Coincidence?
As many of you may know, my favorite quote from Dad is:
“You are what you are and where you are because of what’s gone into your mind. You can change what you are and where you are by changing what goes into your mind.” Zig Ziglar
Today (Feb 1) during my morning devotionals I was reading from The One Year Daily Insights written by Dad and his good friend, Dr. Ike Reighard. And wouldn’t you know it, at the end is my favorite quote!
Well, that doesn’t seem like a big deal, until you realize that Feb 1 is my birthday! So this morning I checked with my sister Julie (she is Dad’s editor) to see if she put it in there on purpose. She assured me that she didn’t, and, in fact, explained that the quotes were just matched up with the subject of the devotional for the day. It was a coincidence.
Another one of my favorite Dad quotes:
“Coincidence is just God’s way of staying anonymous.” Zig Ziglar
As you can imagine, when God shows up with a special gift on your birthday, it’s going to be a good one!
17 Responses to “Coincidence?”
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Son of Zig Ziglar and CEO of Ziglar, Inc. I love writing and speaking about the Ziglar Pure and Simple Philosophy, and nothing makes my day more than hearing about how our message has made a difference in the personal, family, professional, or spiritual life of someone we have touched. I believe everyone can achieve success, but that there are no shortcuts, and you can’t do it for the long term without honesty, integrity, and faith. I enjoy social media like blogs, Twitter, Facebook, etc., and am still amazed when I correspond with people from all walks of life from all over the world. My goal is to help both individuals and organizations succeed by giving them truthful and transparent Pure and Simple answers to their toughest questions.
I am happily married to Chachis, my wife of 23 years, and have a beautiful 15 year old daughter, Alexandra. However, the one who rules the house is Max, our 8 year old Bichon.
Happy Birthday fellow Aquarian! It’s my birthday too. I hope it is a wonderful day for you and I agree that is a great quote because it is so true
How do you forgive those who cross your path with bad intentions? I have a saying on my desk “Whenever someone offends you, try to raise your soul so high that the offence cannot reach you.” I try to read it over and over and it can still penetrate my emotions. That is the one thing that gets in my way with my job today and always. Any suggestions?
happy birthday!
Your dad has some great quotes. I only hope my children will feel that I left them some kind of legacy with my words (as well as actions) too someday.
First of all, Happy Birthday Tom!
I’ve greatly enjoyed “The One Year Daily Insight.” I received it as a gift for Christmas and have enjoyed reading its challenging and inspirational devotionals each day. I love the way it ties in your dad’s philosophy with the Bible … at least it has done that for me.
I hope your birthday is better than good!
God bless
Yo man, Happy Birthday and I love this. There are no coincidences right, the word never appears in the Bible, not one time!
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This post was mentioned on Twitter by tomziglar: New Ziglar Pure and Simple blog post – Coincidence? http://budurl.com/en8f (God gave me a big Birthday gift today!)…
Happy Birthday, Tom!
I like the quotes in your post and agree with them 100%.
Janette
I love your dad’s definition of “Coincidence.” What a great birthday present, Tom!
Happy Late Birthday, Tom!
Just as I was posting on Twitter regarding The Science of Acting and not being limited by your rigid thoughts, I read your post about limited thinking. Talk about synchronicity.
@Diane
I know what it is like to have to deal with people who seem like they are attacking you. And I struggle to with letting things roll off my back. However, I’ve learned some things over the past few months that has helped me tremendously.
I read Don Miguel Ruiz’s latest book The Fifth Agreement and the two things I took away from the book that is helping me is learning not to make assumptions or to take things personally. Doing this does require looking at things from a different perspective.
When people interact with us, we make assumptions about them based on what they say and their behavior. It’s an ingrained habit that we all do. When people treat us rudely, we assume they do so because they don’t like us or that they are doing it on purpose.
The problem is, we are making an assumption about their motives that may or may not be true. Maybe they do have ill in their heart towards us or maybe they are having a bad day and we just happen to be the first person they see so we get the brunt of the backlash. Since we are not in their heads, we can’t really know for sure.
However, more often than not the story WE tell OURSELVES is that the other person is out to get us and react to them based on the story WE created in OUR minds (sorry for the caps).
The solution I’ve found that has been working for me is to change the story I tell myself about the other person’s behavior. Instead of thinking thoughts that make me feel like they are personally attacking me, I try to think thoughts that depersonalize it. Instead of thinking, “Oh, that person cut me off on purpose!” I’ll think, “I guess they really needed to be somewhere in a hurry.”
This requires some awareness and discipline but the effort is worth it because so far I’ve seen dramatic improvement in how I feel about life and other people.
Forgiveness really is just a shift in how you view the situation.
I know this comment is way too long but I hope it helps.
Thank you very much for that splendid article
Great information! I’ve been looking for something like this for a while now. Thanks!
I love your dad’s definition of “Coincidence.” What a great birthday present, Tom!
Tom, what a telling quote. I enjoyed listening to many others when I interviewed your father nearly 20 years ago. You can read that lost interview at Crossroads: http://www.jeffwidmer.com/crossroads
great post as usual!