busy as I am.

Spend a minute today thinking about what situations you might improve upon in this area of your life.

Make it a great day.

Jake

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Life is not accountable to us. We are accountable to life. – Dennis Waitley

Another season of Biggest Loser has started.

Every season I notice some little tidbit that I hadn’t before.

This time it was accountability.

They showed the “update” for the person who had gotten sent home on week 1 at the end of the episode and he had already lost a ton of weight at home.

Here was a guy who was over 30 and had been overweight for many, many years.

He had some strong motivation to lose weight as he had a strong, emotionally charged situation happen with his son.

He had watched the show for 5 years, so he knew it was possible.

He had access to the internet so there was no lack of knowledge.

But he didn’t lose weight until after he was sent home from the show.

I thought that maybe a portion of that motivation came from accountability.

By being on the show he had gained a new accountability partner, everyone who watches the show.

He knew that he would be on TV in front of millions of people weighing in to see how well he did.

As you look at your goals for this year, look for someone to hold you accountable as well.

Share your goals with them.

Give them updates on your progress.

Lean on them for a pick me up when you want to quit.