Master Your Goals

By Zig Ziglar

REACH YOUR GOALS IN LIFE

In the world of sales, motivation, public speaking and personal development, there will never be another Zig Ziglar (1926-2012). With an infectious sense of humor, his masterful story-telling skills, his uncanny ability to inspire, and his downhome Southern charm mean that his legacy is one that will last forever.

Here are Zig Ziglar’s ideas, which still hold true in today’s modern world of technology and rapid change on how to reach your goals and live your dreams.

This book features Zig's unforgettable lessons on how to get more of the things that money will buy and all of the things that money won't buy. They are “truths which never change.”

Here's just a sampling of what you'll learn:
• You and Your Goals Program
• The Specifics of Goal Setting
• Reaching Your Goals in Life
• Motivation Plus Information Equals Inspiration
• The Foundations for Greatness
• Overcoming Adversity to Live Your Dreams

• Language: English
• Publisher: G&D Media
• Release date: Sep 30, 2020
• ISBN: 9781722524272

Zig Ziglar

Zig Ziglar, uno de los conferencistas motivacionales más solicitados de los Estados Unidos, transmite su mensaje de humor, esperanza y entusiasmo a audiencias de todo el mundo. Ha escrito numerosos libros que han alcanzado categoría de éxito de librería a nivel mundial.

Book preview

Chapter 1

Your Goals Program

In 1920, Stanford University embarked on a study of 1,440 genius-level youngsters. They followed them all of their life. When the man who originally did the research retired, they simply passed it on in his department. Here’s what they discovered. Those who became outstanding successes were not successful because of their genius. They were successful because they had the ability to focus on what was important and persist until they reached it.

Now you don’t have to be a genius to do that. Let me simply encourage you to take seriously the messages I’m about to give you, because if you do, I will see you—and yes, I really do mean you—at the top.

In this chapter, I’m going to be talking about the complete goals program. Lots of people have individual goals, but very few people have goals programs.

Once I was up in the Pacific Northwest, not far from Portland, Oregon, and I was speaking to the Northwestern Lumbermen’s Association. Those lumbermen were big dudes; they all looked as if they could have been playing defensive end for the Dallas Cowboys. The man in charge had told me, Zig, these people like to hear a lot of stories and jokes, so be sure to tell those.

I was going full speed ahead when all of a sudden, a great big dude about six feet four, who weighed about 275 pounds, stood up and said, Zig, I have a story I want to tell you.

Well, I have a standard policy. If anybody who’s six feet four and weighs 275 pounds wants to tell me a story, I let them. So I said, Go ahead, partner.

He said, I want to tell you about my buddy, Bill. Stand up, Bill. A little dude about five feet two inches tall, who couldn’t have weighed over 120 pounds soaking wet, stood up. The big guy said, "This is my buddy, Bill Carlotta. Old Bill had come into camp here a few weeks ago, walked up to me, and said, ‘Shake hands with your new tree topper.’

"I looked at him, and I said, ‘Bill, a tree topper? That’s the dude that climbs all the way to the top of the tree and cuts the top out, and then has to hang on for dear life. Bill, that’s a job for a man, and you’re just a boy.’

"Old Bill pulled off his shirt and said, ‘I’m a man.’ Zig, I’m here to tell you he is a man. He is all muscle. I still wasn’t convinced. Old Bill said, ‘Tell you what. Let’s go out in the woods, pick out a tree, tell me how long it would take your best man to put it on the ground, and I’ll do it in half the time.’

"We went out in the woods, and we picked out this spruce tree, and Zig, I don’t have a man in camp that could have put it on the ground in less than forty minutes, but old Bill went to work on that sucker, and I’ll tell you that ax moved so fast that it looked like a solid sheet. In less then ten minutes, that tree was on the ground.

"I said to him, ‘Bill, where on earth did you learn how to cut down trees like that?’

"He said, ‘I learned in the Sahara Forest.’

"‘In the Sahara Forest? Bill, the Sahara is a desert.’

He said, ‘It is now.’

Now I think you’ll agree that that guy had a positive attitude, like the lady who was being treated by her hairdresser to a free beauty treatment on her hundredth birthday. As they were talking, the hairdresser said, You know, you are exactly twice as old as I am. Then it got awfully quiet, and the lady getting the permanent looked terribly depressed.

What’s the matter? asked the hairdresser.

I was just thinking. Who on earth am I going to get to take care of my hair when you get too old to do it?

That lady too was an optimistic person.

A lot of people go prepared. I heard about this fellow who was the speaker at a banquet. For the dinner that evening, there was a Greek salad, and there was an olive pit in it. As you know, olive pits are terrifically hard. They’re like rocks. He bit down on it and broke his denture plate.

He was very distressed, and he said to the guy next to him, I don’t know what I’m going to do. My plate is broken.

The guy said, That’s no problem. He reached in his pocket and pulled out a plate. See if this will fit.

The first man slipped it on and said, No, it’s too big.

No problem, said the other man. He reached in another pocket and pulled out another one.

The first guy put it in and said, No, this one’s too little.

His companion reached into yet a third pocket, pulled out another one.

Perfect fit, said the first guy. Man, how lucky can you get? Here I am breaking my plate, and I sit down next to a dentist.

I’m not a dentist, said the second guy. I’m an undertaker. Now there was someone who was prepared.

The Cafeteria Plan

As we look at a goals program, life is very much like a cafeteria line. A number of years ago the redhead (as I lovingly refer to my wife at her request) and I saw this new cafeteria. We knew it was going to be good, because the line was always out the door.

We weren’t willing to wait that long in line, so we kept going past. Then one day we rode past, and we couldn’t see a line, so I said, Hey, it looks like we can get in there today. Let’s go. We parked and walked in, and we understood why the line was not outside, because it was wound all over inside the building.

We’d already parked, so we got in line with around thirty people, and as we got down to the end of the line, we turned around and saw another line of thirty people. Eventually we could see the food.

As we walked down the line, I said to myself, Now, I’m going to get me some of that, and I want me some of that. That looks good. I’ll have me some of that. I want some of that. I love to eat in cafeterias. I like to see what I’m going to eat before I choose it. So I’d already made up my mind. That’s important, because I don’t care how prodigious your appetite is: you cannot eat some of everything that’s on the line.

I didn’t delay anybody. I knew what I wanted. I got to the end of the line, reached in, and took out my money. The lady at the end of the line held up her hand and said, No. You don’t pay for it until you get ready to leave.

You mean you’re going to let me eat all this food before I pay for it?

Yes, that’s just the way we do it.

I have thought about that a lot of times. Life is exactly like a cafeteria inasmuch as we have so many things to choose from. In that particular line, you get to eat, and then you pay. Life is not like that line inasmuch as in life, you pay and then you eat.

Your employer will make you work from two to four weeks before he or she will give you a dime. That’s the way we treat our people. We make them work before we give them the pay.

The farmer plants the crop, raises it, fertilizes it, and harvests it. Then and only then can it go to the marketplace, and he’ll be rewarded for his effort.

Students study their lessons. Then they take the test. Then they graduate. Then they receive their reward.

The point is very simple. You have to do those things before you’re rewarded.

What Everyone Wants

Now let’s identify what everybody wants. Everyone wants to be happy. They want to be healthy. They want to be to be at least reasonably prosperous. They want to be secure. They want to have friends. They want to have peace of mind. They want to have good family relationships, and by all means, they want to have hope.

If you want those things, specifically identify all of them as goals and write them down.

Next, list all the benefits. That’s very important. A lot of people talk only about the problems: I’d go back to school and get my degree, but it’d take me ten years. By then I’ll be forty-five years old. But how old will you be in ten years if you don’t get your degree?

We concentrate on the obstacles and the difficulties instead of the benefits. If a salesperson only talked about the price, how much would they sell? Instead, they talk about the benefits that come with the product. Somebody who has braces on their teeth isn’t happy while they’re wearing them, but they’re wearing them for the benefits that come later. So list the benefits.

Do you have the necessary skills and knowledge to reach this objective? Identify the obstacles. There are obstacles in life; we have to identify them.

You also have to identify the individuals, groups, and organizations to work with. You have to develop a plan of action, with a completion date. That’s what goal planning is really all about.

Happiness Is Victory

Now a question may come up: Wait a minute, Ziglar. You said that everybody wants to be happy. Can you really set happiness as a goal?

All of my life, I’ve been told that you can’t set happiness as a goal, but let’s explore this question. Happiness, like money, is the result of what you do. Let’s look at the qualities of success. If you were honest, hardworking, enthusiastic, dependable, and responsible, how would you feel about yourself? The image you would have yourself would be good.

If you’re happy with yourself, if you know that you’re using the ability you have, your chances of being happy dramatically improve. Happiness is not a when or a where. It is a here and a now.

A lot of people think they’ll be happy when they get a new home. Then they think they’ll be happy when they get everything arranged properly in it. Then they’ll be happy when they get the new furniture. Then they’ll be happy when they finish paying for it. Then they think they’ll be happy when they get the patio and the backyard landscaping done.

For these people, happiness is always a when or where: I’ll be happy when I win the trip to Hawaii. I’ll be happy when I get there. No, you will not be happy in a when or where.

You may have fun in Hawaii, but I love what Dennis Prager said in a Reader’s Digest article: Fun is what we experience during an act. Happiness is what we experience after an act. It is a deeper, more abiding emotion. He says that things like going to an amusement park or ball game, watching a movie or television, or other fun activities help us to temporarily forget our problems and maybe even laugh, but they do not bring happiness, because their positive effect ends when the fun ends. Happiness is of a much longer duration.

Mr. Prager also points out with unusual insight that the belief that a fun-filled, pain-free life equals happiness actually diminishes people’s chances of ever attaining real happiness. If fun and play are equated with happiness, then pain must be equated with unhappiness, but in fact the opposite is true. More times than not, things that lead to happiness involve some pain.

Happiness is not pleasure. It’s victory—victory over things that are tough, victory over odds that sometimes seem to be insurmountable.

We also have to understand that you can lose what you have and still be what you are. That’s very important, because if you’re what you are, if that’s what you build on, your chances of being happy increase substantially.

Let’s take another look at this question. You may believe that if your health is good, if you’re reasonably prosperous, if you’re secure within yourself and what you do, if you have friends, peace of mind, and good family relationships, and if you have hope for the future, your chances of happiness would be much improved.

We can set every one of these as objectives. As you reach the objective of having friends, peace of mind, and better family relationships, won’t that definitely contribute to your happiness?

Of course. (I’ll help you with the tough ones.) There is no doubt about it.

I’m convinced that peace of mind comes from resolving the question of what happens to us when we die; in other words, where will we spend eternity? That has a direct bearing on happiness.

If you have all of these things, it definitely improves your chances of being happy, but let me ask you a question. Do you believe that life is fragile? Have you known somebody who is happy one day and miserable the next?

For example, you can be completely healthy one day, then tragically injured in an accident. If your happiness is only wrapped up in your health, then happiness goes away. That’s one reason that we need to understand the difference between a problem and a condition.

John Foppe is an outstanding man who was born without any arms. Being without arms is not a problem; it