Do you desire to know the secrets to a bigger future? Would additional income help your family with a better lifestyle? In this episode, Jimmy shares three strategies to help you grow your capabilities and your lifetime income potential with inexpensive tools. The most difficult action required of you is to decide you want to experience a better way of life.
Episode Keys:
- How gaining wisdom enhances your marketability and value to the marketplace.
- Why it is critical for your lifetime earnings to become a lifetime learner.
- How to convert your daily commute into a classroom of great value.
- When you should stop the learning process – NEVER!
- Unveiling secret powers that you never knew you had within you and the method to achieving immediate change in your life.
Podcast Transcription
Good morning. It’s another beautiful day here in the great United States, especially in my state of Oklahoma. We’re gonna be hitting some 110 degree hit indices today. So now you know why we rise early here in the great state of Oklahoma to get started before the sun starts bearing down, and I am excited to have another day to share with all of our wonderful subscribers and listeners here on Live a Life By Design. I’m Jimmy Williams. I’m gonna tell you something today that I’m, I’m sharing that has been my secret power, if you will, of how to reach accomplishment. And that secret power is simpler to invoke and gain than you think. The issue boils down to is one thing we can’t teach you today, and that is ambition. You have to want something yourself between your own ears more than anything in the world, and whatever that vision is for your life is what you must focus on to achieve your greatness.
The title of this you probably saw was kind of a little bit cheesy maybe, but I like this. And it’s a fact that you learn to earn in life. So think about where you are today in life you are today, to the level that you have learned the skills you have to bring you to that level. So to gain new levels, to reach the pinnacle of success as you desire, you must gain new skills, learn new ways of doing things, and have more knowledge about your respective area of passion. So one of the things I wanna do today is share with you some of my secrets of how I reached where I am today, and I’m gonna share another item of good news with you. I have yet to begun to reach my pinnacle. I’ve had great success. I’m not bragging on that. I have come way beyond anywhere I could have imagined in my career.
I’ve met some of the most talented, fundamentally fantastic people on the planet during my journey, and I look forward to spending time with more of them as I continue this. But you know, learning to me is not a destination, as I said, but a journey. Life has a way of rewarding us based on the lessons and skills we learn along the way after high school graduation, unless the individual attends a college or university, 33% of high school graduates never read another book. You heard me, 33% of high school graduates never read another book. That means the rest of their lives from 18 to whenever their final days are. They do not expand their minds through reading. That is an astonishing percentage, but I’ve got one even better. 42% of college graduates never need, never read another book after college for the rest of their lives.
That to me, sounds despicable. These individuals have effectively stated without meaning to, I am done with learning. What if I gave you a fact that would change this very limiting means of thinking for you? College graduates on average make 1.2 million more dollars over their lifetime than a high school graduate. Now, that’s on average to drive this point home about the importance of lifetime learning. Typical annual earnings for bachelor’s degree holders are 36,000 or 84% higher than those whose highest degree is a high school diploma. Now, I’m not saying everyone needs a college degree now, I don’t think it would hurt you to have one depending on the major you choose, but I’m not saying you have to have one to become successful in life or to even become a lifetime learner. I hope to inspire you to be today. Some people reach their earnings potential at a very high level, astronomical, if you will, and never finished college.
Sure, bill Gates, mark Zuckerberg, Amy Weber, Richard Branson, Zig Ziglar, Jim Rohn, Darren Hardy. I could name thousands of them all reaching the pinnacle of their respective fields, building along the way, millions, if not billions of dollars of net worth in their chosen field. These individuals though are the exception and not the rule. How can you gain wealth without attending a university or college? Let’s explore some avenues of that journey that can be implemented today. As soon as you get through listening to this podcast, I’ve got some action points for you that will change your life if you only start doing them first. You’ve heard me say it many times on this podcast. Read great books. Read books that inspire and teach a skillset you don’t possess or helps you hone the skills that you currently do possess. S books that have been written by people that learn their lessons the hard way can help you learn your lessons and skills in a much less costly fashion. You can be that person that learns from others’ mistakes by simply going to your local library, getting a free library card, and yes, I’m gonna say it, getting free books to change your future. It is that simple.
Now I know what you’re saying. Well, but Jimmy, can they send the books to me without me going to the library? Well, I’ve got news for you. They may be able to do that now in this 21st century, but look what you’re doing When you invoke your energies mind and focus on going to that library personally, you’re telling yourself and putting into motion, I am going to take charge of my future. I am going to take charge of my learning. That’s the critical phase of this. It’s not so much that you can get it easier. You can get it free, you can get it in whatever fashion delivered to you. That’s not the point. The point is, you must change your mindset today to change the trajectory and may I say, potential lifetime earnings for you. The second thing, convert your car into a mobile university.
Listen to podcasts, training sessions, and online courses such as those you can get from the great courses.com. I have more than 80 courses completed on the great courses, which is enough to earn, and here we go, three PhDs. If you look at the hours that it took to learn those sessions and those courses, I know what you’re thinking. How much are these courses? Because I don’t have the extra money to buy them. Well, let’s make this simple. If you can spare $29 to maybe $49, you can purchase most of these courses and immediately change your life. Now, how many of you have gone out to a movie perhaps for entertainment dinner with a friend just went out fishing, whatever you did, and you probably spent more than $29? The point I’m making is you could change your life to where that $29 is not an issue in the future by investing in your life, by learning new skills.
Remember, without investment, there is no return. My library is filled to these courses in studies, areas of history, business ethics, language leadership, and many other areas. Expand your mind and grow your net worth by this simple process. Lastly, expand your vocabulary. Man, if there’s one thing I get on my soap box about is that we limit ourselves in our brain power by not learning new ways to communicate. As the world evolves, people notice how you speak and how you present yourself. The perception is made they say within the first 21 seconds of meeting you, that the other person has made some perception or assumption about your level of wisdom, your level of capability. Now, I know some of us can’t speak with the great articulate language that we do in the South. Some of us in those northern states have a somewhat different approach to annunciation, but I assure you they can learn to improve their speaking just like we have learned to be such great artists of the tongue here in the south of the United States.
Just poking a little fun at my friends from the Northeast. You know, I’m not saying you need a vast number of multi-syllabic words to impress people, but I am suggesting you grow your vocabulary to expand your capabilities to reach and influence others. Without communication, we have no society. Think about that. If you are learning new words that have obviously good definitional meaning and you understand how to use them and articulate them in a sentence while communicating, you are sending the message with greater specificity as well as greater meaning to the listener, to the person reading what you’re writing. I use an app here it is another simple item for you to implement this little task. I use an app from Miriam Webster, the dictionary publisher on my iPhone to learn a word of the day. It pops up every morning. As soon as I arise between five and five 30, I look at that iPhone after I’ve had my day started and I see a new word, and I immediately study the meaning of the word and it’s annunciation so I can use it properly, and then I start implementing that word in my conversations for the day were appropriate, or in my writings to either clients or articles or anything I must put down on paper.
By immediately using these words, you are embedding them in your mind to be used in the storehouse that when again appropriate can be used in front of someone or on a written document. Knowledge is power and power can be used to accomplish the impossible. People think things cannot be done until someone comes along and does them. You can be that person. You can be the earner of greater wealth than anyone in your family for the past 10 generations. If you only apply your intuitiveness, ambition and desire to grow what you know between your ears, it is not simply a fact of reading them. You must learn and use, adapt these new skills to your daily lives. By doing that, people will notice there’s a big difference in you when they see you. The next time, the challenge. This week download the Free dictionary app. That is a simple one.
The next is to log onto success.com. That’s success.com, a free site that has tremendous information available, as I said, for free for you to learn and start the journey to becoming bigger, better, and bolder you. Thank you for joining me this morning on Live a Life By Design. Give this episode a share with all of your friends and family. There’s no one on the planet that doesn’t seek to be better, could not reach their goal through education. Education doesn’t mean strictly formal, but these ideas we’ve given you today can help you become the better you you desire. Until next week!
