It wasn’t enough for me to bring just 5 lessons from Zig’s book “Born To Win: Find Your Success” so I’m coming back with another 5 points that I’ll be implementing with my personal finances and life in general. There are so many times that I feel stuck in a crossroad with my finances. People like Zig really help to bring life back into perspective and assist me with getting back on track.
This is a continuation from the first post that you can find here. So without further ado, let’s get into it with the next 5 influential lessons from Born To Win by Zig Ziglar.
1) Seek Out a Good Personal Coach
Zig explains his Wall of Gratitude, hanging photographs on the wall of his office showing people who gave him life changing advice. Each person on that wall gave him great advice that he used to grow his spokes in the Wheel of Life. He’s also been given horrible advice which, over the years, he’s learned to know the difference.
He adds seven valid characteristics of a good coach. When taking advice from someone, be certain they have as many of these characteristics as possible.
- They have good character
- They have a track record of success
- They are good listeners
- They are good decision makers
- They tell the truth (even when it hurts)
- They have good personal relationships
- They celebrate the success of others
The more characteristics a coach carries, the better chance you have of achieving success. I find that having a coach for the individual spokes in life benefits a person because that coach can be very specific in their approach. A business coach will educate on business compared to a fitness coach familiarized with workouts to improve your overall health.
I’ve been lucky in the past to find a few coaches that possessed the knowledge of a certain subject in life but equipped with more than just one characteristic. It seems like many of them take pride in being a great coach which pushes them to excel in other areas that define ‘coach’.
While having a physical person to be a coach is critical for some, it isn’t essential. I accept mentorship from several different sources in my life. Many of my ‘mentors’ today come from the books I read, audible books and podcasts I listen to, athletes, actors, business owners, social media influencers, entrepreneurs, and so on.
There is literally no limit to how much anyone can take in as long as they are willing to put in the work. So rather than limit myself to finding a physical person to be my coach, the world is now my library. I can pick and choose any book as I please.
It all comes back to knowing the difference between good advice and bad advice. That is learned through practicing the little things I am taught by the mentors listed above.
Related article : Mastering Personal Finance – Mobile University
2) The Three Dimensions of Life
Born to Win is broken up into three sections: Planning to Win, Preparing to Win, and Expecting to Win. In the final section, he mentions that those who win consistently may have more talent than their counterparts. But much of their success relates to how convinced they become about their ability to win.
Expecting to win is more than just thinking you will win and willing it to happen. People who accomplish great things are working toward their personal objectives every day. They are paying the price daily by planning, preparing, and working to become the right kind of person required to receive all that life has to offer.
Then he introduces the “Three Dimensions of Life”, the ingredients in every person’s life that must be fostered and mastered if they hope to earn the right to expect success.
The Spiritual Dimension
Considered to be the most important of the three dimensions but often the most neglected. The spiritual dimension governs what you will be or become. Zig’s speaking career took off after he discovered his spiritual needs and took his faith more seriously. It changed everything in his life.
Positivity breeds more positive while negativity doesn’t. I live by this mantra in my daily life. When my mind wanders and I feel spiritless, life begins to spiral slowly out of control. It feels as though life is motivated by faith – what you believe in. Faith becomes the driving force behind my personal operating system.
The Mental Dimension
Input activates output. In other words, if you want to be a winner, you have to begin thinking like a winner. Success typically doesn’t just happen out of the blue. It transpires from the mental abilities housed in the brain.
Just like exercise is important for building muscle, thinking is critical for the brain to stay in top condition. But it shouldn’t just be any type of “thinking”. Zig requires this type of “thinking” to take effort. It’ll cause some pain and exhaustion from repetitive inputs of new information and increasing your knowledge base and will most likely feel uncomfortable. If a person experiences these conditions, they are exercising their brain.
Zig explains to not soak up new knowledge and call it a success. The next phase is applying it to your life. Due to technology, people suffer from information overload. Zig recommends daily quiet time that allows your brain time to process and meditate. This time enables a person to focus on new, meaningful ideas and creative solutions to the problems they may encounter.
In my life, quiet time is a must in order for me to be creative. Take this blog for example. I’m typing away at 4am in the morning while the rest of my family lay asleep. This isn’t the most ideal situation but it grants me undisturbed minutes before I need to head off to work. Since I went to sleep at a decent time, this early morning “brain workout” isn’t ultra exhausting.
In fact, I enjoy waking up early and jotting the thoughts from my brain onto my laptop screen. I’ve soaked up what I’ve learned from Born to Win and applied it to my life. I am realizing that quiet time is a must for being creative. There are times that I’ve tapped into my creative mind while surrounded by family, but it is not an easy task. It feels similar to someone chatting with you in the gym while you’re lifting weights. That isn’t an ideal situation but you’re still getting some work in.
The Physical Dimension
Zig summarizes how someone can have the greatest mind in the world and be spiritually fit but neglects the physical body will limit their effectiveness and cut their success short.
People give up their health to gain wealth. In reality, our health is our greatest wealth. When people think of success, they think of money and the things that money can buy. But money doesn’t bring happiness.
When Zig was younger, he weighed over two hundred pounds and was really out of shape. He knew a change had to happen in order for him to live by the words that he spoke to millions around the world. He started taking care of himself and dropped most of the unneeded weight. It wasn’t easy but it was worth the effort.
Physical exercise has been a part of my life for over two decades of my life. It acts as a “release” for me, a place where I can go and just do what I feel. Working out frees up head space that enables me to be more creative. I’ve been unhealthy before and that only brought me sadness. I’d much rather live a healthy lifestyle. Aging is unavoidable but giving my body the attention it deserves helps me feel “young” and keep up with my little ones.
3) Refill the Gas Tank
Zig explains how powerful hope can be, even in the darkest of times. Hope can be defined as believing something good is going to happen even when it seems unlikely. Without hope, there are negative thought processes that can numb you emotionally. This will empty your gas tank to the point of exhaustion.
Zig experienced this sense of hope when his daughter passed away from pulmonary fibrosis. He recalls it as one of the toughest events of his life but her death helped him discover hope. He distinguished two types of people in the waiting room: those with faith, a belief their loved one would go to a better place if they did not survive, and those who had no hope for their frail loved one after death.
To want an outcome that makes your life better in some way, that comes from hope. Hope is why some people flourish during bad times while others fail. Hope is the driving force to keep going when you’ve been knocked down. It can make a difficult situation more endurable.
When your “gas” tank is near empty or life is getting too hard, hope can improve our lives because dreaming of a better future motivates you to take the small steps that will make it come true. The power of hope is incredible, we just need to learn how to harness it.
4) Performance Begets Success
Zig believes that much of his success is about performance, what he did and was able to inspire others to do. Throughout his life, he mastered many different attributes related to performance. He narrowed them down to Six Principles of Performance.
The Six Principles of Performance
- We generally get from ourselves and others what we expect.
You either live up or down to your expectations. If you have a loser’s mindset, you will lose. If you wish to be average, you will be average. If you expect to feel great, nothing can stand in your way.
2. The difference between good and excellent companies is training.
Similar to the lesson Practice the Little Things, a company will not be very successful if they do not train their employees properly. It is better to train employees and lose them than to not train them and keep them. Businesses who invest in their people with training and preparation thrive more than those that don’t.
3. Actually, companies that do not train their people and invest in their ability don’t last.
If a company isn’t improving their people, they are operating from a competitive disadvantage to their peers in the marketplace. A good training strategy will move them from good to excellent.
4. You find what you look for in life.
This is my favorite of all the principles. Zig ties this back into the foundation stones honesty, character, integrity, faith, love, and loyalty. If life is lived with these stones in mind then positivity, opportunities, and good things will come because that is what we seek.
5. Never make a promise without a plan.
Too many people make promises they never intend to keep. Without a plan, they can have the best intention to keep their promise but they won’t be able to. A future commitment comes with the understanding that you are willing to do whatever it takes to complete that commitment.
6. Happiness, joy, and gratitude are universal if we know what to look for.
“I believe you can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.” To produce real happiness, one must understand how to do things that produce it. When worries settle in life because you only think about the things you don’t have, you will lose gratitude for what you actually have. A great source of happiness is the ability to be grateful at all times.
These principles are part of the third section in the book called “Expecting to Win” and for good reason. When a person employs these principles in their own personal lives, they can rightfully expect that great things will happen. This doesn’t mean they will happen. When something doesn’t materialize at the moment that we expect, then we turn to hope to refill our “gas” tank. Hope can produce enough encouragement to change our attitude.
As we are locked into three dimensions: Spiritual, Mental, and Physical, we are transforming our entire being to accept what we were born to do, win. When these concepts line up and we act upon them, success is expected to come our way.
5) The Ziglar Goal Setting System
Integrated at the very end of Born to Win, Zig gives the reader a chance to integrate all the concepts from his book and provides a step-by-step procedure for setting and reaching goals. He suggests that following these procedures while working on your goals every day will improve your family, business, and personal interests.
Here are his 8 action steps for creating goals.
A) Create a dream list. Let your imagination run wild. Include your loved ones.
B) Answer the question “why?” for each item. Verbalize each into one sentence.
C) Ask these five questions, all of which must have a “yes” answer:
- Is it really my goal?
- Is it morally right and fair to everyone concerned?
- Is it consistent with my other goals?
- Can I emotionally commit myself to finish this goal?
- Can I “see” myself reaching this goal?
D) For each remaining dream, ask yourself these questions:
- Will reaching this goal make me happier?
- Will reaching this goal make me healthier?
- Will reaching this goal make me more prosperous?
- Will reaching this goal win me more friends?
- Will reaching this goal give me peace of mind?
- Will reaching this goal make me more secure?
- Will reaching this goal improve my relationships with others?
E) Divide the remaining goals into Short-range, Intermediate, and Long-range.
F) Choose four goals that are most important to work right now and record them.
G) Break down each goal into a specific procedure of how to complete them.
H) Do the same for any additional goals and complete them.
His process is very easy to follow and touches upon the different “spokes” of life that are important for overall balance. This had me rethink some of my goals that I’ve set up for mine and my family’s life. Majority of my goals are financial related while practically none have anything to do with winning more friends.
I am not sure if not having more friends is a big problem or that I’m content with the amount that I have now so I don’t create goals to bring more into my life. For now, I will keep these ‘missing’ goals in mind for when I decide to create more or perhaps include them into other goals. For example, if I wish to grow this blog, it would be a good idea if I befriended other like-minded bloggers or readers. This accomplishes growth for the blog while adding valuable people into my life. This is something I am aiming for.
Conclusion
That wraps up Part II of the lessons I discovered from Zig’s Born to Win: Find Your Success. An overall great book packed with details and life-changing tools everyone needs as they seek for success in personal finance and life. He made each concept digestible while offering guidance on ways to implement them in real life. I’m excited as it is my turn to execute on these ideas in my life.
What ways will you improve your life? How will you become the winner you were born to be?