Martial Arts Professional Magazine

Step #1: Be a collector of good ideas for your business, for your relationships, for your future. My mentor taught me to keep a journal when I was twenty-five years old, and I’ve been doing it ever since. I will pass them to my children and grandchildren. If you hear a good health idea, then write it in your journal. Don’t trust your memory. Then, on a cold, wintry evening, review the ideas in your journal that changed your life, saved your marriage, bailed you from bankruptcy, helped you become successful and made you millions.

Step #2: Develop good plans for today, your future, your health and your marriage. Implement your plans as soon as you finished developing them. You wouldn’t start building house until the plans were finished. What if you just started laying bricks and someone asks, “What are you building?” You answer, “I have no idea.”

Don’t start to implement today’s plan, for example, until you at least have an outline. Leave some flexibility to improvise and adopt additional strategies. The plan for any period of time will lead to more success if you have some idea what you will do before you do it. A good strategy is to sit with your family toward the end of the year and create a plan for the next year; you should do the same with your financial advisor.

When I finally learned to do that, my family members knew where they appeared on my calendar. My business meetings and obligations, lectures and seminars were clearly marked on my calendar, but one day my children asked, “Where are we on your game plan?” It’s important to include your children, spouse and friends on your calendar.

Step #3: Learn how to handle the passing of time. It takes time to build a career and make changes, so give your project time to develop and your staff time to learn, grow, change, develop and produce. Most importantly, give yourself time. It takes time to master new ideas, strategies and skills. It takes time to change and refine your philosophy and activities, gain momentum and achieve. It is easy to be impatient with yourself.

My mother taught me a little bit about playing the piano. She showed me the left-hand scale, and I understand that easy enough. Then, she taught me the right-hand scale, and I learned those as well. Then, one day she said, “Today, you will learn how to play both hands at the same time.” One hand at a time was easy, but simultaneously was a real challenge.

With practice, I was finally able to play the scales with both hands. She wasn’t finished, however, because then she wanted me to read the music and play with both hands. I thought, “I can’t do that.” I was a bit confused at first, but finally I mastered it. Then, she expected me to watch an audience, read the music and play with both hands. I thought, “Now, that is really impossible!”

By mastering each step in the process before moving to the next step, I was able to watch the audience, read the music and play with both hands. The lesson is to give yourself time, and you’ll learn how to master the art of time management, you’ll become a better school owner, you’ll master the art of parenting and you’ll work better with your spouse as partners.

Step #4: Learn to solve problems: business, family, financial, emotional, etc. Treat these challenges as opportunities to grow. Change if you must, modify if you must, and discard an old philosophy that wasn’t working well for a new one. The best phrase my mentor ever gave me was when he said, “Mr. Rohn, if you will change, then everything will change for you.” Wow, I took that to heart, and sure enough the more I changed, the more everything changed for me.

Learn to master good ideas, develop good plans, handle the passing of time and solve problems, and you will be on your way to more success than you could ever imagine!