Master Your Mind, Master Your Future

Have you ever heard someone say, what in the world were you thinking when you did that? Or maybe you've heard it stated a little bit differently. Did you think about that before you did it? Or maybe you've also heard someone say, wow, it doesn't seem like you put very much thought into that situation. Well, it's true. We all have made poor choices because we made some bad mistakes because we didn't think things through. Well, on today's podcast, I'm going to share with you learning to think correctly. I promise you, you're in for a treat.

Welcome to becoming wiser with Dr. Robert A. Rohm, author and world renowned public speaker, as he shares stories involving his experiences and lessons learned in a good, spirited, positive and fun way. Here's Dr. Robert A. Rome.

Hi, I'm Dr. Robert Rohm, and on today's podcast we're going to be talking about this whole idea of learning to think correctly. Do you know none of us are born with a whole lot of knowledge. We have to learn as we grow up. I once had a professor who said to us the greatest gift God has ever given mankind was the ability to think and reason. Do you realize we're the only creature on the planet that has the ability to think and reason? We are able to think things through. We're able to reason how things will or will not work. That's a gift that has been given to us by Almighty God. Now, it is true that animals can think to some degree. For example, beavers can build a dam that engineers have said are remarkable. We can see horses and cows out in a field looking for shade because they know the sun shining down brightly on them does not feel as good as being under a shade tree. And so yet, even though animals can process and think to some degree, well, you've never seen a bunch of animals get together and build a high rise apartment, have you? You've never seen a bunch of animals get together and build an airplane or a ship. And I'm not trying to put down the animal world, but they're not designed by their creator to think like we are as human beings. The thing that sets us apart from every other creature is the ability to think correctly. Now, we're not born with this knowledge. We have to learn as we grow up. When we're born, we're basically born with I want my own way or I want somebody to feed me, I want somebody to clean me up so I can be comfortable in this diaper or I want to feel safe. I like an environment where I Get to have my way and I feel safe. And that's okay when you're a little bitty baby or a young child. But after a period of time, you begin to grow up and you have to be taught how to think correctly. Thinking correctly does not happen accidentally. It only happens on purpose. I'm going to share a few things with you that I believe are very, very powerful. They that will help you to learn to think correctly. When we're small, we learn to read. If you are able to read, you ought to thank a teacher. Sometimes I saw a bumper sticker on the back of a car. It says, if you can read this, thank a teacher. Well, I was a schoolteacher myself one time, and I know many others who have been. It's true. We had to learn how to read. We had to learn our Alphabet. We had to learn basic writing skills. We had to learn basic numbers. We weren't born knowing this. Someone had to teach us in early elementary education how to read and write and do arithmetic, as we are called, the three R's. And that's fine. That's important. I have met adults who did not know how to read. It's a tragic situation and it may be of no fault of their own due to some situation, and they were deprived of that skill set. But reading and being able to write and express yourself on paper and no basic math numbers. I was in a pizza restaurant one night and My pizza was $17.38. And I gave. The guy just happened to have some change in my pocket and I gave him $20.38. I was trying to keep things even and simple. He looked at me and he said, you've given me too much. And I said, oh, no, no, no, no. I gave you the 38 cents to kind of round it up so it would be even. He looked at me and he said, what do you mean even? And I thought to myself, without being harsh or judgmental, he has no idea what I'm talking about. I just tried to give him $20.38 so he could have an easy $3 change. And I was going to give that to him for a tip. I thought to myself, wow, no one ever took the time to teach him basic numbers or how to think correctly. And then as we continue to grow in time, we perhaps choose a profession. We may go off to college and we may major in something that interests us. More and more people are going to vocational schools to learn plumbing skills or auto mechanic skills. Education is a powerful tool because it opens doors of opportunity for you if you're a well educated person doesn't mean you're better than someone else. You're not better than another person, but you may be better off because you have a skill set. My grandson went to school to learn computers and all about how to program computers. Soon as he graduated, somebody just picked him right up and gave him a great job opportunity because he had a skill set that he could learn. So regardless of your background, you can always get more education. I don't think that more education hurts hurts a person as long as they're learning how to improve certain skills in their life. But as I mentioned, the longer we live, the more we learn some secrets. So here's the real meat of this podcast. I have about 10 things I'm going to share with you that I believe will be really, really, really important to help you to learn to think correctly. You ready? You might want to jot these down or you can listen to this again. Here's the first one. Be early for things and be willing to stay a little bit late. I am a fanatic about being somewhere on time. If something starts at six o', clock, I want to be there at five, 30 or a quarter till six. That gives me a little more margin. I also have found if you're early for things, many, many times something good happens, someone says, hey, can you help pass these out? Or hey, could you sit down here at the front? It just opens up doors of opportunity. Not every time, but sometime. And then be willing to stay a little bit late. As soon as something's open over, you just bolt out. I remember in school so many times the bell would ring, everybody would take off, they're done, I'm out of here. Learn to stay and maybe ask the teacher a question or two. Show some interest. That will be a powerful way for you to develop additional thinking. I have a friend who's a dentist. I said, how did you get through dental school? He said, after class I went to their office and asked them questions. He said I wasn't the smartest student in dental school. He said I wasn't primarily going to dental school in order to be a dentist. I was going to dental school in order to learn how to run a business and I wanted to use dentistry as my business. Well, he's done very, very well. And he said he attributes all of it to the fact that he talked to his teachers after class, stayed a little longer. How about this one? Carry a notepad and a pen. I know I can Hear you now, Dr. Rome. This hit in the 1950s. We have phones and we have iPads and we have computers. I know, but I always carry a little notepad in my back right hand, hip pocket. And I have a pen. Why? Because that's the way my brain works. My brain wants to capture things real quickly. I might see an idea or something I like. Just jot it down. Now, if you're driving, you always keep your eyes on the road. Of course. But I just live by. I'm looking, I'm looking for a new idea. I'm looking for something. I'm looking for maybe a different twist about something. So I always have my notepad that I can jot down an idea. Here's a great one. Be respectful. Learn to say, yes, sir. Yes, ma'. Am. I say yes, sir and yes, ma' am to people younger than me. It is a powerful tool to learn to be respectful. Listen, I don't hang around people who use bad language. There's some people who just like to say bad. Four letter words come out of their mouth. Like they can roll those words out. Well, that's fine. They can do that if they want to. But that's not showing much respect. I'm kind of old school. I believe being respectful is important. I don't even believe in equal rights. I believe in superior rights. I believe you should always treat a woman better than you should treat a guy. But now I believe you should treat everybody nicely. But I think it's important to show respect. That's the third one, the fourth one. Be kind. Be willing to go out of your way to let somebody go ahead of you. Be willing to buy someone a cup of coffee. Be willing to pay for someone else's meal. Just live a life of kindness. You reap what you sow. You reap more than you sow. You also reap later than you sow. I know that being kind and saying things that are helpful and kind to other people is so important. Number five, Be gentle. Don't be reactionary. I got a big mouth. I guess you can already tell that. I just say to myself all the time, give them a get out of jail free card. Give them the opportunity to get a free pass this time. Be gentle. Be gentle. Don't be reactionary. I see grown men who act like little children and it's sad. Learn to just take a deep breath and not react.

That's, that's important. I can be around somebody and I'm afraid of reactionary people because they're going to get all of us in trouble. I know someone and I can See his face now. And boy, he just. When anything goes wrong, he blows up. Well, I do my best to hope I see him before he sees me, because I don't want to hang around someone who's reactionary. Be gentle. Number six, Be thoughtful. Send people texts on their birthdays. Be willing to call someone, say, hey, I was thinking about you today. Happy anniversary. It's just little thoughtful things that you can incorporate. Listen, I'm an only child. I was never taught to be thoughtful. I picked up that the whole world revolved around me. I have people say to me, gosh, you're such a thoughtful person. Yeah, it's because I've worked at it. I realize there is a God and it isn't me. I need to look at other people and care about them. Be thoughtful. Next, be careful who you hang around with. You know, I figure out I was thinking about this in this podcast. There are three characteristics of people I like to hang around with. I love to hang around people who love God. I love to hang around people who want to have a better life. I love to hang around people who want to know more about investing money now. Not because I want their money, because I want to learn from them. Zig Ziglar used to say, money's not everything, but it's pretty close to oxygen. I don't want to be unkind, but I don't want to hang around everybody who wants to talk about who won the ball game yesterday. There was a time in my life who won the ball game was important, but not any longer. And the older you're going to get, the more you're going to see who won the ball game, the super bowl, the World Series, the NBA Championship. You don't even know. And it's not that important. But I promise you this. Knowing how to have residual income, knowing how to get a return on your investment. I have a friend the other day, these are the kinds of people I hang around with. I called him. I said, hey, listen, I've got a great idea. I need you to write a check for $25,000. He said, who do I make it payable to? I started laughing. I said, I haven't even told you what it's for. He said, it doesn't matter. If you think it's a good idea, count me in. You see, those are the kind of people I want to hang around. People that are smart. So if you love God and you want to have a better life, and you want to know how to invest to make your life better, you're My kind of person. Here's the next one. Don't be sarcastic. Sarcasm is cruel humor. My wife is the best. I never hear her being sarcastic about anyone. Sarcasm is often the lowest form of witness, often found at the base of an empty skull. I know some people who live by sarcasm. I think it's hurtful. I think you can always. Just kidding. Words sting. If a bee stings you and flies away and says, I was just kidding, you're going to think, no, I don't. I'm not. Sure you were, because that hurt. Don't be sarcastic. Next. Don't talk about other people behind their back. I just made it a habit. If I have to talk to someone about something that's hard, I'll talk to them alone in a good environment. When they're fed, I bought them lunch. We're talking about something and we're in a good place together. But don't talk about people behind their back. It'll get back to them and it'll only hurt their feelings and it'll hurt your relationship. Be uplifting. Be a balcony person. I read a book one time called Be a balcony Person, not a Basement Person. That's a great visual, isn't it? A balcony person. Who's someone up above you in the balcony. They're higher than you, they want to lift you up. Someone who's in the basements, down lower than you, they want to pull you down. Be a balcony person. Be an uplifting person. Be the kind of person that says the good, the pure and the positive about everyone that they know and meet next. Be positive about things. Always be look looking on the outlook for something new in your life or something better. Do you know why the news media is always focusing on something that's horrible or bad? Because that's what sells news media. Their motto is, if it bleeds, it leads. Make the worst, most horrible, gory story the lead story. Well, I don't even watch the news anymore. I just found out the other day Richard Nixon had resigned. Can you believe that? I'm kidding. I did hear about that. But be positive. We learned from Thumper in the movie Bambi. If you don't have something nice to say, don't say nothing at all. That's a pretty good way to live your life. And last, let me just encourage you. Let go of your past. Don't live in your past, boy. All of us have a past, don't we? We've all made mistakes. Boy, if we could do that over again, we would do it over again. But we can't do it over again. So learn from the past. You can look at your past and regret it. That'll just lead to depression. You can look at your past and resent it. That will just lead to anger. Or you can look at your past and reframe it and say, I learned some good lessons. I'm not going to go down that road again. Last thing on this particular podcast. I read this the other day. I thought it was so good when someone returns, good for good, that's human like. In other words, if somebody's good to me and I'm good to you, we're both good humans. Good for good is human like. Evil for evil is animal like. I mean, if an animal attacks another animal, you watch what happens. They'll attack back. Evil for evil is like an animal. Then evil for good is devil like. You try to do something good and someone does something evil to you for what you did, that was good. That's like the devil. That's what the devil's all about. I'm going to give you all the evil I can for all the good that you do. And then finally, good for evil is godlike. When I read that, I just captured my thoughts. You see, if somebody does something evil to you or something mean or hateful, just do something good. Just walk away. Say something nice, Buy them lunch. Go out of your way to be a good person. Good for good is human like. Evil for evil is animal like. Evil for good is devil like. But good for evil is godlike. I hope this podcast has given you a couple of ideas. As you know, I'm a high I type personality and sometimes I get lost in my own numbering. I think I had at least 10 there. It might have been 11. The bottom line is, don't focus on the numbers, focus on the activity. Learn to think correctly, and you'll have a great life. I say this with all humility. My life is unbelievable. I have so many good things that happen to me. I have the best marriage of anybody I know. I love my business. I love what goes on in my life every day. I have experienced incredible financial opportunities because of people I learned to hang around with and listen to and learn from. Thank you so much. Bye. Bye.

For more information about this podcast, please visit www.becomingwiserpodcast.com.