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[Music] Well, it's day 26. We've made it. I'm impressed. Hey, you're one of the few who do. If you're listening to my voice right now, I have got to tell you, I have to compliment you. Think about it. How many people do you think there are in this world who really want to change their life, who say they want to, at least, but never do anything about it? What percentage of people say they want to do something and they make an investment in a program but never listen to it? People don't want to have effort, they want rewards, but they don't want to take a lot of action.
Well, the bottom line is, you and I both know that that's not how life works. You don't get success without an investment. There's no free lunch. And for you, you've really gone for it. Now, the challenge doesn't end here. The purpose of today's tape is only do one primary thing: that is to challenge you to make sure that this is not the end, but the beginning.
You know, there's several life paths that you can head down. There's the path of the person who's what I call the dabbler. The dabbler. That isn't your style, or you wouldn't have made it to day 26. The dabbler goes and does something just in the beginning when it feels really good, you know, when it's brand new. And they go out there and they crank like crazy. Let's say they're learning a new sport. They go out to play tennis, and boy, it's so much fun to knock that ball back and forth. But the problem with the dabbler is they eventually hit a plateau. You know the place, don't you? It comes out in anything. Listening to these tapes, it's probably happened around day five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, somewhere in that range. If you're out and learning how to play tennis, it happens after about two weeks where all of a sudden, you know, you're working just as hard, but you're not getting quite as much from it in the short term. You know, it's like you keep hitting the ball, it doesn't seem to be making that big of an improvement anymore. I mean, you're brand new, anything looks like an improvement. And so what happens for a dabbler is they get bored, they get tired, they give up, and they quit. And what do they do? They go start another game. These people come to the end of their life, and they're the living example of the phrase, "I wish I woulda" or "I shoulda."
The second life path is what I call the stressor. The stressor is the person who goes out there and boy, they're gonna make things work. They're gonna make it happen, no matter what. And they just push and push and push and push and push. And you know what? They crank things up and they succeed. They get out there and hit the ball as hard as they can on the tennis court. You know, they were here every day. They probably listen to these tapes more than once a day, probably five or six times because they wanted to get it right. But they also hit a plateau. And when they hit the plateau, what they do is they just keep pushing and pushing and pushing. And usually, they burn themselves out. That's not the way to make it happen either.
The way to succeed long term is a path known as mastery. And the master, someone who understands the way to have ultimate lifelong success, is to practice fundamentals every single day. The master never gets bored. The master says, "Let me practice what I know until I perfect it." And even then, it can be improved. That person goes out and they work very hard, and they have that same acceleration where things are going really great in the first couple weeks. But when they hit the plateau, instead of quitting or getting stressed, they just continue to look for the answers on how to move to the next level. Because with mastery comes a certain level of patience. No less urgency, but a sense of patience that says, "If I have to make an adjustment and take a half step back in order to get 10 steps forward, I will do it in a heartbeat." That's what mastery is about. And that's the path I challenge you to take. Daily, consistent action towards your life's purpose.
How do you change your life? Well, the lessons are in these tapes. You have more than enough technology now to make the changes in your emotions and your behaviors. The key is, what are you going to do with it now? You know, most tape programs have four or five or six tapes on them. You just listen to those same tapes over and over and over and over again to embed them. We went for a different approach here, but it doesn't mean you certainly can't go back and review them. Remember, repetition is the mother of skill. This program has been designed for you as a lifelong system for personal success. Something you could go back through at any time that you want. Or you can just pick up one little tape area, like maybe on finances, for example, or maybe on managing your state, so that you can get a quick review and get yourself right back up to speed where you're really using the tools that can help you shape your life the way you want it.
So let me give you the short-term challenge first. I'm going to ask you for the next four days to follow up in the following way. One, I realize you're a human being, and so there are probably exercises along the way that for whatever reasons, you skipped through them. I'm going to ask you to review your tapes. Now, review your success journal and see if there are any exercises you didn't do, or maybe you didn't do as thoroughly as you could. I'd like to ask you to number one, go back and do those. Give yourself that benefit.
Two, if you haven't already listened to the special gift tape on the six human needs, make sure you do that. In fact, even if you've listened to it before, in the next four days, I'd listen to it again. Because this is about life fulfillment, and that's the only reason you really got this program. You may think you got it so you could create changes, or you got it so that you can achieve major goals. But if you make changes and you achieve goals and you're not fulfilled, you don't feel happy, you're not thrilled with your life and how you feel about it, then it's worthless. So please, go back and review that tape if you haven't already, or review it again. Plus, also make sure in the next four days, you listen to the Power Talk interviews. This again will give you an introduction to what you're about to go into if you've already ordered Power Talk. Or maybe it'll make you want to do it. Because I don't want to end this relationship now. I hope you want to continue. I want to share with you each month, instead of one tape a day, just two tapes a month. And I'll share with you the newest technology I have, plus I'll bring you the best teachers in the world because I don't have all the answers. So this tape will give you some introduction, but I think you'll find it really valuable. And again, I hope it makes you decide to the next step.
Step three, make sure you do something today to continue your momentum. Take some kind of action today. Make a phone call, commit to a friend, sign up for a class. I don't care if it's my class or somebody else's. Something to continue this process. Because listen, you're only happy in life if you keep growing and contributing. Doesn't matter what you achieve. You gotta grow. And you can't, like, go to the gym just for 30 days and say, "Okay, now I'm healthy for life." You gotta re-enter the gym. We've been in the gym together here on audio tape, and we've taken advantage, maybe, of your driving time or some of your passive time. But you've still been in the emotional, psychological life gym. You want to return to that. The way to be successful in life is to commit to lifelong learning, a life of constant and never-ending improvement. That's where the joy is. So again, you can do that by today, call me and sign up for Power Talk, or go do something else. I don't care what it is, but do something. Maybe come and see me live at a seminar. Come to an Unlimited Power program. We're now doing them on satellite. We're live. We can interact in United Artists theaters on these huge screens, and you can ask me a question, and I can see you from your hometown, and you can see me. I ask you questions, you give me answers. You're on your own handheld communicator, so in 30 seconds, I know exactly what you thought. Or come to meet me in person. Come to an Unlimited Power weekend, or come work on your life's purpose. Come find out what's making you tick, a Date with Destiny, or join me for Financial Mastery, Life Mastery. Or go to somebody's program. Sign up at your local college or community college. Go read a new book. Commit to do something. So this is not the end. Does that make sense? You can't let it be the end. Let it be the beginning of a life where you commit to mastery. That's what will give you the next level of success in your life. That's what will give you lifelong enjoyment and fulfillment.
Four, the fourth challenge I want to give you is simple but important. Today, as soon as this tape is done, I want you to review your goals from the goal-setting workshop. And I'd like you, if you would, to pick out four specific goals that you are absolutely committed to achieving in the next year. Four. Your top four goals. Once you've written down those four goals, I want you, in your success journal, to write down at least a paragraph as to why you absolutely are committed to achieving those goals. Remember what we talked about earlier? Reasons come first, answers come second. In other words, if you can get a big enough "why," you can figure out "how" to achieve your goals. But that's the second key. Why will you absolutely achieve these goals? And make it a must. Make it something that will really drive you. Part of how you can do that, of course, is to write down also what will you miss out on if you don't achieve these goals. But really sell yourself. And then your challenge is to develop a plan under each one of these goals as to how you're going to go about achieving them. And the minimum that plan must have is something that you can do in the next four days to start achieving those goals. I don't care how big the goal is. There's something you can do tomorrow. Maybe it's a phone call. Maybe it's a phone call to get some information about how to do something. Maybe for you, it's going to the library and doing some research. Maybe it's making the commitment to some people around you that you're no longer going to do something and setting yourself up so there's no way you can turn back. I don't know what it is, but I want you to make sure that you immediately develop a plan. And the minimum, again, is you've got to have the first step that you can do right away, something in the next four days, before these 30 days are complete. Would you be willing to go for it? I hope so. In fact, I know you will. If you've gone through this many days, you got too much invested not to go for it, don't you? So go for it and make sure you do that.
And the sixth short-term challenge is this: Make certain that for at least the next 10 days, you continue to do your morning questions. In other words, each morning when you wake up, you want to ask yourself three, four, five questions that really put you in a powerful and positive state of mind. Make sure you do that so that becomes a habit. So that pretty soon, when you wake up, your brain begins to ask yourself, "What am I happy about in my life?" or "What could I be happy about?" "What am I excited about?" "What am I proud of in my life right now?" "What am I grateful for?" "Who do I love and who loves me?" If those kinds of questions are being asked continuously, you're going to get some wonderful answers that will make you feel phenomenal. And everything that happens in your life will be filtered through those emotions and states.
One way to make sure you feel more joy in your life is not to let your life just run around in your brain. What I mean, don't just talk to yourself and make pictures in your head. Do what we've begun to do here as a lifetime process. Meaning, not only every day looking for a way to improve, but get yourself a hardbound journal and keep a journal each day. Write down what's happened. What did you learn? What did you discover? What did you create? Who did you contribute to? What pain did you have? What happened there in your life that, hey, woke you up and made you look at things in a new way? When I go to a seminar, I write down the ideas that I learned so I don't just let them go in my head and disappear. If I read a book and I find something that's useful, I jot it down. If I listen to a tape and there's something great there, I jot it down. If I watch a movie and I get an idea, I jot it down. I've got a place to put my ideas for better living. I call it my textbook for better living, and I've got years and years of them. And fortunately, since I didn't do them on loose-leaf binders on little scraps of paper, they're books in my library, and I can go there and pull them off my shelf and look at the goals I had then. And what I can do is literally trace my growth. You know, sometimes you're so close to yourself, you don't give yourself credit for where you've been and where you are now. It's hard to measure yourself. So what you need to do is have a journal. Because then you can look and see how your life has changed. Plus, the great thing about journals is this: Remember what I said earlier? If your life is worth living, it's worth recording. See, if you have a hardbound journal, those things will be around for years. They'll be around after you're gone, if they're taken care of. And what that becomes is a gift you can give your children. They can literally go back and see, "Here's where my dad was," or your grandchildren, "Here's where Grandpa was. Here's where he was in his life, and here's what he was thinking. Here's what he's feeling." And they can learn by your experience. They can learn and feel a connection with you even when you're gone. What a nice gift. So my challenge to you is, make sure every day you're learning. Make sure every day you're recording what you're learning. Make sure every day you're acting on what you're learning. Walk your talk. Don't make your life just livable, make it memorable.
Remember a couple of key ideas. Number one, remember you can change anything you want to change immediately. All you have to do is follow those four steps. One, decide what it is that you really want. Don't get caught up in the problem, decide what do you want. Focus on that. Two, get a plan. The best way to get a plan is to immediately find somebody to model. Think of somebody who's already gotten the result. Find out what they do, or the best of your ability, create the plan right now. Step three, don't wait a day. Take action. Use your personal power. Follow through. Don't let a day go by when you set a goal, when you make a decision, make sure that you don't leave the site of that decision without taking some kind of action that moves you towards achieving your goal. And finally, four, be flexible. Constantly notice whether what you're doing is working or not. Don't get stuck in one path or one approach. And if you discover that what you're trying isn't working, change your approach. Just keep changing, and you'll eventually get exactly what you want.
Not only can you change anything in your life, but if you really want to master your life, there are also four key elements. And those elements are for life mastery. One, you must master your own mental and emotional states. In other words, I want you to remember that success does not mean you're going to have happiness or joy in your life. That the only thing that determines whether you're happy or joyful is your ability to manage yourself emotionally. And the challenge that people fall into in life is they forget where they were. You know, we start to succeed, and pretty soon we have a new standard for judging ourselves. We have a new standard for where we need to be emotionally, in our confidence, a new standard for where we need to be in our relationships, a new standard for where we need to be economically. For example, I have a friend who the other day, I was talking to on the phone, is extremely successful in virtually every way: mentally, emotionally, socially, spiritually, and financially. Extremely wealthy, multi-millionaire, who lives very well. And I was talking to him the other day, and he said, "Yeah, I got this project going. He says, looks like I might finally have the breakthrough so I can stop living like a dog." And I said, "Stop living like a dog? What are you kidding me?" And he started laughing. He said, "Gosh, he said, yeah, I guess I kind of lost perspective, huh?" "I guess so." See, one of the challenges in life is to really learn to manage your emotions, to put things in perspective, and not blow things out of proportion. To know that no matter what ever happens to you, that you absolutely determine how you're going to feel. That you're in charge. See, that's critical. And you've learned in these tapes all kinds of ways to manage your states, from basic things like changing your physiology, your breathing, your facial expressions, your gestures, to changing your mental focus, to asking questions. You've got a whole series of technologies for controlling this. So there's no doubt you can do it. Am I right about that? And if not, go back and listen to those tapes and master it till you know you can go from being frustrated to fascinated, from being overwhelmed to being able to relax and take effective action. All you got to do is practice these things. And some of these things are new for you, I understand that. But the way we get good at anything is do it a few times. So go back and do it over and over again. You weren't very good the first time you tied your shoes either. But once you practice, once you can master your states, you now have real power in your life to master your life.
Lesson two. Once you know how to master your states, now you got to get yourself to do it. And so the second key is, you need to develop compelling reasons. Compelling reasons to master your states on an ongoing basis. What I mean by that is, lots of people learn finally how to manage their own states. They don't need drugs, they don't need alcohol, they don't need food. They've learned to be in charge. But sometimes they still don't use it. Have you ever done that during the last 26 days? Hey, listen, I still do at times. But what you got to do is have something you come back to. You've got to have strong enough reasons to continually manage yourself. Otherwise, it's easy to get caught up in frustration or anger or self-pity and not use what you know. Hey, I got involved in this kind of career years ago by going to work for a personal development speaker. The reason is, I heard this man speak and I thought to myself, "Hey, the things he's talking about from my life to work, I'd have to live those things." What's the best way to make sure I'm gonna live those? And I thought, "If I go to work for him and I promote him, because if I promote him, I'm gonna have to walk my talk. I'm gonna have to make sure that the things that he says I'm living by, otherwise when I'm trying to persuade somebody else to go do these things, they're gonna look at me and say, 'What are you talking about? Take a look at you.'" So they're going to be looking for a crack on my arm. Most people are looking for an excuse not to really go for it. So they'll try and pick you apart. So I had to really work hard. I gave myself a series of reasons that would make me do this stuff, that would make me apply myself. Now, I'm not perfect, but I've worked hard to make sure that I consistently walk my talk. And people know it. All they have to do is check out my life and they can see it. So the bottom line is, you've got to find compelling reasons for you. You've got to get strong enough goals. Again, people tell me often, "Well, gosh, I guess I'm just lazy. I'm not applying all this stuff." You're not lazy. If you're not applying things, it's because you have infinite goals. You need something stronger, something that'll drive you, something that will compel you. That's why in this program, one of those first assignments you're going to do today is to develop those four top one-year goals, and you're going to know why you're going for them. The "why" is the drive behind human behavior. So you've got to know why. You've got to have compelling reasons so that every day you go for it. Part of what we teach people in our Date with Destiny program is to create a code of conduct. What that is, is a set of goals for how you're going to be every day. The kinds of emotional states you're going to be in. Going to be friendly. You're going to be outgoing. You're going to be loving. You're going to be impeccable. You're going to be powerful. You're going to be strong. You're going to be confident. So you don't just have goals of achieving a bunch of money or being best in your company. You have goals of how you're going to feel and how you're going to live. Because by the way, if you're being friendly and outgoing and passionate and disciplined and powerful and effective, and you're contributing to people, if you're living in those kinds of states every single day, you're going to achieve all that you want. Does that make sense? So you might want to develop for yourself a set of goals of how you're going to be every day. You got to develop why you're doing all these things in your life. What is the purpose of your life? What are you going for? What's going to drive you to really go for it when things get tough? When things get frustrating? When it rains on your parade? When you do everything right and it still turns up wrong? What's going to make you still manage your state? What's going to make you manage your state when it's unfair? So you got to come up with those answers in advance, otherwise you'll miss out on life mastery.
Here's lesson three. Lesson three is, you must anticipate the challenges of life and role model how to deal with them. What do I mean by that? I mean, there are certain lessons in life that you and I, everyone we meet, or most people at least, are gonna have to deal with. I mean, we're all gonna have to deal with death. Not only our own, but people around us in our life we care about are going to die. Doesn't sound like a very pleasant emotion or a pleasant experience to think about. But wouldn't now be a good time to think about how are you going to look at death? What are going to be your beliefs about death so that experience doesn't destroy you, but allows you to have more richness in your life? That allows you to have deeper caring. Maybe the pain digs a deeper hole for you to fill up more emotion with, to share with other people. I don't know. But you got to decide how you're going to deal with somebody approaching you and wanting to be with you sexually when you're married. If you don't deal with that now, up front, decide, "Hey, this is how I'm going to deal with it," because it'll eventually happen, then you may one day get into state and just do something you're going to regret for a long, long time. So it destroys a lot of relationships, isn't it? See, you're going to have to deal with turning 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100. You're gonna deal with that. For some reason, those zero numbers really seem to affect people in their lives. But why not think about it in advance? Why not say, "Hey, here's what I want to do." So here's how I'm going to look at turning 30 or 40 or 50 or 60 or 70 or whatever it is. Here's what I need to do so I feel good about myself. Better set some goals for yourself. Here's what I want to accomplish, and make sure they're realistic, and make sure they're reasonable. But you got to deal with that. And the best way, again, is to talk to other people that have already dealt with it. Find out what challenges they've dealt with. If you're in business, you've got to deal with the fact that someday, there's a good chance someone is going to try and take something from you illegally. Someone may try and embezzle. They may try and steal. If you've got a big enough company, they're going to be individuals who live by those values. That's not being negative, be smart. Anticipate. Don't expect the worst, expect the best, but have a plan in case the worst shows up. You know, I tell a lot of people, "Listen, believe, have faith." But there's an old phrase that says, "Trust in God and tie up your camels." Right? Be an intelligent person. And that means look at your life and as many things as you can anticipate. And no matter what your goals are, they're going to be challenges that come up. Otherwise, you already have your goals. So anticipate what they are and deal with them in advance. So you got to plan. Now, even after you try and anticipate everything, there'll still be challenges. But at least you're better prepared. Does that make sense? That's part of life mastery.
Step four, re-evaluate your life on an ongoing basis. What do I mean by that? No, I don't mean every day to ask yourself, "God, am I doing the right thing? Oh my God, is this the right thing to do? Should I do this? Oh, is that the right thing?" Those people drive themselves crazy. I mean, about every six months at the minimum to a year, you need to go off someplace and just take a look at your goals, take a look at some of your beliefs, some of your values, and ask yourself the question, "Hey, where am I going? Where are my present goals and values and beliefs leading me right now in my life? Am I going the direction I want to go? What's the ultimate destination if I continue down this path?" See, if you do that, you're going to end up where you want to be in your life. Because one thing's for sure, 10 years from now, 20 years from now, you will surely arrive. The question is, where? Where will you be? What will you be like? Who will you surround yourself with? If you don't look at the daily actions you're taking and see those actions as being a cause set in motion, if you don't review the effects it's having on your life, the direction it's taking you in, the ultimate destination, one day you may end up someplace you don't want to be. Hey, remember the Niagara Syndrome. Most people in life get caught up in the river of life. And at first, it's a little slow, but then the current starts to pick up pace, and they get caught up in making a living, trying to make their life work. And pretty soon, they've lost sight of what their goals are. They've lost sight of where they're going. They're just being dragged along by the current itself. And one day they wake up five feet from Niagara Falls and a boat with no oars, and they go, "Oh, shoot." You don't want to be that person. So one way to make sure is never to get stuck. Maybe 10 years ago, you said, "This is who I'm going to be. This is what I'm going to do for a living. This is who I am." Maybe it's time to re-evaluate and just make sure you're still that person. It doesn't mean you have to change. It just means be willing to take the look. That's my challenge to you. My challenge to you is life mastery. Manage your emotions. Compel yourself to do it on a daily basis by having reasons that will drive you. Come up with a life purpose that makes you become the kind of person you're proud of. Anticipate the challenges and model what will work. And make sure you re-evaluate if you're living a life like that, you're going to be fulfilled.
And by the way, if you want help along the way, don't let this be the end with you and I. You know, I'd love to have you and I'd be privileged to have you as my guest to be a part of Life Mastery, or Financial Mastery, or Date with Destiny. We call them all three, Mastery University. If you'd like to continue to have me be your coach live in person three times the next year for an entire year of your life, then please look us up and see if you can get in that program. Because there's nothing like saying, "We're going to take nine days with no interruptions, and we're going to bring in people from 42 countries in the world, some of the wealthiest, most successful people in the world, and some of the people just getting started, professional athletes, moms, kids, people from every walk of life. And together, we're going to become a family, and we're going to find out what does it take to take our lives to the highest level possible." We don't want to experience life, we want to live it. We want to make sure that our life is something that we don't just remember, but something that is memorable to every person around us, something that has a deep sense of passion and meaning. So we take nine days, and we take two days on your physical body, and we show you everything about it. We give you a blood test, we show you how to make the changes, and we measure at the end of nine days so you can see what's happened. If you'd like that kind of precise coaching, please follow up with me. Learn from Deepak Chopra live. Learn from me live. Hey, wake up in the morning with us and stretch, and then get a chance to go all of us, there are a thousand of us, we all get in the ocean together, this warm Maui water, and that's how we start our day. And then we go in and we work on those tools. Then we take two days on emotional mastery, so you'll never again wonder, no matter what happens in your life, you'll know you can only deal with it. You can turn it around because you'll have built those skills in, because you'd be in an environment where there's no distraction, where you're living it day and night. So these are literally the emotional muscles of your life. You want to learn finances? We learn it from Peter Lynch. You say, "Well, how can you guarantee I'll be successful in the year 2000?" Tony, well, there is no guarantee. But I'll tell you one thing that virtually guarantees it: become a leader. I mean, think about it. Every organization in the world is changing right now. I don't care whether it's profit or non-profit. Everybody's downsizing, right-sizing, outsourcing. Most people are afraid. And who's not afraid? Leaders. People develop leadership skills will always have a place. They will always succeed. This is a year of leadership training that is more enjoyable than anything can imagine. Plus, I mean, I teach you leadership skills, but I also bring in General Norman Schwarzkopf to teach you. I bring in more than 25 teachers from around the world who have done it, not just speakers, people that have lived it. And I share with you the best that I've learned as well. So I hope you'll commit to mastery, either with me or through some form. Again, I don't care if it may not be appropriate for you to come visit with me, but if you don't do it someplace, don't let this momentum drop. Go get yourself involved in some community college program, or join a group or association of people that have a mastermind that are working on improving themselves every single day. Or do the equivalent of Power Talk. Go interview people like I do every month and get to the best people. You can find out what's making them tick. This will give you a life that's legendary rather than a life that you say, "Wow, I really had some excitement for a couple months there." I want to make sure this is lasting for you. And the way to make it lasting is commit to a life of constant and never-ending improvement. I can't tell you that enough. I call it a commitment to CANI. C-A-N-I. Constant and never-ending improvement. That's the secret to fulfillment.
Hey, look, by now, hopefully, you realize that no matter what it is you get in your life, you're not going to be made happy by that. The only thing that's going to make you happy in your life is who you become. The challenge, of course, is that most of us in life have a problem. And that problem is, we get comfortable. I'm not saying always live on the edge. I'm saying have a little balance in your life. Because sometimes you get so comfortable, you kind of get in such a groove that the groove becomes a grave. You got to be real careful you don't want to get stuck. So beware of the disease called success. You say, "Disease? I thought that's what I got this program for." Well, what I really mean by that is, if you get too comfortable with success, then it becomes a trap. Because then again, what people do is they get superstitious. They go, "Oh, this seems to be working. I better just keep doing this for the rest of my life." How horrible. You want more in your life than that. And you don't want to get caught up in that thing called a comfort zone. It happens to all of us. You know why? Because we only do so much for ourselves. For example, how hard will you work for acknowledgement? Well, people work real hard for acknowledgement. But I think there's a point of saturation where it's like, that's not going to motivate you anymore. Because you feel like, "Yeah, I've been acknowledged. I'm totally acknowledged. Any more acknowledgement, I begin to wonder what this is about, right?" So that's not enough. There's only so much acknowledgement. I'll do it. So some people work for money. They say, "Well, I'm going to really grow because I want to be successful so I can make some money." But you know what? For most people, there's a certain amount of money, and then they get comfortable. And that's different for everybody. Some people, it's $25,000 a year. Some, $50,000. Some, $100,000. Some, a million. Some, $10 million. Some are never satisfied, I'll guarantee you that. But for most people, there's a point where they go, "Uh, what else do you need?" You know, with a six-pack and a TV set, I mean, what else is there, right? Other people have a little higher standards. They say, "Well, gosh, you know, with four homes and be able to travel around the world and be with my family, what else is there?" So money has its limits too. I mean, we could go down the list. People only work so hard for themselves. But let me tell you the secret to lifelong wealth and happiness, and that is this: Become a team player. You say, "Well, how's this relate?" Well, you and I will do more for the people that we care about than we'll ever do for ourselves. I mean, think about that. Isn't it true? I know I'll do a heck of a lot more for my kids than I would ever do for myself. Is that true in your life? See, if you can find a team of people who you really deeply care for, and you can get the feeling that you're responsible, that you can make a difference in their lives, that you can contribute, that you're absolutely a source of power and possibility for those people, you can't believe what that'll motivate you to do. Hey, I'm talking to you right now because years ago, I linked up in my head that if I learned things that could really make a difference and share them with people, that hey, that would give me an incredible sense of contribution. And that those people would like me, that they'd love me, that we have an incredible relationship. That has driven my life. And I got to tell you something, it's more of a high for me than any amount of money, although I certainly like to make money, or any amount of growth, or any amount of development, virtually any other area. Contribution can drive you crazy. And the neat thing about it is, it's addictive. When you really feel like you're doing a lot for people, for me at least, it makes me feel like I want to give even more. It's like a success cycle. It grabs you and you want to do more and more and more. And the neat thing is, in order to contribute to other people, you have to become more. You have to grow personally. You have nothing to give. See, that's the challenge in life. See, if you can get yourself in a position where you surround yourself with people that cause you to demand more from yourself than anybody else could ever expect, now you have true wealth. Because I got to tell you something, if you overeat or over drink or over smoke or stuck in front of a TV at times or do drugs, there's only one reason you don't feel the joy of growing. And the reason for that is you're comfortable, or you haven't found something bigger than yourself to contribute to, to commit your life to. I really challenge you to take a look around at your family, at your friends, at your business, and ask yourself the question, "How is my life impacting these people?" "What actions could I take that could make a major difference for my teammates?" "If I were to commit myself 100% to making that difference, how would I feel about myself?" "Who would I become as a person?" See, that's the key. If you can really become a team player, somebody who makes people feel loved and appreciated and contributed to, somebody who by their presence, people's lives are enhanced, then you have the greatest gift of all. And that is a sense that when you leave this world, that somehow, in some simple way, in your own humble way, you left the world just a little bit better. And I mean, isn't that what life was about? So I guess my challenge to you is to walk your talk. To make sure that every day you care deeply, that you create something new where there wasn't anything before, that you cooperate with people and help them make a difference, that you commit to being the best. And that you contribute. God, if you can do those things, you cannot believe your greatest dreams of your past will become like mere cartoons compared to the life you'll have. And I'm talking from experience. But it all comes from personal development. You've got to commit yourself to be a lifelong learner. If you do that, there's no limit.
So my challenge is, let this be not the end, but the beginning. And I want to thank you personally for the privilege of working with you over these last 26 days. You just can't imagine what a gift it feels like to me to have the ability to share with you the ideas that have made a difference in my life. I never take for granted that opportunity. See, I get to share with you because other people have shared with me. I get to share with you because I set goals and I took action, and I've continued to change, and I've made it through the challenges, and I'll make it through the additional ones that come on my life, just like you will. But the privilege of having you be willing to commit your time and your energy and some of your capital and your mental focus and 26 days, or 30 as you're about to continue, is an incredible gift. And I want to thank you for that gift. And I hope that someday I will have the opportunity to get a chance to meet you personally. And I also want you to know, I'm not going away. May sound like it, but I'm going to be here waiting for you anytime you want to pick me up. That's the thing. I'm here to be your success coach, to be your supporter, to be your friend. So anytime you need somebody to maybe stimulate you, to remind you of who you really are, please remember that that's what this system is designed for. This is designed to be a lifelong companion to challenge you to succeed. So anytime you need it, I'm here. And I hope you'll share with me how this program has affected your life and how it's changed. And I hope I get a chance to hear about the successes you've created. So I hope I'll see you at a program, or maybe someday I'll be in an airplane or someplace and I'll bump into you. But till then, let me finally say to you this: Life is a process. So enjoy it. You're bigger than anything that could ever happen to you. So challenge yourself. I hear people talk about things so often, "Well, what if I tried this and it didn't work? I mean, I could lose my life. My whole life could be over." I remember reading a quote once, it really addressed this. It's by John Howe. It said, "What a folly to dread the thought of throwing away life at once, and yet have no regard for throwing it away by parcels and piecemeal." Hey, you know what I think is most important? Your life. Not how long you live, but how you live. Make sure in this life you do what we've talked about every single day. Live with passion.
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