Jim Rohn “Make the Past More Valuable to Serve You for The Future.”

I caught a “special screening” of a Quentin Tarantino movie once.

About 90 minutes into it, everything stopped. Curtains closed. Lights back on.

It took a few seconds before I realized what was happening.

We were in an intermission.

Back in the day, when movies were screened using film reels, the projectionist needed time to change the reel. Thus the intermission.

Despite being caught off guard a bit, I kinda liked those 12 minutes of down time before the movie picked back up again.

Not only did I have plenty of time for a leisurely tinkle, but it gave me an opportunity to collect my thoughts and absorb what had transpired on-screen for the past hour and a half.

In hindsight, it made the movie a little bit better.

These days, the digitization of movies, as well as the need to squeeze as many showtimes onto the theater’s schedule, has made the intermission obsolete.

Now we plow straight through 2 to 3 hours of flick, not always entirely sure about what’s going on. Bladders at capacity. Wrestling with the urge to check our phones.

So, what does this have to do with anything?

Well, as they say, art often imitates life. The most basic spiritual and personal development teachings call for deliberate intervals of rest and reflection.

Yet, to take a brief intermission between the scenes of life has become a lost art.

We’re too busy for that.

Too busy to collect our thoughts before the next scene unfolds. To intentionally contemplate our experiences from the past and invest them in the future. To reflect on what’s working and what’s not.

We get so caught up in our routines, in our repetitive thoughts, feelings, and habitual actions, that we seldom take the time to consider our selves.

So we tend to relive the same day … week … year … decade, over and over again. Because it’s impossible to change what we’re unaware of.

And awareness is what comes through in the moments between the scenes.

Today on the podcast, Jim Rohn closes out the week with a lesson on reflection, remembering, and turning your experiences into valuable wisdom for the present and the future.

You can find today’s full talk here.