Transparency
by Zig Ziglar

On March 7, 2007, my life changed completely with one, simple, misplaced step and a fall down the stairs resulting in vertigo and brain injury induced short-term memory loss. Some would say it changed for the worse, and by human standards they would be entirely right.

Fortunately, and I can assure you this is not by chance the one verse that I've written in the majority of books I've been asked to autograph, the verse that I believe encourages people most in the midst of their troubles, Romans 8:28, "We
know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose" (KJV), is the verse that allows me to know that God will use this season of my life, difficult though it may be, for His glory and my ultimate benefit.

One day my daughter Julie asked me if it was upsetting to me to have short-term memory loss. I told her that I honestly did not ever feel upset because I could not remember what I had forgotten. My life today is entirely in the present. That kind of focus has its benefits, but I have to say that without my wife to tell me where we're supposed to be and when, well, I'd miss out on just about everything.

Some might call what I just told you "being candid." I call it "being transparent." There is no sense in trying to act or pretend like nothing unusual is going on with me. Just a few
minutes of conversation on some days is enough to reveal my memory problem. Other days I have considerably more clarity, and if we met and visited for even up to thirty minutes, I might seem like my old, pre-fall self. At least that is what my family tells me. I can't remember all that happened yesterday or this morning, but I can tell you almost anything you want to know about stuff that happened before the fall, and that is why I'm still able to be on stage with the interview format.

But I have to be transparent with my audience. Julie tells me there are times I "get stuck in a loop" and keep going back to the same topic. She interrupts me, and I usually have a one-liner on hand to put the audience at ease...when you laugh at yourself the world laughs with you. If we hadn't told the audience in advance about my fall and about my memory loss, it could get very uncomfortable for them while they try to figure out what is going on.

That's one reason I'm talking about transparency here. The
other reason makes the bigger point.  The first person you have to be transparent with at all times is yourself. If you can't see what's going on with you, you can't see what needs to happen next. The alcoholic who doesn't think she has drinking problem won't seek help.  The workaholic who denies that twelve-hour workdays are too long won't take time off to see his child's soccer game. Thev perfectionist can't and won't relax, the morbidly obese won't get healthy, and the people who think they present a perfect picture to the world take themselves way too seriously. The list is endless...add a few of your own...maybe you'll discover something that applies to you.  I've known many people who have been told by more than just a few friends that they had problems, but until they're willing to admit their problems, there was no convincing them they needed help.

Reality can be pretty hard to take, especially when dealing with it might require gut-wrenching hard work. I come from a generation that didn't talk about personal problems. You sucked it up and went on with your life. If things weren't going well, it was your duty to hide it from anyone and everyone.   Appearances were more important than getting help.  When I first started doing a lot of public speaking, I knew that what I said had to make a difference in people's lives or there was no sense in saying it. I instinctively knew that people needed to relate to what I had to say on an emotional and applicable level and that I had to be real myself if I wanted my material to make a "real" difference to the individuals who heard it.

Nothing, in my experience, has a stronger impact on individuals than hearing stories of how it was then, how it
is now, and what happened in between. Those stories give hope to the hopeless. They say, "See, life can be hard but it will get better - if you do!" If you can't see the light at the end
of the tunnel you can't see where to go. Stories of hope inspire people to find their way out of bad situations. Like the parables in the Bible - they give direction.

I'm sure I could have gone my entire speaking career without telling anyone that I don't gamble or drink and why. I could have left out the truth about how many different jobs I've had in the course of my sales career; how many times I relocated my family in search of the pot-of-gold sales job. I could have skipped telling how my wife has cried with relief when I came with cash and we could pay bills and buy groceries. But I could never have convinced you that you can improve your attitude and your circumstances if I couldn't show you how I'd done it myself.

I was young, vigorous and healthy when all of the circumstances mentioned above happened. Now I have challenges that I may never entirely overcome, and I want you to know that having the right outlook, realistic expectations, and constant hope for something better will serve you and the people you love so much better than
resigned acceptance of the status quo. 

Life is to be lived transparently, excitedly, with eager
anticipation of the good things that still lie ahead, in spite of our circumstances.



Adapted from "Embrace the Struggle: Living
Life on Life's Terms"
by Zig Ziglar and Julie Ziglar Norman - ©
2009, Zig Ziglar.
Howard Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

“Coin”
            I walk my three house cats every morning for about a half a mile and then we go on to our porch and have a “snack” of kibbled cat food.  In the spring of 2009 this activity attracted the attention of a lone starling.  The most prominent feature of this bird was its brightly colored yellow beak.  I believe that nothing is an accident and that seemly random events have significance.  With that in mind I researched some of my books and found that the color yellow represents “communication, optimism, and inspiration”.  I took the first letters of these words:  “c” from communication, “o” from optimism, and “in” from inspiration to form the word “Coin”.  This became the bird’s name.
            Coin would wait until he noticed my cats had finished and had moved into the yard and then he would fly onto the eve of the porch posts.  Coin would lean in to look at me and would chant with a loud raspy voice, “Raack!  Raack!”  The bird would then fly down and pick up the bits of dry food left by the cats and fly away.  This is very unusual because starlings always feed together in groups.  I guess Coin was a bit of a maverick among starlings!
            Each morning the ritual would be repeated and this continued every morning into the midsummer.  In the heat of that summer as suddenly as Coin appeared he disappeared.  The fall came and went and we experienced the worst winter that we have had in fourteen years.  Record snow falls blanketed the landscape with drifts of snow that were over fifteen feet high!  Eventually the snow melted and it began to look more like spring.  The migrating birds returned and I often wondered what had happened to Coin.
            One day I was sitting in my porch chair after I had given the cats their “snack” and a starling flew up on the eve of our porch posts.  I watched and waited.  Could it really be?  No, I remember thinking it was probably just a coincidence. Then suddenly I heard the familiar, “Raack!  Raack!”  Coin had returned and he flew down and helped himself to a snack and flew away!
            Coin now has an aluminum tray where I place some food for him every morning.  The cats have even grown to accept him as part of the routine and a member of our family.
            I was thinking how this bird was cared for by the Creator through the terrible winter and how he migrated back to the same location and remembered his personal “snack bar”.  It is truly amazing.
            Then I mused about the bird’s name and how it came into being with the words communication, optimism, and inspiration.  These traits and other positive aspects of life seem to also disappear from time to time and I find myself wondering what had happened to them and where they have gone.  But like Coin my hopes and positive expectations reappear after the long hard winter of my soul and I am once again blessed in my experience by the Creator.

Jami Sell is an author and Life Strategist who hosts the inspirational website:
www.thoughtandbelief.com
©2010 All Rights Reserved

Five And A Half Feet Above The Ground!

            Recently, I went outside with my cats and decided that it would be fun to walk five and a half feet above the ground.  You heard me right.  I went outside and walked five and a half feet above the ground!  The cats loved it!  The neighbors were amazed!  I had the time of my life defying the normal “ground walking” that usually occurs!
            I couldn’t see the grass below me while I was performing this magnificent feat because of all the snow that blanketed the landscape but it was exciting and fun to climb over the white dunes.  You see, we had received a heavy snowfall and after the “plows” and “snow blowers” made their rounds there were drifts and piles of snow everywhere.  All I had to do was scale the massive mountains of particulate to walk five and a half feet above the ground.
            Even if you live in a warm climate you are at least familiar with the concept of “snow” and you are aware that it is possible to “walk in” and in my case “walk on” snow.  Everything becomes perfectly logical when you understand just what “snow” is and how it behaves in the physical world.  However, when I first made the statement that I walked five and a half feet above the ground you probably thought, “What?  Five and a half feet above the ground!  How is that possible?”
            When I added that we had received a heavy snowfall your mind just relaxed and you may have even smiled a little.  I first explained what I did but I didn’t include “how” I did this.  The information that was omitted acted like a missing piece to the puzzle.  Without that insight your mind just spun out of control in logic and you wondered, “How could that be possible?”
            On the other hand, when you were able to get that missing piece of insight you just smiled and said, “Of course, it all makes perfect sense now!  It is completely possible to walk five and a half feet above the ground in snow!”
            There are many situations in your life where something will seem to be impossible.  Your situation only appears in that light because you are missing a piece to the puzzle.  If you are persistent and trust the process of creation you will find the missing piece to your puzzle and the impossible will suddenly become possible!

This insight is brought to you by Author and Life Strategist Jami Sell.

©2010 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

www.thoughtandbelief.com

 

 

Catching Fish In A Jar

            When I was between eleven and twelve years old I decided one bright sunny day that it would be fun to go fishing.  I didn’t have any fishing gear and I had never done much fishing other than to play on the stream banks while my father fished.  I also didn’t want to “hurt” the fish I just wanted to catch them and then let them go.
            I looked around the house for what I could use and I found a washed out old mayonnaise jar.  You know the old style jars with the big open “mouth”.  I walked to a nearby pond and put the jar down in the soft dust-like mud of the water’s edge with the open “mouth” of the jar facing toward the center.  I then stirred the waters a little and made them cloudy so that the fish would have trouble seeing me.  Then I waited hovering over the jar.  Gradually, cautiously a small fish would swim up to the clear jar to investigate the disturbance and when it swam into the jar I dropped my hand into the water and over the jar mouth.  I caught a fish, then another.
            I just let them all go and returned my jar to the cupboard.  Then I decided to use wire “box trap” to go fishing and rigged a string to the door.  This way I could drop the trap in the water and not have to “hover over” it like I did with the jar.  I sat very relaxed on the bank of the pond and sure enough I caught a fair sized bluegill.  I took it home in a water filled plastic waste basket to show my dad and afterward returned it to the pond.
            When I told people about how I had caught the fish they just paused and laughed nervously.  You see unlike these people, I didn’t know that you couldn’t catch fish in a jar.  If I would have asked them they would have scoffed and said, “You can’t catch fish in a jar or a box trap!”  No one in my life had ever dreamed of telling me that so my belief system did not contain these words or the impact that they would have had on my “day of fishing”.  Only a free minded kid could come up with an idea of using a jar or a box trap to catch fish!  No one had told me that this was impossible so I just used what I was familiar with and what I had available and I succeeded.
            Maybe today finds you facing a situation that seems impossible.  You have a desire but no visible way of bringing it into being.  You may need to find that “kid” inside you who thinks “outside the box” and the normal ways of achieving things and let him or her catch that fish in a jar!  See your situation from a different angle.  Start looking at the resources that you already have and the things that you are already familiar with.  A fresh perspective and a childlike sense of wonder may surprise you and there’s no telling what you will come up with!

Catching Fish In A Jar is an excerpt from author Jami Sell’s new book Thought And Belief:  How To Unlock Your Potential And Fulfill Your Destiny!