Dear daughter, I heard the phrase “Work harder on yourself than you do on your job” for the first time from Jim Rohn.
Jim Rohn was an American entrepreneur, author, and motivational speaker. I learned a lot from his videos and books.
Today, I want to talk to you about that phrase and the impact it had on my life.
I believe that the first time I heard the phrase, I didn’t truly understand the full meaning of it.
Think about it, if you acknowledge the wisdom in that phrase, you probably are also acknowledging that you’ve doing things wrong the whole time.
We learned since our childhood that we must work hard to succeed in life. Go to school, and study hard, make an effort. When we graduate, find a job and work hard, and so on.
I was never told that I needed to work on myself every day!
It seems obvious, yet, a lot of people miss it.
People that don’t hard on themselves
If you pay attention, you will hear people complaining all the time. They say things like:
- The government is doing everything wrong.
- That person is not good, I don’t like him/her.
- Money is not enough.
- I wish I could do X.
- And so on.
Now, if you ask any of them, what are your goals? Do you have them on paper?
The answer will probably be no.
I found out, with time, that we probably won’t go anywhere, or achieve much, if we don’t work on ourselves more, and harder than we do on our jobs.
I realized that when I started reading books, and learning about investing, budgeting, decluttering, how to stay organized, etc.
After I learned about those topics, I felt better and happier.
People who work hard on themselves
I managed to make a few investments and I got great returns.
I put my financial house in order, with budgeting and staying organized.
I made myself more productive by staying organized and decluttering my home and work environment.
I found myself more knowledgeable in several topics, which contributed to finding myself in better social circles.
All of this, and more that I’m not saying here, is proof that I did work hard on myself.
As a result, I became a better person, I have better relationships, I complain less, I live better!
Saying that, I recommend you work on yourself harder than you work on your job.
Learn every day, read books, write down your goals, and don’t waste time.
Assess yourself everyday
One easy way that you can know if you are wasting time is this one: nighttime, when you to bed, tell yourself what you did during the day that contributed to achieving your goal. After that, tell yourself how long you worked on your goals during the day.
If you spent more time on things that don’t contribute to your goals than on other stuff, then you wasted time that day.
When you do this for a week, you will realize how powerful this exercise is.
When you don’t work hard on yourself, a few common things will happen:
- You start complaining.
- When you wake up on a Monday, you will say: Ufff, Monday.
- On a Friday you will say: Finally, Friday! I want to rest or go somewhere during the weekend.
- You will want to leave the house to go on Holidays, to rest from the day-to-day struggle.
This is were you want to be
Wouldn’t be interesting if instead you could say this:
- I compliment and acknowledge everyone.
- On Sunday evening, when you plan your next day or week, you will say: I’m excited about tomorrow being Monday, I’ll go and do what I love to do, to be of service to people.
- On a Friday you will say: This weekend I will do what I planned last week.
- When holidays arrive, you will still go away, like a road trip, or a week at a front-beach house. But, every day, when you arrive home you will feel great, as your home is organized, decluttered, and clean. When someone visits you at your house, they feel welcome, in a lovely and peaceful environment.
What do you think?
Leave me a comment if you are already working hard on yourself or tell me in what areas of your life you are already improving.
Love you, Dad.