Zig Ziglar - Zig Ziglars Life Lifters

YOU, _____________________________________, WILL FIND

THE LIFT UP YOU NEED TO GO UP.

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Dedicated to the brave men and womenpast, present, and
future in our military forceswho have committed their
lives to protect our faith, freedom, and families.

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As always, when a work of this nature is completed, if we're going to be fair and honest we must admit that it was not a single effort. It's very much like when you see a turtle on a fence post. You can rest assured he didn't get there by himself! That's certainly true of this effort.

My acknowledgments begin with my beautiful redheaded wife Jean, who, as always, is my constant source of encouragement and who does the things for me that I not only hate to do, but am, in most cases, incapable of doing. Without her, the reading, research, and writing would have taken considerably longer.

My faithful executive assistant for these last twenty-five years, Laurie Magers, kept me organized through this effort as she helped me keep up with my other writing projects in the midst of her own hectic schedule. Her coordination of my speaking engagements and writing commitments is invaluable, and the way she and Julie bring everything together via phone, fax, and E-mail is awesome to me.

Julie Norman, my youngest daughter and the editor of my books and newspaper columns, is a strong guiding force as she brings a completely different dimension to what I do. I do most of the creative writing. But being female and of a different generation, Julie beautifully rounds off the rough edges, adds her feminine touch, and makes the writing more effective and far more palatable. In addition, she's just fun to work with and has a great attitudea constant encouragement to me.

There are also those world-renowned writers, Mr. and Ms. Anonymous, who add significantly to my warehouse of information, facts, humor, human interest, etc. In addition, I must thank the media, particularly the print media, which frequently provides informative material as well as viable suggestions that are helpful to me when I put all of it together. And to those people, both known and unknown, who have encouraged me and contributed in any way to this effort, I express my gratitude. To the best of my ability I give credit to those who have helped. If I have overlooked you, please forgive me. My intentions were good.

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For most of us, when we were born, our parents were delighted and treated us as if we were the future kings or queens of the world. We were provided with good medical care, lots of love, and we were showered with much attention and affection by many people. Yes, most of us got off to a good start. Along the way, however, too many people are forced into boxes, and they feel compelled to stay there.

Boxes come in all sizes, shapes, and colors. There are as many boxes as there are opinions. This book is designed to help you adapt to whatever box you've been temporarily assignedand then to move you out of that box. It's difficult to say without sounding like I'm bragging, but this book covers an awful lot of subjectseverything from attitude, love, inspiration, relationships, goal setting, and motivation all the way to humor, encouragement, discipline, and a little bit of everything else. The messages are designed to encourage, build hope, and provide lively conversations at staff meetings and around the dinner table. They are structured so you will know more about living life, getting along with others, and charting your own course. Mostly this book is about persuading you that if others can accomplish the objectives they've accomplished and overcome the obstacles they've overcome, you also can do more with your life.

You will not find a single story in this book that says life is easybecause it is not. Life involves commitment, responsibility, dedication, persistence, and hard work. Since I've delivered many of these messages in seminars around the country and have written about them in newspaper columns, I can tell you that the principles are absolutely valid and will work, provided you take them seriously and apply them. If you do, I believe the messages will enable you to live a fuller, happier, more productive, more joyful, and better balanced life. That's a strong claim, but it's one I believe is true because the principles contained in these messages have helped many people to do exactly that.

I believe these messages will help you move out of any self-imposed boxes you may have built on your own, and especially those boxes that other people have placed you in. Another benefit you will receive is that you will be more excited about our country, your family, and your future. From that will come an enlightened lift in your attitude and enjoyment of life.

1

You can safely say that the right mental attitude is extremely important in virtually everything you do in life. This is especially true if you're going to build winning relationships in the home or on the job. People enjoy being around those who are cheerful or optimistic and generally excited about life. Few of us enjoy being around prophets of doom. With that in mind, let me share some definitions that businessman Jim Norman passed on to me some years ago. If you can take a lighter look at life the way Jim does, you will brighten up the faces of the people you associate with.

Let joy, temperance and repose Slam the door's on the doctor's nose.
Longfellow

Boredomself-pity in disguise.

Change/growththe process by which my inside begins to match my outside.

Compulsionan overwhelming desire to destroy myself in the name of pleasure.

Denialthe ability to suppress the truth long enough to get what I want.

Envyemotion produced by a belief that another's good fortune somehow detracts from my own superiority.

Fearthe need to run from the things I screwed up yesterday that I know will ruin my life tomorrow which I refuse to deal with today.

Honestya thing I have no problem with until I get honest about it.

Humilitybeing honestly and sincerely willing to learn a few simple things from other people, having no desire to strangle them in the process.

Lovewhen listening to you is more fun than thinking about me.

Low self-esteema modern psychological term that used to be called shame.

Persecutedthe way I feel when I get what I deserve.

Powerlessa human being without faith in God.

ProblemsGod's method of revealing himself to anyone who is interested.

Rationalizationthe process of convincing myself I need everything I want.

Self-pitythe door of depression, the fuel of fear, the anvil of anger, and the root of resentment.

Willingnesswhen I expose myself to the truth and refrain from shuffling the facts.

Sometimes taking an honest look at yourself really will put you out on the floor with foot-stomping, tear-rolling laughter. But I suspect that many of you saw your neighbor, sister, brother, mother, boss, etc. in the definitions above. That in itself is very revealing. The sad truth is that most folks have a pretty good self-defense system in place and don't want anyone to discover it, much less point it out.