July 8, 2025 • 16 mins
What if all your progress — your wealth, your peace, your power — came down to just one word: FOCUS?
In this inspiring episode, Jim Rohn breaks down the principle of single-minded discipline that separates the average from the elite.
🎯 Ready to master your habits like the top 1%?
At Top Elevation, we’ve developed the Self-Discipline Hacks Master Playbook — a premium, no-fluff guide trusted by over 5,000 top performers.
Tap the link to get your copy and start your domination journey today.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
What if the one thing holding you back was trying to do too
many things? Jim Rohn believed greatness
begins with focus, and so do we.That's why we created the
self-discipline Hacks Master Playbook, A proven blueprint
trusted by thousands worldwide to help you simplify, focus, and
dominate your day. Tap the link in the description
(00:23):
and unlock your top 1% mindset. Now let's begin.
Here's the key on this. Don't major in minor things.
If you take up major time to do minor things, I'm telling you
you'll be behind the curve constantly.
(00:47):
Here's what we learn in sales training.
What's major time and what's minor time?
Here's minor time thinking aboutprospects.
Here's minor time making lists of prospects.
Here's minor time keeping books on prospects.
Here's minor time going to see the prospect.
(01:09):
Here's minor time evaluating theprospect after you've been
there. That's all minor time.
Here's major time in the presence of the prospect.
That's mine. That's major time.
And if you took a look, if you're in sales and you took a
look at a week, you'd say, my gosh, I'm spending 90% of my
time on the minor stuff. And so little time on the major
(01:31):
stuff in the presence of how many hours in the presence of in
my day, how many hours in the presence of during my sales
week, because the time that really counts is in the presence
of the prospect majors and minors.
Here's another key time management essential.
(01:53):
Don't mistake movement for achievement.
It's easy to get faked out by being busy that comes home at
night all exhausted, falls in the chair and says, oh, I've
been going, going, going. Here's the big question.
Doing what? It's not the go and go and go.
(02:13):
And some people are going, going, going, and they're doing
figure eights. Their progress is small.
So don't mistake movement for achievement.
Here's another one. In sales, we learned don't
mistake courtesy for consent. If somebody's pleasant and they
(02:34):
nod, you say, oh, they're going to buy.
No, they're courteous. You can't mistake courtesy for
consent. Now here's a big one,
concentration. I had to learn this all those
years ago. I'm in the shower trying to
compose a letter. Found it turns out to be a
(02:55):
strange letter. So here's what I learned to do.
Save the work till you get to the office.
Save the work till you get to the work.
Don't try to get to the office on the way to work.
On the way to work. Enjoy the way in the shower.
Enjoy the shower, then go to work when you get to work.
(03:18):
I found this to be helpful concentration.
Here's another big one. Learn to say no.
I'm telling you, in such a social society we have now, it's
so easy to try to be a nice person saying yes, yes, yes to
everything. Find yourself overloaded.
Now you got to call and make thewell, gosh, you know all the
time it takes to back out of something that you said said yes
(03:39):
to too quickly. Here's what might be better.
I don't think so, but if that changes, I'll call you little
things you can use not to commitover commit yourself.
My friend Ron Reynolds says don't let your mouth overload
your back. It's a good one.
Now here's a big one on time management.
(04:02):
When you work, work. When you play, play.
Don't mix the 2. Don't work and play.
I used to take my family to the beach and I would bring my
briefcase. I learned not to do that.
(04:22):
Or at the beach. I'm saying I should be at the
office. I should be at the office.
Now my family's upset because I'm at the beach and I'm
thinking office, office, office.Now when I'm at the office, I'm
thinking what I got to get my family to the beach, the beach,
the beach. So things are not going too well
at the office because I'm thinking beach.
And things are not going too well at the beach because I'm
thinking office. Here's what I learned to do at
the beach. Be at the beach, at the office.
Be at the office. When you work, work.
(04:44):
When you play, play. Don't mix the two.
Don't work at play. Now here's one of the most
important ones. Don't play at work.
Work is too serious. You don't want the reputation of
being the office joker. It's not a good one.
Yes, there's time for some pleasant stories.
(05:04):
Yes, there's time for a little humor.
Yes, best if it's a happy office, of course.
But I'm telling you got to be serious about work because
you're parting with a piece of your life for the work you do.
Your work costs you a piece of your life.
Here's what it's called serious business.
Not grim, not unhappy, but serious.
(05:29):
Don't play at work. The old expression.
I don't think we use it anymore.Horse around at the office, play
around, play jokes, play tricks.No place, not at the workplace.
At the beach, yes. At the bar, yes.
Somewhere else. Not work.
You got to treat work with all. Do conservative passion because
(05:56):
it's leading you to your future.Here's another key phrase.
All work is good. You may not like your job, but
if it's the stepping stones to get you to where you want to to
go, you got to appreciate your job.
You don't have to have a passionfor your job.
Here's the ultimate passion, a passion for incredible success
in every department of my life. That's the passion.
(06:20):
But don't look John down on somemenial job you have to do to
finally get you to where you want to go.
No job is menial. Menial No job is not no every
job is noble. Training, life for pay, making a
contribution to society. Next, analyze how you are and if
(06:42):
you have some weaknesses. If you can't, doesn't seem like
you can change. Here's the key.
Get it covered. I used to keep promising myself
I'd keep the books, Keep the books, keep the books.
Finally I gave that up and back then it only took me an extra
50-60 bucks a month for some accountant to keep the books.
I said no, I'm going to save the50 bucks.
(07:03):
You can't believe what I startedlosing in productivity because I
tried to save the 50 bucks. So the key is a lot of time you
can stay like you are, but just make sure you get it covered.
OK? Next, beware of the telephone
and all other systems of communication, especially the
(07:26):
telephone at home and systems ofcommunication at home.
And here's one of the best linesI've got for you for the
weekend. Let all communication systems
serve you, but don't let them intrude.
When it comes time to have dinner with your family, you
shut off all systems unless the ones that can take messages
(07:48):
silently. Don't let the phone ring.
Don't let anybody intrude. Come through the front door nor
the back door, nor through the telephone or any other device so
you can't reach John and his family when he's having dinner.
The president of the United States couldn't get through.
(08:10):
If you develop that kind of a reputation, father, mother, when
we have dinner, when we're visiting and have this time with
our family, nothing intrudes. So don't let these clever little
devices keep intruding. You've got to have a place
that's sacrosanct. It's it's valuable you don't let
(08:33):
anything in for that period of time.
OK, Isn't that good advice? Excellent advice.
Here's the next one. Read all the books.
You know, I've only got a few notes here on time management,
but if you've got some particular challenges, you run a
big organization, a big corporation, you've got some
challenges. There's plenty of books now
(08:54):
here's what's next. Just be more alert to the things
that might be stealing your time.
Here's why. Time is like capital.
You can't let someone steal yourseed corn, You can't let someone
steal your capital, and you can't let someone steal your
time. You must designate your time and
(09:16):
some of the time that you designate.
You must not let anyone steal casual time.
You might let someone intrude and steal a little bit and take
a little bit, but not serious time.
Next, one of the great time management savers is to learn to
ask questions up front. Sometimes you talk to somebody
(09:38):
for an hour and then you ask questions and find out if you
would have asked those questionsup front, you could have saved
yourself an hour. Asking questions up front helps
you to get to the problem now. But if you just launch into some
discourse, you might waste 30 minutes and waste an hour when
here's what you should have beentalking about after you finished
(10:02):
an hour. You say, John, what's really the
problem? He said, well, it's something
personal. See, that's what you should have
been talking about this whole hour.
Next, learn to think on paper. Now we're going to take a break.
Some ways to think on paper. One, we've covered one, solving
(10:26):
problems, take it out of your head and put it on paper.
Another one is setting goals, making these lists we've already
started. Here's another good way to think
on paper. It's a projects book.
Each person you're working with and each project you're working
on, get a loose leaf binder and a tab and some pieces of paper
(10:49):
behind the tab and do a little continual summary of how it's
going between you and that person and between you and that
project. I call it a projects book.
It is so useful to me. But what's going on between you
and this person? When you last got together, what
did you talk about? And you got a few notes there.
Here's what we talked about the last time we got together.
(11:10):
Now, when you get together again, you can review that so
you'll know better what to talk about.
When the president gets ready totravel and he's going to meet
some important people, guess what?
They bring him all these briefing books, right?
The last time you were with Khrushchev, Kennedy is informed.
Here's what he said, and here's what you said.
Kennedy said, oh, that's valuable.
I need to remember that if a person is important, it's worth
(11:33):
a little running account. You might even have a project
booked for your children. Here's what's happening between
me and my child. We've talked about this and
we've talked about this and we've talked about this.
Next, a day timer, keeping trackof all of your appointments.
(11:53):
You know, mine is all filled with, you know, when to catch an
airplane and when to do a seminar, when to sit down and
have a conference, all the rest.Next is a game plan.
You know, if you've got a house and the, you know, insurance is
going to come due and some otherthings are going to come due,
you just put it on a spreadsheetand make sure it's taken care
(12:14):
of. Key phrase, take things out of
your head and put them on paper.And the key is to just
experiment with different ways that helps you to do that.
Now here's the last one thinkingon paper, and that's to keep a
journal. One of the things I'm known for
(12:36):
around the world, have been now for 3940 years, is keeping a
journal. Now, my journal is not a, you
know, it's not necessarily a, it's not like a diary.
It might be part diary. You know, I'm flying over
Ireland and write down a few little things that impress me.
Today I met this person. Wow, what an extraordinary
(12:58):
event. Today, this I conducted this
seminar in Rome, 1000. People stood up and sang for me.
I've got a little bit of a diaryin there, but here's what
primarily your journal is for collecting good ideas, a
journalist to collect good ideason your health, good ideas for
your business, good ideas for your future, good ideas for time
(13:18):
management. Because I used to take notes on
pieces of paper and torn off corners and backs of old
envelopes and restaurant placemats, and I threw all this
stuff in a drawer. It did not serve me well.
I finally learned to get a boundcopyright and just keep a
journal, right. If I was here ahead in my
(13:39):
journal, I'd be taking notes right these two days in my
journal. Now, if you're caught without
your journal, you'd just take the notes.
When you get back home, you'd put those notes in your journal,
throw the paper away because we don't usually go through paper
to review. But see, my journals now make up
a significant part of my own library, my journals all
reserved privately for my children and my grandchildren.
(14:03):
Can you imagine what I've collected over the years?
It's unbelievable. There are three treasures to
leave behind. I think you've already got those
notes, right? Here they are #1 your pictures
don't leave the event unrecorded.
Takes only a fraction of a cent of a second to say here's who I
was with when I travel the world, right?
(14:29):
We take all these pictures and here's one of the gifts people
send me, the pictures they took of me and them.
It's part of the treasures I have on the farm.
Incredible. A pictures worth 1000 words to
describe the scene, the emotion,what happened, say, wow, This
was an extraordinary day for me when I met these people.
(14:50):
Here's what they told me happened to them when they went
to my seminar 10 years ago. Wow.
The the drama comes back. If you've taken the pictures,
it's one of the treasures to leave behind when you go.
Remember the old photographs that we have now of, you know,
100 years ago, 7080 years ago, just a few photographs.
(15:12):
What would it be like if you hadthousands of photographs of the
past, of your history, your mother, your father,
grandparents. So change all of that now for
your children. Leave all your photographs as a
record. Here's what's next to leave
behind, and that's your library.The books that changed your
(15:37):
life, the books that changed your health, the books that
rescued you from oblivion, the books that you passed on to
other people. They were so exciting for you.
The books that made you financially independent.
The books that developed your leadership.
The books that gave you wisdom to ponder when things were
tough. The books that got you through
(15:57):
the winter. The books that helped you to
plant in the spring and harvest in the fall.
What a treasure to leave behind.If you do that.
Here's what's for sure. Your books will be more valuable
than your furniture.
What if the one thing holding you back was trying to do too
many things? Jim Rohn believed greatness
begins with focus, and so do we.That's why we created the
self-discipline Hacks Master Playbook, A proven blueprint
trusted by thousands worldwide to help you simplify, focus, and
dominate your day. Tap the link in the description
(00:23):
and unlock your top 1% mindset. Now let's begin.
Here's the key on this. Don't major in minor things.
If you take up major time to do minor things, I'm telling you
you'll be behind the curve constantly.
(00:47):
Here's what we learn in sales training.
What's major time and what's minor time?
Here's minor time thinking aboutprospects.
Here's minor time making lists of prospects.
Here's minor time keeping books on prospects.
Here's minor time going to see the prospect.
(01:09):
Here's minor time evaluating theprospect after you've been
there. That's all minor time.
Here's major time in the presence of the prospect.
That's mine. That's major time.
And if you took a look, if you're in sales and you took a
look at a week, you'd say, my gosh, I'm spending 90% of my
time on the minor stuff. And so little time on the major
(01:31):
stuff in the presence of how many hours in the presence of in
my day, how many hours in the presence of during my sales
week, because the time that really counts is in the presence
of the prospect majors and minors.
Here's another key time management essential.
(01:53):
Don't mistake movement for achievement.
It's easy to get faked out by being busy that comes home at
night all exhausted, falls in the chair and says, oh, I've
been going, going, going. Here's the big question.
Doing what? It's not the go and go and go.
(02:13):
And some people are going, going, going, and they're doing
figure eights. Their progress is small.
So don't mistake movement for achievement.
Here's another one. In sales, we learned don't
mistake courtesy for consent. If somebody's pleasant and they
(02:34):
nod, you say, oh, they're going to buy.
No, they're courteous. You can't mistake courtesy for
consent. Now here's a big one,
concentration. I had to learn this all those
years ago. I'm in the shower trying to
compose a letter. Found it turns out to be a
(02:55):
strange letter. So here's what I learned to do.
Save the work till you get to the office.
Save the work till you get to the work.
Don't try to get to the office on the way to work.
On the way to work. Enjoy the way in the shower.
Enjoy the shower, then go to work when you get to work.
(03:18):
I found this to be helpful concentration.
Here's another big one. Learn to say no.
I'm telling you, in such a social society we have now, it's
so easy to try to be a nice person saying yes, yes, yes to
everything. Find yourself overloaded.
Now you got to call and make thewell, gosh, you know all the
time it takes to back out of something that you said said yes
(03:39):
to too quickly. Here's what might be better.
I don't think so, but if that changes, I'll call you little
things you can use not to commitover commit yourself.
My friend Ron Reynolds says don't let your mouth overload
your back. It's a good one.
Now here's a big one on time management.
(04:02):
When you work, work. When you play, play.
Don't mix the 2. Don't work and play.
I used to take my family to the beach and I would bring my
briefcase. I learned not to do that.
(04:22):
Or at the beach. I'm saying I should be at the
office. I should be at the office.
Now my family's upset because I'm at the beach and I'm
thinking office, office, office.Now when I'm at the office, I'm
thinking what I got to get my family to the beach, the beach,
the beach. So things are not going too well
at the office because I'm thinking beach.
And things are not going too well at the beach because I'm
thinking office. Here's what I learned to do at
the beach. Be at the beach, at the office.
Be at the office. When you work, work.
(04:44):
When you play, play. Don't mix the two.
Don't work at play. Now here's one of the most
important ones. Don't play at work.
Work is too serious. You don't want the reputation of
being the office joker. It's not a good one.
Yes, there's time for some pleasant stories.
(05:04):
Yes, there's time for a little humor.
Yes, best if it's a happy office, of course.
But I'm telling you got to be serious about work because
you're parting with a piece of your life for the work you do.
Your work costs you a piece of your life.
Here's what it's called serious business.
Not grim, not unhappy, but serious.
(05:29):
Don't play at work. The old expression.
I don't think we use it anymore.Horse around at the office, play
around, play jokes, play tricks.No place, not at the workplace.
At the beach, yes. At the bar, yes.
Somewhere else. Not work.
You got to treat work with all. Do conservative passion because
(05:56):
it's leading you to your future.Here's another key phrase.
All work is good. You may not like your job, but
if it's the stepping stones to get you to where you want to to
go, you got to appreciate your job.
You don't have to have a passionfor your job.
Here's the ultimate passion, a passion for incredible success
in every department of my life. That's the passion.
(06:20):
But don't look John down on somemenial job you have to do to
finally get you to where you want to go.
No job is menial. Menial No job is not no every
job is noble. Training, life for pay, making a
contribution to society. Next, analyze how you are and if
(06:42):
you have some weaknesses. If you can't, doesn't seem like
you can change. Here's the key.
Get it covered. I used to keep promising myself
I'd keep the books, Keep the books, keep the books.
Finally I gave that up and back then it only took me an extra
50-60 bucks a month for some accountant to keep the books.
I said no, I'm going to save the50 bucks.
(07:03):
You can't believe what I startedlosing in productivity because I
tried to save the 50 bucks. So the key is a lot of time you
can stay like you are, but just make sure you get it covered.
OK? Next, beware of the telephone
and all other systems of communication, especially the
(07:26):
telephone at home and systems ofcommunication at home.
And here's one of the best linesI've got for you for the
weekend. Let all communication systems
serve you, but don't let them intrude.
When it comes time to have dinner with your family, you
shut off all systems unless the ones that can take messages
(07:48):
silently. Don't let the phone ring.
Don't let anybody intrude. Come through the front door nor
the back door, nor through the telephone or any other device so
you can't reach John and his family when he's having dinner.
The president of the United States couldn't get through.
(08:10):
If you develop that kind of a reputation, father, mother, when
we have dinner, when we're visiting and have this time with
our family, nothing intrudes. So don't let these clever little
devices keep intruding. You've got to have a place
that's sacrosanct. It's it's valuable you don't let
(08:33):
anything in for that period of time.
OK, Isn't that good advice? Excellent advice.
Here's the next one. Read all the books.
You know, I've only got a few notes here on time management,
but if you've got some particular challenges, you run a
big organization, a big corporation, you've got some
challenges. There's plenty of books now
(08:54):
here's what's next. Just be more alert to the things
that might be stealing your time.
Here's why. Time is like capital.
You can't let someone steal yourseed corn, You can't let someone
steal your capital, and you can't let someone steal your
time. You must designate your time and
(09:16):
some of the time that you designate.
You must not let anyone steal casual time.
You might let someone intrude and steal a little bit and take
a little bit, but not serious time.
Next, one of the great time management savers is to learn to
ask questions up front. Sometimes you talk to somebody
(09:38):
for an hour and then you ask questions and find out if you
would have asked those questionsup front, you could have saved
yourself an hour. Asking questions up front helps
you to get to the problem now. But if you just launch into some
discourse, you might waste 30 minutes and waste an hour when
here's what you should have beentalking about after you finished
(10:02):
an hour. You say, John, what's really the
problem? He said, well, it's something
personal. See, that's what you should have
been talking about this whole hour.
Next, learn to think on paper. Now we're going to take a break.
Some ways to think on paper. One, we've covered one, solving
(10:26):
problems, take it out of your head and put it on paper.
Another one is setting goals, making these lists we've already
started. Here's another good way to think
on paper. It's a projects book.
Each person you're working with and each project you're working
on, get a loose leaf binder and a tab and some pieces of paper
(10:49):
behind the tab and do a little continual summary of how it's
going between you and that person and between you and that
project. I call it a projects book.
It is so useful to me. But what's going on between you
and this person? When you last got together, what
did you talk about? And you got a few notes there.
Here's what we talked about the last time we got together.
(11:10):
Now, when you get together again, you can review that so
you'll know better what to talk about.
When the president gets ready totravel and he's going to meet
some important people, guess what?
They bring him all these briefing books, right?
The last time you were with Khrushchev, Kennedy is informed.
Here's what he said, and here's what you said.
Kennedy said, oh, that's valuable.
I need to remember that if a person is important, it's worth
(11:33):
a little running account. You might even have a project
booked for your children. Here's what's happening between
me and my child. We've talked about this and
we've talked about this and we've talked about this.
Next, a day timer, keeping trackof all of your appointments.
(11:53):
You know, mine is all filled with, you know, when to catch an
airplane and when to do a seminar, when to sit down and
have a conference, all the rest.Next is a game plan.
You know, if you've got a house and the, you know, insurance is
going to come due and some otherthings are going to come due,
you just put it on a spreadsheetand make sure it's taken care
(12:14):
of. Key phrase, take things out of
your head and put them on paper.And the key is to just
experiment with different ways that helps you to do that.
Now here's the last one thinkingon paper, and that's to keep a
journal. One of the things I'm known for
(12:36):
around the world, have been now for 3940 years, is keeping a
journal. Now, my journal is not a, you
know, it's not necessarily a, it's not like a diary.
It might be part diary. You know, I'm flying over
Ireland and write down a few little things that impress me.
Today I met this person. Wow, what an extraordinary
(12:58):
event. Today, this I conducted this
seminar in Rome, 1000. People stood up and sang for me.
I've got a little bit of a diaryin there, but here's what
primarily your journal is for collecting good ideas, a
journalist to collect good ideason your health, good ideas for
your business, good ideas for your future, good ideas for time
(13:18):
management. Because I used to take notes on
pieces of paper and torn off corners and backs of old
envelopes and restaurant placemats, and I threw all this
stuff in a drawer. It did not serve me well.
I finally learned to get a boundcopyright and just keep a
journal, right. If I was here ahead in my
(13:39):
journal, I'd be taking notes right these two days in my
journal. Now, if you're caught without
your journal, you'd just take the notes.
When you get back home, you'd put those notes in your journal,
throw the paper away because we don't usually go through paper
to review. But see, my journals now make up
a significant part of my own library, my journals all
reserved privately for my children and my grandchildren.
(14:03):
Can you imagine what I've collected over the years?
It's unbelievable. There are three treasures to
leave behind. I think you've already got those
notes, right? Here they are #1 your pictures
don't leave the event unrecorded.
Takes only a fraction of a cent of a second to say here's who I
was with when I travel the world, right?
(14:29):
We take all these pictures and here's one of the gifts people
send me, the pictures they took of me and them.
It's part of the treasures I have on the farm.
Incredible. A pictures worth 1000 words to
describe the scene, the emotion,what happened, say, wow, This
was an extraordinary day for me when I met these people.
(14:50):
Here's what they told me happened to them when they went
to my seminar 10 years ago. Wow.
The the drama comes back. If you've taken the pictures,
it's one of the treasures to leave behind when you go.
Remember the old photographs that we have now of, you know,
100 years ago, 7080 years ago, just a few photographs.
(15:12):
What would it be like if you hadthousands of photographs of the
past, of your history, your mother, your father,
grandparents. So change all of that now for
your children. Leave all your photographs as a
record. Here's what's next to leave
behind, and that's your library.The books that changed your
(15:37):
life, the books that changed your health, the books that
rescued you from oblivion, the books that you passed on to
other people. They were so exciting for you.
The books that made you financially independent.
The books that developed your leadership.
The books that gave you wisdom to ponder when things were
tough. The books that got you through
(15:57):
the winter. The books that helped you to
plant in the spring and harvest in the fall.
What a treasure to leave behind.If you do that.
Here's what's for sure. Your books will be more valuable
than your furniture.
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