by: Jim Rohn - -Excepted from the book The Five Major Pieces to the Life Puzzle by Jim Rohn

Failure is not a single, cataclysmic event. We do not fail overnight.
Failure is the inevitable result of an accumulation of poor thinking and
poor choices. To put it more simply, failure is nothing more than a few
errors in judgment repeated every day.

Now why would someone make an error in judgment and then be so foolish as to
repeat it every day? The answer is because he or she does not think that it
matters.

On their own, our daily acts do not seem that important. A minor oversight,
a poor decision, or a wasted hour generally doesn't result in an instant and
measurable impact. More often than not, we escape from any immediate
consequences of our deeds.

If we have not bothered to read a single book in the past ninety days, this
lack of discipline does not seem to have any immediate impact on our lives.
And since nothing drastic happened to us after the first ninety days, we
repeat this error in judgment for another ninety days, and on and on it
goes. Why? Because it doesn't seem to matter.  And herein lies the great
danger. Far worse than not reading the books is not even realizing that it
matters!

Those who eat too many of the wrong foods are contributing to a future
health problem, but the joy of the moment overshadows the consequence of the
future. It does not seem to matter. Those who smoke too much or drink too
much go on making these poor choices year after year after year... because
it doesn't seem to matter. But the pain and regret of these errors in
judgment have only been delayed for a future time. Consequences are seldom
instant; instead, they accumulate until the inevitable day of reckoning
finally arrives and the price must be paid for our poor choices - choices
that didn't seem to matter.

Failure's most dangerous attribute is its subtlety. In the short term those
little errors don't seem to make any difference. We do not seem to be
failing. In fact, sometimes these accumulated errors in judgment occur
throughout a period of great joy and prosperity in our lives. Since nothing
terrible happens to us, since there are no instant consequences to capture
our attention, we simply drift from one day to the next, repeating the
errors, thinking the wrong thoughts, listening to the wrong voices and
making the wrong choices. The sky did not fall in on us yesterday; therefore
the act was probably harmless. Since it seemed to have no measurable
consequence, it is probably safe to repeat.

But we must become better educated than that!

If at the end of the day when we made our first error in judgment the sky
had fallen in on us, we undoubtedly would have taken immediate steps to
ensure that the act would never be repeated again. Like the child who places
his hand on a hot burner despite his parents' warnings, we would have had an
instantaneous experience accompanying our error in judgment.

Unfortunately, failure does not shout out its warnings as our parents once
did. This is why it is imperative to refine our philosophy in order to be
able to make better choices. With a powerful, personal philosophy guiding
our every step, we become more aware of our errors in judgment and more
aware that each error really does matter.

Now here is the great news. Just like the formula for failure, the formula
for success is easy to follow: It's a few simple disciplines practiced every
day.

Now here is an interesting question worth pondering: How can we change the
errors in the formula for failure into the disciplines required in the
formula for success? The answer is by making the future an important part of
our current philosophy.

Both success and failure involve future consequences, namely the inevitable
rewards or unavoidable regrets resulting from past activities. If this is
true, why don't more people take time to ponder the future? The answer is
simple: They are so caught up in the current moment that it doesn't seem to
matter. The problems and the rewards of today are so absorbing to some human
beings that they never pause long enough to think about tomorrow.

But what if we did develop a new discipline to take just a few minutes every
day to look a little further down the road? We would then be able to foresee
the impending consequences of our current conduct. Armed with that valuable
information, we would be able to take the necessary action to change our
errors into new success-oriented disciplines. In other words, by
disciplining ourselves to see the future in advance, we would be able to
change our thinking, amend our errors and develop new habits to replace the
old.

One of the exciting things about the formula for success - a few simple
disciplines practiced every day - is that the results are almost immediate.
As we voluntarily change daily errors into daily disciplines, we experience
positive results in a very short period of time. When we change our diet,
our health improves noticeably in just a few weeks.  When we start
exercising, we feel a new vitality almost immediately. When we begin
reading, we experience a growing awareness and a new level of
self-confidence. Whatever new discipline we begin to practice daily will
produce exciting results that will drive us to become even better at
developing new disciplines.

The real magic of new disciplines is that they will cause us to amend our
thinking. If we were to start today to read the books, keep a journal,
attend the classes, listen more and observe more, then today would be the
first day of a new life leading to a better future. If we were to start
today to try harder, and in every way make a conscious and consistent effort
to change subtle and deadly errors into constructive and rewarding
disciplines, we would never again settle for a life of existence - not once
we have tasted the fruits of a life of substance!

To Your Success,
Jim Rohn

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