Are You Useful Now?

A couple of days ago, I got a chance to watch Lincoln. Yet again, filmmaker Steven Spielberg helmed a story so enchanting and moving, it ought to awaken your unknown love for history. It was a beautiful masterpiece centered on Lincoln's life as a father, husband, friend and as the 16th president of the United States who marshaled the freedom of the slaves.

But for me, the scene that lingered long and vividly was the heated confrontation between father (Abe Lincoln) and his first born son, Robert. The civil war was poised to end and Robert has been steered away to enlist for war by sending him to Boston to become a lawyer.

While visiting soldiers who were injured, the stirrings in Robert's heart to be useful now came alive and burning. A momentary lapse in Lincoln's part, a slap against a son's defiance, furthered his son's desire to its boiling point. With or without permission, Robert enlisted his heart and life for war.

It's meaningful and moving and touching because I feel the same way. I don't want to be useful tomorrow, I want to be useful now. Not five years after but now.

Maybe we all go through this stage and season of self-doubt. We question our worth as a person based on how useful we are now. Are we doing what we always wanted to do? Are we living for something bigger than ourselves? Are we happy? Are we making a difference? Are we changing the world? Are we useful?

These are questions that are real and scary. If you answered yes, good for you. But a no echos the restlessness from within. It's a silent cry of desperation seeking freedom from the bondage of mediocrity and the common life. To be useful means to be important. It's a human desire common to all but only a handful achieves.

But what does it really mean to be useful? Only you can tell because your life is yours to live. You don't need to be president or a noble soldier to feel fulfilled. Just look around you, examine your motives and notice the little differences you are making on other people's lives.

Usefulness is all about perspective. As long as you are living your life according to how you were wired then that's useful. Birds fly because they were created with wings. Flowers bloom, the sun rises and sets, the moon beams at night and fishes swim. They are who and what they are because of their specific design. And you are who you are because God created you that way.

The moment you are feeling useless, go back to your creator. Only He can tell you what you were wired for.

The Zig Ziglar Legacy

"You can get everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want." 

                                                             

                                                              - Zig Ziglar

C.S. Lewis. Abe Lincoln. Winston Churchill. Steve Jobs. John Piper. Mahatma Gandhi. William Wilberforce. Theodore Roosevelt. Jose Rizal. Peter Drucker. And Zig Ziglar. These men are some of those whom I highly look up to. They are my inspiration, my standard and my heroes.

I never met any of them but they changed my life through their stories, writing and legacy. These men are one in a million because they fully lived and embraced their fate and destiny. Passion and purpose drove them to make history. Most of them are long gone but their legacy lives and will continue to be alive in the future because of their incomparable and incredible contribution to humanity.

Last November 29, 2012, I heard the news that Zig Ziglar passed away after losing his battle against pneumonia. A great loss for us who were touched and changed by Zig's unwavering passion to motivate people live their dreams by helping enough other people achieve their own aspirations. Zig's contagious enthusiasm towards life and success will continue to change lives for the generations to come. He may have lost the battle to a sickness but his was a full life nevertheless. 

I mourn the passing of one of my heroes and my mentor. I have devoured his books and I have listened to his audio messages again and again. He has made such a huge difference in my attitude towards life. He made a believer out of me. One of my most treasured quotes from Zig talks about choosing to become a meaningful specific rather than becoming a wandering generality. Up to this day, that philosophy pushes me to live life meaningfully not only for my sake but for the sake of other people too. 

This is Zig Ziglar's legacy. He's not after individual successes but he wants every story to be meaningful and significant. This is not done through selfish ambition and hoarding of all the wealth in the world. Real and lasting success is all about working together with other people. You will get what you want if you help your friend, your neighbor, your colleague, your family get what they want. It's a win-win situation. It is a timeless and proven philosophy of sowing and reaping. It's all about building relationships with other people. And the truth is, it is more fulfilling and satisfying to know that you are a part of someone else's success story.

And Zig, you have helped me immensely. Thank you for your dedication to help other people run after their dreams and goals. You are a major part of so many people's success story including mine. You will be truly missed.

How to Set and Fulfill Your Goals

By Divine Grace R. Segunla

Do you know that 97% of adults do not have goals? No wonder thousands or even millions of people die everyday without living their lives to the fullest. Sadly, they were victims of circumstance.

It’s not their fault that they were born poor, grew up uneducated and underprivileged. One could rant and complain about how unfair life is day after day after day. Well, it really is unfair. But the reality is nothing will change in your life unless you take actions now. Your circumstances will not change on their own. It’s in your hands to change things around you. You are the author of your life story.

If we look at history, hundreds of successful men and women started with nothing. Abraham Lincoln referred to by former Secretary of War Stanton as “the most perfect ruler of men that the world has ever seen” and probably America’s greatest president that ever lived started as a grocery clerk. He was poverty-stricken and uneducated but that didn’t stop him from reading law books he bought for fifty cents from a household plunder. Andrew Carnegie is the famous 19th century steel tycoon who gave away $365 million. He was nothing but an impoverished young man from Scotland who started to work at 2 cents per hour. Oprah Winfrey is the most powerful celebrity in the world today as declared by Forbes for earning $260 million last year. It wasn’t a walk in the park for Oprah. She was born out of wedlock to a poverty-stricken young woman. She was sexually abused by a number of male relatives and her mother’s friends. In honor of my hero, my grandfather, let me share his story. Juanito Segunla married at a very young age and had eight children. Due to lack of education, the only job available is selling vegetables in the market. But that didn’t stop him from supporting all eight children to finish college education and even his grandsons (and daughters). He was also able to build his dream house for his family.

There are hundred of success stories of men and women who started with barely anything. They were ordinary people just like you and me. But what makes them different? What makes them great?

It’s their ability to see where they’re going. You cannot go anywhere unless you have a destination in mind. It’s their ability to dream. It’s their ability to change their circumstances. It’s their ability to set goals. They knew what they want in life.

There are no limits to the goals we can achieve in life. If we commit our mind, our heart and our life we can achieve just about anything.

I hope I made my point across. We need to set goals so we can get started in life. Here is a guideline of setting goals I got from Zig Ziglar.

1. Find the Goal
No one can do this for us. It is our greatest responsibility to discover what we want to achieve in life. Take some time and think it over. Get a notebook and write down everything you want to accomplish in your lifetime. You may want to retire young and spend the rest of years traveling around the world or you just want a small business. It doesn’t matter whether it’s big or small as long as it is yours.

2. Overcome Obstacles to the Goal
Do not be alarmed when obstacles arise to hinder you from fulfilling your goals. Obstacles and challenges are part of life. You will never become truly successful unless you overcome them. Obstacles are life’s way of teaching us the indispensability of perseverance to our success.


3. Keep Your Eye on the Goal
Zig wrote, “Life is a series of adjustments always keeping the goal in sight.” There will be unexpected events and disappointments that may make us lose sight of the goal. It is a conscious effort on our part to conduct progress checks and continual review of our goals.

4.Set an Attainable Goal
Florence Chadwick was the first woman in history to swim (20 miles) the English Channel from France to England in 1950. She failed on her first attempt. The point is we need to realize that failure is part of the equation of success. We cannot do everything on our first try. When you fail the first time around, just get up and do it again.

5. Have Faith in the Goal
I believe this is the most critical guideline in setting and fulfilling our goals. We cannot just rely on wishful thinking. We must believe with all of our heart, mind, strength and soul that it can be done. We must develop the ability to see ourselves in a position of fulfillment.


Let me leave you with a quote from Tom Landry. He said,

“Setting a goal is not the main thing. It is deciding how will you go about achieving it and staying with the plan.”