The Secret to Achieving Goals: Just Do the Next Right Thing

Sometimes we get ourselves in a mess because we plan too much. Here at the end of this year, walking into a new year, I'm going to tell you how to have the best plan to reach your goals, your dreams and your destiny. Stay tuned for an incredible podcast.

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

Hi, I'm Dr. Robert Rohm and this particular podcast will be the Last one for 2023. Next year. We'll begin a new podcast series in 2024, but this is the last one in this particular calendar year. Now, regardless of when you're listening to this, the principle will apply. So listen carefully. You may want to take some notes. If you're driving, pull over, listen to this, give it your undivided attention because I'm giving you a lifetime of wisdom and experience that I know is accurate and true. This isn't something I read in a book. This isn't something that a friend of mine told me. This is what actually works in real life experience. So what am I talking about right now? At the end of the year and the beginning of a new year, we always set goals. We are taught everywhere we turn. What's your main goal? How many goals do you have for this year? Have you numbered them? What's your most important goal? What are the goals that you must achieve that you would be willing to die for because this goal is so important in your life? Now listen carefully. I don't want to be a party pooper. I think goals and dreams and visions and ideas are okay. I really do. I have goals, I have dreams, I have visions, I have ideas and things I want to accomplish in my life. But they are not. First, here's why. I have painfully discovered over the years that if I set out to achieve my goals, and I mean, I've had some big ones, and I accomplish them in my own power and in my own strength and in my own ability, they leave me feeling empty. They leave me feeling like, so what? They leave me feeling like, well, what's the next mountain to climb? And good enough is never good enough because there's always one more goal that can be achieved, one more destiny that can be reached, one more accomplishment that I can add to my resume. In other words, if your life is centered all around you yourself, someone wisely said, he who is wrapped up in himself as a mighty small package.

Now this is A hard teaching. I don't expect you to sit there and go, got it. You may have to listen to this 10 times before it sinks in, because this goes contrary to almost everything that's taught in the world. Now I'm going somewhere with all this, so you got to pay attention. It's okay to have goals. It's okay to have dreams, it's okay to have desires. These are some things I would like to accomplish. But if they're your driving force, if they are all that matters to you, if you're going to achieve your goals, come what may, I promise you, you are going to feel so empty. Oh, you may feel great for an hour. You may feel energized and empowered for a few hours, a few days. But it vanishes like a vapor in the wind very quickly. I'll never forget hearing the story of Mike Ditka. Mike Ditka was an assistant coach at the Dallas for the Dallas Cowboys back when Tom Landry was the head coach. They won the Super Bowl. I heard Mike Ditka give this story from him from stage. I was in the audience listening to him. I got to meet him, by the way. Great, great football player, great coach, and even made some movies. Mike Ditka. D I T K A. You can look him up if you've never heard that name. He sort of retired now, but still an incredible patriotic American. Anyway, he said they won the super bowl, the ultimate game in life. He said it was the most incredible feeling that I had ever had in my whole life. The Super Bowl. We were the super bowl champions. We won the Lombardi Award. We were the best team in pro football. He said, I went home. He said it was just a feeling of elation, a feeling of accomplishment, a feeling of, what bigger goal could a human have than winning the Super Bowl? I mean, even the name of it is fantastic. It's enormous. The Super Bowl. He said, in two hours, he was all gone. He said, I had the emptiest feeling. It was like, is this all there is to life? Is this. Is this it? We want a trophy, and we're the biggest and the best.

And they're going to play this again next year and somebody else is going to win it, and the only thing we have to look forward to is trying to win it again. He said, I just sunk to the deepest depression of my whole life. So he said, I picked up the phone and I call Coach Landry. Tom Landry, who was the head coach, the Cowboys, said, mike, come over to my house. Mike Ditka got in his car and drove over to Coach Landry's house in Dallas. And he said to Coach Landry, what's wrong with me? He said, we just won the Super Bowl. I should be. I should be elated. I should have the greatest feeling in the world. Instead, I'm depressed. And Coach Landry said, mike, I'm glad we won the Super Bowl. It's quite an honor. But you cannot fill the empty hole in your heart that God designed to only be filled with himself. You can't fill that with a Super bowl victory. You can't fill that with money, sex, power, anything else. The whole world is trying to fill an empty void in their heart with money, sex, control, power, fame, fortune, accomplishing goals and dreams. But none of those will fill the empty void. You see, God created us with a longing in our hearts for something deeper. St. Augustine said, Our hearts are restless until they find their rest in the O Lord. So let me ask you, and I've got some really good news for you, so keep listening. This is not meant to be depressing. This is meant to be a detour, a new direction for your life. Stop trying to figure out.

What your life is going to be a year from now, five years from now, ten years from now. I will tell you. I've Got a plan. I've Got a Plan is going to be the accurate, best plan you could possibly hear that will help you to achieve your goals and dreams. So stay with me.

So think about the fact that people work hard, they reach their goals, dreams, and then they turn right around and have to create new ones, bigger ones, better ones. Climb every mountain, achieve every dream, overcome every obstacle. And then when they do that, like Mike Ditko, they find that there's an emptiness, there's a shallowness about it. And the reason is because you're all focused or wrapped up in yourself. And I have news for you. You're not enough. And I'm not enough. Years ago, there was a very popular book written called I'm okay, and you're okay. Well, the truth of the matter is I'm not okay, and you're not okay. But that's okay. God's created a plan, and I'm going to share it with you. Of how we can reach our goals and dreams and how we can become the person that. That he designed us to be. So now let's take a new direction and let me share with you exactly how to do this. I'm wearing on my arm right this minute a bracelet. It says, just do the next right Thing I learned that from my mentor. He lived 85 years. He built three of the largest building construction sites for his particular.

Company in America. They still stand today. He said I accomplished every dream and every goal. He said the problem was I was working 20 hours a day and I couldn't sleep because I couldn't make a mistake. And over and over and over I would work, then I'd go home and I would relive every decision I made and I couldn't sleep. And then it was time to get up. So he said I did the only thing I could do to help me sleep. You said I started drinking. He said I drank alcohol to help me sleep, not because I was a derelict or a bomb on the street trying to hand handle my way through life. He said I was a multimillionaire and very successful, but I couldn't sleep because I was all torn up over reaching my goals and dreams and I had to achieve them. So I kept drinking so I could get some rest and sleep. Long story short, he became an alcoholic and he said I was so addicted to the alcohol I even worked harder so I could drink more. And it was a vicious circle. He said, well, I destroyed my life. That's a story for another day. But he said, I promise you, if anybody can achieve their goals and dreams and success factor for themselves, when they finally reach it, they're going to find out it's the biggest empty hole they've ever fallen to their whole life. So what do you do? He created the concept. I'm sure it's been around for centuries, but it's been overlooked. How do I live my life? Just do the next right thing. So what is the next right thing? And that's where wisdom comes in. This podcast is all about becoming a wiser person. Here's I will give you some examples of here's what the next right thing could could possibly be. Brush your teeth, put on your pajamas and go to bed. The next right thing. Maybe call your mom, call your dad and tell them you appreciate them and all they've done for you in your life and love them and how much you love them. Here's another next right thing. Eat a good balanced meal. Here's the next right thing. If you're driving, keep your eyes on the road. Now, I'm not driving and texting right now. I'm driving and talking. But I promise you, I'm very focused on keeping my eyes on the road and my hands on the wheel while I have the good fortune of dictating and creating this podcast for you as I travel down the road. As a matter of fact, I am heading right this minute to meet with a friend, a business associate, and somewhat of a mentor of mine for us to look at the goals and dreams we have for my own company, Personality Insights for the next several years. You might say, wait a minute, isn't this a contradiction? First you say, don't have dreams and goals. I never said that. And then you're, now you're saying you should have them. Listen carefully. If the goals and dreams are something that I have to accomplish on my own when I reach them, I'm going to be empty. But to have goals and dreams and then cover them with God, is this what you want for me? Is this what you have for my future? I'm going to try to follow you. I'm going to just do the next right thing. But I'm going to ask you to lead me, guide me, and direct me in thinking about these. But God, if you want to redirect me, please do so. These goals and dreams are ideas that I think would please you and would make your heart glad. But if they're not, then I want you to redirect them. I want you to be the one to change them. I want you to be the one to show me how to just do the next right thing. You see, you don't know what tomorrow holds. The Bible says that you do not know what a day will bring forth. Your life is like a vapor that appears for a little while, then vanishes away. It is very presumptuous for me to say, let me tell you where I'll be in five years. I don't know where I'll be in five minutes. I have a plan and I'm doing my best to just do the next right thing. Driving, paying attention to what I'm doing. That's the secret to life. The secret to life is just do the next right thing. The secret to life is think about what you want to accomplish today. Think about being a good person right now. Oh, I'll be a nice person when I'm rich. I'll be a nice person when I have everything I want. I'll be good to other people and I'll start having a good attitude when I've achieved my goals and dreams and I have everything that I want for myself. I hope you can hear it. You see who that's about? That's all about yourself. So here's the way my life works. And I tell you what, not arrogantly, not bragging, I Have a great life. You would want my life. If you could ever want to trade places with somebody, I would be the person you would want to trade with. It is unbelievable. I have the best marriage in the world. My. My kids, my grandkids, my business, my finances. It's incredible. I don't want to even tell you about it because I don't want you to be envious, nor do I want you to compare yourself to me or anyone else. But how did I get here? By just doing the next right thing. I want to be a good person today. If I have $10 million, if I have 10 cents, I want to be a good person. I'm not going to be a jerk. I'm not going to be a smart aleck if I make a mistake. I'm sorry. That was my fault. Please forgive me when you. Yesterday was Christmas Day. Yesterday I sent out over 50 text messages to business associates and family and friends to just say, hey, Merry Christmas. You mean a lot to me. I love you. Hope you have a great Christmas with your family. My phone blew up with responses, but I doubt very seriously if anyone would have responded if I hadn't the first sent out the text message letting them know, you see, that was just the next right thing. So there you have the podcast for this week. If you want to set goals and dreams, when you finish, put your hands on them and say, God, I give all this to you. My goal for 2024 is to just do the next right thing. What is lying in front of me? What? What is the next thing? That it may be making up your bed, it may be cleaning out the refrigerator, it may be making a phone call. I promise you this works because you know what you have? You have perfect peace in your heart when you know I'm just doing the next right thing that God has put in front of me. And let me say one other thing too. As we end this year and begin to begin a new year, the greatest gift you could ever give yourself in your personal dreams and goals is to receive by faith the Lord Jesus Christ. That will accomplish an eternal goal. Your sins will be paid for and you will have a home in heaven. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him, not whoever joins the church, not whoever's baptized, not whoever lives a good life, whoever places their faith and trust in Jesus will not perish that have everlasting life that's doing the next right thing. I love you. I hope this coming year will be your best year ever. I'm Dr. Robert Rome. Join us for these podcasts every week. I promise you we'll keep you encouraged. We'll keep you on the right path, and we'll teach you wisdom and how to just do the next right thing. Love you. God bless you. See you next time. Bye. Bye.

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