Name the definition of success for you. The specific realities, circumstances, ingredients and outcomes. It can’t be 100% altruistic; it must contain some personal desires. Zig gives us 15 minutes onstage, discussing what we all want, how much our work life impacts everything, and the power of…love. Then I, Kevin, dig into the two primary topics.
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This is The Ziglar Show, episode #389, and we hear directly from Zig today. The focus…the health and success we all want in life vs. the realities of our circumstances…especially our work environment. The question would be, can you truly succeed if your work is not rewarding and inspiring? And, further, can your work be successful and rewarding if you aren’t truly able to care for people through it? Big questions. Zig gives us 15 minutes from the stage, then we home in on two focal points.
All right, now to bring you Zig. This is an almost-15-minute clip. We’ll listen in…then pull out a couple things to delve a little deeper into:
OK, I’m going to briefly hit on two main aspects of Zig’s talk, two areas for us all to sincerely consider.
OK…Zig leads off with…
What is it that everybody wants? To be…
- Happy
- Healthy
- Reasonably Prosperous
- Secure
- Have friends
- Peace of mind
- Good family relationships
- Hope that the future is going to be better
People want to love, and they want to be loved.
Then he leads into talking about our work. In essence, his message is saying that who we are and how successful we are in all those areas of life bleeds into all we do.
But there is a bit of “chicken and egg” in his discussion of work life and home life.
If things are rough at home, we’ll bring a handicap into our work. If things are rough at work, we’ll bring that handicap into our home.
But to the reality that Zig started off talking about our work life, there is relevance to the fact that most people spend more time at work than at home. And when you spend eight hours -- more for many of you -- in an environment that taxes your health and joy negatively in any way…it’s very hard to overcome. As a culture, we have often come to expect that work is a necessary evil and we expect it to be a pain. But, folks, we’re kidding ourselves to think we can spend the majority of our day doing something that doesn’t inspire us…that we don’t believe in…and hope to ever reach our true performance!
Doing work you truly believe in and have some passion for is a soapbox of mine, admittedly. Now, I’m not a believer in the old cliché’, “Find work you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.” I think that’s downright stupid. Any work worth doing will be hard and you won’t love every part of it, just as Zig mentioned. But I DO believe if you find work that matters to you, you’ll be inspired every day, and that will help you lead a vibrant, inspired, successful life!
It was about a decade ago when I realized the same thing kept happening. I had people time and time again ask me out for coffee or lunch and, as I’m fond of digging into someone’s interests and well-being, I’ll start hearing the story of how they are…not well. They all feel they should be grateful they have work, but…admittedly, they are struggling with spending their days going through the motions, mainly working for a paycheck.
So I’d start poking and prodding for what they DID enjoy doing. What excited them, inspired them. Almost every time they’d come to very relevant ideas they’d love to be employed in.
As self-employment is all I know, this is what led me to launching Free Agent Academy and spending six years devoted to helping people who wanted to transition from traditional employment to self-employment.
But self-employment vs. traditional is not the point. It’s getting you engaged in and behind…work that matters to you. That fits you. Where you can provide a product or service you believe will benefit people and that, in helping provide it to them, you are…caring for them.
Which leads into the second and final point I’m drawing out from Zig’s talk today:
The segment we are pulling from is:
Winning relationships are at the heart of success
Again, this is from Strategies for Success: Blueprint for Achievement
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Zig tells the story of playing golf with Tom, competing with him, and Tom stating, “Dad, I’m always pulling for you.” An example of love.
Zig goes on to focus on that…love. And he comes back to talking about the workplace. How many of you listening equate the word LOVE…with your work? Not loving the tasks so much even, but loving the people you work with and work for, and customers you provide a product or service to?
Now, don’t get off track here. However you frame love, if you don’t connect with truly loving the people you work with or your customers, the essence is really…extending loving care to them. Care for them personally. That surpasses the work itself. We can all do this, while making plenty of money!
I’m here talking to you now because I believe in this message. I’m working in my core skills and talents. And…I get paid! It’s truly having your cake and eating it, too!
When you need money to survive, you do whatever it takes to get employment to put food on the table. But that’s what it is…survival. That’s valiant for a short time, a brief season. While you search for work that matters to you, that you can really put yourself behind. It’s the only way you’ll ever be at peak performance. It’s the only way you’ll be able to be fully inspired. It’s the only way you’ll be able to come home with true joy. And it’s the absolute best bet for achieving true wealth! And I’m not talking just wealth of being, I’m talking cash!
We must be in a position to PULL for others in our workplace. This goes to Zig’s prominent quote:
You’ve gotta be the right kind of person before you can do the right things.
You’ve gotta do the right things before you can have…what? I don’t know. What do you want and need and feel called to? What are your goals? Only you can say. But this is the formula to achieving them.
Love. Care.