How to Attract Success in Your Life – A Tribute to Jim Rohn, pt. 2

Yesterday, I began a tribute to Jim Rohn, “America’s Business Philosopher”, who died on December 5, 2009 at the age of 79.  In my post, How to Attract Success in Your Life – A Tribute to Jim Rohn, pt. 1, I mentioned that Jim Rohn’s writings have been very influential in my life.

One of the most basic and essential things I’ve learned in my life came from Jim Rohn – the idea that success isn’t so much a product of what we do, but of who we become.

I’ve observed that most people, when unhappy with the results they’re receiving in life, curse the results or blame the actions of others, instead of looking within.  I know that has been true in my life at times.  What about you?

Jim believed that if we want a better future, the major focus of our efforts should be on becoming more than we already are.  And if we are not happy with our current results in life, then we need to begin first by working on ourselves.  It is who we are that finally determines the results we want.

In his third book, Five Major Pieces to the Life Puzzle, Jim explained that there are five major components to success in life:

1. Philosophy – What we think and believe.  Our thoughts and beliefs make up our philosophy of life (another word for this is “world view”), and our philosophy will determine our attitude.
2. Attitude – How we feel.  Our feelings make up our attitude, and our attitude will decide the quantity and quality of our level of our actions.
3. Action – What we do.  Our actions, informed by our attitude, always produce proportionate results.  In other words, we reap what we sew in direct proportion to how much we’ve sewn.
4. Results – The reward we receive for our actions.  Results are rewards that must be measured often and tracked.  Our results produce the lifestyle we want.  For most of us, the result, or reward, for our work is money.  Money in and of itself is not the end goal, but it can be used to produce the end goal – our desired lifestyle.
5. Lifestyle – The kind of life we can make for ourselves out of the first four pieces of the puzzle.  Our lifestyle is determined by the results, but the ultimate cause is not the results – the ultimate cause is our philosophy, attitude and action.  In other words, the type of lifestyle we enjoy is determined by how much money we have.  But the ultimate cause cause or determining factor isn’t really the money, but all the things that led to us having the money:  our philosophy, attitude and action.

So, what do you do if you’re unhappy with the lifestyle you have right now – if you’re not seeing the success you had hoped you’d enjoy in your life?

It is simple really, you engage in a lifestyle design process which works Jim’s puzzle pieces backwards, from 5 to 4 to 3 to 2 to 1:

1. Determine the lifestyle you want to enjoy in your life. Write it all out in vivid detail – all the things you want to be able to have, do, and enjoy.
2. Decide the results or rewards you’re going to need in order to enjoy your ideal lifestyle.  How much time and money will you need?
3. Identify the actions that will be necessary in order for you to reap the results that will enable you achieve your dream lifestyle.
4. Discover the attitudes that will motivate the action that will result in the rewards that will enable your dream lifestyle.
5. Create the philosophy – the thoughts and beliefs – you’ll need to employ in order to have the attitudes that will motivate the action that will result in the rewards that will enable your dream lifestyle.

Next time, I’ll give some practical examples of how this all plays out, and how you can attract success in your life.