“We must all suffer from one of two pains: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. The difference is discipline weighs ounces while regret weighs tons.”~ Jim Rohn

Jim Rohn

If you’re looking for practical and actionable advice to take your life to the next level, you’re in the right place. Let’s explore some of the most profound lessons Jim Rohn shared with the world, and how you can apply them to create a life of excellence and significance.

35 Life-Changing Lessons to Learn from Jim Rohn

1. You get paid for the value you bring to the hour, not for the hour.

“You don’t get paid for the hour. You get paid for the value you bring to the hour.”~ Jim Rohn

2. “If you are not willing to risk the unusual, you will have to settle for the ordinary.” ~ Jim Rohn

3. Always wish for more.

“Don’t wish it was easier, wish you were better. Don’t wish for less problems, wish for more skills. Don’t wish for less challenge, wish for more wisdom.”

4. Take charge of your life.

“Let others lead small lives, but not you.. Let others argue over small things, but not you.. Let others cry over small hurts, but not you.. Let others leave their future in someone else’s hands, but not you.” ~ Jim Rohn

5. The worst thing you can do is not to try.

“The worst thing one can do is not to try, to be aware of what one wants and not give in to it, to spend years in silent hurt wondering if something could have materialized – never knowing.”

6. “Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines, practiced every day.”

7. If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan.

“If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planed for you? Not much.” ~ Jim Rohn

8. Know what you want and you’ll find a way to get it.

“When you know what you want, and you want it bad enough, you’ll find a way to get it.”

9. The greatest gift you can give somebody is your own personal development.

“The greatest gift you can give somebody is your own personal development. I used to say, “If you will take care of me, I will take care of you. “Now I say, I will take care of me for you, if you will take care of you for me.” ~ Jim Rohn

10. Take personal responsibility.

“You must take personal responsibiity. You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself. That is something you have charge of.”~ Jim Rohn

11. “Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.”

12. Beware of the downward pull.

“We must all wage an intense, lifelong battle against the constant downward pull. If we relax, the bugs and weeds of negativity will move into the garden and take away everything of value.”

13. Tell me what you read and I’ll tell you where you’ll be in 5 years.

“The difference between where you are today and where you’ll be five years from now will be found in the quality of books you’ve read.”

14. “It isn’t what the book costs; it’s what it will cost you if you don’t read it.”~Jim Rohn

15. Be happy with what you have while you pursue all that you want.

“Learn how to be happy with what you have while you pursue all that you want.” ~ Jim Rohn

16. “Whatever good things you build end up building you.”

“If you go to work on your goals, your goals will go to work on you. If you go to work on your plan, your plan will go to work on you. Whatever good things we build end up building us.”

16. Success is neither magical nor mysterious.

“Success is neither magical nor mysterious. Success is the natural consequence of consistently applying the basic fundamentals.” ~ Jim Rohn

17. Failure is a few errors in judgement, repeated every day.

“Failure is not a single, cataclysmic event. You don’t fail overnight. Instead, failure is a few errors in judgement, repeated every day.”

18. “You cannot change your destination overnight, but you can change your direction overnight.”~ Jim Rohn

19. Desire loses its value without a sense of urgency.

“Without a sense of urgency, desire loses its value.” ~ Jim Rohn

20. You cannot change the seasons, but you can change yourself.

“Life and business is like the changing seasons. You cannot change the seasons, but you can change yourself. Therein lies the opportunity to live an extraordinary life–the opportunity to change yourself.”

21. Use every opportunity you get to practice your communication skills.

“Take advantage of every opportunity to practice your communication skills so that when important occasions arise, you will have the gift, the style, the sharpness, the clarity, and the emotions to affect other people.”

22. “If you don’t like how things are, change it! You’re not a tree.”~ Jim Rohn

23. Days are expensive. Make sure you spend each one wisely.

“Days are expensive. When you spend a day you have one less day to spend. So make sure you spend each one wisely.”

24. “Give whatever you are doing and whoever you are with the gift of your attention.”~ Jim Rohn

25. Become all that you that you have the possibility of becoming.

“The big challenge is to become all that you have the possibility of becoming. You cannot believe what it does to the human spirit to maximize your human potential and stretch yourself to the limit.”

26. Character is something that you can create within yourself, so you are responsible for it.

“Character is a quality that embodies many important traits, such as integrity, courage, perseverance, confidence and wisdom. Unlike your fingerprints that you are born with and can’t change, character is something that you create within yourself and must take responsibility for changing.”

27. “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” ~ Jim Rohn

28. “Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.” ~ Jim Rohn

29. The only way it gets better for you is when you get better.

“The only way it gets better for you is when you get better. Better is not something you wish, it’s something you become.” ~ Jim Rohn

“Get around people who have something of value to share with you. Their impact will continue to have a significant effect on your life long they have departed.” ~ Jim Rohn

31. “Take care of your body. It’s the only place you have to live.” ~ Jim Rohn

32. You’ll always get the same you’ve always gotten, unless you change how you are.

“Unless you change how you are, you will always have what you got.” ~ Jim Rohn

33. “One discipline always leads to another discipline.” ~ Jim Rohn

34. Time, effort, and imagination must be summoned constantly to keep any relationship flourishing and growing.

“Your family and your love must be cultivated like a garden. Time, effort, and imagination must be summoned constantly to keep any relationship flourishing and growing.” ~ Jim Rohn

35. “The walls we build around us to keep sadness out also keeps out the joy.” ~ Jim Rohn

35-Life-Changing-Lessons-to-Learn-from-Awe-Inspiring-Jim-Rohn

Bonus:

“Each of us has two distinct choices to make about what we will do with our lives. The first choice we can make is to be less than we have the capacity to be. To earn less. To have less. To read less and think less. To try less and discipline ourselves less.

These are the choices that lead to an empty life. These are the choices that, once made, lead to a life of constant apprehension instead of a life of wondrous anticipation And the second choice? To do it all! To become all that we can possibly be. To read every book that we possibly can. To earn as much as we possibly can. To give and share as much as we possibly can. To strive and produce and accomplish as much as we possibly can.”

“Life and business is like the changing seasons. You cannot change the seasons, but you can change yourself. Therein lies the opportunity to live an extraordinary life-the opportunity to change yourself.”

“Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines, practiced every day; while failure is simply a few errors in judgment, repeated every day. It is the accumulative weight of our disciplines and our judgments that leads us to either fortune or failure.”

“Learn to work harder on yourself than you do on your job. If you work hard on your job you can make a living, but if you work hard on yourself you’ll make a fortune.”

“Your level of success will rarely exceed your level of personal development because success is something you attract by the person you become.”

“Words do two major things: They provide food for the mind and create light for understanding and awareness.”

“I have found in life that if you want a miracle you first need to do whatever it is you can do – if that’s to plant, then plant; if it is to read, then read; if it is to change, then change; if it is to study, then study; if it is to work, then work; whatever you have to do. And then you will be well on your way of doing the labor that works miracles.”

“Books are what you step on to take you to a higher shelf. The higher your stack of books, the higher the shelf you can reach.

Want to reach higher? Stack some more books under your feet! Reading is what brings us to new knowledge. It opens new doors. It helps us understand mysteries. It lets us hear from successful people. Reading is what takes us down the road in our journey. Everything you need for a better future and success has already been written.”

“Goals. There’s no telling what you can do when you get inspired by them. There’s no telling what you can do when you believe in them. There’s no telling what will happen when you act upon them.”

“You want to set a goal that is big enough that in the process of achieving it you become someone worth becoming.”

“Each person entering our world brings either a contribution or destruction. Trying to be “always nice” is to invite certain disaster. Those with poisonous attitudes, strange opinions, and caustic conversations love to look for someone nice who will listen to them. They love to dump their verbal garbage into the mental factory of anyone willing to listen.

A major challenge in life is for each person to learn the art of standing guard at the doorway of their mind. Carefully examine the credentials and authority of those seeking to enter within that place where your attitudes are formed.”

“I used to say, ‘Things cost too much.’ Then my teacher straightened me out on that by saying, ‘The problem isn’t that things cost too much. The problem is that you can’t afford it.’ That’s when I finally understood that the problem wasn’t ‘it’ – the problem was ‘me.”

“Don’t live in the past, and don’t carry the past around like a burden. But simply use your past as one of your mentors to help refine mistakes and make changes you can invest now and the future.”

“Once you set goals that really matter to you, you are no longer the same person. Real goals will affect almost everything you do all day long. And they will be with you wherever you go. Your handshake, your manner of dressing, the tone of your voice, the way you feel — all will change once you have goals. That’s because when your goals matter, everything you do becomes related to their accomplishment.”

“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 into your life.”

“Every life form seems to strive to its maximum except human beings. How tall will a tree grow? As tall as it possibly can. Human beings, on the other hand, have been given the dignity of choice. You can choose to be all or you can choose to be less. Why not stretch up to the full measure of the challenge and see what all you can do?”

“Learning is the beginning of wealth. Learning is the beginning of health. Learning is the beginning of spirituality. Searching and learning is where the miracle process all begins.”

“Whether we are working to improve our health, wealth, personal achievement, or professional enterprise, the difference between triumphant success or bitter failure lies in the degree of our commitment to seek out, study, and apply those half-dozen things”

“What kind of person will you have to become to get all you want? In fact, why not write down a few thoughts on this in your notebook or journal. Write down the kinds of skills you’ll need to develop and the knowledge you’ll need to gain. The answers will give you some new goals for personal development.Remember this rule: Income Rarely Exceeds Personal Development.”

“You want to really do well? Then stretch your thirty minutes to a full hour. But at least spend thirty minutes. Oh yes, here’s one more thing: Don’t miss. Miss a meal, but not your thirty minutes of learning. All of us can afford to miss a few meals, but none of us can afford to lose out on ideas, examples, and inspiration.”

“Reasons come first, answers second. It seems that life has a mysterious quirk of camouflaging the answers in such a way that they become apparent only to those who are inspired enough to look for them — who have reasons to look for them.”

“There is very little difference between someone who cannot read and someone who will not read. The result of either is ignorance. Those who are serious seekers of personal development must remove the self-imposed limitations they have placed on their reading skills and their reading habits.”

“Another way to regain control of your day is this: When you work, work; and when you play, play. Mixing the two never works. All you end up doing is cheating yourself both ways. If you work and play at the same time, you’ll miss the joy that comes from great accomplishment and the complete release that is the gift of pure play.”

“Today brings to each of us 1,440 minutes; 86,400 ticks of the clock. Both the poor and the wealthy have the same 24 hours of opportunity. Time favors no one.”

“When you know what you want and you want it badly enough, you’ll find a way to get it. The answers, methods, and solutions you need to solve the problems along the way will be revealed to you.”