THE FORMULA FOR FAILURE AND SUCCESS by Jim Rohn

(Excepted from the book The Five Major Pieces to the Life
Puzzle by Jim Rohn)

Failure is not a single, cataclysmic event. We do not fail
overnight. Failure is the inevitable result of an
accumulation of poor thinking and poor choices. To put it
more simply, failure is nothing more than a few errors in
judgment repeated every day.

Now why would someone make an error in judgment and then be
so foolish as to repeat it every day? The answer is because
he or she does not think that it matters.

On their own, our daily acts do not seem that important. A
minor oversight, a poor decision, or a wasted hour generally
doesn't result in an instant and measurable impact. More
often than not, we escape from any immediate consequences of
our deeds.

If we have not bothered to read a single book in the past
ninety days, this lack of discipline does not seem to have
any immediate impact on our lives. And since nothing drastic
happened to us after the first ninety days, we repeat this
error in judgment for another ninety days, and on and on it
goes. Why? Because it doesn't seem to matter. And herein
lies the great danger. Far worse than not reading the books
is not even realizing that it matters!

Those who eat too many of the wrong foods are contributing to
a future health problem, but the joy of the moment
overshadows the consequence of the future. It does not seem
to matter. Those who smoke too much or drink too much go on
making these poor choices year after year after year...
because it doesn't seem to matter. But the pain and regret of
these errors in judgment have only been delayed for a future
time. Consequences are seldom instant; instead, they
accumulate until the inevitable day of reckoning finally
arrives and the price must be paid for our poor choices -
choices that didn't seem to matter.

Failure's most dangerous attribute is its subtlety. In the
short term those little errors don't seem to make any
difference. We do not seem to be failing. In fact, sometimes
these accumulated errors in judgment occur throughout a
period of great joy and prosperity in our lives. Since
nothing terrible happens to us, since there are no instant
consequences to capture our attention, we simply drift from
one day to the next, repeating the errors, thinking the wrong
thoughts, listening to the wrong voices and making the wrong
choices. The sky did not fall in on us yesterday; therefore
the act was probably harmless. Since it seemed to have no
measurable consequence, it is probably safe to repeat.

But we must become better educated than that!

If at the end of the day when we made our first error in
judgment the sky had fallen in on us, we undoubtedly would
have taken immediate steps to ensure that the act would never
be repeated again. Like the child who places his hand on a
hot burner despite his parents' warnings, we would have had
an instantaneous experience accompanying our error in
judgment.

Unfortunately, failure does not shout out its warnings as our
parents once did. This is why it is imperative to refine our
philosophy in order to be able to make better choices. With a
powerful, personal philosophy guiding our every step, we
become more aware of our errors in judgment and more aware
that each error really does matter.

Now here is the great news. Just like the formula for
failure, the formula for success is easy to follow: It's a
few simple disciplines practiced every day.

Now here is an interesting question worth pondering: How can
we change the errors in the formula for failure into the
disciplines required in the formula for success? The answer
is by making the future an important part of our current
philosophy.

Both success and failure involve future consequences, namely
the inevitable rewards or unavoidable regrets resulting from
past activities. If this is true, why don't more people take
time to ponder the future? The answer is simple: They are so
caught up in the current moment that it doesn't seem to
matter. The problems and the rewards of today are so
absorbing to some human beings that they never pause long
enough to think about tomorrow.

But what if we did develop a new discipline to take just a
few minutes every day to look a little further down the road?
We would then be able to foresee the impending consequences
of our current conduct. Armed with that valuable information,
we would be able to take the necessary action to change our
errors into new success- oriented disciplines. In other
words, by disciplining ourselves to see the future in
advance, we would be able to change our thinking, amend our
errors and develop new habits to replace the old.

One of the exciting things about the formula for success- A
few simple disciplines practiced every day - is that the
results are almost immediate. As we voluntarily change daily
errors into daily disciplines, we experience positive results
in a very short period of time. When we change our diet, our
health improves noticeably in just a few weeks. When we
start exercising, we feel a new vitality almost immediately.
When we begin reading, we experience a growing awareness and
a new level of self-confidence. Whatever new discipline we
begin to practice daily will produce exciting results that
will drive us to become even better at developing new
disciplines.

The real magic of new disciplines is that they will cause us
to amend our thinking. If we were to start today to read the
books, keep a journal, attend the classes, listen more and
observe more, then today would be the first day of a new life
leading to a better future. If we were to start today to try
harder, and in every way make a conscious and consistent
effort to change subtle and deadly errors into constructive
and rewarding disciplines, we would never again settle for a
life of existence – not once we have tasted the fruits of a
life of substance!


To Your Success,
Jim Rohn