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The Inspiration of Lou Holtz Just imagine. You’re 28 yrs old. You’ve just spent every penny you own on a new house. You have absolutely nothing left in the bank. And your wife is pregnant with your 3rd child………. and then you lose your job. What do you do? Panic Whine Complain Get angry Sit down and write out 107 goals for your life.
If you’re Coach Lou Holtz, you picked #5. The story goes like this: One day in 1966, one month after having been just hired as an assistant coach to Marvin Bass at the University of South Carolina, Lou Holtz found himself unemployed and questioning whether he was in the right profession after Bass resigned as head coach. Holtz’s wife, Beth, was eight months pregnant with the couple’s third child and Holtz had just spent virtually every penny he had in the bank to make a down payment on a house. His wife gave him the book The Magic of Thinking Big by David Schwartz in an effort to lift his spirits. The book suggested that you write down all the goals you want to achieve before you die. Holtz sat down at the dining room table and let his imagination go. Before he knew it, he had listed 107 goals he wanted to achieve in his life. His wife suggested #108 - get a job!  __________________________ Who Writes Goals? We all have goals. We call them wish lists, or maybe to do lists, and every New Year’s they’re called resolutions, but they’re still goals. But do we write them down? Probably not. Statistically, only 3% of the population has written goals. In a book titled “Look within or Do without” by Tom Bay, he states that the Harvard Business School did a study on the financial status of its students 10 years after graduation and found that: As many as 27% of them needed financial assistance. A whopping 60% of them were living paycheck to paycheck. A mere 10% of them were living comfortably. And only 3% of them were financially independent.
The study also looked at goal setting and found these interesting correlations. The 27% that needed financial assistance had absolutely no goal setting process in their lives. The 60% that were living paycheck to paycheck had basic survival goals;such as managing to live paycheck to paycheck. The 10% that were living comfortably had general goals. They thought they knew where they were going to be in the next five years. And the 3% that were financially independent - had written out their goals and the steps required to reach them.
___________________________ Make The Magic Happen You have to write them down. Think of a goal as a map to where you want to go. If you are sailing a ship to some far off destination, you may have in mind where you want to go, but without a clearly labeled map - chances are you’ll never get there. There’s just something magical about taking a thought or an idea, and putting it down on paper. When it’s in your head - it’s just a thought. When you write it down - it becomes real. It’s almost as if putting it on paper sparks some invisible force that immediately begins to manipulate the natural laws of the universe to make it a reality. Write It Down ! In 1926, RH Jarett published a small pamphlet simply called, “It Works”. The book is small, but very concise. Write it down - don’t talk about it - and give thanks. Sounds almost too easy right? Here is an excerpt from a review on Amazon.Com. My annual income is now 35 times greater than it was the day I first read this little book. I have gained houses, cars, boats, businesses, friends, a family, and numerous creative and prospering ideas using the principles set forth in this book. In the last 25 years I have spent thousands of hours teaching these ideas to other people. I’ve seen many people use the ideas in this book to create something new in their life, and I have seen others who are not so successful with it. I want you to be one of the successful ones. Write It Down ! Henriette Anne Klauser published a book in 2001 titled, “Write It Down, Make It Happen”. It’s all about setting goals, and writing them down. Some more Amazon.Com reviews: This book helped me totally change my life. If you apply what is written you will see a huge difference in your life as well. The power of pen to paper is amazing and this book will help you realize that you too have the power…just at the tip of your fingers. I got this book about two years ago, read it through, and started a goals journal and a tidbit notebook. So far I’ve done 53 things on my list of goals Write It Down ! ____________________________ So how did Coach Holtz do? I know you're asking this question. Well, not surprisingly, out of his 107 goals, he has accomplished 102 of them to date. ` And these weren’t just run of the mill “I want some more money” goals. They were very specific, and - for an out of work, 28yr old man - seemingly impossible. “Having dinner at the White House”, “Appearing on the Tonight Show”, “Meeting the Pope”, “Becoming head coach of Notre Dame”, “Winning a national championship”, “Becoming coach of the year”. Out of 107 of these lofty goals, broke and out of work, Lou Holtz went on to accomplish 102 of them. For those of you who may not be familiar with Lou Holtz…. In 1986, Holtz left the University of Minnesota to take over the then-struggling Notre Dame Fighting Irish football program. He took the Irish to bowl games for nine consecutive seasons, still a Notre Dame record, and has referred to Notre Dame football as the “Michelangelo” of the NCAA.
If you`re bored with life - you don`t get up every morning with a burning desire to do things - you don`t have enough goals. - Lou Holtz So the message is this. Set goals - and set some that are so high you’ll truly be amazed when they come true. Write them down. Create the map to take you where you want to be. And then sit back and watch the magic happen. As Coach Holtz says, “Ya Gotta Believe”
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