Friends, over time, over 100,000 people will listen to this one episode of the Ziglar Show. But right now, in the coming weeks, it will be about 35,000. And for you, we’re in the height of the holidays. Ziglar’s gift to you is - hope. The title of today’s show is, ”Everything affects everything else”. And the core of it all is hope.
This is not a microwave solution. It’s not “10 steps to a result”. Results we often don’t get, because the foundational step is YOU. And if you aren’t aptly equipped personally, the best steps and the perfect circumstances are pretty much just pissin’ in the wind.
How’s that for Christmas cheer? You know what? It’s awesome. It’s what we all need. Me too!
Folks, I listen to Zig constantly. I’m well paid to listen and give commentary. I get to interview and break down the messages of Zig, Dave Ramsey, Andy Andrews, Tom Rath and more. I get to get into their business. And you know what I’ve unequivocally found? These guys are average, flawed, weak, hurt, handicapped, mortal people. But for some reason, they dared to hope. Not believe! Not be certain! But to just a little…hope. Just enough to ACT.
I’m so sorry folks, but the world is not conspiring to help you. God, I believe, is. And his saints, like Zig! But the world you live in, is by far and large, not, conspiring to help you believe. Not if you go with the flow.
But if you will, like in the movie, We Bought A Zoo says, "Have 20 seconds of insane courage" and dare to believe more for yourself, you will rise like your soul knows you should, and are well capable of.
So, on that note, I just spent time with Tom Ziglar and the Ziglar team, planning out some 2016 objectives. One of the hottest things happening at Ziglar that is radically changing people’s lives is the Ziglar Legacy Certification course. People spend tens of thousands of dollars on formal degrees they hope will gain them more success in work and life. For much less, you can equip yourself to perform at the top, AND get the Ziglar brand behind you. Literally. There will be four courses in 2016, limited to 25 people each. The next one is March 14-18, 2016.
Get details at ZiglarCertified.com. I encourage you to just
fill out the inquiry form and really talk through the details. There is no hard sell because you actually have to quality to come. So inquiring is purely informational. But this is one of those lifetime events and catalysts to significantly alter and evolve your life. Who you are. What you do in your lifetime. It’s your legacy to make or break. I invite you…ZiglarCertified.com.
OK, now I’m giving you 10 minutes of pure Zig. A guy who dared to hope. And it changed him so much, he devoted his life to helping others hope.
Here you go:
OK folks, I pulled out a handful of statements Zig made that deserve focus.
Zig references, “You can’t change from a negative mindset to a positive mindset, without changing from negative talking to positive talking.” Further, you must change from negative input to positive input.
Then he says, and I highlight dramatically, "Listen over and over and over. Repetition is the mother of learning and the father of action."
This is ancient advertising knowledge. Depending on the platform, people won’t respond till the 5th or 8th or even 15th time. Businesses spend billions of dollars on this truth. Billions. They’d love to save money and only do one ad, but they know the truth and do the absolute necessary, required repetition in order to get ANY results. So what about us? Why don’t we take a message and truth we need, and put it on repeat? We as a culture voraciously want the next thing when it comes to information. We want the latest. Today. New. I understand, I'm the same way.
But then think about movies that really impact us. Why do we want to watch them over and over? We want to revisit what impacted us. What was funny and made us laugh, what was meaningful and touched our heart, what made us cry and resonated with our soul, what scared us and made us feel, what intrigued us and made us think. And my favorite, what influenced us with a redemptive truth and changed us.
So what do you need? What do you want?
I have a collection of movies that make me aspire to more. Make me strengthen my convictions. Make me want to be a better husband, father, friend, leader. Make me want to be a better man. I watch them again and again. Often as I’m crafting these shows! Same with music
So, finding messages of guidance, inspiration, motivation and repeating them, instead of going on to the next book, the next blog, the next PODCAST, the next video. Even if you take in new information, make sure you repeat the messages you really need. Give them reverence. Listen until you believe and own it and take action and change your life. THEN, find something new. But never leave the important ones.
This right here, I think is the most important action point in our show. You could stop here and be good. But wait, there’s more! Cause you’d miss the most important message in the show!
Zig said, 'When hope is born, action follows." Folks. Seriously. Screech to a halt for a moment! “When hope is born, action follows!” Hope is the precursor to belief. That’s a quote by me. Inspired by Zig. But it’s true. Hope is NOT belief, but it’s getting close. It’s enough, it’s faith enough - to take action. And folks, you don’t have to fully believe to take action. You just have to believe ENOUGH to move. To jump.
The point? First seek hope. If you don’t have hope, enough to believe a little and move forward, quit messing around with anything else. What is it you desire? Secretly, openly - whatever? What do you want? What do you dream of? What are you bitter about not having? What do you think you deserve?
Whatever it is, step back and simplify and focus. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, which you DO, or you wouldn’t be here, listening to this show - you’d be listening to some shallow ear candy…
your mission, is to find hope
. A slight, smidgen of hope and belief that you could actually do it. Move forward toward whatever it is you think would be worthy for your life.
Back to movies, how many are there that hinge on this; a character who wants something, and dares to believe it just MIGHT be possible. They don’t have it all figured out. They don’t have great circumstances and often have overwhelming obstacles and slim chances. But they are either brave enough, or stupid enough, to dare to move forward toward something. Stupid is fine! Better than all us smart people who see the possibility for failure and do nothing!
OK, next Zig says, "Encouragement is the fuel on which hope runs." Friends, the truth is, most people do not have encouragement. From their spouse, friends, parents…anyone. Encouragement is in shorter supply than street blocks without a McDonalds or Starbucks. Far less than that. Which means you have to be your own encouragement. Which is why you’re listening here! Zig Ziglar is the patron saint of Encouragement and he’s giving it to you here! That makes me junior assistant to the saint of all encouragement. This is not pollyanna evangelism. It’s not unfounded motivation. It’s not blowing sunshine up your hindquarters. But Zig’s quote of, “God don’t make no junk”, is absolute truth.
If you’ll simply believe in a higher power that didn’t take the time to create you for mere filler, then you have grounds of hope. Grounds that pass far beyond your parents and upbringing and circumstances and self image and wounding and programming and…everything.
If you don’t have personal encouragement in your life, I’m so sorry. It’s going to have to be up to you for now. I would ask you to try doing it for others though. It will get returned.
Zig’s next point, "You’ve gotta be the right kind of person, you gotta do the right thing in order to have all that life has to offer." Folks, I’m not going to spend too much time here, other than to point out, our culture and media’s focus is unequivocally NOT focused on doing the right thing, first. We’re usually more focused on getting all life has to offer. IS THIS WORKING? Is it working for you?
Now, you can become a celebrity and have some money by NOT doing the right thing. You can make that your goal; to make a million by being a villain, a tyrant, a flash in the pan, a scandal. For a moment, it can gain you grand pleasures. But obviously, proven over and over again, it won’t get you joy and fulfillment and an honored legacy. You can get a scandalous, shameful legacy! We have presidents of the United States with that! You can be infamous. And truth is, many would choose that over mediocrity and anonymity. But I know that is not your goal, neither is it mine. If you’re shooting for anything, why would you shoot for that? Why not go after valor and honor and legacy and
love?!
Your legacy doesn’t have to be worldwide. How about just in your country? Or state? Or city? How about your county? How about…
your home?! How about having a friend or spouse or child testify to your legacy?
True story, I have been a lifetime athlete. I was a pro cyclist for many years. I now suffer from some problems due to old injuries of hitting cars and the pavement at high speeds. I’m working diligently to strengthen my core, but I have some chronic back issues. I’m in pretty tip top shape overall. But a few weeks ago I was trying to mount a snow plow to my jeep with my 20 year old son. In the snow. We had some slips and I tried to hold the incredibly heavy thing myself. I about snapped my back.
So in my weight lifting, I continuously have problems doing heavy weight squats due to my back issues, but i want to work my legs hard. So I finally found a heavy duty legpress machine on Craigslist. It was a 2-hour drive away and I asked my eldest son, Caleb, who is home on break from college, to go pick it up for me. The guy he picked it up from is the owner of a gym in Denver. I got this text from the guy later, “Caleb arrived, we loaded it up, and he's on his way home with the leg press. My boys are 9 and 7. If they turn out half as polite and helpful as Caleb, I'll consider this life a success.”
Friends, I have big goals. I’m 45 and being courted for book deals and speaking engagements and more. But if I die tomorrow, I can’t ask for more than that. That’s right here, in my home. I feel the glory of efforts to do the right thing. On that note, if you heard Andy Andrews recent interview here on The Ziglar Show, he made a statement that stuck. Right after the interview I was down in Texas at the Ziglar headquarters. Tom Ziglar and I were out for coffee and ended up talking about what Andy said again. It was this statement, “Our goal is not to raise great kids. It’s to raise great adults!” My oldest is 20, then I’ve got a 19 year old as well. And I’m now seeing if my efforts to do the right thing as a parent, which was not always just giving my kids what they wanted and bending to them, paid off.
We’ve got an awesome show coming up soon on parenting!
Zig asked, "What is it that you want in life?" Listen to Zig’s list! What is your list? Write it out! Don’t let “setting goals” overwhelm you. You can whip out a piece of paper and list out what you want from life. This next year, five years from now, by the time you die - whatever works for you. Don’t get caught up in “doing goals planning” right.
My best friend and a guy I’m partnered with in a business is a revolutionary doctor. If you ask him what exercise is best, he’ll say, “Whatever one you’ll keep doing!” Same here with "goals". If it motivates you to write out what you want from life this next year, do that. If it’s more tangible or exciting or palatable to write what you want in 5 or 10 years, great. On your deathbed? Fine. This isn’t a right or wrong. It’s an effort to chart a course.
Then we get to this zinger from Zig, "What you send out, is exactly what you’re going to get back." Folks, this is show number 352. In show number 353 we talk with renowned author of Strengthsfinder 2.0, Tom Rath. And he spends much time talking about the value and necessity for positive interactions!
But listen to that again. It’s really hard for me to put this gem as a mere part of a podcast. It’s a life directive. A religion. A profound, universal theology. What you send out is exactly what you’re going to get back. That is daunting! Isn’t it? But it’s a primary crux of absolute success AND opportunity. It’s one of the most known quotes of the Bible, no matter what your faith or belief: Galatians 6:7 - Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. God is not mocked? Whoa. So no matter what your justification or reason or excuse, “God is not mocked”. No matter what, what you sow, is what you will reap.
Now this doesn’t take away God’s grace and mercy. Unmerited favor! But…if you sow:
- Anger
- Frustration
- Lack of compassion
- Revenge
- Criticism
- Judgement
- Intolerance
- Unforgiveness
- Selfishness
- …and on and on. Negativity…
You will reap the same. It’s natural law that God set in motion. Holy moly. We’re all doomed. And we are, without God’s grace. Which gets us all Biblical. If you’re not good with that, well, you’re listening to the wrong podcast.
- “What you send out, is what you’ll get back.”
- You really can have everything in life you want, If, and only if, you help enough other people get what THEY want.”
Folks, I cited this to my five youngest kids yesterday. The qualities that help you succeed in your personal life and professional life are the EXACT same. You can’t separate them. You can’t be that disingenuous to yourself.
Zig said:
- You’re personal life effects your family life.
- You’re family life effects your business life.
- Your business effects your physical.
- Your physical effects your mental.
- Your mental effects your spiritual.
- Your spiritual effects your financial.
- Your financial effects your personal life.
Everything effects everything else.
If that isn’t convicting and daunting and action inspiring, well..I just don’t know what is! Your actions, your decisions, every day, shape your outcomes. We can’t control much, but we must control ourselves.
The last point I’m pulling out, Zig said, regarding people’s excuses for not succeeding, "It’s not lack of time, it’s lack of direction."
If your toes just got smashed to wafer thin like mind did, it’s OK. I really don’t like that statement. But it’s true nonetheless. Nobody is perfect here, but we can all be better.
Zig said, "When you have got your objectives clearly defined, and a game plan on how you get there, you just don’t sweat the small stuff." Meaning, you don’t get derailed. But without that rudder of a vision and a plan, you just can’t expect much.
So, we have work to do!
Blessings to you all, and thanks for letting me spend some time with you to inspire our true performance!