The teachings of Jim Rohn have popped into my life recently on two separate occasions.

One way is a little book I found squeezed between two bigger volumes on my bookshelf. It’s called “The Treasury of Quotes by Jim Rohn.” A friend gave it to me years ago. I’ll share some of the quotes in a future blog.

The other instance is this video sent to me by another friend. It’s based on Rohn’s new book, “Lessons on Life.”

The video makes several points on ways to live to a successful life. Here’s a few of them.

• Learn to be happy. The video defines happiness as “activity with purpose.”

When I was younger, I thought happiness was over-rated. To me honest, people who were happy ticked me off, which of course made me even less happy.

I’m not sure where or how I learned it, but somewhere along the way, I got it in my head that I was somehow a better person if I was unhappy. I was almost snobbish about my unhappiness. I looked down on happy people like riff-raff who had not yet learned the high and holy ways of being unhappy.

As I’ve gotten older, I see how utterly ridiculous that is. Why not be happy? Being happy certainly beats being unhappy. And the great thing is, happiness is a choice. If you want to be happy, all you have to do is decide to be happy. Now some things will make you sad at times, but for the most part, happiness is only a decision away.

• Discipline yourself. Discipline, according to the video is the bridge between thought and accomplishment. We all suffer from either the pain of discipline, which weighs ounces, or the pain of regret, which weighs tons, the video says.

We often think of discipline in a negative sense, as in punishment. But discipline, as in self-control, is a positive. We become better people when we learn to apply ourselves.

• Embrace change. The video points out that we can change all things for the better when we change ourselves for the better.

Today, it seems change is happening everywhere. Someone said the only constant in the world these days is change.

So change is happening. We can’t stop it. Why not embrace it and make the most of it by changing ourselves for the better.

• Live well. If we don’t design our own lives someone else will, according to the video.

Too often we get stuck in the day-to-day existence of life. We do the so much that busyness becomes our only business.

It seems difficult, but we are in control of our lives. We just have to realize it and do something about it.

Take some time and think about where your life is going. It’s a great time to start improving your life for the better.

Want to know what the best five years of your life are?

The next five years. Make the most of them.

Steve DeVane