The Secret to Sowing and Reaping Success

Well, I started back smoking today. I mean, I'm 75 years old and the last time I had a cigarette was probably around 15. So 60 years had passed and I decided it was time to take up smoking again. And here's why. The reason I started smoking again is because I smoked today. And you know what I realized it didn't hurt me one bit. I mean, I smoked several cigarettes today and I feel fine. It didn't hurt me. I'm still 100% healthy, strong and vivacious. Whoever said cigarettes smoking would hurt you just didn't know what they were talking about because I started back today and I'm just fine. 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 Rolman. On this podcast, I'm going to mess with you a little bit. I think you would enjoy what I'm going to share with you because today I'm going to be talking to you about Just give it some time. You see, when I said to you that I started back smoking, actually I was just getting your attention. And if I did start back smoking and I did say to you, well, it didn't hurt me, you would say, well, just give it time. You can smoke all day, you want, all day. You want to all day long, but one day is not going to make any difference. But in time it will damage your health. Or let's try something else. What if I went to the gym today and I worked out for about two hours and I got through and I looked in the mirror and I said, this is a big waste of time. I've worked out for almost two hours and look at me, I haven't changed a bit. Again, you would say, well, just give it some time. You see, the law of sowing and reaping is all about give it some time. Which farmer has ever gone out, planted his field in the morning and come back that afternoon and looked at everything and said to himself, well, this is a big waste of time. There's not one thing growing in the field. If you and I were standing there, we would say to him, just give it some time, for Pete's sake, would you? You see, the law of sowing and reaping requires that you sow. And here's the good thing about it. And you reap what you sow. Now, it works both ways. You can sow bad and you'll get bad results or you can sow good and you'll get good results. You can sow smoking and drinking and not taking care of your health. I promise you, you get bad results or you can so going to the gym, exercising, eating right, eating decently, and taking some vitamins, and you'll get the law of sowing and reaping. In that regards, it works both ways. It works against you. Don't miss this, but it also works for you. When I was growing up, I'd hear oftentimes, you're going to reap what you sow. You're going to reap what you sow. And in almost every context, it was something negative, it was something bad. Well, you'll reap what you sow. And it was always said, like, you do bad things and bad things are going to happen. And while that's true, it works both ways. If you do bad things, you will get bad results and bad outcomes. However, if you do good things, you'll get good results and good outcomes. It's the law of sowing and reaping. Now listen carefully. Think this through with me for a second. Let's say a farmer goes out early in the morning and it's dark. He can't see real good. He puts his hands down in the seed bag because he. He wants to plant corn. And so he reaches down in the corn bag and he feels all the grains of corn and he loads up his machine and he fills it up with seed and he goes out. It's barely daylight, and he goes out, he plants with his tractor and with his machine, he plants corn all morning. Then he comes back in later that morning and he looks and, oh, he didn't. He didn't get the corn seed. He got the cotton seed. And cottonseed and corn seeds are a little similar. He couldn't tell by feeling it. Well, let me ask you a question. Here's the big question. What do you think is. Now remember, his intentions were to plant corn. He got up, he got on his tractor, he loaded it up with what he thought was corn, corn seed. He went out and he planted it. And then he found out, lo and behold, it turns out it was cotton. Now let me ask you a question. What do you think's going to grow? It doesn't matter about his intentions. It doesn't matter about his attitude. What do you think is going to grow? I can tell you exactly what's going to grow. Cotton. You know why? Because that's what he planted. The law of sowing and reaping does not fail. It works 100% of the time and it either works for you or it works against you. But it does require, as I mentioned earlier, you've got to give it a little bit of time. I mean, after all, one cigarette is not going to hurt you and one trip to the gym is not going to help you. It's going to require a little bit of time. It's going to require some patience. Now, very few of us, especially me, have a whole lot of patience yet. It's one of the greatest characteristics a person can develop and the reason they have such a great results when you develop patience is because it pays off. You see, it takes time for things to unfold. It takes time for seeds to grow. It takes time for cigarette smoking to hurt your health. It takes time to go to the gym and to get stronger and healthier. There's a concept that very few people like and it's not even really talked about that much anymore. I used to hear it all the time. I hardly ever hear it anymore. And it's the words delayed gratification. See, delayed gratification means I got to have some patience. I mean, if I want to make some money, I'm going to have to work, I'm going to have to study, I'm going to have to learn about money. Well, I don't want to study, learn or think about it. I just want the money. Doesn't work that way. Delayed gratification means I say to myself, self, you're not going to have your way right now. I'm going to overpower you with what I need to do. My motto that my mentor taught me years ago about life is just do the next right thing. You see, doing the next right thing means you make yourself do what you need to do, whether it's what you want to do or not. I go to bed early. Sometimes I stay up late, but most of the time I'm in bed early. I thought 9 o' clock was great. I discovered 9 o' clock and then I discovered 8:30. Well, but here's why. Why do I go to bed early? Because I get up early. I get up early so I can spend some quality time with God. I can spend some quality time thinking, praying, planning, studying. Very few people are up in the wee hours of the morning. I've jokingly said the reason I can talk to God is everybody else is asleep. The lines to heaven are wide open at about 5 o' clock in the morning. I know I'm messing with you. Like I said, I was going to, because God is timeless. In whatever time zone you're in, it fluctuates. But I just think to myself, boy, now's a great time to get in line and to begin to pray and talk to God. Because nobody else is here. The lines are wide open and I can just get direct access. Now y' all know my personality a little bit, I'm kind of light hearted. But the truth of the matter is this delayed gratification means I love the results of things that have happened in my life. I made investments, they didn't pay off the first day, they didn't pay off the first month, they didn't pay off sometimes the first year, but then they started paying off. I made one investment in two different real estate deals. It didn't do anything for 10 years except drain me. But after 10 years, all of a sudden the economy turned around and boy, oh boy, oh boy, did they take off you some of the best investment I ever made. But it took 10 years. How many of us? If I had. Listen, I will be honest. If I had known it was going to take 10 years, I'd have probably never done it. I'm so GRATEFUL it took 10 years. You know why? Because I learned delayed gratification. I have a 10 year patient here. Are you listening at a 10. I have a 10 year patience factor wired inside of me. You know how I got it? I took 10 years to develop it. I didn't know it was going to take 10 years or I never would have done it. Listen, everything you do requires patience. It requires delayed gratification. Because the law of reaping and sowing is as sure as the sun's coming up tomorrow. It's as sure as breathing. It's as sure as anything and everything in life. Now, many times we are in a situation where we don't know exactly what's taking place. And because of that, it requires a little more learning. It requires a little more education. I mean, after all, none of us know everything, okay? So because none of us know everything, it takes time to learn and grow. I believe that's what life is primarily about, learning and growing. If you're learning and if you're growing, you're doing what life's supposed to teach you how to do. You got to cooperate with life, learn and grow every day. None of us know any everything. Thomas Edison once said, I love this quote, none of us knows one percent of one millionth of anything. Coming from Thomas Edison, that's probably an incredible statement. But he learned and knew that Education, learning and growing takes time. Now, let me tell you something. If you're going to learn, let me give you three concepts about learning something new. I'm so glad I know this. I have five college degrees. I've been around the world. I've been a school teacher, a director of curriculum, a school principal my whole life, really. I see myself as a school teacher. That's probably. I mean, I know a motivational speaker, I've been a pastor, been a teacher, business owner, a lot of different things, but I see myself as a school teacher. I love to stand up and teach and encourage people and give them wisdom and guidance that I have learned out of my personal experience. Well, if you're going to learn anything in life, there are three things. I wish somebody had explained this to me. There are three things that you need to recognize must happen if you're going to learn and grow in life. Number one, you have to learn some new vocabulary words. For example, when I started studying real estate, I didn't know what passive income. I didn't know what residual income. I didn't know what an asset was from a liability. But I learned, you know why? I studied it, I read about it, and I started learning new words. Uh, someone asked me one time, even in my business, how are your revenues? I thought to myself, revenues, revenues. What are revenues? I know what internal revenue is, but what are revenues? You see that word, revenues means income. But I didn't know that. You don't know what you don't know. A little aside note. When I was growing up, I was reading to my mom one day and I was reading in the reading book, I think I was around the fourth grade. I said, the man bought four. Four loves of potatoes. My mother said, what? I said, the man bought four loves of potatoes. My mother said, what is a love? I said, I don't know. She said, spell it. I said, l, B, S loves. She laughed and laughed. She said, robert, that doesn't say lubs. That says pounds. That's a British abbreviation for pounds. Well, excuse me, I guess I missed that information. I thought LBs sounds a lot. L, B. But S loves four, four or five lubs of potatoes. Oh, my mother thought that was so funny, which kind of hurt my feelings. But guess what? I discovered something new that day. LBs is a British abbreviation for pounds. A man bought 5 pounds of potatoes or 4 pounds or 10 pounds or how many ever pounds he bought. The point I'm trying to make is I had to learn some new vocabulary. Think about all the new vocabulary words all of us have had to learn in the past. Ram. The word ram. When I was growing up, a ram was an animal that lived up in the mountains. Now rams become part of your computer. I mean, you know, there's a million words that we learn, and the English language has over a million words that you got to learn new words. When I was in geometry, the teacher said, we're going to learn theorems. Theorems. Never heard that word my life. I thought, I know what a theory is. What's a theorem? That's the two sides of the equation in geometry. I didn't know that. Number one, you've got to learn vocabulary. And this is why you have to have patience with yourself, because it takes time. It takes time to learn new words, new vocabulary. If you're going to be a learner, recognize I've got to learn some new vocabulary. Number two, you have to learn systems. Systems. In other words, if you're in a classroom or if you're studying, maybe the system is reading. Maybe the system is group discussion. Maybe the system is writing a paper. Maybe the system is taking a test. There's so many different systems in the world of learning and in the world of education. Some systems require group discussion. Some systems are you take notes. Some systems are read the chapter and write an outline. Everybody's got a different system. If you're in school or if you're learning or if you're making an advancement in your life, meaning you're trying to learn and grow, recognize. I've got to learn some new systems. When I began to study real estate, I had to learn systems. I didn't understand what a draw was. I didn't understand so many things because I didn't know what the systems were. First there's new vocabulary, then there's systems. The third and final thing that you have to know is you have to recognize their different personality styles. Some people that you work with are going to be Hades. Hurry up, get to the bottom line. Cut to the chase, man. Let's go. Dominant. Some are going to be inspiring. How you doing? Hey. Hey, Joseph. So good to see you today. They're going to be uplifting. They're going to have a lot of encouragement. That is, to me, my personality style. But I've learned if I'm dealing with someone else, I need to adjust. Me. If I'm working with a dominant type, hurry up, get to the point. If I'm working with an inspiring type, lighten up, take your time. Third one is the supportive type. Be gentle, be loving, be kind, listen I'm married to this. My wife is so precious to me and I learned from watching the way she treats everybody. We were on our way to church last Sunday. We had to stop. There was a turtle in the road. She had to hop out and move it. And then she said, remember, if you ever do this, always point the turtle in the direction he was heading, because if you take him back to the other side, he's just going to turn around and come back and probably get run. I was thinking to myself, this is good to know. This is good information. I'll remember it the next time I stop on a highway and pick up a turtle. Anyway, you get the idea. They're supportive, loving and kind. If you're dealing with them, be nice. Look at. Look into their eyes. Thank them, say, I appreciate you, boy. That's the way to grow in that. With that kind of personality. Stand in the last ones, the C type, the cautious type. The cautious types, the one that's careful and concern and critical thinking. They're always asking why they're trying to figure things out. So there you have it. Those are the three things you have to learn. New vocabulary, you have to learn systems, and you have to learn the personality style if you're going to learn and grow. All this is wrapped up in delayed gratification and patience. I've said a lot. The wisdom of Solomon. You may need to re listen to this. I've spent 75 years learning it and I'm giving it to you in less than 20 minutes. But recognize this if you don't remember anything else. The law of sowing and reaping is as sure as. As the law of breathing and staying alive. The sun coming up tomorrow and eating and drinking and eventually having to use the restroom. Because Those laws are 100% sure. They are the laws of reaping and sowing. Look on the bright side. Start sowing great things in your life and you'll reap a great harvest. I'm Dr. Robert Rohm. I hope this podcast has been helpful. I look forward to sharing another one with you real soon. God bless you. Bye. Bye. For more information about this podcast, please visit www.becomingwiserpodcast.com.