REAPING A MULTIPLE REWARD
by Jim Rohn
For
every disciplined effort, there are multiple rewards. That's one of
life's great arrangements. In fact, it's an extension of the Biblical
law that says that if you sow well, you will reap well.
Here's
a unique part of the Law of Sowing and Reaping. Not only does it
suggest that we'll all reap what we've sown, but it also suggests that
we'll reap much more. Life is full of laws that both govern and explain
behaviors, but this may well be the major law we need to understand:
for every disciplined effort, there are multiple rewards.
What
a concept! If you render unique service, your reward will be
multiplied. If you're fair and honest and patient with others, your
reward will be multiplied. If you give more than you expect to receive,
your reward is more than you expect. But remember: the key word here,
as you might well imagine, is discipline.
Everything
of value requires care, attention, and discipline. Our thoughts require
discipline. We must consistently determine our inner boundaries and our
codes of conduct, or our thoughts will be confused. And if our thoughts
are confused, we will become hopelessly lost in the maze of life.
Confused thoughts produce confused results.
Remember
the law: "For every disciplined effort, there are multiple rewards."
Learn the discipline of writing a card or a letter to a friend. Learn
the discipline of paying your bills on time, arriving to appointments
on time, or using your time more effectively. Learn the discipline of
paying attention, or paying your taxes or paying yourself. Learn the
discipline of having regular meetings with your associates, or your
spouse, or your child, or your parent. Learn the discipline of learning
all you can learn, of teaching all you can teach, of reading all you
can read.
For
each discipline, multiple rewards. For each book, new knowledge. For
each success, new ambition. For each challenge, new understanding. For
each failure, new determination. Life is like that. Even the bad
experiences of life provide their own special contribution. But a word
of caution here for those who neglect the need for care and attention
to life's disciplines: everything has its price. Everything affects
everything else. Neglect discipline, and there will be a price to pay.
All things of value can be taken for granted with the passing of time.
That's
what we call the Law of Familiarity. Without the discipline of paying
constant, daily attention, we take things for granted. Be serious.
Life's not a practice session.
If
you're often inclined to toss your clothes onto the chair rather than
hanging them in the closet, be careful. It could suggest a lack of
discipline. And remember, a lack of discipline in the small areas of
life can cost you heavily in the more important areas of life. You
cannot clean up your company until you learn the discipline of cleaning
your own garage. You cannot be impatient with your children and be
patient with your distributors or your employees. You cannot inspire
others to sell more when that goal is inconsistent with your own
conduct. You cannot admonish others to read good books when you don't
have a library card.
Think
about your life at this moment. What areas need attention right now?
Perhaps you've had a disagreement with someone you love or someone who
loves you, and your anger won't allow you to speak to that person.
Wouldn't this be an ideal time to examine your need for a new
discipline? Perhaps you're on the brink of giving up, or starting over,
or starting out. And the only missing ingredient to your incredible
success story in the future is a new and self-imposed discipline that
will make you try harder and work more intensely than you ever thought
you could.
The
most valuable form of discipline is the one that you impose upon
yourself. Don't wait for things to deteriorate so drastically that
someone else must impose discipline in your life. Wouldn't that be
tragic? How could you possibly explain the fact that someone else
thought more of you than you thought of yourself? That they forced you
to get up early and get out into the marketplace when you would have
been content to let success go to someone else who cared more about
themselves.
Your
life, my life, the life of each one of us is going to serve as either a
warning or an example. A warning of the consequences of neglect,
self-pity, lack of direction and ambition...or an example of talent put
to use, of discipline self-imposed, and of objectives clearly perceived
and intensely pursued.
To Your Success,
Jim Rohn
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