Jim Rohn is widely regarded as the “father of personal development” and for good reason.
Jim Rohn spent 40 years of his life teaching others about success, goal setting, habits, and personal development. He was an author, motivational speaker, and a successful entrepreneur.
He has inspired millions of people around the world to take control of their lives and to pursue their dreams.
He even inspired the great Tony Robbins. When Tony was just 17 years old, he splurged and bought a set of Jim Rohn tapes for $35. Tony said, “It turned out to be one of the most important investments of my life”.
Even though Jim Rohn sadly passed away in 2009, his speeches are still being heard around the world. If you search on Google or YouTube for “goals”, you most certainly will see a speech from Jim Rohn.
Personally, Jim Rohn has been an inspiration to me, and I still listen to his material regularly. For anyone who is interested in achieving success and becoming the best version of themselves, I recommend you listen to some of his material.
In honor of the late Jim Rohn, I’ve compiled a list of 71 of the top Jim Rohn quotes on Motivation, Success and Achieving your Dreams. I hope you enjoy!
1.“Learning is the beginning of wealth. Learning is the beginning of health. Learning is the beginning of spirituality. Searching and learning is where the miracle process all begins.”
2. “We must all suffer one of two things: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret or disappointment.”
3. “The difficulties you meet will resolve themselves as you advance. Proceed, and light will dawn, and shine with increasing clearness on your path.”
4. “Affirmation without discipline is the beginning of delusion.”
5. “Happiness in not something you postpone for the future, it is something you design for the present.”
6. “Ideas can be life-changing. Sometimes all you need to open the door is just one more good idea.”
7. “The book you don’t read won’t help.”
8. “Better understated than overstated. Let people be surprised that it was more than you promised and easier than you said.”
9. “You don’t get paid for the hour. You get paid for the value you bring to the hour.”
10. “Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.”
11. “If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much.”
12. “You cannot change your destination overnight, but you can change your direction overnight.”
13. “Things that I felt absolutely sure of but a few years ago, I do not believe now. This thought makes me see more clearly how foolish it would be to expect all men to agree with me.”
14. “The reason that fiction is more interesting than any other form of literature, to those who really like to study people, is that in fiction the author can really tell the truth without humiliating himself.”
15. “For every disciplined effort there is a multiple reward.”
16. “There are only 3 colors, 10 digits, and 7 notes; its what we do with them that’s important.”
17. “A novel is never anything, but a philosophy put into images.”
18. “The major reason for setting a goal is for what it makes of you to accomplish it. What it makes of you will always be the far greater value than what you get.”
19. “To solve any problem, here are three questions to ask yourself: First, what could I do? Second, what could I read? And third, who could I ask?”
20. “The worst thing one can do is not to try, to be aware of what one wants and not give in to it, to spend years in silent hurt wondering if something could have materialized – never knowing.”
21. “Words do two major things: They provide food for the mind and create light for understanding and awareness.”
22. “Success is neither magical nor mysterious. Success is the natural consequence of consistently applying the basic fundamentals.”
23. “It is the set of the sails, not the direction of the wind that determines which way we will go.”
24. “Whoever renders service to many puts himself in line for greatness – great wealth, great return, great satisfaction, great reputation, and great joy.”
25. “Asking is the beginning of receiving. Make sure you don’t go to the ocean with a teaspoon. At least take a bucket so the kids won’t laugh at you.”
26. “The major value in life is not what you get. The major value in life is what you become.”
27. “Don’t just read the easy stuff. You may be entertained by it, but you will never grow from it.”
28. “The walls we build around us to keep sadness out also keeps out the joy.”
29. “Character isn’t something you were born with and can’t change, like your fingerprints. It’s something you weren’t born with and must take responsibility for forming.”
30. “The few who do are the envy of the many who only watch.”
31. “You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself. That is something you have charge of.”
32. “Effective communication is 20% what you know and 80% how you feel about what you know.”
33. “If you don’t like how things are, change it! You’re not a tree.”
34. “It doesn’t matter which side of the fence you get off on sometimes. What matters most is getting off. You cannot make progress without making decisions.”
35. “Miss a meal if you have to, but don’t miss a book.”
36. ” Take time to gather up the past so that you will be able to draw from your experience and invest them in the future.”
37. “Failure is simply a few errors in judgment, repeated every day.”
38. “When you know what you want, and want it bad enough, you will find a way to get it.”
39. “Giving is better than receiving because giving starts the receiving process.”
40. “Without a sense of urgency, desire loses its value.”
41. “Make measurable progress in reasonable time.”
42. “Take care of your body. It’s the only place you have to live.”
43. “Labor gives birth to ideas.”
44. “Maturity is the ability to reap without apology and not complain when things don’t go well.”
45. “Let others lead small lives, but not you. Let others argue over small things, but not you. Let others cry over small hurts, but not you. Let others leave their future in someone else’s hands, but not you.”
46. “Part of your heritage in this society is the opportunity to become financially independent.”
47. “Money is usually attracted, not pursued.”
48. “Success is steady progress toward one’s personal goals.”
49. “Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines, practiced every day.”
50. “Your philosophy determines whether you will go for the disciplines or continue the errors.”
51. “Some people plant in the spring and leave in the summer. If you’re signed up for a season, see it through. You don’t have to stay forever, but at least stay until you see it through.”
52. “Success is not to be pursued; it is to be attracted by the person you become.”
53. “Either you run the day or the day runs you.”
54. “Time is more value than money. You can get more money, but you cannot get more time.”
55. “The more you know the less you need to say.”
56. “We get paid for bringing value to the market place.”
57. “If you go to work on your goals, your goals will go to work on you. If you go to work on your plan, your plan will go to work on you. Whatever good things we build end up building us.”
58. “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.”
59. “Take advantage of every opportunity to practice your communication skills so that when important occasions arise, you will have the gift, the style, the sharpness, the clarity, and the emotions to affect other people.”
60. “Don’t wish it were easier, wish you were better.”
61. “If you are not willing to risk the unusual, you will have to settle for the ordinary.”
62. “Whatever good things we build end up building us.”
63. “Work harder on yourself than you do on your job.”
64. “A good objective of leadership is to help those who are doing poorly to do well and to help those who are doing well to do even better.”
65. “If someone is going down the wrong road, he doesn’t need motivation to speed him up. What he needs is education to turn him around.”
66. “Failure is not a single, cataclysmic event. You don’t fail overnight. Instead, failure is a few errors in judgement, repeated every day.”
67. “The challenge of leadership is to be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not a bully; be thoughtful, but not lazy; be humble, but not timid; be proud, but not arrogant; have humor, but without folly.”
68. “Days are expensive. When you spend a day you have one less day to spend. So make sure you spend each one wisely.”
69. “Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.”
70. “Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.”
71. “Learn how to be happy with what you have while you pursue all that you want.”
72. “How long should you try? Until.”
73. “Start from wherever you are and with whatever you’ve got.”
74. “Without constant activity, the threats of life will soon overwhelm the values.”
75. “The more you care, the stronger you can be.”
76. “Character is a quality that embodies many important traits, such as integrity, courage, perseverance, confidence and wisdom. Unlike your fingerprints that you are born with and can’t change, character is something that you create within yourself and must take responsibility for changing.”
77. “The big challenge is to become all that you have the possibility of becoming. You cannot believe what it does to the human spirit to maximize your human potential and stretch yourself to the limit.”
78. “Don’t say, ‘If I could, I would.’ Say, ‘If I can, I will.”
79. “Discipline has within it the potential for creating future miracles.”
80. “Life is not just the passing of time. Life is the collection of experiences and their intensity.”
81. “Happiness is not something you postpone for the future; it is something you design for the present.”
82. “We must all wage an intense, lifelong battle against the constant downward pull. If we relax, the bugs and weeds of negativity will move into the garden and take away everything of value.”
83. “We all need lots of powerful long range goals to help us past the short term obstacles.”
84. “For every disciplined effort, there is a multiple reward.”
85. “Excuses are the nails used to build a house of failure.”
86. “What works is the fourth philosophy, which I like to call the philosophy of performance and productivity. With this philosophy, you do what is necessary to improve yourself and your capabilities. You learn to do more and be more.”
87. “You can have more than you’ve got because you can become more than you are.”
88. “Get around people who have something of value to share with you. Their impact will continue to have a significant effect on your life long after they have departed.”
89. “The problem with waiting until tomorrow is that when it finally arrives, it is called today.”
90. “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”
91. “Your level of success will seldom exceed your level of personal development.”
92. “Reading is essential for those who seek to rise above the ordinary.”
93. “Invest in yourself, invest in your own self-education and then take that knowledge and use it to help others get what they want and need out of life. In the process, you will acquire power and financial freedom.”
94. “Unless you change how you are, you’ll always have what you’ve got.”
95. “Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.”
96. “Don’t join an easy crowd; you won’t grow. Go where the expectations and the demands to perform are high.”
97. “You cannot succeed by yourself. It’s hard to find a rich hermit.“
98. “Never begrudge the money you spend on your own education.”
99. “We all know a variety of ways to make a living. What’s even more fascinating is figuring out ways to make a fortune.”
100. “Wealth is not a matter of intelligence, it’s a matter of inspiration.”
101. “The ultimate reason for setting goals is to entice you to become the person it takes to achieve them.”
My Favorite Jim Rohn Quote
“Don’t wish it were easier, wish you were better.”
Question
What was your favorite Jim Rohn quote from my list?
