Book Review - Master Successful Personal Habits - Zig Ziglar

Master Successful Personal Habits by Zig Ziglar

DISCLAIMER - I am not a Financial Advisor and do not work for any Brokerage Firm. The opinions given are my own and are not to be used as professional advice. These are my findings and can help you to make informed decisions on investing. Consult a Broker or Lawyer before making any investment.


Master Successful Personal Habits by Zig Ziglar is a great book about thinking right and getting good habits. Few people in the world are better known than Zig Ziglar. He has authored dozens of books but is known more as a great motivational speaker, particularly in the arena of sales.

I am currently reading his book “See You at the Top”, and it is super also. I picked up both books at Hoopla-Digital. If available from your library, Hoopla Digital is an inexpensive way to read books for free.

WHAT I LEARNED FROM: Master Successful Personal Habits

First and most importantly, this book is way more than a book about habits. It is about living a successful and prosperous life. There are dozens of great stories, and I can only include a few in a 5-page review. So read the book and be blessed.

Hope is the Foundation of Quality Habit Changes.

1. You have a choice. You can make it better or worse.

2. It is not what happens in the world that makes a difference in your life.

3. It is not what your parents did or are doing. You must do something to change your life for the better.

4. It’s not what happens to you, but how you handle what happens. One mistake does not ruin us. Just learn from each mistake and don’t repeat failures.

Zig Ziglar says many will never change due to the “PLOM” disease. He says this means “Poor Little Ole Me”. I would change, but poor little ole me can’t. You can. Don’t fall for this failure trap.

There is no limit to what we can do when we are determined. There is great power in Hope. Hope is the foundation. Without hope, we are lost. There is no power if hope is in the future or the past. POWER OF HOPE is NOW. In the present, we must make our changes.

Money is important, but it has limitations. Zig says he likes a lot of things money can buy, but money can only buy things. Many more important things are not able to be purchased with money.

Money can buy you a nice house, but not a home. Money will buy you a bed, but not a good night’s sleep. Money can buy you a companion, but not a true friend. Money can buy a good time, but it won’t buy peace of mind.

The book is full of examples of people who refused PLOM disease. (poor little ole me malady). Many overcame great circumstances.

Vince Roberts only finished the 5th grade. He got a job driving a taxi, and he purchased a 15 lb. Webster's dictionary. Each day he would learn the meaning of a few more words. As he waited for someone to take his taxi, he got smarter and smarter. By reading his IQ went up. He learned how to invest in the stock market.

Over time, he made enough money to buy out the ’19 Car Taxi Service” in his town. He never quit investing, and today he is a very wealthy man. He travels all over Canada telling others how to be successful. Is he an isolated case? Not at all. There are thousands of Vince Roberts who have migrated from foreign countries and become wealthy. They see the opportunity all around us in America.

To get ahead, it takes 6 things.

1. You must have a healthy self-image. Believe in yourself.

2. You must see the value and worth in other people.

3. You must develop a Strong Goal Orientation.

4. You must have the right mental attitude each day.

5. Be willing to work hard.

6. You must have a burning desire to excel.

Zig Ziglar gives a set of affirmations that we should all seek to emulate. He suggests reading this every day, and making it a part of your daily routine. I have done this and it has made me more steady and consistent. It has been easier to stick to more core values by living right and trying to glorify the Lord with my life. Try it and I think you will be a better person reminding yourself of how you should and will be.

Zig Ziglar encourages us to speak positive words to ourselves. He says we should start each day by stating the following:

I am a compassionate, respectful, encourager who is a considerate, generous, gentle, patient, caring, sensitive, personable, attentive, fun-loving person. I am a supporting, giving and forgiving, clean, kind, unselfish, affectionate, loving, family-oriented human being, and I am a sincere and open-minded, good listener, and good-finder who is trustworthy. These are the qualities which enable me to build good relationships with my associates, neighbors, mate, and family.

I'm a person of integrity with the faith and wisdom to know what I should do and the courage and convictions to follow through.

I have a vision to manage myself and to lead others. I'm authoritative, confident, and humbly grateful for the opportunity life offers me. I am fair, flexible, resourceful, creative, knowledgeable, decisive, and an extra-miler with a service attitude who communicates well with others. I am a consistent, pragmatic teacher with character and a finely-tuned sense of humor.

​I am an honorable person and am balanced in my personal, family, and business life, and have a passion for being, doing, and learning more today so I can be and do more tomorrow.

These are the qualities of the winner I was born to be. Tonight I'm going to sleep wonderfully well. I will dream powerful and positive dreams. Tomorrow I will awaken refreshed, and it's going to be an absolutely magnificent day.

Power of Words

Zig Ziglar says that we have no idea how much power words have over people. So many think they have accomplished all their life goals by themselves. No one has done it all by themselves.

Zig says that if you see a turtle on top of a post, you know he didn’t get there by himself. The same can be said of each of us. No matter how high or how low you are on the ladder of life, others have helped you along the way.

He says his two favorite college teams are Penn State and Notre Dame, but probably not because they are so successful. It is because they don’t allow the player’s name to be on the jerseys. You have a number and you are just a ”part of the team”. You watch and almost yearly these 2 teams are in the top 20 NCAA teams, if not in the top 10.

If you don’t think words are important, think about these examples.

Patrick Henry said “Give me Liberty or give me death,” and it caused a nation to unite and fight for its independence. Churchhill said “There will always be an England”, and the country was lifted by its bootstraps.

FDR said “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself”, and the Depression Era got a glimpse of hope. Martin Luther King said “I have a dream,” and it made many people get great dreams they had never before dreamed for a better country.

In his book, Zig Ziglar says that 58% of people never read a meaningful book after graduating college. But the ones who made the “Who’s Who” typically read at least 20 books per year. In 5 years, they have read 100 books and are totally up on current trends and business leadership.

He points out that if you will read just 30 minutes per day when you are young and stay with it all through life, you will read over 1,000 books in your lifetime. That is the equivalent of 5 Four Year Degrees from college. You won’t get the degrees, but you will get the knowledge.

He said he always carries a paperback book with him everywhere he goes so in down times or times waiting, he can use the time constructively. With cell phones, Kindle, Hoopla Digital, ePub, and online Library books, there is no limit to what we can carry in our cell phones.

80% of character is developed by the time we are 5 years old. 90% is developed by the time we are 7 years old. So is it important to speak positive uplifting things to our children? You can not know how much difference it will make.

Many in prisons today were told by their parents “You keep that up and you will wind up in jail one day.” Many Olympians were told, “Keep up that hard work and one day you will be in the Olympics.” We move to what is in our minds. Fill your mind with positive uplifting thoughts.

Someone once asked Helen Keller what would be worse than being blind? Without hesitation, she said “It would be infinitely worse to have perfect eyesight and no vision than the other way around.’

Consistency is imperative to be successful in life. Your word should be your bond. There are dozens of stories in this book about people who started small and grew large in their chosen fields.

I highly recommend this book. It is a great book on being motivated to live right and see things with a proper perspective. Do yourself a favor and read some Zig Ziglar books. Developing good habits is not easy, but this book will get you on the right track.

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