Happy Soul Food Friday!
This week…
ON Happiness by Will Marre:
PONDER THIS: It turns out that money does really buy happiness…but not in the way you might think!
RESEARCH SAYS: Charitable giving is scientifically proven to benefit the giver as much as the receiver.
It works just like a positive feedback loop: giving makes people happier, and happier people give more. And it’s not just about money. Any time you give—whether it’s your time, your affection, or your creative resources—your brain rewards you with a shot of feel-good hormones, and a bright new outlook on life and love.
YOUR CHALLENGE: Think about what your greatest talent is. Do you excel at a particular skill—creative, athletic, mental, relational?
Identify a person or group who could really use the resource you have to give. Give it and tell us how you feel and what you learned.
Share your results here or on our Facebook page
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Past Tips:
#9 – Laugh It All Up
#10 – Practice Freedom of Expression
#11 – Create Your Own Ripples
(Thanks Will)
Motivational Moments with Zig Ziglar from Nightingale/Conant:
“It’s not what you’ve got, it’s what you use that makes a difference.”
—Zig Ziglar (1926-2012):Esteemed author and beloved motivational speaker
The world lost one of its brightest lights last week with the passing of the great Zig Ziglar – master motivator, world-renowned speaker and author, and one of the most genuine, positive, inspiring people I have ever met.For more than 40 years, Zig dedicated himself to teaching people the art of living. Countless individuals attribute their success in life to having heard Zig at one of his legendary seminars or on one of his incomparable audio programs.Yet one thing Zig understood, perhaps better than anyone else I’ve known, is that achieving “success” is really only part of life’s challenge. He knew that success, as most people define it, often turns out to be a short-lived high.Many times, people achieve a certain amount of what they consider success, but are left with the feeling, Is this all there is? They arrive at their goals in life and find that while they have many of the things money will buy, they have very little of what money won’t buy.Zig held the view that while success is definitely worth it, it’s not enough. The next step – the most essential step – is to move from success into significance.Do that, he said, and you’ll be able to easily get the eight things everyone wants in life. All the good things money can’t buy.Let me share a quick story Zig loved to tell that perfectly illustrates what he meant. This story answers the question: How do you get beyond the “money is top priority” mindset and enjoy greater financial prosperity and fulfillment as a result?
The Secret to Having It AllA young man named Steve Walker walked into Zig’s office years ago. A friend of his had flown him down from Toronto because he wanted Steve to see Zig. He thought Steve needed a change. Turns out Steve left for work at six in the morning, and he got home every night between ten and eleven. That was six days a week. On Sundays he was so exhausted he slept all day. He had no family life. He was so tired he had run off the road two or three times driving back and forth the 20 or 30 miles he had to go to his job. His wife was threatening to divorce him. Everything in this guy’s life was falling apart – the whole nine yards. Steve’s friend had forewarned Zig of all this, and when Zig met with Steve, he discovered his boss was the person he looked up to the most. “Why is that?” Zig asked him. “Most successful man I’ve ever seen.” “Okay,” Zig said, “let’s look at your boss. Here’s what I want you to do. I want you to give your boss a plus or a minus grade on all the questions I’m going to ask you.” “Okay.” He asked, “Steve, how happy is your boss?” Steve thought a minute. “I never really thought about it until now, but I don’t think he’s happy at all.” “Well, we’ll give him a minus on that, right?” “Yeah, I guess.” “Why do you say you don’t think he’s happy?” “Well, uh, number one, I’ve never heard him laugh. He seldom smiles, and besides that he has ulcers.” “Well, let’s see now, that tells me something about his health. Do we give him a plus or minus on that?” “Oh, that looks like a minus.” Zig said, “If he’s got ulcers, that tells me something about his peace of mind. Do we give him a plus or a minus?” “I’d say another minus.” “Okay,” Zig continued. “How prosperous is your boss?” He said, “Man, he’s got money running out of his ears. That’s why he’s my role model.” “I guess we give him a big old plus on that one.” “Absolutely!” said Steve. Zig said, “How secure is he?” “Well, he’s as secure as money can make you.” “We had some billionaire brothers here in Dallas who went bankrupt. How does your boss compare?” “He doesn’t have that kind of money.” “We had an industrialist here who was worth half a billion. Does he have that kind of money?” “No way.” “We had another one, a former governor worth a hundred million at one time. He’s bankrupt. How does your boss compare?” Steve said, “Oh, man, he doesn’t have that kind of money.” “Well, I don’t want to give him a plus, I don’t want to give him a minus. What about a question mark? Would that be fair?” “I never thought I would say this,” he said, “but that would be more than fair.” “How many friends does your boss have?” Steve pondered for a moment. “Really, I don’t think he has any. I’m not his friend; I just admire him because he’s so successful. To tell you the truth, the guy’s somewhat of a jerk.” “Well, we’re sure going to give him a minus on that, aren’t we?” He sighed, “Once again, yes.” Zig said, “Tell me about his family.” “Well, his wife’s divorcing him.” “Then we have to give him a minus for that.” “Yes we do. I can’t believe it! He’s getting a minus on everything.” “How much hope does he have for the future?” “Well, before I started talking to you, I thought he had lots. But now I don’t think he has any real hope.” “Well,” Zig said, “another minus.” “Yep.” “Steve, let me ask you a question. Of the eight things everybody wants, your boss gets a minus on six, a plus on one, and a question mark on one. Knowing what you know, would you swap places with him?” What about you?Would you swap places with Steve’s boss? Regardless of how much money you don’t have. Regardless of where you are on the totem pole. The answer would emphatically be “no” wouldn’t it? Steve’s answer was also “no.” Zig said, “What your boss is missing, Steve, is the one thing money can’t buy. If he had this one thing, he would be able to turn every minus to a plus.” “What is it?” Steve asked. “I’ll show you what it is, and I’ll show you how to get it,” Zig said, and he spent the next several minutes explaining it to him. Three or four years later, Zig was speaking in Baltimore, Maryland. A young man came up to him and said, “Do you remember me? I’m the young man from Toronto who sat in your office.” Zig remembered him. “You’re Steve Walker.” “That’s right, and I want to show you some real growth. I took your advice and I dumped my job and my 80-hour workweek. I now have a better job with far fewer hours and much better pay. I was able to go back and court my wife and spend time with my family again. And now we have a new member of the family – take a look! That secret you told me worked.” Zig had all kind of stories just like that one. He always said, “I’m not in the speaking business. I’m not in the training business. I’m not in the book and recording business. I’m in the life-changing business.” And he was right: he changed people’s lives. The secret Zig shared with Steve that day in Toronto that enabled him to do so much more, he also revealed in his acclaimed Nightingale-Conant audio program A View from the Top. In a nutshell, A View from the Top is about synergy – that state of affairs in which every part of your life interlocks seamlessly with every other part, with the net effect of enhancing your experience and boosting your performance higher than it’s ever been before. When you work on the secret that Zig told Steve (and many others who came to see him over the years), you develop a perfect balance. The reality is that your personal life affects your family life, which affects your business life, which affects you physically, which affects you financially, which affects you emotionally. Everything in your life affects everything else. When you know how to get the good things that money can’t buy and you use Zig’s secret for establishing synergy in your life, you will actually find yourself making more money. But along with it, you will:
And all these things together will create a strong feeling of optimism about the future. Everything in your life affects everything else…
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The Legendary Dave Brubeck
For Many, a Home without a Pet is not a Home:
(Thanks Larry)
Make Miracles Happen this Holiday Season with Mission Fed:
Stay Soul-filled and Pay it Forward!
Thanks this week to Will, Zig, Larry and Mission Fed
Love,
Neville
“Love your enemies and you won’t have any…”
Happy Soul Food Friday! 