How Do You Define Success?

Before you can achieve success, you have to know what success would truly mean for you. What are your highest priorities? What are you willing to sacrifice to get there? Use these basic, positive guideposts to measure your understanding of success and put more power on your side to get there.

Zig Ziglar: Defining Success

http://www.success.com/article/zig-ziglar-defining-success

Few have had as great an impact on as many people as Zig Ziglar. As a sales trainer, motivational speaker and best-selling author, Ziglar has helped millions of individuals improve not only their perspective on life, but, more important, their results.

With his unique cadence and strong Southern drawl, Ziglar admonishes people to be specific about what they want to achieve, to be purposeful in their approach to personal development, and to help as many others as possible along the way.

And though he is a dyed-in-the-wool believer in the power of positive thinking, there is nothing secret about his philosophy on achieving success. “Positive thinking won’t let you do anything,” Ziglar says. “But it will help you do everything better than negative thinking will.”

His constant message is that success requires full engagement and hard work. When combined with an unshakable positive attitude and character, success is inevitable. Here are a few more of Ziglar’s tried-and-true strategies.

There’s a reason why so many people look to Zig for personal and professional advice. His wisdom over the years always stayed true to basic, simplified, quality principles. His advice was straightforward and no-nonsense, making these steps easy for anyone to take and nearly guaranteed to make a difference in their life.

Take a (Mental) Bath Every Day

Getting motivated to improve in any one of these eight areas of life is relatively easy. But staying motivated enough to maintain the behaviors required to realize real change is challenging.

We are easily motivated to start a life-improvement project, but staying motivated takes work. Ziglar comments that people frequently complain to him that the effects of motivational seminars, books and audios don’t last. His response: “Neither does bathing; that’s why we recommend it daily.”

In his Christian Motivation for Daily Living audio program, Ziglar references a study that indicates 80 percent of what our minds take in each day is negative. Be it from talk radio or what Ziglar refers to as the “income suppressant” (aka the television), or the gripes and sour attitudes of our friends, co-workers, family members and acquaintances, we are inundated with negative thoughts, comments and messages.

We can spend a full day at a motivational seminar or sales conference and get pumped with enthusiasm. But, as soon as we step out into the “real world,” the onslaught of negativity is akin to having someone dump garbage into our freshly cleaned mind.

To offset the negativity and to stay motivated to reach our goals, continual affirmations and belief-building messages must be part of our daily routine. That’s why, in addition to practicing positive self-talk, Ziglar recommends listening to and reading motivational materials repeatedly and regularly.

“You are what you are and where you are because of what’s gone into your mind,” he says. “You can change what you are, you can change where you are, by changing what goes into your mind.”

Action ? Block out 30 minutes a day (at a minimum) to read or listen to a positive, inspiring or motivational message. Doing so will help you stay committed to your goals and bolster your belief in your ability to achieve them.

Help Others Get What They Want

If helping others get what they want is the true path to success, sales is the ideal profession. “People buy because they either need or want something,” Ziglar writes in Ziglar on Selling. “If we can give persons a reason for buying and an excuse for buying, the chances that they will buy improve rather dramatically.”

The key, he explains, is developing an attitude of curiosity and a sincere interest in your prospect’s needs. With those needs clarified, you can then offer a solution that satisfies both you and the customer.

Action ? Commit today to become others-focused. With your spouse, your children, your prospect and your peers, keep the question, “How can I help you?” as a primary focus in the relationship.

If you want to be happy, healthy, reasonably prosperous and secure, and if you want to have friends, peace of mind, good family relationships and hope, it makes sense to listen to this motivational master’s positive message of personal responsibility.

Read more — Zig Ziglar: See You At the Top | SUCCESS Magazine | What Achievers Read

Do you have a clear definition of what success means in your life? Have you ever tried to put the power of positive thinking on your side and seen the powerful shift that can result from it?