Transcription
As part of your personal development Quest, I call them the five abilities. Here's the first one: develop the ability to absorb. The ability to soak it up, like you're doing today. Be like a sponge. Don't miss anything. And not just the words. It's true, don't miss the words, but don't miss the atmosphere. Don't miss the color. Don't miss the scenario. Don't miss what's going on.
Most people are just trying to get through the day. Here's what I want you to be committed to do: learn to get from the day. Don't just get through it, get from it. Learn from it. Let the day teach you. Join the University of Life. What a difference that'll make in your future. Commit yourself to learning. Commit yourself to absorbing. Be like a sponge. Get it. Don't miss it.
I've got a personal friend of mine who's so gifted in this area. I think he has soaked up and remembers everything that's ever happened to him. He can tell you, as a teenager, where he was and what he did and what he said and what she said and how they felt and the color of the sky and what was going on that day. And the reason is because he gets it. He gets it. He gets it. And why is it, when he's there, he doesn't miss anything?
Here's a good phrase for you to jot down wherever you are: Be there. Be there to absorb it up. Be there to soak it up. Take a picture if you can, but take pictures of your mind. Let your soul and heart take pictures. Get it. Capture it. Absorb it. But such an important ability to develop, the ability to get it. Don't miss it. Don't be casual in getting it. Key phrase: Casualness leads to casualties.
Second, learn to respond. Ability to respond means let life touch you. Don't let it kill you, but let it touch you. Let sad things make you sad. Let happy things make you happy. I'm telling you, give in to the emotion. Let the emotion strike you. Not just the words, not just the image. Let the feelings strike you. Let the emotions strike you.
Here's what's important: Our emotions need to be as educated as our intellect. Our emotions need to be educated as well as our intellect. It's important to know how to feel. It's important to know how to respond. It's important to let life in. Let it touch you. I'm the greatest guy in the world to take to the movies. I get into a good movie. I want a good movie. Make me laugh. Make me cry. Scare me to death. Teach me something. Take me high. Take me low. Just don't leave me as I was when I came in. Touch me. Do something to me. I'm asking you to get it.
Absorb. Respond. We've covered the first two abilities in the personal development Quest. One is the ability to absorb. Don't miss anything. Pay attention. Good word for the 90s: Pay attention. Things are moving so fast these days. You've got to pay attention. Pick it up. Soak up the colors. Soak up the sounds. Soak up what's going on. Second, respond. Let life touch you. Let the emotions affect you as well as the sights.
Now, here's the third ability: develop the ability to reflect. Reflect means go back over. Study it again. Go back over these notes that you're taking today. Go back through the cassettes one more time. Read the text one more time. There's more to it than that. Go back over your day. I call it "run the tapes again" so that the day locks in firmly.
Here's some good times to reflect: One, at the end of the day. Take a few minutes at the end of the day. Go back over the day. Who'd you see? And what they say? And what happened? How'd you feel? What went on? So that you capture that day. A day is a piece of the mosaic of your life. Number one, don't treat it casual. Number two, get from the day. And then number three, go back over the day so that it locks in that experience, the knowledge, the sights, the sounds, the panorama, the color motion picture of the day. Just lock it in so that it will serve you for the future. Having that day, not missing it.
Next, take a few hours at the end of the week. Call it time to reflect. Go back over your daytime, or go back over your calendar, go back over your appointment book. Where did you go? And who did you see? And how did it feel? And what went on? Capture that week. A week is a pretty good chunk of time.
Next, take half a day at the end of the month. Call it time to reflect. And do the same thing again. Go back over what you read. Go back over what you heard. Go back over what you saw. Go back over the feelings to capture it so that it serves you.
Next, take a weekend at the end of the year to establish this year now firmly in your consciousness, firmly in your experience bank, so that you've got it, so that it never disappears. Good ability to acquire, the ability to reflect. Go back over. Remember. Remember. So valuable to be able to remember the thought, remember the idea, remember the experience, remember the occasion, remember the day, remember the weather, remember the emotion, remember the complexity, remember the highs, remember the lows. So valuable. At the end of the day, lock that day in. Lock the month in. Lock the week in. Lock the year in.
There's also something to be said for solitude when you reflect. Sometimes you can reflect with somebody. Husband and wife reflect on the past year, right? Parents reflect with their children on the past year. How did we do? And how didn't we do? And how could we improve? Colleagues can reflect with each other. But now, here's one of the most important: you've got to learn to reflect with yourself.
There's something to be said for solitude. There's something to be said for taking those occasions to shut out the world and shut out everything else for a while. For a while. I've got a motor home, that's how I do it. My motorcycle on the back, and I head for the mountains and ride the Jeep trails, or there's very few human beings on the Jeep trails, or out in the desert somewhere. It's called my time to get away. When you live a very public life, you treasure solitude. A chance to reflect. Go back over my life. Go back over my skills. Go back over my experiences. Alone. Alone. There are some things you need to do alone. Pond or think, wonder, read, study, absorb, soak in. See if you can't become better this year than you were last year. Better the next nine than you were the first nine. Solitude.
There's even a more modern advice that says go to the closet for time of meditation, time of prayer. Go to the closet. Closet meaning what? Away. And there's even a graphic description of the away: "Enter into your closet and what..." Got some students here, I'm sure. What? Close the door. For what? Just to shut out everything.
Life is experience, experience, experience. And touching and seeing and looking and doing and acting and disciplines and all this stuff. But sometimes, this is where this reflecting is so important. To shut the door. To shut the door and wonder, prayer, contemplation, thinking, and let things move into your consciousness and awareness that no other way can it be done, right? Flying down the freeway, I'm telling you, it's difficult to get through. So many things to do. It's difficult to get through. But times of solitude, times to reflect, so valuable. Learn to reflect.
Now, here's why it's important to reflect: to make the past more valuable to serve you for the future. Here's what's really powerful: learning to gather up the past and invest it in the future. Gather up today and invest it in tomorrow. Gather up this week and invest it in the next week. Gather up this year and invest it in the next year. See, that's so powerful. Rather than just hanging on one more year, hanging in there, seeing what's going to happen. Learn. Study. This is part of the personal development Quest. Becoming better than you are. More valuable than you are. Not just in terms of economics, in terms of motherhood, in terms of fatherhood, in terms of being a better brother, a better colleague, making a better contribution to the family, to society, to the community, to the church, to the office, to the commitment, to the partnership. Doesn't matter what it is, that has value. Work on yourself. Then you bring more value to the partnership, to the marriage, to the franchise, to the corporation, to the enterprise, to the community, to the nation. Self-development, personal development. The best contribution you can make to someone else is self-development. Self-sacrifice only stole time. Self-development earns respect. Pity the mother who says, "I'm just going to give up my life for my children." Self-sacrifice is not noble. Self-investment is noble. From self-development, if I work on myself and become more valuable, think of what that'll do for our friendship. I used to use the old expression: "You take care of me and I'll take care of you." I found out how shallow and short-sighted that was, and I changed it to read like this: "I'll take care of me for you, if you will please take care of you for me." This is part of it. The personal development that we work harder on ourselves than we do on our job. Now we bring that to the friendship. Now we bring that to the marriage. Now we bring that to the family relationship as a father, as a mother. And we develop the strength, and we develop the power. And takes, I think, this scenario of disciplines, these abilities to acquire those gifts and those skills, that value, so that we bring more. Now we bring more to the next week. We bring more to the next month. We bring more to the next year. If you follow this: absorbed, respond, and reflect. I said to my father when he was about to turn 76, 76th birthday, I said, "Dear father of mine, can you imagine what it's going to be like to gather up the last 75 years of your life and invest them in your 76th year?" What a difference in philosophy. Rather than just hanging on one more year, gather up 75 and invest them in the next one. And gather up the last six years and invest it in the next year. See, that's so powerful. In communication, which we're going to study soon, so powerful. Consider this one: the ability to absorb, second, the ability to respond, third, the ability to reflect.
Here's number four: develop the ability to act. Take action. Taste it. If it isn't required, but don't lose much time. Here's the time to act: when the idea is hot and the emotion is strong. That's the time to act. See, Mr. Ron, I'd like to have a library like yours. See if you feel strong about that. What you got to do is get the first book and then get the second book before the feeling passes and before the idea gets dim. Chin pronto. Action. Immediate action. As soon as possible. Because if you don't, here's what happens: we call it the law of diminishing intent. We intend to when the idea strikes us. We intend to when the emotion is high. But now, if you don't translate that into action fairly soon, now the intent starts to diminish, diminish, diminish. And a month from now, it's cold. A year from now, can't be found. Act. Set up a discipline. When the emotions are high and the idea is strong and clear and powerful, that's the time to set up the discipline. Somebody talks about good health and you're stirred. Says, "Right, I need to get a book on nutrition." Get the book before the idea passes and before the emotion gets cold. Go for the book. Start the library. Start the process. Fall on the floor. Do some push-ups. Action. Got to take action, otherwise the wisdom is wasted. Otherwise, the emotion soon passes unless you put it into a disciplined activity. Capture it. Disciplines is called how to capture the emotion and how to capture the wisdom and translate it into equity. Disciplines.
Now, here's what's important about disciplines: all disciplines affect each other. In fact, here's a good philosophical phrase: everything affects everything else. Nothing stands alone. Don't be naive in saying, "Well, this doesn't matter." I'm telling you, everything matters. There are some things that matter more than others, but there isn't anything that doesn't matter. We all pity the man who says, "Well, this is the only place I let down." Not true. Key to take home: every letdown affects the rest of your performance. Every letdown affects the rest. This is part of the educational process on personal development. If you don't take the walk around the block, you probably won't do the apple a day. If you don't do the apple a day, you probably won't consistently start building your library. If you don't build your library, you probably won't keep a journal, and you won't take pictures, and you won't do this, you won't do wise things with your money, won't do wise things with your time, won't do wise things with your possibilities and relationships. And the first thing you know, six years of that accumulated, and we say you have messed up. So the whole key to reversing that process now is to start picking up these disciplines.
Now, here's the positive side: every new discipline affects the rest of your disciplines. Every new one affects the rest. That's why action is so important. The least action, the smallest action, take it. Because when you start accomplishing and the value starts to return from that one action, it'll inspire you to do the next one, and the next one, and the next one. You start walking around the block, it'll inspire you to get an apple. Get an apple, it'll inspire you to get a book. Get a book, it'll inspire you to get a journal. Get a journal, it'll inspire you to grow, develop some skills. All disciplines affect each other. Every lack affects the rest. Every new affects the rest. The key is to diminish the lack and set up the new, and you've started a whole new life process. Take charge of your own life. Take charge of your own day. Take charge of your own conversation. Take charge of your own family. Take charge of your own possibilities. And learn these skills, develop this kind of strategy, and I'm telling you, life will open up for you. Join the three percent. Join the ten percent. Join the five percent. Walk away from the ninety-five.
Number one, do what you can. Number two, do the best you can. Here's number three: rest very little. Don't rest too long. Why? The weeds take the garden. Kids have got that figured out. Can't rest too long. Here's the clue: make rest a necessity, not an objective. The objective of life is not to rest. The objective of life is to act. Think of more disciplines. Think of more ways and means in which to use your own wisdom and your own philosophy and use your own attitude, your own faith, your own courage, your own commitment, your own desires, your own excitement. Invest it. Invest it. Invest it. Invested in discipline so that it's not wasted. Smallest of discipline thereby transform your life. Join the five percent. Join the ten percent. Join the three percent.
Now, here's the last ability: develop the ability to share. Pass along to someone else. If you've picked up a good idea today, pass it along. Don't let it stay. Pass it along. A book, if you take one of these little books I've suggested home and it affects you, pass along. Say, "Hey, I found a book, really helped me. I found a book, got me thinking. I found a book, changed my health. I found a book, got me inspired." Pass it along. Pass it along. Pass it along.
Here's what's exciting about sharing: if you share with 10 different people, they get to hear it once. You get to hear it ten times. So it's probably going to do more for you than it is for them. But it's called what? Everybody wins when somebody shares. Everybody wins. Wow. Share your ideas. Share your experiences. Share your knowledge. You can have just as much pleasure as I do. I said giving this seminar. This is one of my joys in life. Give a seminar like this. Make the best investment I can of words and spirit and heart and soul and time, energy. I don't have to work this hard. But I gladly worked this hard. Why? I want the return. Your words touch my life. See, that's heavyweight stuff. You can't buy it with money. But I'm telling you, you can get the same thing started by recommending a book. Somebody will read that book, and then they'll read another one, and they'll read another one. And they'll come to you someday and say, "You got me started. That book you recommended turned my lights on, turned my mind around, got me thinking, got me pondering, and I've been on track ever since." You can get just as much praise as I do if you'll share. Share with your children. Share with your colleagues. Share with everybody that comes within your grasp. Share.
Now, here's what sharing does: not only helps you, helps the person you share with. Here's what else it does: makes you bigger than you are. If I had a glass of water up here and it was full, question: can that glass hold any more water if it's full? If the glass is full, can it hold any more water? The answer is yes. But for it to hold more, you've got to pour out what's already in that. That's what I'm asking you to do. If you're full of ideas, if you're full of good things, I'm asking you to pour it out. Pour it out. Pour it out. Why? I'm telling you, more will be poured in, poured in, poured in.
Next, when you do pour out, you become bigger. Not like a glass that stays the same. Human beings have the ability to grow in consciousness and awareness and capacity. It's unlimited capacity. I found out kids don't lack capacity. In Europe, the kids speak what? Two, three, four, five, six languages. When I grew up, my father spoke German, never talked. My mother spoke French, never taught me. They were trying to get away from all the old world languages back then. Had no concept how valuable languages were going to be in the future. Just to know. So they abandoned the German, abandoned the French. I could have learned all three languages instead of just English. Question: How many languages can a child learn? Here's how many: as many as you'll take the time to teach them. They do not lack capacity. They only lack teachers. And I'm telling you the same thing as with you. You don't lack capacity. But here's how you expand your capacity: that is to share what you've got. Now you get bigger. Share some more. Now you get bigger. I'm here for a very self-interested reason. If I share with you, my consciousness grows. If I share with you, I get to hear this again. But hey, pour out what you've got so that your capacity grows.
Now, why should you want your capacity to grow? Very self-interested reason. Here it is: to hold more of the next experience. You mean to tell me that sitting in this audience, some people will get more out of it than others? And the answer is yes. If you haven't been into expanding your own capacity lately, you might not get much from this seminar. But if you've been into expanding your capacity and you've been sharing and you've been doing all this stuff, I'm telling you, no telling what all this could mean to you today. This chance to grow, change, develop, absorb, take in. I'm asking you to expand and grow so you can hold more of the next experience. Some people can't be very happy. You could pour happiness out on the whole world. Some people can't be very happy. Why? They're not big enough. If you're small, you don't get much. Small in comprehension, small in the ability to think and wonder, small in appreciation. No matter how much is poured out, prosperity can be poured out on the whole country. Some people don't get much. Why? They're too small. Too small in their thinking. Too small in their ability to share. Have not expanded to their full capacity. Don't be like that.
Now, some people aren't going to get much because they've got their cup turned upside down. You couldn't put anything in. Learn to share. It's a glorious, glorious experience.