The Set of the Sails
Jim Rohn's teachings on Personal Development
The Wind is blowing and what determines where each of us ends up is the set of our sails. The set of the sail would make you have your best year ever this year, and then get ready for next year, your very best year ever, and they'll start being the best year after year if you commit yourself to some simple stuff called personal development.
But first, let me give a background into why the set of the sail is important.
Photo by Austin Neill on Unsplash
The set of sail is the only thing the sailor can control to determine where the ship goes and where it eventually ends up. The wind is blowing and without the sails, the boat would end up wherever the wind blows it. Now the sailor has no control over the wind and if the same wind is blowing around the world but with the aid of the sails, no matter how strong the wind is, the boat can be steered in the direction the sailor desires.
What does this mean to you then?
The same inflation, the same government, the same minimum wage, the same tax laws, the same gas prices, the same exchange rate, the same weather, the same sun, the same moon, the same rain, the same wind is blowing on us all. I hear people wish for a better situation; if only this political party was in power, if only the interest rate was fairer, if only we had a better government, if only the tax laws were more flexible, if only gas prices were lower, if only I had a better job, if only this, if only that.
This is wishing for something that is never going to happen, wishing for the impossible. These things won’t change overnight and the world can’t be perfect. The wind is blowing.
Don’t ask for a better situation, ask to be better, wiser, stronger, healthier, smarter, faster. Ask for more skills. These are the SET OF THE SAILS that will steer you in the direction of your future.
Someone asked me, how do you get better, wiser, stronger, healthier, smarter, faster?
The answer is “Do what you can do today and do not let neglect destroy your future.”
Start with taking a 10 to 20-minute walk for your health, eat healthily, start with the refinement of your personal philosophy, and start with the teaching of your fabulous mind.
It takes the books, the cassettes, the videos, personal conversations, sermons, lyrics from songs, dialogue from the movies, this newsletter. Let your heart be stirred by words, and find ways to capture parts of your personal development quest.
Develop these abilities as part of your personal development quest.
Here's the first one:
🧽 Develop the ability to Absorb.
Here's a good phrase for you to jot down:
Be like a sponge, don't miss anything. Wherever you are, be there to absorb it. Be there to soak it up.🧼
While most people are just trying to get through the day, here's what I want you to be committed to doing: 📚 Learn to get from the day.
Don't just get through it, get from it. Learn from it. Let the day teach you. Join the University of Life. Take a picture if you can, but take pictures with your mind. Let your soul and heart take pictures. Get it. That's such an important ability to develop - the ability to get it. Don't miss it. Don't be casual in getting it.
Casualness leads to casualties.
🗣️Second, learn to Respond.
The ability to respond means allowing life to touch you. Don't let it kill you, but let it touch you.
Let sad things make you sad, let happy things make you happy. I'm telling you to give in to the emotion. Let the emotion strike you, not just the words, not just the image. Let the feeling strike you.
Our emotions need to be educated as well as our intellect. It's important to know how to feel. It's important to know how to respond. It's important to let life in. Let it touch you. I'm one of the greatest guys in the world to take to the movies. I get into a good movie and I want it to make me laugh, make me cry, scare me to death, teach me something, take me high, take me low. Just don't leave me as I was when I came in. Touch me. Do something to me. I'm asking you to get it, to absorb and respond.
🤔Now here's the third ability: Develop the ability to Reflect.
Reflect means going back over, studying it again, going back over these notes that you're taking, going back through these ponder pages one more time, reading that book one more time. But there's more to it than that.
Go back over your day. Run the tapes again so that the day locks in firmly. Here are some good times to reflect:
At the end of the day, take a few minutes and go back over the day - who you saw, what they said, what happened, how you felt, and what went on, so that you capture that day. A day is a piece of the mosaic of your life.
Next, take a few hours at the end of the week, and call it time to reflect. Go back over your daytime, or go back over your calendar, go back over your appointment book, where you went, who you saw, how it felt, and what went on. A week is a pretty good chunk of time.
Next, take half a day at the end of the month called Time to Reflect, and do the same thing again. Take a weekend at the end of the year to establish this year firmly in your consciousness, in your experience bank, so that you've got it so that it never disappears. Go back over what you read, go back over what you heard, go back over what you saw, go back over the feelings to capture it so that it serves you.
What went right, what went wrong, what worked well, and what didn't work well. How did you grow? How did you learn? How did you change? And what do you have now that you didn't have at the beginning?
Here's one of the most important things you've got to learn, to reflect with yourself in solitude. There's something to be said for solitude, there's something to be said for taking those occasions to shut out the world and shut out everything else for a while. There are some things you need to do alone: ponder, think, wonder, read, study, absorb, soak in. See if you can become better this year than you were last year, better the next five years than you were the previous five years.
Short Story to End this Letter
The story is about the evangelist in Texas, way back in the horse and buggy days.
He used to put up his tent in these various Texas towns and hold tent revivals. He put up his tent in one of these towns expecting a big crowd to come and hear him preach. He got there the first night at the tent revival and walked inside the tent, it was empty, and he thought something must be wrong.
He waited till 8:00, but nobody showed up. He waited till 8:15, and not a soul. Finally, at 8:30, one lone cowboy wandered up on his horse, tied his horse up outside, came in, and sat down on the front bench. Big empty tent. So, the preacher thought, well, at least I better go down and talk to the cowboy. So, he goes down and talks to the cowboy and he says,
"Cowboy, I don't know what to tell you. I'm the preacher and this tent was supposed to be full of people and something's gone wrong. I don't know what to do. I'm embarrassed." And he said, "I don't know what to do."
And the cowboy said, "Well, you know, I'm not a preacher, I'm just a cowboy. So, I can't tell you what to do. But I know this, if I went out to feed my cattle and only one showed up, I'd at least feed it."
So, the preacher said,
"Hey, the cowboy is right. If you've got a message to share, if there's one person or a thousand, don't let your ego get in the way. You should do the best you can."
So he got kind of inspired by this conversation with the cowboy, jumped up on the platform, and started preaching as if the tent was full of people. And he was so inspired, he just kept going for about an hour and a half.
Finally wound down and quit, came down off the platform, talked to the cowboy again, and said,
"Well, cowboy, what did you think of my sermon?"
The cowboy said, "Well, I'm not a preacher so I can't tell. I'm just a cowboy. But I know this, if I went out to feed my cattle and only one showed up, I'd feed it. But I wouldn't dump the whole load on it."
So, if it seems like I am dumping the whole load here in this one newsletter, I guess I am. But you guys are working hard by reading my newsletter week after week and this inspires me to keep getting these messages and sharing.
We've covered the first three abilities in the personal development quest. One is the ability to Absorb. Don't miss anything. Pay attention. Things are moving so fast these days, you've got to pay attention. Pick it up. Soak up the colors. Soak up the sounds. Soak up what's going on. Second, Respond. Let life touch you. Let the emotions affect you as well as the sights. Third, Reflect. Learning to gather up the past and invest it in the future, gather up today and invest it in tomorrow, gather up this week and invest it in the next week, gather up this year and invest it in the next year. It takes discipline to acquire these gifts and those skills so that we bring more to tomorrow, to the next week, we bring more to the next month, we bring more to the next year. If you follow this, Absorb, Respond, and Reflect.