Of course, like many people, I didn’t bother to crack this little book until I faced the first really major crisis in my life in 2001.

Since 2001 I have spent many mornings with Oswald.  Bruce gave me an idea that has been a huge blessing to me.

Each day I read, I write a short note or prayer about what is going on.  My first diary is jammed with notes from different years, and every year it’s great to see what God has done, and to be reminded that the present crisis will also be handled by God, just like He took care of the previous ones.

For example, through the years on Jan 8th I prayed about:

A new business we started that tanked
A book deal
Blessings for a seminar
A family member with cancer
A family member with serious immune issues
A family member who had a heart cath
An old friend battling alcoholism

Reflecting on every one of these it is truly amazing how God has worked.  I am so blessed!

My recommendation for you in 2010 – spend some daily time with God, and write your thoughts down.  He doesn’t need you to write them down, but you will be blessed when you see His hand in your life as you look back.

“To be the Difference Maker in the personal, family, and business lives of enough people to make a positive difference in America.”

Since that time he has lived every day of his life to fulfill his mission.

Along the way he slightly changed the mission statement.  About 17 years ago the word spiritual was added.

“To be the Difference Maker in the personal, family, business, and spiritual lives of enough people to make a positive difference in America.”

Soon after that “and the world” was added.

“To be the Difference Maker in the personal, family, business, and spiritual lives of enough people to make a positive difference in America and the world.”

About ten years ago we changed the word business to professional.
“To be the Difference Maker in the personal, family, professional, and spiritual lives of enough people to make a positive difference in America and the world.”

Two things you can learn from this:

Dad’s achievements and legacy didn’t just happen.  He is on a Mission.
There is no downside to having a Mission Statement because you can change it for the better anytime you want.

Are You On A Mission?  What are you waiting for?  Write your Mission Statement today and get started!  Don’t worry, if it’s not perfect, you can change it anytime you want!

Learned at 8:30 that our phone system was down.  Learned a little later our hard drive crashed on the computer so while the phones are working, all of the needed features like voice mail are not!  Suddenly 2010 feels like 1975!

Mom picks up Dad at 10:00 a.m. to go home.  As Cindy and I head out to lunch at 11:30, Mom calls and says Dad is very dizzy.  We head over to Mom and Dad’s place instead.

Mom calls Dad’s doctor who put the brain shunt in last year to relieve his hydrocephalous.  They order a CAT scan ASAP.  We borrow a wheelchair for Dad and head down to the hospital.  (Dad is absolutely loving the attention, as he feels totally normal except when he tries to stand up.)

Arrive at the CAT scan place at 1:15 p.m.  Get checked in, and they promise to work us in.  It’s packed and I am thinking they are running some sort of “start the new year with an X-Ray special”!  Everybody in the room is so nice and courteous.
Dad needs to go to the men’s room and I get elected to help. (Still can’t believe Mom and Cindy voted for me!)

I help Dad, since his balance is way off.  I ask him if he would like some privacy and he says yes, so I turn off the bathroom light. It’s pitch black, as we both laugh in the darkness!  (Side note: Dad has always been able to laugh in the dark.)

Amazingly, when we come out they are ready for us.  They ask Dad a list of 50 questions about his medical history, and Mom gets 48 of them right!  Cindy and I correct the other two.  Dad somehow manages to make a funny comment or joke about almost every question.

We are moved to another waiting area.  Two different “higher ups” check in on us.  The service really is amazing at Southwest Diagnostic Imaging Center at Presbyterian Hospital on Walnut Hill in Dallas.  Had a very nice conversation with Debbie Merten, the Technical Director.  Turns out she trained one of our staff development programs in the 1990’s when she was at Saint Paul Hospital in Dallas.  No wonder the customer service is so good!

(Side note:  Saint Paul Hospital is where my sister Suzie lost her battle against pulmonary fibrosis in 1995, and Debbie was teaching our program at that time.  I can’t tell you how it made our family feel when we went through that time with Suzie and having the hospital staff treat us like family.)

At 2:00 p.m. they take Dad back for the CAT scan.  Mom rides shotgun.

At 2:15 they come back, all done!

In Ziglar tradition we do the only logical thing, we head to IHOP for some FOOD!  The thought of Harvest Grain pancakes drives the dizziness from Dad’s body and he returns to normal (or I guess whatever is normal for Zig Ziglar).

Arrive at IHOP about 3:00.  Dad doesn’t need the wheelchair anymore.  We laugh as we eat gi-normous omelets with pancakes.

At 3:45 the phone rings with the results.  All good, nothing wrong with the shunt, and most likely a little inner ear problem or a lingering effect of the fall from a few years ago.

On the way home from IHOP Dad informs us that his next book is going to be on encouragement, since so many people are down right now.  Life is back to normal.

Drop Mom and Dad off and Cindy takes me back to the office to get my car.

Still have a 1975 phone system at the office, but I don’t care.

#5   The Purity Diet 3,200 hits

#4    I Tweet, therefore I …… The Twitter Strategy for Ziglar 4,875  hits

#3  So You Wanna Be A Speaker 5,065 hits

#2  Seven Success Keys 5,251 hits

#1  At The Foot Of A Giant At the Foot of a Giant 9,141 hits

Your legacy = the sum total of the impact you have on others, and the impact they have on others, and so on…

What Is Your Legacy?

(If you would like to add to your definition of Legacy, please comment, I would love to see it!)

You are at the top when…

You clearly understand that failure is an event, not a person; that yesterday ended last night, and today is your brand-new day.

You have made friends with your past, are focused on the present, and optimistic about your future.

You know that success (a win) doesn’t make you, and failure (a loss) doesn’t break you.

You are filled with faith, hope, and love; and live without anger, greed, guilt, envy, or thoughts of revenge.

You are mature enough to delay gratification and shift your focus from your rights to your responsibilities.

You know that failure to stand for what is morally right is the prelude to being the victim of what is criminally wrong.

You are secure in who you, so you are at peace with God and in fellowship with man.

You have made friends of adversaries, and have gained the love and respect of those who know you best.

You understand that others can give you pleasure, but genuine happiness comes when you do things for others.

You are pleasant to the grouch, courteous to the rude, and generous to the needy.

You love the unlovable, give hope to the hopeless, friendship to the friendless, and encouragement to the discouraged.

You can look back in forgiveness, forward in hope, down in compassion, and up with gratitude.

You know that “he who would be greatest among you must become the servant of all.”

You recognize, confess, develop, and use your God-given physical, mental, and spiritual abilities to the glory of God and for the benefit of mankind.

You stand in front of the Creator of the universe, and He says to you, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.”

If you have played much golf you will from time to time play with people who ignore the O.B. fences and they will either play from Out of Bounds, or they will drop a ball and play on without taking a penalty. This is called cheating. If you are caught cheating in a tournament you are automatically disqualified, and if you get caught again, you are likely to be banned from playing tournaments, especially if the cheating was intentional.

In the game of life some people actually believe the rules do not apply to them. They will either ignore the fences, or remove them altogether. I love this quote by G. K. Chesterton:

“Don’t ever take a fence down until you know the reason it was put up.”

Good relationships and good marriages work best when people stay on the course and do everything they can to stay away from the O.B. fences. Like golf, a great score in life depends on staying in bounds, and going O.B. and ignoring it, or worse, removing the fences, is called cheating. Plus, sometimes the fences are there to protect you from the 2000 pound bull in the pasture next to the course (I literally learned this one the hard way!).

Dad’s late mentor, Fred Smith, had this quote: “All great failures in life are moral failures.” As you look forward to 2010, keep in mind that the moral fences in your life are there to protect you, and before you consider taking one of the fences down or climbing over it, take a look at the 2000 pound bull on the other side!

“The number one tool in your sales arsenal is your integrity” Zig Ziglar

This past month we have seen Tiger Woods loose hundreds of millions of dollars in endorsements for one simple reason: he has lost his integrity.

Growing up I was keenly aware of some very “old fashioned” rules that Dad set for himself. Things like never having a meeting alone with a woman, or allowing a woman to pick him up from the airport. As a business person in this day and age I am sure a lot of people thought Dad was just little to hard core. But you see, Dad is a master of the game of life, just like Tiger is a master of the game of golf.

In golf, if you have a short par 4 with water in front of the green, the wise shot is to lay up with a club that will not reach the water hazard. It would be stupid to hit driver, and besides, you can still make birdie from the center of the fairway and you take double bogey out of play.

Life is the same way. Sure, you can live close to the hazards of life without going in, but all it takes is one miss-hit and you have lost your integrity. Why take the chance?

It’s the first Christmas I can remember. It arrived just seven weeks after the deaths of my father and baby sister. To make matters worse, it was in the heart of the Great Depression. Things were tough. All of us children who were older made what income contributions we could, but the truth was my mother had eight of her eleven remaining children still living at home, and six were too young to work. Understandably, the Ziglar kids were concerned about what kind of Christmas it would be!

The good news is that though our grief was fresh, we still celebrated Christmas. We received no toys that year, but much to my delight in my gift box I found three English walnuts and something I had never tasted before—raisins! They were absolutely delicious.  Mama prepared her wonderful molasses candy and we had a small cedar tree. And my mother read the Christmas story, like she always did.

My sixth Christmas will always have great meaning to me. We celebrated the birth of Christ even in hard times because we believed in Christmas.

A CHANGE IN CELEBRATING THE SEASON

Unfortunately, over the years things have changed. The cheerful “Merry Christmas” of yesteryear has been replaced by the politically correct “Happy Holidays!” In the minds of many people we celebrate “holidays.” Not only is Christ not at the center of the celebration, he isn’t even considered to be the reason for the season!

If I seem upset about the changes that I see taking place in regard to Christmas, it is because I am! It’s not because an old tradition is being changed. No, I’m upset that the event that made it possible for me to have a life I could never have imagined is being hidden from view with decorations, wrapping paper, parties and political correctness!

CHRISTMAS! A REASON TO CELEBRATE

You see, I believe it’s worth celebrating that Jesus came to earth—His birth signaled hope for all mankind. I believe that as he lived out a perfect life before God and mankind, he showed that he truly was God’s Son. And I believe that by giving his life up on a cross, he completely paid the penalty that my sins—and yours—deserve before a holy God. And it was made possible because of that first Christmas.

How could I not believe in Christmas? Because Christ was born as a baby in a manger that’s more than enough reason to celebrate Christmas for what it is—a joyful occasion.  I’ve experienced forgiveness of my sins and have the assurance of eternity in Heaven!

If you don’t know Jesus Christ, let me say that He tells us in John 14:6, “I am the way, and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”  How do you do that? First, understand that I’m talking about a relationship, not a religion. All the world’s major religions emphasize that you qualify for heaven by your good works—the things that you do. Such “religion” is spelled “d-o.” Christianity is spelled “d-o-n-e.” Christ already paid for our sins when He died on the cross. “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). And he rose from the grave proving that the punishment for our sins was fully paid.

Nothing we could ever “do” could qualify us for God’s forgiveness and reserve our place in heaven.  That’s why Christ himself said, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him who he has sent” (John 6:29).

CELEBRATE LIKE NEVER BEFORE!

God forgives us, saves us from our sins, and gives us eternal life based on our belief in what Jesus did for us. Why? Because God is gracious beyond measure! The Bible says that it is “…by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works…” (Ephesians 2:8-9). Though “the wages of sin is death” [eternal separation from God], the greatest Christmas gift we could ever have is “the free gift of God…eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23).

With gift-giving like that from God, I don’t want to lose the significance of Christmas. I believe in Christmas!

I urge you to accept the greatest “Christmas gift” you’ll ever receive: If you’re convinced that God’s way is the only way to meaningful life now and eternal life in heaven, you can tell him in words like these…”Dear God, I do believe Jesus died for me, and took the punishment my sins deserved. I want to receive your free gift of salvation and eternal life. Thank you for making this possible!”

Then join me this year in celebrating Christmas like you’ve never celebrated it before!

Merry Christmas!

This article can be found on a Christmas tract from the good folks at Good News Publishing.  You can buy it and share with your friends and neighbors.

This question came in from a Success 2.0 Webcast

Marla, here are a couple of ideas for you:

Be an example and have the attitude you want others to have.  Those who are around you the most will respond to whatever attitude you have the most.  If you are going through a struggle and they see you embracing it, moving forward, looking for the bright side, and working hard to improve the situation, this will encourage them.

Express gratitude.  Let those around you know that you are thankful for many things, including their support, love, and encouragement.

Understand you can’t change everybody.  Some of the people around you may continue to react negatively and remain frustrated.  By being the right kind of person and doing the things you need to do to help the situation, you have the peace of mind to understand that they are not frustrated with you, but with the situation.  They may “take it out” on you from time to time, and after this occurs you may want to have a talk with them.  The purpose of this talk will be to ask them, “Are you frustrated with me, or the situation?”  Then listen.  Chances are good that it will be the situation, especially if you are doing all you can.  If they say it is you, then you will need to understand why.  Perhaps you are doing something that they see as making the situation worse that you have not considered.  If they are right, this is great news because you have more room to improve.  Maybe you just need a time of forgiveness and reconciliation.  Or maybe they are the ones with the problem.  In any case, you need to find out if they are part of your struggle and recovery.

Embrace The Struggle!