Rumi and Jim Rohn

You may wonder why I paired the two in my title. Well, the truth is, they are pretty similar in some ways, at least to me. One, they are both my mentors. And two, they both continue to teach me one important lesson: to be able to change your life, YOU have to change.

Rumi said in one of his poems, a story about a boy who wasn’t happy with his life. He first attempted to change his family, but he couldn’t do that. So, he attempted to change his town, but he couldn’t do that either. So, he attempted to change his city, but even that was impossible it seemed. Thus, the boy, all motivated, attempted to change his country. And when I claim “change”, I really mean change the people, the government, the culture, all of it. However, it seemed that he was reaching a dead-end. The boy didn’t give up and made one last attempt and this time, he tried to change the world. Finally, unfulfilled and exhausted, the boy turned inward. He decided, the only thing that he IS fully able to change, is himself.

Likewise, Jim Rohn always used to say that you cannot blame the environment, the economy, the government, the politics, the schooling, the weather, the colleagues, the taxes, or anything else for that matter, because in the end of the day, you can't change any of that. You have to work with what you've got and instead change YOU! 

It is a great lesson to be learned from these two great men and only when you apply them into your day to day life consciously, do you really realize just how profound and relieving this can be. You can be successful; all you have to change and develop, is you.