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 that classic paradox between 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?  Listen to what Zig has to say on this topic.

Zig Ziglar: Setting Goals (part 2 of 3)

The Featured Video this week is from one of my favorite motivational speakers – Zig Ziglar. It is an excerpt from his course on setting goals, and it is the last video in a three part series. The video series is a little dated, but don’t let that fool you – the advice Zig provides is 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:

• After Night #1 – Many students felt nervous and fidgety.
• After Night #2 – Students felt irratable, short, and cross.
• After 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

Missed part of the series?  Find the prior videos here:

Zig Ziglar on Setting Goals (1 of 3)

Zig Ziglar on Setting Goals (2 of 3)

Related posts:

1. Zig Ziglar on Setting Goals (2 of 3)
2. Zig Ziglar on Setting Goals (1 of 3)
3. How SMART are Your New Year’s Resolutions?

Have you ever met someone who is always going to do something, but never seems to get started?

Perhaps you see that person in the mirror each morning?

Last week we learned that the first step in setting goals is to actually make the choice to sit down and write them out.

Have you made that choice yet?  Or, is this something that you always seem to be going to do?

Zig would tell you to get started or you might get “Cooked in the Squat.”  Listen as he explains what he means.

Zig Ziglar: Setting Goals (part 2 of 3)

The Featured Video this week is from one of my favorite motivational speakers – Zig Ziglar. It is an excerpt from his course on setting goals, and it is the second video in a three part series. The video series is a little dated, but don’t let that fool you – the advice Zig provides is 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.

Getting Cooked in the Squat

“The people who wait for Aunt Matilda to move out, or John to get on the day shift, or the new models to come out, or the new mayor to come in, or for the new advertising campaign to get started … The people who wait on the new senator in Washington, or until inflation slows, or the rate of interest comes down, or the people who wait for changes to take place out there, before they do the changing in here, are flat gonna end up getting cooked in the squat.” – Zig Ziglar

Procrastination

Procrastination is a cancer that will eat at the dreams of the small business owner.  The danger in putting it off another day is that we are not guaranteed another day.

This is what the Bible tells us about putting things off until tomorrow:

Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. – James 4:13-14 (NIV)

Now is the time to start accomplishing your dreams.  Successful entrepreneurs do not wait around for things to change – they change things.

Zig finishes with part three of this series at

Zig Ziglar on Setting Goals (3 of 3)

If you missed part one of this series you can find it at

Zig Ziglar on Setting Goals (1 of 3)

Related posts:

1. Zig Ziglar on Setting Goals (1 of 3)
2. Zig Ziglar on Setting Goals (3 of 3)
3. How SMART are Your New Year’s Resolutions?

How many times do we, as small business owners, embark on our journey to start and grow our small businesses without ever sitting down to write out our goals?

True entrepreneurs must have a clear vision of where they want to end up if they are to be successful.  My pastor is fond of saying ”he who aims at nothing almost always hits it.”

There are too many small business owners who have missed their goals of financial freedom, spending quality time with their family, and truly being their own boss.   Why?  They didn’t have the formula.

Listen as Zig Ziglar gives us his formula to turn wishes into real goals that can be achieved.

Zig Ziglar: Setting Goals (part 1 of 3)

The Featured Video this week is from one of my favorite motivational speakers – Zig Ziglar.  It is an excerpt from his course on setting goals, and it is the first video in a three part series that I will be posting over the next three weeks.  The video series is a little dated, but don’t let that fool you – the advice Zig provides is 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.

Setting Goals is a Choice

“You can choose to set goals and realize your potential, or you can choose not to set them.  Now if you choose not to set them you have to understand that the consequences will not be good down the road.” – Zig Ziglar

6 Steps to Making Your Goal Become a Reality

1. Put it on paper.  You must write down the goal.
2. Put an expected completion date on the goal.
3. Identify the obstacles to completing your goal.
4. List the people, groups, and organizations with whom you need to work to accomplish the goal.
5. Devise a plan of action.  Determine what you need to know.
6. Write down the benefits you’ll receive by accomplishing the goal.

Goals Do Not Care Who Makes Them

“Give me a stock clerk with a goal, and I’ll give you a man who will make history.  But give me a man without a goal, and I’ll give you a stock clerk.” – J.C. Penney

The Unlikely Success of Post-War Japan

After World War II, the Japanese economy was in ruins.  Industry and government came together and set goals.

• 1950 Goal: To be the #1 nation in the production of textiles – accomplished 1959
• 1960 Goal: To be the #1 nation in the production of steel (little iron ore/coal)
• 1970 Goal: To be the #1 nation in the production of autos – accomplished 1980
• 1980 Goal: To be the #1 nation in the production of computers/electronics

It’s Not the Goal that is Key, but the Formula

The secret to accomplishing your goals does not lie in the goal themselves, but in having a formula that can achieve those dreams whatever they may be.  Zig’s formula is listed above in six simple steps.

I really like step number six.  All too often we forget to remind ourselves why we set the goal in the first place.  If the goal is not personal to you then it will not spur you to action.

You can watch the next videos in the series at

Zig Ziglar: Setting Goals (2 of 3)

Zig Ziglar: Setting Goals (3 of 3)

Related posts:

1. Zig Ziglar on Setting Goals (2 of 3)
2. How SMART are Your New Year’s Resolutions?
3. Zig Ziglar on Setting Goals (3 of 3)