Jim Rohn is one of my mentors. He doesn’t know it, but he’s impacted my life greatly.

One of the best things that Mr. Rohn has taught me is that the financial rewards we reap in life are directly correlated with our personal development. If we don’t work on ourselves, how should we expect to be worth more to the marketplace?

The fact is that the marketplace will pay each of us what we are worth. Jim Rohn also says, “Don’t bring your need to the marketplace, bring your skill. If you don’t feel well, tell your doctor, but not the marketplace. If you need money, go to the bank, but not the marketplace.”

Do you want to make more money? Have greater skills. Need more skills? Work on yourself!

So often, when people run into a stumbling block, they let it paralyze them. Success is not avoiding failure. In fact, those who achieve success do so by charging through failures OFTEN.

There is a misconception in our world that failure is an event, and that failure is a definition. This is not the case… Failures are temporary bumps on the road of life. When you hit a bump in the road, keep going! Don’t stop!

Figure out a way to go through the struggles you’re facing, through blood, through tears, or through pain. The worst thing you could do is to quit.

Accomplishing a (good) goal is difficult, which is why few people get there. Good goals are hard to reach. That’s what makes it worth it. Quitting is easy to do. Are you part of the masses that take the easy way out, or are you part of the few that will work UNTIL you achieve?

We started off with Tony talking to the eight of us, and introducing a video of one of his live events where a married couple, Jenn and Paul, were on the verge of divorce. I’ve attached a 3 minute intro to this video here:

After watching this emotional hour-long video, we sat down with Tony and Sage to give them our thoughts, and to discuss the different ways that we each found parallels between Jenn and Paul’s story with our own relationships.

Needless to say, it was an emotional experience! Both Tony and Sage had offered their candid observations about each of us, our body language, the words that we were using to communicate how we felt, and shed light on the ways our partners needed to be more fulfilled.

We got to experience a small taste of The Ultimate Relationship Program that Tony offers. To be able to have done this with Tony and his wife was amazing to say the least!

Every couple needs to go through this program. Emily and I are going to begin it this week. With the instant gratification culture that we have become accustomed to, we figure that if our relationships hit a rough patch something must be wrong with it. If it’s not working right, we’re in the wrong relationship. If I’m unhappy, it’s because my partner is wrong for me and I need to go exchange them.

Relationships take WORK. How many couples clean the cobwebs in their house weekly but allow cobwebs to grow in their own marriages? It’s time to restore passion to America’s marriages! My hope is that you will kick-start the passion and love your marriage deserves!

This past year was tough, by far my toughest ever. As I went to bed last night, filled with a sense of gratitude for all the love I received, a line from “It’s A Wonderful Life” popped into my mind:

“Remember, George: no man is a failure who has friends.”

With that in mind, I’m the richest man in the world.

How much would you want to know if you’d spend eternity walking around on Earth? A lot, right?

Alright, I’m going to get morbid on you but just play along:

You’ve had a routine physical exam, something looked a little strange to the doctor, so she sent you to get some blood work and some X-rays done. When you call up the hotline to get the test results, your doctor says, “I’d like to see you in the office to discuss the tests.”

When you arrive, the doctor tells you, “I’m sorry, but we’ve found some abnormalities, and we caught them too late.” When push comes to shove, you find out that you have weeks left to live before you die.

What would you do? You’d panic, right? “I still have more life to live! What about the people I’m going to leave behind??” Why is it that only when tragedy strikes that we think these things? Otherwise, we go about our daily lives not even thinking twice about how we can drop dead in an INSTANT.

While I hope you’re not obsessed with your mortality, the reason I bring this up is because the quote I read by Mahatma Gahndi this morning really resonated with me.  It’s such a cliche’ that we hear always, “Life is short.” Guess what – it really is! It’s short, it goes by in the blink of an eye, and the last thing I want to be thinking when I’m 80 years old is, “Man, I wish I spent less time worrying about the present and just ENJOYED it.”

I just read an article in the Orange County Register about a young man and his father from Yorba Linda, CA who passed away in a small plane crash. The young man and his Dad were working on a house together. The young man was 26 years old, has a 1 year old child, and his wife is pregnant with another. 26 years old. My heart breaks for his wife and kids.

What have I been putting off until “later”? Later is TODAY. Go learn the language you want to learn. Go take that trip you’ve been putting off. Take your significant other to that place he or she has been wanting to go to for so long. Tell your kids what they mean to you. Tell someone you’re sorry. Red, Morgan Freeman’s character from The Shawshank Redemption says it best: “You either get busy livin’ or you get busy dyin’.”

Take action and start living!

This quotation reminds me that if we’re not uncomfortable – we’re not growing!

“To get what we’ve never had, we must do what we’ve never done.” – Anonymous

Now go out there and get uncomfortable. If you feel comfortable where you are in life, you’re not taking a risk, and you’re not growing!