Operation Zig has commenced.  I’ve been listening to Zig Ziglar off and on for 8 or 9 years now.   After his passing about two weeks ago I looked to see if he’d come out with any new books in the last year or so.  I was doubtful since that would have made him 85 when the book came out, but I also knew that if someone was going to come out with a new book at 85…  it would be Zig.

Surprisingly, and yet not really, there was a new book that came out last year.   A digital book called “Born to Win”.   At the beginning of each chapter there was one of those square bar code things that I could scan with my phone and watch a video clip from speeches that he’d done throughout the years.   I loved it.

The book part was full of great advice, tips and information as well.   Zig put forth the concept of the life wheel and that each spoke is a different part of your life:  Family, Mental, Spiritual, Career, Financial, Personal and Physical.

Each branch is described and you have to rate yourself on each on a scale of 1 – 10 along with how to determine your rating.  When you’re done you connect the dots of the spokes and ideally it should be round and also ideally the dots should all be at 10.   Or at least somewhat even so you can still have a wheel and not what I had which was wonky star with 2 points 3 valleys and 2 flat spots.   I’m so not getting anywhere with a wheel that looks like that.

The three parts of the book are: Preparing to Win, Planning to Win and Expecting to Win.  Without all 3 parts, you’re just not going to win.

Preparing to win had to do with setting goals for each spoke of the wheel.

Here are my goals….

Physical – Lose 70lbs by October 8, 2013.

Spiritual:  Read Bible and do 2 devotions a day in 2013.  (Ziglar Devotion in the morning – Joyce Meyer at night and also…  Max Lucado at lunchtime. – There is NO reason why I can’t take 45 minutes a day for God.  He’s gotten far less than that from me for far too long.)

Mental:  Operation Zig up and running and second nature by end of 2014.

Mental:  ”Dear Mel… Love, Sam” down on paper in some form by 12/31/12.

Family:  Visit my family once a month in 2013.

Career:  95 avg score – 15 P & C leads, 10 life leads 2 referrals and 1 GSP lead consistently every month by 12/31/13.

Financial:  Private – but there are 3 of them.

Personal:  Maintain a clean house consistently by 6/30/12

Personal:  Crochet 3 – 5 hours per week.

So those are my goals.  Along with the goals I also had to write down the benefits of each goal, the obstacles to each goal, the knowledge and skills I would need to acquire to order to reach the goal, groups or people that I may need to help me reach my goal, my plan of action to reach each goal and the most important part…   a completion date.

It was pretty intense.

I admit it.  It took 8 years or whatever to embrace the actual system this man spoke about for 31 years…  but this time I felt like he was speaking directly to me when he said, “If you do these things I absolutely, positively guarantee that you will be successful professionally and personally.”

And you know what?   Not putting in the effort and not addressing every part of my life hasn’t worked so far.   It’s time to address it all.  And if Zig says that it “absolutely, positively will work”…   well…   I’m willing, finally, to give it a shot.

“Success is not a destination, it’s a journey.” — Zig Ziglar