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, 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
This article was submitted by Jim Rohn, America's Foremost Business
Philosopher. To subscribe to the Free Jim Rohn Weekly E-zine go
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Copyright © 2000 Jim Rohn International. All rights reserved
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