Today we’re listening to 22 minutes of Zig…straight. But it does have a chaser! We’ll break it down so you can’t help but take action. This is what we do on The Ziglar Show. Speaking of which, thanks for the continual amazing reviews in iTunes. Even the occasional poor review keeps us mortal and believable and flawed. And committed to improving. Which is the point, right folks?!
Today’s focus is on Zig’s foundational message, building a healthy self-image. This comes from Zig’s ever-popular “Strategies for Success” series. Over time, I’ll give you the entire $300 series for free, right here on the podcast. A series that right now you can’t buy, as it’s being repackaged. When it is available, I’ll let you know right away.
In the meantime, I’ll offer you the success series for exactly 25 times that amount. That’s right, you can buy it soon for $300, or get it this March, in a very different format, for 25 times that much. Why? Well, you can read and watch the best info on fitness in the world, absolutely for free. It’s all there, right now. Isn’t that amazing?! In the year 2016, the most evolved, brilliant information on fitness and total wellness is available online at the click of a button, absolutely free. Which means you are in top shape, right? No sickness, illness or disease. No fat, with complete mobility and the strength to do 15-20 pull ups and 50-75 push ups.
Right?
Wait…is that not the case? Well, why?
I’ll tell you why. You’re human. And we all need help. Which is why we join health clubs and hire personal trainers and join group activities to help us actually understand and follow through and be accountable and do the work. We need to be with other people like us, who want and desire and expect and are taking the steps to achieve MORE.
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So now, consider what Zig has to say. Strap yourself in for 22 full minutes of the best of Zig. Ready? Set? Here you go. I’ll join you afterwards to break it down and make it stick!
I hope you were as thoroughly impacted as I was, to hear so much classic Zig from the stage. So as we do here on The Ziglar Show, let’s break the message down so we can act on it. Because you’re not here to be simply inspired, right? You’re here to aspire and take action. And to do so, we have to remove the real and perceived obstacles.
Let’s do that.
OK, Zig leads off with, “You gotta be the right person, you gotta do the right things, in order to have all that life has to offer.”
Zig is the optimist’s optimist. He believes you really do want all that life has to offer. I’m admittedly not quite as optimistic. I’m afraid a lot of people have “settled.” They want as much as they can reasonably get, but they aren’t shooting hard for a lot more. They no longer expect to have all the good things that life, and their Creator, have to offer. They are looking at just enough to be reasonably comfortable and do NOT want to risk losing that.
However, many of these people feel something is missing. Something is lacking. And for that, they feel guilty. They should be happy with what they have. Count their blessings.
You know what? I agree, you should have contentment and peace with what you have. Right now. Me, too! But should we be satisfied and just coast and maintain? In the Bible in Matthew 25, verses 14-30, we have one of the most well-known parables from Jesus. The parable of the talents. Go read it if you aren’t aware. But in it, a man was given five talents to keep for his employer. Think of it as $5,000. The man took it, invested it, and doubled it to $10,000. Another servant he gave two talents. He also doubled it. To the last he gave one. This one hid it, to ensure he could return the one. The employer applauded the first two men who had doubled the talents, and harshly admonished the last one.
The point? Well, I think there are actually two. One is to be honest with yourself about how many “talents” you believe God in Heaven gave you. Five? Two? One? If you believe one, then right there is the priority issue for your life. Figure out why you believe you got only one, and seek to know you are living under a great lie that will keep you down for life. You must rise above this.
Lesson number two, let’s expand this to the literal word of “talents.” Call them abilities, skills, experience, insights, understandings, smarts, gifts and more. Whatever you have, you are called to multiply them. Thus, there is never any coasting. Never any settling.
So when Zig talks about being the right person and doing the right things in order to have all that life has to offer, if that doesn’t grab you, then insert, “In order to responsibly multiply what you have been given.” You’ve been given much, so you can give much, and that requires multiplying and growing!
And we’re only five seconds into Zig’s message! But if we get that foundation nailed, the rest is easy sailin’. Easy to understand and apply. Without it, we’re out at sea with no sail and no wind.
Let’s talk about money. Zig is so artful at showcasing what money can and can’t buy, but you notice he doesn’t leave room to have just one or the other. Money can buy a house, but not a home. We understand that. But it’s awfully hard to make a loving, nourishing home, if you can’t afford the walls of a house to create it within. We need both.
Zig says, “You can get just about everything on this earth that money can buy, without character. But you can’t get any of the things money won’t buy, without that character.”
He then goes on to tell the story of getting new bifocals, and from that experience, realizing the profession he was in, his calling, was helping people get new vision. Helping them to be able to see what has always been there, but they have never seen it. Zig says, “Man was designed for accomplishment. He’s engineered for success. He’s endowed with the seeds of greatness.”
But I want us to focus here, folks. I think so often when people hear a message like this, it’s not really believable. The idea that if they merely get a new perspective on themselves, a healthy self-image, they’ll go from ordinary to extraordinary immediately! Like the movies, where a regular person gets caught on a crazy machine or chemical reaction and wakes up the next morning a superhero.
And you know what, you’re right. That will not happen. When you get your paradigm shifted to understand the reality of your potential, it will be just that. Potential. If you have the seeds of greatness in you to be extraordinary in some area, they are just that, seeds! You must now grow them. But you can’t grow them until you believe they exist.
One of my favorite movies is called “Invincible.” It’s based on the true story of a guy named Vince Papale. He was a good athlete, though he didn’t play football in college. He became a school teacher, but kept up his athletic abilities. He ultimately made it into the Philadelphia Eagles’ pro football team. High-paid players who’d devoted their lives to the sport through high school and college and had the best coaches and trainers to get them where they were. For Vince to make it onto the team, this regular guy had to be better than the best breeding and preparation.
But he did, and became, at age 30, the oldest rookie in the history of the NFL to play without the benefit of college football experience.
He was an “overnight success.” But he wasn’t. He had discovered some “seeds of greatness” and he continued to grow them, even though he wasn’t in the real playing field.
We are to discover our seeds, then get to the hard work of growing them. Folks, if you get out of high school and college and attempt to truly grow yourself, you’ll automatically, right there, be in the top 1% of the world’s population. Very few folks actually work to learn and grow and achieve much after formal education.
Of course, I’m talking to the 1% right now. It’s you. You are here, listening, and taking action. Or about to... right?
Zig talks about a healthy self-image and pride NOT being a super-inflated ego. Man’s fall was not pride, but vanity. Honest, legitimate pride is a very positive thing.
Think about it from a recipient’s standpoint. Do you want a brain or heart surgeon who is confident in their work and would admit, sitting across the table from you, they are very good at what they do?
How about a photographer for your family pictures? A mechanic for your car, especially the one installing the brakes on a loved one’s car?
How about a babysitter for your children?
You get the point. So what about you? What do you have a healthy, legitimate pride in regarding your abilities and character? Zig discovered he had a knack, a seed, for communicating with people. He honed it and trained it and honed it and trained it and tested it and refined it. And he grew to know, and state, that he was a masterful presenter. Yet he did it with great humility, and we love him for it.
Zig briefly touches once again on the phenomenon of how much we get done on the last day of work before we go on vacation. Now, folks, it’s not a perfect analogy. That day you are working hard, frantic, running around like a chicken with its head cut off. You surely don’t want to do that every day, and it wouldn’t be healthy.
But pay attention to the point. On the day before vacation, you treat things more seriously. You are so focused. You don’t waste time. You don’t peruse Facebook and get distracted with so many non-essential, shiny objects. You are very efficient and effective and purposeful. When you have an objective, when you feel responsible to multiply your talents every day, you will harness all these positive attributes daily. Whether you are that person today or not, you probably know someone who is. Why not you?
I’ll also say it’s hard to be perfect every day. Even Zig had off days. Days he wasn’t so productive. He wasn’t perfect, and you don’t have to be. You can’t be! But average out the days…who are you being? Who do you want to be? Treat most days with the focus you have on the day before vacation, and you’ll end up with far more time and money to take more frequent, grander vacations!
A mere to-do list is setting goals.
Zig gives focus to taking responsibility and making commitments. I love the analogy he gives here. He says when you are committed, when you hit the wall, and you will, your first thought is, “How do I solve this?” If you haven’t made the commitment your first thought is, “How do I get out of this deal?”
Folks, in my many years of helping people pursue self-employment, that one concept is paramount in who succeeded. It wasn’t the best business plan, the most money to invest, or the most charismatic leader. The success came to those who were committed to making it happen, and who overcame the obstacles that DID come.
Having a game-plan is moving decisively and purposefully toward your next objective.
When passion is born, that’s when performance takes monumental leaps forward.