Secrets of "Top Performance"

If you've been visiting this blog, you know that up 'till now its been pretty much me doing all the writing. This week, we're going to turn a corner and start inviting some really smart people to add other ideas. Lets start with Zig Ziglar.

He has a chapter in his book Top Performance called "Choosing to Be a Top Performer." You read that correctly. How well we do in life is very much up to us. Last weekend I attended the Promise Keepers conference here in Los Angeles (where I am still trying to learn how to be submissive to my wife.) The first speaker had blown up most of his face and body with a white phosphorous hand grenade. He lost his sight in one eye, one ear, his hair, the hearing in one ear, part of both hands, etc. But here he was touring the country speaking to audiences about his experiences, and laughing about his looks. He chose to overcome.

Well, in one part of the chapter Zig asks whether you've ever been on the way to work when someone cuts you off. Not a little, but big time. You swerve and slam on the brakes, but nobody gets hurt. Then you spend the rest of the morning ranting, grumbling, and telling all who will listen about this idiot. Zig thinks that this is not how top performers react.

You see, he says, the other fellow is having a great morning. He hasn't thought a thing about it, if he even knew about it in the first place. You, on the other hand, are stewing and spewing, wasting valuable time and emotional energy on something you can't change or effect in any way. Let it go. Choose to live free of that kind of interference in your daily effort. It will free you up to do that which will make you a top performer. The book, one of the truly great books on leadership, is available at Amazon and elsewhere.