By Divine Grace Segunla
Who wouldn’t want to live a better than good life? I’m pretty sure that out of 6 billion people on Earth, probably all 6 billion would want, if not better, to live a good life. The promise of what’s good, and better and if possible perfect, is something we cannot turn our backs from.
Before we go any further, let me make sure and ask you, “Do you want a better than good life? “Are you sure?” “Really now?” Good. Then let me share with you the three secrets of the “better than good” life.
Zig Ziglar, a premier motivational speaker and a top selling author wrote one of my most favorite books of all time, Better than Good: Creating a Life You Can’t Wait to Live. In his book, Zig revealed the three pillars of the life we all want to live: passion, peak performance and purpose. We cannot continue to stay motivated in life unless we understand these three elements by heart.
Passion is indispensable in our quest for the full life. In the same way that gas fuels our car’s engines so as passion fuels our drive to reach the peak of our Everest. At the end of the day, it is our passion that will keep us focused on the target. It is passion that will awaken us the next day and will keep us going. It doesn’t matter what our field of endeavor is (business, career, sports, medicine and public service), without passion we are bound to fail. No one could have said it better but Zig, “Life is too tough to get to the top without passion.”
Life is harder than I thought. I didn’t realize that until I finished my journey as a student. The real world is more complicated than I expected. If I could, I would wish to stay a student forever. Then I don’t have to worry about my future. What is it in the world for me?
There will be times that we will be criticized, offended and hurt. We will fail countless times, discouraged in so many ways, disappointed by people we trust, disappointed by ourselves and ran out of resources. Everyday we will be tempted to give up and we might do just that without passion.
The first thing we need to do in order to live a ‘better than good ’ life is to discover our passion. What makes you tick? What you have natural talent for? What do you love to do?
Our greatest responsibility in life is to find out what we love to do and dedicate ourselves to it. Most successful men around the world would say, ‘I never worked a day in my life.’ They love what they do that’s why they’re not only good at it but they’re at their best. Passion plays a very important role in all great accomplishments. To get you started, answer the following questions. If you won a $1M, would you continue to do what you are doing? Would you stay in your current job?
I love it when Zig said, “Finding and developing passion is a journey, not an event.” Don’t stress yourselves if you don’t discover your passion overnight. It will not happen. There is a process that we need to go through. You might find yours earlier or later in life. It doesn’t matter as long as you commit yourself to discovering it.
The second element of a full life is peak performance. But we must keep in mind that we cannot function at our peak unless we know our passion. Passion is a prerequisite to peak performance. The moment you realize what you love to do, you must resolve to be the very best in it. Brian Tracy said, “Your life will only get better when you get better”.
In order to perform at our peak, we need to set goals, have a passionate plan and we need to develop ‘better than good’ habits. Do you know that 97% of adults have not made their goals? You cannot go somewhere unless you have a destination in mind. If you haven’t thought about it, then you need to sit down and set your goals. It may take you hours, a day, a week or even a month if necessary. What do you want to achieve in your lifetime? What do you want to accomplish? Sit down and write down your goals. There is no limit to the number of goals you can set. Sky is the limit.
How do you plan to achieve those goals? It’s time to develop a passionate plan. Tom Landry once said, “Setting a goal is not the main thing. It is deciding how you will go about achieving it and staying with the plan.” If Noah of the Bible built the ark 100 years before the flood then we ourselves need to back our goals with plans. The moment you combine passion with planning then good things will start to happen.
The most important thing to do after planning is taking action. The moment you stop taking actions, everything in your plan stops. Reading a good book about what you love to do, getting acquainted with people with the same interest as yours, mental reflection and prayer are all taking action. Make sure that everyday you are doing something to achieve your goals.
To complete the equation, we need one more thing. We need to develop as many positive habits as we can. Frank Outlaw warned us, “Watch your habits; they become character.” Character is what defines us. It becomes our destiny.
Habits can either make us or break us. There are good habits and bad habits, positive or negative and constructive or destructive. If we want to fully live the ‘better than good’ life we need to get rid of the habits that will only pull us down. We can do that if we commit to develop good habits. Eventually good habits will overcome bad habits. Here some of the habits we need to develop: reading books, getting enough sleep, eating healthy, frugal lifestyle, helping other people and more. The list could go on. They say that habits are formed if we do something continually for 21 days or more. You can start with one habit a time. Now, pick a habit that you want to develop and start doing it starting today.
The third element of a full life is purpose. Now that we have discovered our passion and we have resolved to perform at our peak, what’s next? Why do we want to do that? That’s when purpose will complete the whole dynamics of a ‘better than good’ life. Zig wrote, “Without purpose in life we are like the proverbial fool who is all dressed up with no place to go.”
The key question to ask is what really matters to you? What makes your heart sing? What do you dream about? What do you do when you have free time? Whatever it is, that’s what you are passionate about. That’s where your heart is and somewhere, connected to that passion is your purpose in life.
