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Dear ,

If you're like millions of Americans, right now you are awaiting the arrival of your W2 so you can start on your 2009 taxes. Some people are eagerly awaiting a tax return check, while others are anxiously waiting to find out how much they still have to pay the government. Weather you’re eager or anxious, you will probably agree with Dr. Tim’s opening sentence this week, “I hate paying taxes.” This week Dr. Tim explores how his initially strong emotional tie to that statement changed and taught him a lesson in the process.

I hate paying taxes! Seriously, I really hate it. It seems like every time I turn around, I am being taxed for something. Often it even feels like I am being taxed on money I have already been taxed on. Didn’t we fight a war about this?

I built a house last year with a paved road leading to it. It improved the look and helped my neighbors and the county in which I live. As a thank you, they raised my taxes tenfold. The whole tax system is so complicated that the average person cannot possibly understand it. I think the government wants a system so complicated so you cannot see how much you are being taxed or why. You have to hire someone to tell you how much tax you owe. There has to be a better way.

I was contemplating all this last night while listening to a Jim Rohn CD, and I got really fired up. Rohn was sharing a story he had with a mentor about how badly he too hated to pay taxes. Then he shared something that changed my view on the tax situation. His mentor had encouraged him early on to become a “happy tax payer”.

“Paying taxes is like feeding the golden goose,” Rohn said. “The golden goose is what allows us to live in an amazing country and have all the amazing things we have. It is what lays the golden eggs of freedom, safety, justice and free enterprise. Some goose! Some eggs! Now we could argue that the goose eats too much, and that is probably true, but don’t we all eat too much?”

I came away with several lessons from Rohn's story.

1) Attitude is Everything
First, everything we face in life is directly impacted by our attitude. I cannot change the tax laws by myself, but I can certainly change my attitude about them. When there is something you cannot change, you need to change yourself. Your attitude about a situation is the most important thing.

This does not mean you should put your head in the sand and do nothing about a system you think is unfair. If you are someone who wants to make changes in a system, then I encourage you to get involved. But most people are not out to fix a system, they just opt to complain about the system instead. To that end, the more time and effort you spend beating yourself up about a problem you cannot fix, the more time you are wasting. You are wasting it because you are NOT spending that time solving problems in your own life.

2) Be Prepared
Secondly, it reminded me how important it is to be prepared. Each year at tax time I have several friends and business associates who are surprised at what they owe because they are not prepared. They have never put a plan in place, including educating themselves on taxes, and each tax season they simply hope for the best. Being unprepared is no way to handle taxes.

But the lesson doesn’t just apply to taxes. Throughout life we need to prepare for the hard times when the times are good, and we need to understand that when times are hard, good times will come again. History has a way of repeating itself. If interest rates are low, then prepare for them to be high again in the future. If the stock market is at an all time high, be prepared for it to drop. Winter will always follow fall, but the good news is that during the dead of winter, we know that spring is not far away. So develop a plan and be prepared for both the good and the bad times.

3) Create a Learning Center
Finally, it is important you develop a CANI plan. CANI is an acronym developed by Tony Robbins. It stands for Constant and Never-ending Improvement. Robbins was influenced by Dr. W. Edwards Deming, who is credited as a leader who brought one of the first quality movements to the Japanese. His basic premise was the Japanese could achieve world power and economic success if every single person and organization committed to constant improvement.

CANI is the reason I was listening to Jim Rohn's CD. When I am in a vehicle, I no longer listen to the radio. Instead I listen to something educational. I drive a Nissan Titan, and I call it Titan University because of all the learning I do there. I encourage you to turn your vehicle into a learning center. It is easy to do. Simply find a collection of CDs that will turn your car into a learning center.

There will always be taxes. There will always be illness. There will always be an economy, and there will always be problems. The challenge we face is becoming better at solving those problems. In your life you must become an expert in the four pillars: health, wealth, relationships, and character development. The best way to do that is to have a plan for constantly learning and improving coupled with a system for evaluating your progress.

Don’t wish for things to be easier, wish you were better. Don’t wish for less problems, wish for more skills. My mentor, Jim Rohn, taught me that. Unfortunately, he passed away in December, but I have the ability to continue to learn from him through his books and audio CDs.

Who are you listening to? Who are you reading? What are you doing to become better and to gain more skills? I challenge you to create a plan for constant and never ending improvement and to work on that plan every single day. It will be the best decision you ever make.

Live Every Minute,
Dr Tim

[Ed. Note: To read Jim Rohn's article in it's entirety, click here.]

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