Zig Ziglar on Setting Goals (3 of 3)

Ever feel like when you are at work that you should be spending more time with your family, but when you are with your family you start thinking that you should really be out working for your family?  It’s the classic paradox of being too busy making a living to be able to spend the time enjoying that living.

Have you ever lifted up your head at the end of the day, the week, the month, the year and ask “How did I get here?”  Does it seem that you are always too busy?  Ever feel like there just isn’t enough time in the day?

Zig Ziglar: Setting Goals (part 3 of 3)

The Featured Video this week is an excerpt from a course on setting goals by one of my favorite motivational speakers – Zig Ziglar.  Don’t be fooled by the dated look of this video.  Zig’s advice is powerful and timeless.

Selected Highlights from the Video

Listed below are some of the quotes and other information from the video that I found helpful. I hope you find them helpful too.

I Don’t Ever Have Time to do Anything!

You see the basic problem is that most people when they’re working on their job start thinking, “You know, I really ought to be spending time at home with my family”.  And then when they’re at home with their family they start thinking, “I really ought to be out there working for my family.”  – Zig Ziglar

You see the basic problem is not lack of time.  It’s lack of direction.  We all have the same amount of time whether we are a millionaire or a pauper. – Zig Ziglar

What Goals Can Do For You

• Goals chase the blues away.
• Goals create activity which creates excitement.

Zig points out that “Logic will not change an emotion, but action will.”  How many times have you thought your way out of a bad mood?  Isn’t it doing something that changes our frame of mind?

College Dream Experiment

In the experiment, they hooked students up to monitors where computers recorded their brain waves.  The students went to sleep, but when the computer recorded that they were in a dream state the students were awakened.

Then they were allowed to go back to sleep, but the same process was repeated throughout the night.  The students received a normal amount of sleep, but were not allowed to dream.  Here are the results:

• Night #1 – Many students felt nervous and fidgety.
• Night #2 – Students felt irritable, short, and cross.
• Night #3 – Experiment aborted due to concerns for student’s mental health.

Twenty-four hours later, most students had returned to normal.  Within a week, all the students had returned to normal.

Conclusion: When you are asleep, you need your dreams.  And Zig adds…

“I’m here to tell you that when you’re wide awake you also need your dreams.  You nust have your goals.  You’ll never make it as a wandering generality.  You must become a meaningful specific.”

Are You a Processionary Caterpillar?

Processionary caterpillars received their name because they follow their leader in a procession.  Jean Henri Fabre wondered what would happen if he lined them up on the rim of a flower pot without any gaps between them.

The caterpillars kept moving in a progression around the rim of the flower pot for several days without stop.  He put pine needles (their favorite food) in the center of the flower pot, but the caterpillars kept marching around the rim of the flower pot.

Seven days later some of the caterpillars died of starvation, which broke the circle creating a leader that led them to the food.

They confused activity with accomplishment.  You’ve got some friends that are in this same shape.  They’re busy, busy, beeing all the time.  They’re going, going, going, going … and they’re here and they’re there or they’re somewhere else.  But they never really accomplish anything because they don’t have those specific, clearly identifiable objectives.  You’ve got to have those goals. – Zig Ziglar

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Tagged as: time management, zig ziglar