Life is like the changing seasons. This is one of the most valuable lessons I got when I was in the darkest times of my life. I’ve just moved to America looking for a share of the American dream. Little did I know what was awaiting me here. It was a cold winter morning when I got that terrible news about the death of a family. Soon I found myself in one of the longest winters of my life. It was like someone swept away the ground under my feet. I was scared and I knew I will not be able to make it on my own. That’s when I met a man whose words touched my heart. Jim Rohn told me, “you cannot change the seasons”, that’s impossible, seasons are gonna come however they’re gonna come and you cannot change that. Then he went on to say, “but you can change YOURSELF”. That was the message I got in that long winter. YOU CAN CHANGE YOURSELF. This put me into a journey of self-development. Here I want to share with you four major lessons that I learned from his book called the seasons of life.
First is to learn how to handle the winters. It’s a fact of life that winter follows the fall. Night comes after day. Difficulty follows opportunity. This has been the rhythm of life for as long as we know of. Now, there are all kinds of winter. The winter of sickness, the winter of disappointment, the winter of a death of love one, personal winters when your heart is smashed into thousands pieces and the nights are unusually long. It’s simply called winter times. The winters are inevitable. But you can concur your winters. This is the message I got from Jim Rohn. Now, my question was how do you handle the winters. Here is what he said, you can get better, and you can get stronger, and you can get wiser. There is no winter that you cannot overcome. And here is another thing, Winter doesn’t last forever. So I learned to become wiser, become stronger, and become better to handle the winters that are gonna come in my life. If you work on yourself you’re gonna be able to handle whatever winter comes your way, I promise you that.
Now here is the next season. Spring always comes. Sometimes the winter seems long, the night seems like it will never pass. But sure enough, the night has to give away to the day. The difficult times have to give away opportunities. I don’t know what winter you might be in, but spring always comes. Just hang in there when the night is dark. Now here is what Jim Rohn taught me to do with spring. He said, take advantage of the spring. Just because spring comes, there is no sign you’ll gonna look good at the harvest. You must do something with it. It is true that dark times don’t last forever, but here is what you’ve got to also understand, spring also doesn’t last forever. Don’t be lazy, especially in the spring. Don’t be distracted, especially in the spring. You’ve got to take advantage of every spring that comes because there is only a handful. Life isn’t forever. It finally comes to the end. We all have periods of time and when they come you’ve got to take advantage of each time that comes. At the longest life is brief. So don’t waste your opportunities. Each spring that comes, don’t let them all pass, take advantage.
Now here is number three. Summer comes after spring. The summers are called challenging times. In the summer we’ve got two things going for us. One is opportunity, but the other is to watch out for the enemies. Jim Rohn taught me to nourish my values in the summer. Be mindful of investing in the summer in every possible person you can invest in. Now here is what else you must do in the summer, you must lookout for the enemies. Like a father who would guard carefully his family, stand guard over your values. Whatever threatens you, threaten it back. Stand up, take control and do battle with your enemies wherever you find them. We must also deal with the enemies within ourselves. Indifference is one of them. You might be casual and say, I just go along and see what happens. Jim Rohn taught me not to be casual. He said casualness creates casualty. Indecision is another enemy within. Indecision is called the thief of opportunity. Make a decision even if you make the wrong decision. If it doesn’t work out, it gives you the experience to make a better decision. Here is the next enemy, doubt. We’ve all got to deal with it. It’s easy to doubt. Don’t doubt your own ability. Don’t doubt your strength. If anyone can make it through the winter, you can make it.
Now here is the last season. It’s called the season of harvest. After a long summer, that we’ve been disciplined, we’ve nourished our values, we’ve fought our enemies, then as one writer said in the ancient script, in due time your harvest will come (Galatians 6:9). This is what Jim Rohn told me in those long winter days. I want to tell you the same thing. Your day will come. Your harvest is sure, it’ll be there for you. Just work on yourself, it’ll be a trill beyond imagination. Then you’ll be able to say, my gosh, the hard work has paid off. The lonely nights have paid off. Working hard every day has paid off and my harvest has finally come. Now here are a couple of things I learned from the harvest time. Accept your personal harvest with full responsibility. No need to complain if you haven’t done well because it’s your crop. Whatever your harvest is, you’ve got to say, that’s my harvest. Don’t complain. Here is another thing, don’t apologize if you’ve done well. You deserve the harvest because of all your hard work.
I came out of my winter a totally different person. Before, when I faced a difficulty, I used to say, I wish life was easier. I don’t say it anymore. Instead, I say, I wish I was stronger. And that’s the priceless lesson I learned. You cannot change what is going out there, but you can always change yourself. You can make yourself stronger and wiser. This is not gonna be easy, but believe me, it will be worth it. If you change yourself, everything in your life will change for you. I never wish to go back to my old self. And if I can do this, anyone of you can do this.