This is part three of a series on “How to Attract Success in Your Life,” where I’m sharing one of the most important lessons in life that I learned from “America’s Business Philosopher,” Jim Rohn:

Success isn’t so much a product of what we do, but of who we become.

If you missed my first two posts, you’ll want to start reading at the beginning: “How to Attract Success in Your Life – A Tribute to Jim Rohn, part 1.”

I’ve observed, and you probably have too, that we humans are born with a default mode of blaming others when things don’t go our way.  If we hate our job, don’t earn enough, live in a bad neighborhood, or drive a broken-down car, we like to blame someone else.

We seem to automatically look for external sources of our problems, instead of looking internally.  We might blame the president, the economy, our boss, or our customers.  But we rarely look to see what we’ve done to cause the situation we’re in – or what we can do to get out of it.

Certainly there are times when a person’s situation may be, to a large extent, someone else’s fault – like when a spouse commits infidelity and leaves the innocent spouse for another. Or when an employer closes its doors, leaving its employees without a job.

But even in those tough situations, there are still things we can do and learn that will help us out of that situation!  We might be justified in feeling like we’re a victim today, but we cannot stay that way if we want to get ahead and attract greater success in our lives.

Jim Rohn believed that if we’re not satisfied with our current reality and want a better future, the major focus of our efforts should be on becoming more than we already are.  It is who we are that finally determines the results we want.

So, if you haven’t done so recently (or ever) take some time to think about the results you want in life, and compare them to the results you are currently getting.

If you’re not getting the results you want, follow this lifestyle design process which works Jim’s puzzle pieces backwards:

1. Determine the lifestyle you want to enjoy in your life. Write it all out in vivid detail – all the things you want to be able to have, do, and enjoy.
2. Decide the results or rewards you’re going to need in order to enjoy your ideal lifestyle.  How much time and money will you need?
3. Identify the actions that will be necessary in order for you to reap the results that will enable you achieve your dream lifestyle.
4. Discover the attitudes that will motivate the action that will result in the rewards that will enable your dream lifestyle.
5. Create the philosophy – the thoughts and beliefs – you’ll need to employ in order to have the attitudes that will motivate the action that will result in the rewards that will enable your dream lifestyle.

Has anyone else followed a lifestyle design process like this before?  Please share your comments and ideas.  Thanks!

Yesterday, I began a tribute to Jim Rohn, “America’s Business Philosopher”, who died on December 5, 2009 at the age of 79.  In my post, How to Attract Success in Your Life – A Tribute to Jim Rohn, pt. 1, I mentioned that Jim Rohn’s writings have been very influential in my life.

One of the most basic and essential things I’ve learned in my life came from Jim Rohn – the idea that success isn’t so much a product of what we do, but of who we become.

I’ve observed that most people, when unhappy with the results they’re receiving in life, curse the results or blame the actions of others, instead of looking within.  I know that has been true in my life at times.  What about you?

Jim believed that if we want a better future, the major focus of our efforts should be on becoming more than we already are.  And if we are not happy with our current results in life, then we need to begin first by working on ourselves.  It is who we are that finally determines the results we want.

In his third book, Five Major Pieces to the Life Puzzle, Jim explained that there are five major components to success in life:

1. Philosophy – What we think and believe.  Our thoughts and beliefs make up our philosophy of life (another word for this is “world view”), and our philosophy will determine our attitude.
2. Attitude – How we feel.  Our feelings make up our attitude, and our attitude will decide the quantity and quality of our level of our actions.
3. Action – What we do.  Our actions, informed by our attitude, always produce proportionate results.  In other words, we reap what we sew in direct proportion to how much we’ve sewn.
4. Results – The reward we receive for our actions.  Results are rewards that must be measured often and tracked.  Our results produce the lifestyle we want.  For most of us, the result, or reward, for our work is money.  Money in and of itself is not the end goal, but it can be used to produce the end goal – our desired lifestyle.
5. Lifestyle - The kind of life we can make for ourselves out of the first four pieces of the puzzle.  Our lifestyle is determined by the results, but the ultimate cause is not the results – the ultimate cause is our philosophy, attitude and action.  In other words, the type of lifestyle we enjoy is determined by how much money we have.  But the ultimate cause cause or determining factor isn’t really the money, but all the things that led to us having the money:  our philosophy, attitude and action.

So, what do you do if you’re unhappy with the lifestyle you have right now – if you’re not seeing the success you had hoped you’d enjoy in your life?

It is simple really, you engage in a lifestyle design process which works Jim’s puzzle pieces backwards, from 5 to 4 to 3 to 2 to 1:

1. Determine the lifestyle you want to enjoy in your life. Write it all out in vivid detail – all the things you want to be able to have, do, and enjoy.
2. Decide the results or rewards you’re going to need in order to enjoy your ideal lifestyle.  How much time and money will you need?
3. Identify the actions that will be necessary in order for you to reap the results that will enable you achieve your dream lifestyle.
4. Discover the attitudes that will motivate the action that will result in the rewards that will enable your dream lifestyle.
5. Create the philosophy – the thoughts and beliefs – you’ll need to employ in order to have the attitudes that will motivate the action that will result in the rewards that will enable your dream lifestyle.

Next time, I’ll give some practical examples of how this all plays out, and how you can attract success in your life.

Jim Rohn (1930-2009)

Jim Rohn, one of the world’s foremost business philosophers, died on December 5, 2009 at the age of 79.  He had a tremendous influence on my life – both directly and indirectly.  Directly, through his own writings which I’ve read, and indirectly through the writings of many successful leaders that he’s mentored and I’ve learned from, including Mark Victor Hansen, Brian Tracy, Jack Canfield, Anthony Robbins, and dozens more.

His was a rags to riches story.  By age 25 he was stuck in a seemingly endless cycle of debt and despair.  Then he met John Earl Shoaff, a wealthy and successful business owner who took an interest in Jim and led him in a personal development process that literally changed every aspect of his life.  By age 31, Jim was a millionaire.

Jim’s success didn’t stop at age 31.  He went on to become incredibly successful in business and wealthy beyond his imagination.  Gratefully, he felt led to share his success principles with others. After all, Jim himself didn’t know how to succeed in life until someone took enough interest to show him.

While Jim was regarded as a business philosopher, the success wisdom he shared weren’t secrets or new ideas that he developed himself.  To him, they were fundamental principles that anyone can discover and implement for themselves.

From his own experience, and that of hundreds of other successful people he studied, he concluded that success can’t truly be pursued, only attracted. In his third book, Five Major Pieces to the Life Puzzle, Jim said:

To have more, we must first become more.

In other words, success isn’t so much a product of what we do, but of who we become.  It is who we are that finally determines the results we want.

If we want a better future, the major focus of our efforts should be on becoming more than we already are.  And if we are not happy with our current results in life, then we need to begin by working on ourselves.

In Five Major Pieces to the Life Puzzle Jim describes the five major components to success:

1. Philosophy
2. Attitude
3. Action
4. Results
5. Lifestyle

We’ll take a more in-depth look at these five major components to success in part 2 of “How to Attract Success in Your life – A Tribute to Jim Rohn.”