You won’t regret it — I guarantee it.
This article first appeared on medium.com.
‘To be or not to be?’ That is not the question. What is the question? The question is not one of being, but of becoming. ‘To become more or not to become more.’ This is the question faced by each intelligence in our universe. — Truman G. Madsen
As you read the extended quote below from esteemed success speaker Jim Rohn, ask yourself these questions:
- What does becoming all that I can be look like to me?
- If I was putting forth maximum effort in each area of my life, how would I feel about myself?
- Does God expect me to become all that I can be?
- Am I choosing a life of mediocrity?
How tall will a tree grow… approximately? As tall as it possibly can. You never heard of a tree growing half as high as it could.
No, trees don’t grow half, trees send their roots down as deep as possible… stretch their limbs up as high as possible… produce every leaf possible… and every fruit possible.
Now why wouldn’t human beings try to their maximum possibility? Here’s why: because we’ve been given the dignity of choice. It makes us different than alligators and trees and birds. And here’s the choice:
To become part of what we could be… enough to get by. Or to become all that we can be.
My best advice for you is to choose the “all”.
Learn all you can. Make all the friends you can. Read as many books as you can. Develop as many skills as you can. See as much as possible. Do as much as possible. Make as much fortune as possible. Give as much of it away as possible.
The max — there’s no life like it. I’m telling you, once I got on track I’ve never looked back.
Pick up the challenge — go for it. Take the best of the two easies. Take the route of:
It’s easy to get ahead. It’s easy to do all you can. It’s easy to succeed. It’s easy to have financial freedom. The more you do, the more you get. — Jim Rohn
Three of the Key Areas of Life
Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve. — Napoleon Hill
Take a moment to reflect upon what it will take for you to become all that you can be in these three key areas of life:
- Relationships
- Health
- Wealth
Wherever you are today in these three key areas of life, there is no better time than today to decide to become all that you can be.
On September 1, 2018, I made the first in a series of positive decisions that have transformed my life.
If you compared two pictures of me — one from August 31, 2018 and the other from today — you might notice that I weigh 25 pounds less. But my transformation is much more than physical.
- I have more confidence today than I have ever had in my life.
- I have a more positive outlook on the future than I ever thought possible.
- I have deeper, more abiding relationships, than ever before.
When you make a conscious decision to become all that you can be, and when you bring your actions in line with that goal, there is no force on earth that can stop you.
Sure, you will undoubtedly experience setbacks. Heck, since September 1, 2018, I experienced the most overwhelming trial of my life. But that trial fueled my transformation more powerfully than any of my own efforts.
Become All that You Can Be — Relationships
Life is too short to be little. — Benjamin Disraeli
You owe it to yourself and to those you love to do the best you can.
One of the best ways to become all that you can be is to support others as they become all that they can be.
I just finished listening to How Will You Measure Your Life? by Clayton M. Christensen. Christensen was a business expert and renowned Harvard business school professor.
How Will You Measure Your Life? focuses on the constant struggle between career, family, self, and volunteer work.
It is often the loudest voice that gets our attention — in fact, our family will “rarely shout the loudest” when they need our attention. Our families want to be supportive, and so we begin to accept as reality that mom and/or dad need more and more time to focus on their career aspirations.
What struck me the most, however, was Christensen’s discussion on how our daily interactions with family are seemingly insignificant, but have long-term ramifications.
Responding to one more email or checking one more item off our to-do lists demonstrates tangible progress, and we often opt to spend our time in such an approach. But by engaging in positive interactions with our significant other and our children, though there may not be a noticeable short-term effect, it is this use of our time that will have an important long-term impact.
Become involved in your significant other’s and children’s lives. What drives them? What inspires them? How will you be the catalyst to fuel their growth?
There are times in my life where I have been hyper-focused on myself — my career aspirations, my health, my to-do list. But you know what, I can honestly say that those times in my life have not been very rewarding or fulfilling.
It is when I am focused on others… sacrificing my time, talents, and abilities to build others up, that life has been truly worthwhile.
How can you become all that you can be in the relationships in your life? Think about it, identify an action you can take, and then start today!
Become All that You Can Be — Health
For me, becoming isn’t about arriving somewhere or achieving a certain aim. I see it instead as forward motion, a means of evolving, a way to reach continuously toward a better self. The journey doesn’t end. — Michelle Obama
I grew up watching Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. However, I didn’t know much about Fred Rogers until reading an Esquire article upon which the 2019 film A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood was based.
The Esquire article reported:
Mister Rogers weighed 143 pounds because he has weighed 143 pounds as long as he has been Mister Rogers, because once upon a time, around thirty-one years ago, Mister Rogers stepped on a scale, and the scale told him that Mister Rogers weighs 143 pounds. No, not that he weighed 143 pounds, but that he weighs 143 pounds…. And so, every day, Mister Rogers refuses to do anything that would make his weight change — he neither drinks, nor smokes, nor eats flesh of any kind, nor goes to bed late at night, nor sleeps late in the morning, nor even watches television — and every morning, when he swims, he steps on a scale in his bathing suit and his bathing cap and his goggles, and the scale tells him that he weighs 143 pounds. This has happened so many times that Mister Rogers has come to see that number as a gift, as a destiny fulfilled, because, as he says, ‘the number 143 means ‘I love you.’ It takes one letter to say ‘I’ and four letters to say ‘love’ and three letters to say ‘you.’ One hundred and forty-three. ‘I love you.’ Isn’t that wonderful?’
Mister Rogers had a tremendous impact on the world, and this was fueled by his physical health.
No area of our lives can stand on its own… our lives are intertwined. I can choose to focus exclusively on certain areas of my life, but I will pay a high price for such an approach.
It is critical for us to cultivate the important relationships in our lives. We need to focus on quality interactions with our children and our significant other. But it is also important to focus on our health so we can put ourselves in a position to be around for those we love.
It doesn’t take as much time as you think to live a healthy life. Often what happens is we maintain a poor diet, and try to make up for it in the gym. There is a reason you see the same people in the gym for hours everyday, and they never seem to look more fit.
Use Mister Rogers as an example. Sure, he swam each day, but he also developed healthy eating habits and abstained from unhealthy eating habits that kept him in a peak physical state for decades.
Lastly, this is what worked for Mister Rogers. At 6′ 4″ tall, I wouldn’t look very good if I weighed 143 pounds… Additionally, I don’t have access to a pool, and so swimming isn’t an option for me right now.
What matters is figuring out how you can become all that you can be physically, and then making it happen day after day, week after week, month after month, and year after year. Don’t start tomorrow — make a plan today.
Become All that You Can Be — Wealth
My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style. — Maya Angelou
You are not a sinful person for desiring prosperity. “The shocking truth about prosperity is that it is shockingly right instead of shockingly wrong for you to be prosperous!” — Catherine Ponder, The Dynamic Laws of Prosperity.
I grew up believing that it was a sin to be rich. But then one of the men I look up to the most in life pulled me aside shortly before his death and told me to “make a lot of money.” I could feel the weight of those five words. I knew intimately how much he had done for those he loved, and how much more he could have done if he had the resources.
This man was a creator. He was inspirational. His impact was, and continues to be, tremendous. None of that would have changed with money… In fact, all of it would have been magnified.
As Garrett Gunderson has said: “Money is a lot like air… when it’s not around, it’s pretty suffocating. But when there’s plenty of it, you don’t have to focus so much on it, so you can look at value creation, you can look at impact, you can consider legacy, you’re not just looking at your own needs and necessity. It’s beyond that when it’s filled up where you can say: ‘How can I contribute to others?’ It moves from ‘me’ to ‘we.’”
When you are concerned with how you’re going to pay your bills or put food on your table, you won’t have time to focus on anything else.
Remember, no more effort is required to aim high in life, to demand abundance and prosperity, than is required to accept misery and poverty. A great poet has correctly stated this universal truth through these lines:
“I bargained with Life for a penny, And Life would pay no more, However I begged at evening When I counted my scanty store.
“For Life is a just employer, He gives you what you ask, But once you have set the wages, Why, you must bear the task.
“I worked for a menial’s hire, Only to learn, dismayed, That any wage I had asked of Life, Life would have willingly paid.” — Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich
Choose today to become self-reliant and financially independent.
Begin a routine that makes you feel and look like a million bucks. Then develop a plan to make a million bucks. You’re not going to get there in a day, and probably not in a year. But a tree didn’t reach its full height in a day, nor did it in a year. Trees don’t stop growing, and you don’t have to either.
There is No Excuse for Mediocrity
You will never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret of your success is found in your daily routine. — C. Maxwell
It is easy to be mediocre. Mediocrity is normal. In fact, it is even celebrated. But there is truly no excuse for it. There is no reason for you to choose to be mediocre.
You don’t need money to be exceptional. There are more free resources to transform your life than at any time in the history of the world.
You don’t need more time to be extraordinary. Believe it or not, everyone has the same amount of time… 24 hours per day.
You don’t need a college education to transform your life. Some of the most successful people in the history of the world had little to no formal education.
You have every tool and capability you need to become all that you can be. And take it from me… if you choose to become all that you can be, you won’t regret it. I guarantee it.
This article first appeared on medium.com.