# Jim Rohn – What Do You Live For? And Do Your Goals Prove It?

An episode of [JIM ROHN](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1579900012), 4 Feb 2026, 13 min.

Audio: https://anchor.fm/s/6543d7e8/podcast/play/115003780/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2026-1-4%2F522f18ef-0fc2-c0c9-9d75-3162ca0f48e8.mp3

Jim Rohn exposes the truth behind purpose and discipline. Get the system that turns goals into habits: https://gum.new/gum/cmpuvtj9c000e04gv3jco37h6

## Transcript

[0:01] Jim Rohn taught that success is simple.
[0:03] Disciplines practice daily. Most people admire that idea.
[0:07] Few build their life around it. As you listen, ask yourself one
[0:11] question. Am I applying this or just
[0:14] agreeing with it? Now let me give you a little
[0:20] simple formula for goal setting. OK, we take two 2 1/2 hours on
[0:26] the weekend for the whole 10 year plan.
[0:28] We don't have time for that tonight.
[0:29] But let me get you started with a little simple formula Mr.
[0:31] Schoof gave me and maybe this will be helpful.
[0:34] First of all, I've divided goals into two parts. 1st is long
[0:39] range. Long range goals.
[0:44] That's your dreams. Your dreams for the next
[0:49] 3510203040 years. Actually, the rest of your life,
[0:53] your dreams, you've got to keep dreaming, Ronald Reagan
[1:00] president said to the joint session of Congress a few weeks
[1:03] ago. The Republic is a dream, and if
[1:07] we don't keep dreaming, we will lose the Republic.
[1:13] Your better future is a dream for yourself and for your
[1:16] family. Where do you want to go?
[1:17] What do you want to do? What do you want to be?
[1:19] What do you want to see? You've got to dream dreams.
[1:22] There's a Bible phrase that says without dreams and visions,
[1:26] people perish. You've got to have something to
[1:29] go for that inspires the heart and the soul.
[1:34] Dreams from the children of Sanchez, it says.
[1:41] Take the crumbs from starving soldiers, they won't die.
[1:46] Take the bread from hungry children, they won't cry.
[1:49] But without dreams, we all will die.
[1:55] You've got to dream. Don't lose your dreams for
[2:01] yourself, for your future, for your family, the dreams of love
[2:06] and enterprise and travel and doing things, becoming something
[2:11] unique on your journey here. Don't lose your dreams.
[2:14] Do some dreaming. That's long range goals.
[2:18] You got to have those. So that's number one.
[2:21] Here's the second part of goals. Short range, short range, goals.
[2:28] That's your goals for tomorrow, this week, this month, this
[2:31] year, the immediate future. We call these confidence
[2:34] builders because if you set up something short range, go for
[2:38] it, get it, latch on to it, work hard, accomplish it.
[2:41] That starts building your strong feelings to go for your dreams.
[2:47] Now I've divided goals into 3 categories.
[2:49] Here they are #1 is economic. That's your goals for money,
[2:55] income, business, profits, production, economics.
[3:01] Make sure you've got your economics well planned.
[3:05] Economics plays a major role in everybody's life.
[3:10] Economics is major, which means it ought to be meticulously well
[3:13] planned for tomorrow, this week, this month, this year.
[3:16] Long range. What if you ask somebody
[3:20] tomorrow if you could see their meticulously well planned list
[3:23] of economic goals, what would they probably say?
[3:28] They say you some kind of a nut. You must be weird.
[3:35] Hey, I found out what success is.
[3:37] Success is doing what the failures won't do.
[3:44] Make sure you've got your economics well planned.
[3:47] It'll put you in the top 5%. One of the key little subjects
[3:50] we talk about on the weekend is the 7 fundamentals for wealth
[3:54] and happiness. And that's one of them.
[3:57] Well planned economics. It's a fundamental.
[3:59] If you want to do well, join the top 5%.
[4:03] Anybody in this room can join the top 5%, if you will.
[4:10] Now here's the second category of goals things.
[4:14] Make a list of the things you want.
[4:17] And on my list of things now, I put everything, little things as
[4:20] well as major things. Doesn't matter how small it is,
[4:22] it goes on my list. I used to just put major things,
[4:25] cars, homes. I don't do that anymore.
[4:28] I now load my list with everything, everything.
[4:32] And the reason is part of the fun of having a list is checking
[4:36] it off. That's it.
[4:40] Boy, at the end of the day, if you can go got it, got it, got
[4:42] it, got it, got it, got it. Whatever it is, right?
[4:45] You get into the habit, so load up your list the things you
[4:48] want. Now.
[4:50] When you check off something major, celebrate.
[4:55] That's an important point to make.
[4:57] Celebrate your achievements. Live it up.
[5:05] Have a party when you reach something you've worked for for
[5:09] a while. See, we all grow from 2
[5:12] experiences. 1 is called the pain of losing, the other one is
[5:16] called the joy of winning. We need both of them.
[5:20] Amplify them as much as you can, which also means make losing
[5:25] painful. If you set up something, fooled
[5:27] around, didn't get it, put it on yourself on the other side.
[5:32] If you did get it, congratulate yourself.
[5:34] Self congratulations is a sign of maturity.
[5:39] Seeking congratulations is a sign of immaturity.
[5:43] But hey, winning and losing, see, that's what it's all about.
[5:45] That's the name of the game. Now.
[5:49] Some people lead such mediocre lives.
[5:51] At the end of the day, they don't know whether they're
[5:53] winning or losing. They got no clue.
[5:56] Guy's just going through the day with his fingers crossed there's
[6:01] a better way. OK, here's the third category of
[6:05] goals. Personal development.
[6:10] Put those goals together. Personal development goals.
[6:12] That's your goals. To be stronger, more decisive.
[6:14] Be a speaker, be a leader, learn a language, all kinds of skills.
[6:20] The whole weekend seminar was designed to improve all your
[6:23] skills so that you walk away more skillful.
[6:26] And that's what you want, the personal development skills,
[6:29] that's what attracts, that's what brings good things to your
[6:31] life, the person you become more skillful.
[6:36] Now this is quite a package to work on economics things,
[6:40] personal development for tomorrow, this week, this month,
[6:44] this year, long range. OK, that'll get you started.
[6:51] Now here's the simple formula for setting goals.
[6:53] It goes like this. A work on your goals.
[6:59] That's step one. Work on them.
[7:02] And I put the word work there. Deliberately setting goals is
[7:05] plain hard work. I don't want to kid you.
[7:09] We haven't come here tonight to kid each other.
[7:13] It's work. I know it's work.
[7:15] That's why a lot of people just let it slide.
[7:17] It's work. Many people work hard on their
[7:21] job, but they don't work hard on their future.
[7:26] They just let that slide. And the work involved is making
[7:31] plans. I know most people don't.
[7:37] I understand that. But don't let that be you, Guy
[7:44] says. Well, yeah, you work where I
[7:45] work. But the time you struggle home,
[7:47] it's late. You got to eat by the supper,
[7:50] watch a little TV, get to bed. You can't sit up half the night.
[7:53] Plan, plan, plan. And the guys be high.
[8:01] Good worker, hard worker, Sincere.
[8:05] But you've got to be better than sincere.
[8:09] Working hard. You got to be better than a good
[8:13] worker. You got to be a good planner.
[8:18] Somebody once wisely said the people who failed to plan or
[8:21] planning to fail. Well said.
[8:26] So work on your goals. Here's Step 2.
[8:30] Write your goals down. That's so important.
[8:34] I teach my staff around the world.
[8:36] Put your goals in your journal because one of the major people
[8:42] you want to study is yourself. So here's the list of goals I
[8:49] put together 3 weeks ago. Here's the list of goals I put
[8:52] together two years ago. Here's some of the changes I
[8:54] made. Rearrangement of my priorities.
[8:57] I scratched these off. I put these on.
[8:59] I've gotten these. Study your accomplishments.
[9:02] Study what your desires are. Put them on paper.
[9:05] Write them down. Here's another reason for
[9:07] writing your goals down. It shows you're serious about
[9:10] doing better, and to do better you got to get serious.
[9:16] You don't have to be grim, but you must be serious.
[9:23] Everybody hopes things will get better.
[9:28] Everybody hopes. Poor people hope.
[9:32] That ought to tell you something.
[9:35] It means the future does not get better by hope.
[9:40] It gets better by plan. I used to have the affliction
[9:47] called passive hope. It's an affliction.
[9:53] It's bad. Probably.
[9:56] What's even worse than that is happy hope.
[9:58] Now that is really bad. That's bad.
[10:03] Happy Hope. The guy's 50 and he's broke and
[10:08] he's still smiling. See, that's not good.
[10:15] So get serious about your goals. Put them on paper, write them
[10:19] down. There's all kinds.
[10:21] His goals, her goals, their goals, business goals, financial
[10:25] goals, financial independence goals, family goals.
[10:28] I mean, there's so many things to work on on this that if you
[10:31] don't get busy and work on it, sure enough, the time will pass.
[10:34] And sure enough, five years from now, you'll wind up where you
[10:36] don't want to be, wearing what you don't want to wear, driving
[10:39] what you don't want to drive being what you don't want to be.
[10:43] Now's the time to fix it. Now, here's the third step to
[10:47] your goals. Check the size of your goals and
[10:51] the kinds of goals, how big they are, what kind they are, effects
[10:59] you. And here's one of the important
[11:04] phrases of the evening. Your goals are affecting you,
[11:07] whatever they are. Your goals affect your
[11:11] handshake. Your goals affect your attitude,
[11:14] personality. Your goals affect the way you
[11:16] walk, the way you talk, the way you dress.
[11:20] All day long. We're being affected by our
[11:23] goals. Now, some people have goals, but
[11:29] they have such lousy goals. The effect is bad.
[11:36] I asked a guy one time, what are your goals for this month?
[11:39] The guy said, look, if I could just scrape up enough money to
[11:41] pay these lousy bills, that was his goal.
[11:46] I'm not saying it isn't the goal, it's a goal, but it's such
[11:48] a lousy goal. The effect is bad.
[11:54] You don't jump out of bed on Monday morning and say, oh boy,
[11:56] another chance to go out and scrape up the money to pay my
[11:58] lousy bills. So you don't do that.
[12:01] Usually you say, oh, not another Monday.
[12:10] And some people have so given up on life they have joined the
[12:14] Thank God It's Friday Club. How sad.
[12:23] Surely those are the same people.
[12:24] When life is over for them, we'll say thank God it's over.

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