Tag / see you at the top

by Nathan Coumbe

People stay where they grow

This is one of my favorite lines from Zig Ziglar. 

But I want to talk about my own take on the idea:

People stay where they are nurtured. 

A garden, when it’s planted, will only grow if regularly tended, watered, fertilized… In short, when it’s shown love and care.

People are the same way: 

  • They’ll stay with employers who help them grow
  • They’ll stay with partners who love and cherish them
  • They’ll engage with parents who show unconditional love and affection

But unlike plants, we have the ability to move on. 

Plants, if not nurtured, wither and die. They’re stuck where they’re planted.

But humans can move on. We have the ability to uproot ourselves and move to more fertile ground if we aren’t getting what we need in our current situation.

We need to remember this when thinking of our relationships with others.

by Nathan Coumbe

The first thing to do when you get laid off…

I lost my job yesterday – nothing to do with me. Something happened with the company, and I was one of the casualties.

There’s nothing I can do about it but to accept the reality of the situation and figure out how I’ll respond, rather than react, to this setback.

And the first thing I did?

I went for a walk.

Even though I really didn’t want to. I did it anyway – and I felt better for it.

When something like this happens, the best thing you can do is to get in some movement. Any form of exercise will do:

  • A long walk
  • A few laps at the pool
  • A great strength session

Get the heart pumping, the blood flowing to your brain, and the endorphins storming throughout your body.

There’s another thing you need to do, too—take your daily dose of motivational vitamins.

I love to listen to Seth Godin and Zig Ziglar on a daily basis – the same messages over and over again until I can repeat them verbatim. Why?

Because when I start repeating what they say—when I can finish their sentences—it means I’ve changed the way I talk to myself. Their messages of hope and success become my thoughts on the same topics.

So, if you’re about to lose (or already have lost) your job, take these two steps immediately.

  1. Get in some exercise (and do something physical EVERY SINGLE DAY)
  2. Take your daily motivational vitamin

By the way, here are two great recommendations from Seth & Zig to get you started:

P.S. Check out my cute little video talking about this very topic.

by Nathan Coumbe

“Being” requires “doing”

You become a writer by writing.

You become a leader by leading.

You become a doctor by doctoring.

You can learn the principles and the ideas behind these fields from books and courses. But the skill to do them is only developed through practice.

Zig Ziglar said: “If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing poorly.” That’s where you must start.

Anything worth being only comes about as a result of doing.

by Nathan Coumbe

He called me a “f@#*ing idiot”

I went to get my oil changed the other day at one of those quick-stop places that litter every metropolitan area.

As I pulled up, the gentleman at the computer started talking to me through my window to get my information. 

The man below my car (the one who would be doing the oil change), yelled up…

“Tell the idiot turn his car off!”

Okay… So I did. 

Then I was asked to pop the hood. I pulled the tab, saw the front of my car move a bit and heard a pop. I assumed that I’d popped the hood, and so did the person who’d just collected my information. 

We sat for a few seconds trying to figure out why he couldn’t open it—much too long for the gentleman waiting below. 

He stormed up the stairs, cussing at the top of his lungs, and started banging on my hood. 

That’s when I realized that I might have popped the trunk instead (all the buttons are right next to each other and my trunk doesn’t move when you pop the lock). 

So I hit the correct button. And I was greeted with the longest awkward silence of my life. 

The man looked at me, and through gritted teeth snarled, “You pressed the wrong damn button, didn’t you?”

Well, obviously I had. And he wasn’t happy—and things quickly got out of hand.

That man RAGED AND STORMED all over the garage yelling at the top of his lungs for employees and customers alike to hear.

“I’m so tired of dealing with F@#*ING IDIOTS like this!!!”

“I need these F@#*CKING IDIOTS to learn how to use their damn cars!”

“What the hell is the matter with these a@#holes today?”

He screamed, he kicked tools and tires, he sounded on the verge of murder…

After his tantrum, he stormed back down the stairs, cussing up a storm all the way. 

Now, I’ll admit—I was both angrier than I’d ever been and mortified beyond belief. 

I didn’t tip him (as I always do), but I paid my bill after the service was performed and drove away, fuming and on the verge of starting my own tantrum.

But after I’d been driving for a couple of minutes, a different thought entered my mind:

How bad had his day been to trigger a reaction like that?

What did he have going on in his life that made him HURT like that?

Because I realized (from plenty of past experience) that the only times people act that way are when they’re feeling some unbearable pain inside. 

I realized very quickly that it had absolutely NOTHING to do with me (or at least very little).

As Zig Ziglar would say, “Someone had been kicking his cat. All. Day. Long.”

I think that’s the lesson of this story:

It’s not about you.

Something else (possibly lots of things) happened before I ever showed up. There might have been trouble at home. He might have had an angry boss. Or a jerk for a customer that treated him the same way just a few minutes before I got there. 

When people act out like that, they’re hurting, insecure, scared… And emotional. 

Aren’t we all?

by Nathan Coumbe

Who’s your Zig Ziglar?

Zig Ziglar (a native of my very own Mississippi) is practically the grandfather of all motivational speakers. 

He spent years of his life giving incredible speeches on stage. But he also recorded dozens of audio programs to help people change their mindsets and learn his signature theme:

“You can have everything in life you want if you just help enough other people get what they want.”

Seth Godin used Zig Ziglar as a mentor when he started off as a book packager in the 1980s. He had multiple Zig Ziglar audio programs that he listened to on repeat for 3+ hours a day. And it helped him overcome 900 rejections in a row!

Seth is a huge advocate for listening to the same people over and over again as often as you can.

But it’s not necessarily because “positive thinking” can help you get everything you want in life.

Instead, it’s to help you rewire your self-talk so you can…

  • Be more effective in your daily life, 
  • Overcome obstacles and setbacks
  • Be positive when the bad stuff inevitably happens

His advice: find someone who speaks to you in the right way and listen to their messages over and over again… Until you come to believe it yourself. 

Seth Godin is MY Zig Ziglar. 

  • I’ve listened to all of his podcast episodes (200+) at least twice, if not more
  • I’ve watched all his TED talks multiple times 
  • I’ve tried to find every podcast he’s ever been a guest on
  • AND I own just about every one of his books

I wonder: who’s your Zig Ziglar?

Who is someone whose message resonated so much with you that you can’t get enough of them? 

If you’ve found someone like that—in a podcast, audiobook, TED talk, or YouTube channel—I urge you to put them on repeat and rewire your self-talk. 

And if you haven’t, find someone who could do that for you… Seth Godin. Zig Ziglar. Buddha. Tony Robbins. Robert Kiyosaki. Jesus.

The “who” doesn’t matter all that much.

Just find someone and adopt them as a mentor from afar.

by Nathan Coumbe

If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing poorly

You’ve been told your entire life you should do things well.

Perfectly.

Like an expert.

And if you can’t do it well, you might as well not even bother to do it at all.

That’s wrong. You can’t instantly be great at doing ANYTHING.

The only place to start is at the level we currently are.

The always relevant, and sometimes irreverent, Zig Ziglar said one of my favorite quotes of all time:

“If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing poorly.”

What did he mean?

Simple: anything worthwhile requires that we start as a beginner.

Golfing, tennis, writing, painting, jazz improv… It doesn’t matter what it is.

If it’s worth pursuing, you owe it to yourself to be bad at it. And then get better at it every single day.

He uses the example of someone learning to play golf: if everyone could join the PGA Masters tour after a couple of lessons with the local pro, there’s no reason to do it.

Give yourself time to do things badly…

On the way to doing them well.

Subscribe

by Nathan Coumbe

The messy middle

Any worthwhile pursuit has a messy middle. In his book A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, Donald Miller talks about what it’s like to cross a stretch of water. We leave the shore and eventually arrive on the opposite side.

But in between those two points, we have “the hard work of the middle.” That’s where the journey becomes a slog, the motions seem repetitive, and the effort seems useless.

Pursuing a goal, starting a business, losing weight… All of these pursuits have that same hard work to be done in the middle.

In almost every case, we start strong and make decent, even quick, progress. But soon after we hit a point where we lose focus and motivation.

“Why am I at the gym for the third time this week? I just want to go home…”

“I really just want to pig out on pizza, beer, and ice cream. I don’t feel like cooking…”

We get frustrated, hit plateaus, and our motivation wanes.

It’s when we hit that point we have to rely on our “why”.

Our reason for pursuing whatever it is has to be strong enough to get us through the messy middle. Seth Godin calls this “the dip” in his book of the same name.

Without a strong why, without a reason to keep pushing through, we burn out and quit.

Not only does our motivation have to be strong, but we have to revisit it every day. Zig Ziglar had a saying about this rule:

“Motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing. That’s why we recommend it every day.”

First, identify a strong reason why you want to pursue something.

Then make time every day to review it. Keep your motivation front of mind.

Subscribe below for daily insights and resources delivered straight to your inbox.