Yes, It Says “When” Not If!
ADVANCE CONFIDENTLY!
“What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness.” ~John Steinbeck
I once believed that Winter was simply a season. Then, as good fortune would have it, I met Jim Rohn. He described winter in a way I had never heard it described before. He spoke about winter as a season of life.
As a matter of fact, he wrote The Seasons Of Life in 1981 and I heard about this “philosophical glimpse into the common threads interwoven among the laws of nature and man” when I attended my very first seminar in 1991. It’s interesting that I attended this seminar 10 years after he wrote the book and was blessed with the opportunity to get a copy of the new book he was releasing at the time.
It wasn’t just any copy. It was a signed, limited edition copy that is now one of my prized possessions. The Five Major Pieces To The Life Puzzle, Copy Number 251 of 2,500 and is hereby certified by the author on the date indicated below and signed Jim Rohn, 2/21/91.
Inside the front cover of the book are scribed the following words:
Bobby,
For the best of life and treasure,
Jim Rohn
I left the seminar with both book and notebook in hand and inside the notebook filled from front to back were the words of wisdom he shared that day. As a newly sober college student I had no idea what to expect when I walked in the door. The only thing I knew was to come prepared to take notes and because my mother prepared me, I had my notebook and I managed to get out of that seminar with all of the information that would become the foundation for the rest of my life.
“The first great lesson of life to learn is that winter will always come; not only in the winter of cold, and wind, and ice, and snow, but the human winters of despair and loneliness, or disappointment, or tragedy. It is winter when prayers go un- answered, or when the acts of our children leave us shaken and stunned. It is winter when the economy turns against us, or when creditors come after us. It is winter when competition threatens, or when a friend takes advantage. Winter comes in many forms, and at any time, both to the planter of crops as well as to the person in business, or even to our personal lives.”
Prior to attending Mr. Rohn’s seminar, I had never heard the adversity of life described as winter. I knew Shakespeare had words about the winter of discontent and Mr. Rohn did not disappoint in this arena either.
He talked about the winter when you can’t figure it out and the winter when it all goes wrong. He talked about the winters of our life. The winters of a death, of a divorce, of a tragedy, of the things we can’t understand; things like Covid for example… However, he also talked about what we do know and that we know it’s possible for us to weather any storm. It’s possible for us to get through all winters.
Mr. Rohn talked about the passing of time when he described how we get through winters. He simply said you can’t change the winter and you can’t change the seasons, but you can change yourself!
His answer was for us to all ask ourselves about what we can do to get through the winters of life. He suggested we could be better prepared to deal with the winters as they naturally present themselves with the same regularity of the seasons.
He suggested we could all get stronger, we could all get smarter, we could all get better. He then stated this applies to all of us, me included. I’ve gotten better, we can all get better.
I remember him describing what happened the first time he stood up to give a speech. He said I stood up and my legs sat back down. I stood up and my mind sat back down. He then went on to describe the secret of his success… He said, I stood up and did it again, and then I did it again, and then I did it again and I kept on doing it until my mind and my legs stood up with me. I did it when I was scared, and I did it when I didn’t want to, and I even did it when I was ill. I did it when it didn’t work well, I did it when it wasn’t appreciated, I did it a lot of times when I didn’t really even know what I was doing and I did it anyway and eventually, I learned, I got better. I got better in spite of the winter, in spite of the downturns, in spite of money problems. I got stronger, I got better… I can still hear those words in my head 30 years later because that’s how profound an impact his words had on me that fated day.
I also remember him saying the key is not to wish for a better winter but to wish for more strength, more wisdom, more courage, to get better, to get wiser, to get stronger. He said, there’s no winter that you can’t overcome, there’s no winter that you can’t figure out how to survive. He finished with the understanding that winters don’t last forever, hang on!
The final piece of advice I remember was Mr. Rohn reminding all of us to never let the effects of winter interfere with the arrival of Spring!
Spring is here! What will you do with this one wild and precious Spring?
My name is Bobby. I am The Inspirationalist!
I inspire people to pursue their gifts!
If my words somehow inspired you to pursue your gift, then I succeeded…
By the way, if you enjoyed this article, I believe you will thoroughly enjoy my next book, Advance Confidently. I look forward to sharing it with you on the 4th of July.
Keep Pedaling, Keep Going, Keep Growing!
Advance Confidently!
If you enjoyed and found value in this article, please share it.
In Gratitude,
Bobby Kountz, Author, Speaker, Sobriety Scholar, Inspirationalist!
PS. You can find out more about me here. You can find my book on Amazon.
