Day 2: Input is Everything

Day 2 Input Determines Everything

“Do you choose your input, or do you abdicate that responsibility?”  In other words, are you intentional for what goes in your mind or are you set to automatic.  For example, Tom Ziglar was able to lose over 50 pounds when he changed his input.  Tom shares, “I started reading and listening to every health-related item I could find.”  He goes on to say, “Every day my input was focused on learning what was good for my health.  What I should eat. How I should exercise.”  Without realizing it, his thinking process changed, followed by his habits, which lead to him wanting and desiring healthy foods.  The more intentional you are with inputting what you desire change will and must happen.

Change Takes the Right Input

Let’s consider anxiety and stress through the story of Billy: Billy for years struggled with anxiety and stress to the point he couldn’t get out of bed and almost lost his job.  During a conversation with a co-worker, Billy learned that his input was vital to change.  His co-worker suggested designing the day in advance and structure inputs by recognizing what the need might be.  She asked, “so Billy what is your greatest need because you have been missing work and seem so disconnected.”  “I have so much anxiety about my future and with the pressures at home, I am afraid I am going to lose my job.  I am stuck in this carousal that keeps going around and around in my mind”, he expressed with tears welling up in his eyes.  “What am I to do?”

See if you can recognize some common mistakes of inputs he could avoid.  Then we will discuss how he could alter the input for the better.  Billy began to journal and note what his day would look like.  He noticed that in the morning he gravitated to his phone and would scroll to the negative reels or news feeds about the economy on social media.  He would check his texts from co-workers that would bad mouth the employer and the workplace.  On his way to work he would listen to the news that would further feed the doom and gloom.  At work he would find himself scrolling blogs about future negative events that might happen.  During lunch he would associate with his co-workers that were always negative and gossiping.  Upon arriving home, he had no energy for the kids or his wife.  He would just be agitated and complain about the day and sit aimlessly in front of the television channel surfing mindlessly.

Provide Suggestion and new Inputs to help Billy.

The first step to change is to recognize the area Billy needs help in, which is anxiety and possibly depression.  Billy took the first step to open-up and share his greatest need that is inhibiting his progress.

1. Billy could pray and journal first to self-reflect how he feels and jot down three things he is grateful for. He should count his blessings to have a family that loves him and a job that provides income for the needs of the family.
2. Stay away from social media because it is now set up to feed him negativity based on passed history searches.
3. On the way to work, listen to podcasts designed to help understand anxiety and provide solutions to manage stress. (Make the drive into a university or chapel filled with praise music)
4. Read and watch positive programs or blogs that will fuel gratefulness.
5. Recognize what he can’t change can be placed in the hands of God and what he can, needs only small steps to move him forward.
6. Stay away from the breakroom or only associate with co-workers that are positive and fuel great vibes.
7. When arriving home, begin with gratefulness and speak life to his spouse by recognizing how hard she has been working. He needs to embrace his children and take the time to enter their world by watching their programs or playing with them at their level.
8. Watch programs that promote positivity or take time to work on projects that fuel passion such as working on the garage, writing the book he always wanted and take long walks with the dog.
9. He could be intentional about working out just 30 minutes a day.

“What you feed in your mind determines your appetite.” (p.60)

Tom Ziglar’s transformation of weight loss occurred because of the shift in his input.  He states, I started wanting the healthy choices, and I started craving the next healthy thing I could do.”  In other words, if your input changes, so does your outlook.  Your newfound outlook will change the trajectory of your future.  In Tom’s case he desired healthy food and exercise because that is all he would feed his mind.

Don’t Hit the Wall/ Stay Away from Don’t

“In NASCAR, the drivers go around the track at over 180 miles per hour.  That is so fast that their eyes have to be focused on where they want the car to go.  At that speed, if they look at the wall, their hands will make an involuntary micro-adjustment to follow their eyes and they will hit the wall,” shared a participant at a seminar from Tom Ziglar.

It’s important to be solution driven, not problem centered.  In other words, if you constantly focus on the problem, you always run it too.    The wall is the Don’t! Don’t eat the cheesecake.  Don’t sit around all day.  Don’t worry about that.  The reason you don’t doesn’t work is because your subconscious only recognizes the signal that feeds the desire.  Habits are built on a feedback loop.  If you can change the cue or the trigger you can eliminate the habit.