SEE YOU AT THE TOP

by Zig Ziglar

  Suppose the same individual was asked about his mental appetites? “When is the last time you deliberately, on a pre-determined schedule, fed your own mind?” What do you think his answer would be? For that matter—what is your answer? Your answer is important because you have mental appetites just as you have physical appetites.

  MENTALLY HUNGRY—WHAT DO YOU DO?

  People are funny. I’ve never met an individual who was hungry and heard him say, “I’m about to starve. I wonder what I should do? Do you have any suggestions? Can you give me any idea how to solve this problem?” I probably never will be confronted with that particular situation. The hungry person knows if he’s hungry he can solve that problem by eating.

  From the neck down, very few people are worth more than a few hundred dollars a week. From the neck up, there is no limit to what an individual is worth. So what do we do? We feed the part of us below our necks every day. How often do we feed our minds, the part that has no limit to its value, earning, and happiness potential? Most of us feed it accidentally and occasionally, if it’s convenient or we don’t have anything else to do. The excuse we often give is our lack of time. This is ridiculous. If you have “time” to feed the low income part of you every day, doesn’t it make sense you should take time to feed the part which has no ceiling to its potential?

  On many occasions I have encountered people who are despondent, negative, defeated, down on themselves, broke, unhappy, and you name it. If it’s on the negative side, it will fit them. The funny thing about these people is that they’re the ones who resist to the bitter end any feeding of their minds or their attitudes. They badly need inspiration and information but they consistently refuse to attend seminars or get involved in reading good books or listening to motivational recordings. It’s really funny to listen to some of these people talk—perhaps I should use the word “tragic”? When we refer to extremely successful people and mention how optimistic and positive they are, the failure will say, “No wonder they’re positive and have good attitudes. They’re earning $250,000 a year. If I made that much money, I would be positive too.” The failure thinks successful people are positive because they earn $250,000 a year. This obviously is in reverse. Successful people earn $250,000 or more a year because they have the right mental attitude. Wouldn’t it be marvelous if it had been arranged so that an empty head, like an empty stomach, wouldn’t let its owner rest until its owner put something in it?

  It’s true in every field of endeavor, whether it’s law, medicine, sales, teaching, coaching, science, or the arts, the top people—or those who are headed for the top—are the ones who regularly show up for seminars at their own expense. They read good books and regularly listen to motivational recordings. They deliberately seek information and inspiration and, as a result, they are constantly on the grow.

  DO IT WELL—SUBCONSCIOUSLY

  Why are successful men positive? To reverse it, why are positive men successful? They’re positive because they deliberately feed their minds with good, clean, powerful, positive mental thoughts on a regular basis. They make them a part of their daily diets just as surely as they make food a part of their physical diets. They know that if they feed their bodies above their necks they’ll never have to worry about feeding their bodies below the neck. They won’t have to worry about the roof over their heads, or the financial problems often associated with old age. As we dig into the learning process and look at some real life examples it will become obvious why this is true.

  Virtually everything we learn, we learn consciously. But it’s only when we do it subconsciously that we do it well. In the olden days, you learned how to drive a car consciously. If your car had a clutch, do you remember the instructions you gave yourself? Push in the clutch. Press the accelerator—just a little. Careful now—push the gearshift lever. Now, let the clutch out—easy does it. Pull the gearshift lever. Do you remember? Do you also remember you would buck and jump and probably kill the engine?

  You were a menace to society and a candidate for the morgue because you were learning to drive consciously. Some time later, you could press the accelerator, shift the gear, let out on the clutch, unwrap a piece of gum, roll down the window, and talk about your neighbor all at the same time. You could do these things with complete safety because you moved the driving process from the conscious mind into the subconscious mind. You learned to drive consciously and later it became “unconscious” or automatic. It was almost a reflex action.

  Every musician—regardless of the instrument—went through the slow and often painful process of learning to consciously play that instrument. During this learning process friends and relatives studiously avoided listening to the efforts of the aspiring Ignace Paderewski. The musician plays skillfully only when he plays instinctively or subconsciously. Then everyone wants to listen—free, of course.

  Do you remember when you learned how to type? You had to concentrate on every stroke as you beat out about ten words per minute. You were typing consciously and you were doing a miserable job. Later, you no longer thought about the key you were going to hit, you just typed. You were then doing it subconsciously and doing it well.

  Once you learn to do something consciously, you can move it into the subconscious and do it well. Everything you do well will be done subconsciously. This includes your attitude. You can move your attitude reactions into the subconscious. You can do this so completely you will instinctively react positively to negative situations as well as positive ones. That’s a promise. It takes dedication, work, and practice, but it can be done. A positive response to any stimulus can become something like a reflex-action or a conditioned response.

  In Chapter Nineteen at the end of this segment I give more insight on the subconscious mind and its instinctive or conditioned use.

  NOW HERE’S AN OPTIMIST

  By feeding your mind over a period of time with good, clean, powerful information you can even develop an attitude like “This Old Boy Down Home.” He was caught by a flash flood and ended up on his rooftop. One of his neighbors came floating by on his house. In this dire state of affairs he quipped, “John, this flood is just awful, isn’t it?” John replied, “No, it’s not so bad.” The neighbor, somewhat surprised, retorted, “What do you mean, it’s not so bad? Why, there goes your hen house floating downstream.” John simply commented, “Yeah, I know, but six months ago I started raising ducks and there they are, every one of them just swimming around. Everything is going to be all right.” “But, John, this water is going to ruin your crops,” the neighbor persisted.

  Still undaunted, John replied, “No, it’s not. My crops were already ruined and just last week the county agent told me my land really needed more water, so this solved that problem.” The pessimist tried one more time to get to his cheerful friend. He added, “But look, John, the water is still rising. The first thing you know, it’s going to be up to your windows.” Grinning wider than ever, our optimistic friend replied, “Man, I hope so, they are powerful dirty and need washing.”

  O.K., it’s a joke. But, as is often the case, there is much truth in humor. It’s obvious our hero had decided to respond to the situation in a positive manner. After all, the dictionary says that attitude is a posture or position assumed to serve a purpose. Over a period of time you can so condition your mind that you will instinctively and automatically react positively to the negative situations you encounter in life. In order to get—and stay—this way you have to feed your mind a lot of good, clean, powerful motivational messages—and then you have to keep on feeding it.

  I mentioned early in See You at the Top that you could completely bury the old garbage (remember the shopping center built on the garbage dump?) but you could then turn on the radio or TV, glance at the newspaper, talk to a negative person, or even chance to overhear a passing conversation and boom-boom—somebody else has dumped some fresh garbage in your clean, positive mind. Now what do you do, Charlie Brown? Answer: Exactly what we have been talking about in these
last two chapters. Pre-condition your mind with the “getting up” routine, identify the positive symbols like “go lights,” etc., and “set your gyroscope” (you do that while talking on the phone). Then you follow the procedure in this chapter of feeding your mind—regularly. The reason is simple. There are:

  THREE KINDS OF MOTIVATION

  The first is “fear” motivation which says, “If you’re not in by 11:00 p.m., this will be the last night this month you can go out.” Or, “If you don’t increase your sales, you will be fired.” For some people, fear motivation works, but with most people it doesn’t because it causes resentment which leads to rebellion.

  Fear motivation might be like this Texas story. A rich Texan threw a mammoth party one night and invited dozens of people with special emphasis on young men of marriageable age. As the evening wore on and most of the guests were feeling no pain, the host invited everyone to join him around the pool, which he had carefully stocked with water moccasins and alligators. He challenged his guests to swim the length of the pool and offered the choice of three substantial prizes, $1,000,000 in cash, a thousand acres of choice land, or his daughter’s hand in marriage. The words were scarcely out of his mouth when there was a loud splash followed by a furious thrashing of water and the almost immediate emergence of a young man from the opposite side of the pool, who had just set a never-to-be-broken world record.

  The host enthusiastically congratulated the young man and then, true to his word, asked the dripping winner about his choice. Would it be the $1,000,000? The young man shook his head no. The thousand acres of land? Again, no. Then would it be the hand of his daughter in marriage? When the young man again said no, the host, somewhat exasperated asked, “Then what do you want?” The young man quickly responded, “I want to know the name of the man who pushed me in the pool.”

  The second is incentive or “carrot” motivation, which is simply reward for accomplishment. It says, “If you raise your profit percentage three points, you’ll get a raise in your department.” “If you perform adequately, you’ll be given a permanent assignment.” This motivation works for considerably more people in the free enterprise system.

  You’ve probably seen the picture of the donkey pulling the cart. In this picture the carrot is dangling in front of the donkey. When the donkey walks toward the carrot, he pulls the cart. There are several factors which must be present in order for this kind of motivation to work. The cart has to be light enough, the stick holding the carrot must be short enough, and the carrot enticing enough to get the donkey to do the job. Experience teaches us that we must permit the donkey to take an occasional bite of the carrot in order to keep him from becoming discouraged. Otherwise, he’s going to feel he is involved in an exercise in futility and will quit trying for the carrot. When the donkey does get a bite of the carrot, he satisfies his appetite. When he’s no longer hungry, some adjustments must be made. For example, the stick must be shortened, the carrot sweetened, and the load lightened if the donkey is to be motivated into action. Eventually, the process reaches a stage where it becomes impractical. The rewards or incentives are so high that the profit is removed from the picture and the program grinds to a halt. On occasion the participant reaches a “comfort zone” and doesn’t need—or want—more comfort or carrots. What do you do now?

  MAKE HIM THIRSTY

  That’s easy—change the donkey into a race horse and make him want to run. Implement the third kind of motivation—internal. That’s what this book is helping you do. The old saying, “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink” is true, but if you let him lick the salt block long enough he will get thirsty and want to take the drink. My natural optimism leads me to believe this book will be your “salt block.” A 25-year “hard line” study at Harvard University under the guidance of Psychologist David McClelland establishes precise scientific verification that you can change motivation by changing the way you think about yourself and your circumstances. That is exactly what this book is all about. I’m convinced—because of results already obtained— the information in this book, combined with the follow-up procedures, will enable you to change the way you see yourself and your circumstances (for the better, I might add), which means you will improve your performance.

  My “intellectual associates” and I often discuss motivation in our “strategy sessions.” They are almost unanimous in their convictions that all motivation is “self” motivation, that no one can “motivate” any one else, and they “prove” and theorize at length and in depth on the subject. My favorite answer is this analogy.

  My favorite relaxation on Sunday afternoon is to build a fire in our den and watch it burn out of one eye and watch the Dallas Cowboys out of the other eye. Occasionally, when the Cowboys get way ahead, I drop off for a little snooze. Generally speaking, when I awaken the flames have died and the logs are smoldering. I get up and grab my “poker” and give the logs a few healthy pokes. Almost immediately the flames shoot up and I have a beautiful, flaming fire again. I added no more wood to the fire. All I did was “shake up” what was there and stir up a little activity, which brought in some extra oxygen and started the blaze.

  This information is designed to stir up that part of you which could be, like the fire, smoldering at the moment. You’ve heard most of it but chances are excellent that you have not really seen or heard it because you aren’t utilizing the information for maximum results by doing something.

  There is a difference in hearing, reading, and learning. I’m talking about learning it so completely that it is as much a part of you as your hands and arms. I’m talking about learning it so well you know it consciously and feel it subconsciously so that you instinctively and automatically react positively to the negative events of life. This is attitude control and these next three examples prove this objective is desirable, reachable, and can be “stirred up” by an outside “poke” or stimulus.

  YOU CAN CHANGE OR BE CHANGED

  A number of years ago, Joost A. Meerloo, M.D., wrote a book entitled The Rape of the Mind. In his book, the author explains why some of our prisoners-of-war during the Korean War became turncoats, rejected America, and stayed in North Korea. Also, why countless others became so embittered and confused that their value to themselves and to the free enterprise system was largely negated.

  Meerloo explains that the young GI prisoner would be subjected to a “brainwashing” procedure for ten or twelve hours from two skilled Communist brainwashers, followed by a second and often a third team. During this 24 to 36 hour ordeal, the young GI would be physically, mentally, spiritually, and emotionally exhausted. After a number of sessions like this the young GI would “throw in the towel” and exclaim, “All right, all right, I’ll do it or I’ll believe it, just let me get some sleep.” Of course, his godless tormentors had no intention of letting him sleep at that point. They continued to pour the garbage in. These young men were helpless in the face of their captors. The only exceptions, as Meerloo pointed out, were those who had strong religious convictions and God’s help in resisting the brainwashing.

  Isaiah 40:31 explains why. “But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.” In Hebrew the word “renew” is Chalaph, which means to change—or to “exchange.” When you serve God you change or exchange your strength for His. That’s the best swap you’ll ever make because there are many things you can’t do, but there is nothing good you and God can’t do.

  Frankly, when I heard of these young men turning against their country, I was horrified. After reading Meerloo’s book, I am convinced they were as helpless at stopping the transformation of their thinking as they would have been in stopping a tank with their bare hands. I would like to stress that, in most cases, these young men initially resisted the onslaught but still fell victim to the ideology that was forced into their minds. Now think about this. They fell victim against
their wills to a doctrine of lies and destruction. Does it make sense to you that if you regularly, by choice, fed your mind good, clean, powerful messages of information and inspiration, you would derive tremendous benefits from it?

  The next story makes a strong case for this point of view.

  GET THAT MUSIC OUT

  Shinichi Suzuki is an unusual Japanese scientist who performs what many people consider to be one of the miracles of our time. He takes babies a few weeks old and starts playing beautiful, recorded music next to their beds. He plays the same tune many times and after about thirty days he repeats the procedure with another recording. He continues this process until the infant is about two years old. At that time, he starts about three months of music lessons for mother, with the two-year-old as an observer. Next he puts a miniature violin in the hands of the child, who begins to get the feel of the instrument while learning bow movements. This first lesson lasts only two or three minutes. From there they gradually build up to an hour. By the time the child is old enough to learn that the violin is supposed to be difficult to play, he has already mastered it and is having fun in the process.

  Professor Suzuki conducted a concert with some 1,500 of these Japanese children performing. Average age of the children was about seven and they played the classics—Chopin, Beethoven, Vivaldi, etc. Significantly, Suzuki emphasizes that the vast majority of these children had no “natural” musical talent. However, he believes every child has talent that can be developed by following the same procedures we use in teaching children to speak. A baby is around older people who constantly talk, so the first step is exposure. Next, the baby tries to talk, which is imitation. Friends and relatives brag on the baby, which gives encouragement and motivates the baby to try again. This is the process of repetition. Then the baby starts adding words and tying them together into phrases or sentences. This procedure is refinement. At age three or four, the child has quite a vocabulary and still can’t read a word.