Today is Thanksgiving here in the U.S. It’s also the start of the most wonderful time of the year, according to Andy Williams.

It seemed only natural for this post to have two parts: thanks and giving!

So first of all, we’d like to say “Thank You” for all of your support. There’s no way for us to fully express how much your kind words, your suggestions, and your participation mean to us.

And we get paid BIGG dividends because we get to see you grow. And we grow too!

We started BIGG success four years ago. It’s been quite a ride. It certainly hasn’t been easy. But nothing worthwhile ever is, right?

Yet we have so much to be grateful for. We feel so blessed to get to do the work we love.

We feel doubly blessed because we get to do that work with each other. While many people speculate that they could never work their spouse, it works for us.

As we always say: If it works for you, it works.

And second, since Thanksgiving is followed by the season for giving, we’d like to share a great quote about giving.

It’s by one of our favorites, good ‘ol Ben Franklin. He said:

“The best thing to give to your enemy is forgiveness; to an opponent, tolerance; to a friend, your heart; to your child, a good example; to a father, deference; to your mother, conduct that will make her proud of you; to yourself, respect; to all men, charity.”

Happy Thanksgiving! Until next time, here’s to your BIGG success!

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Now we’ll warn you – these activities require some multi-tasking. We usually suggest less multi-tasking but these are things ideally suited for doing more than one thing at a time.

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Like walking and chewing gum at the same time!

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That may make you healthier, George, but it misses the mark on helping you get wealthier and wiser. Here’s a better one: Listen to The Bigg Success Show while you walk on the treadmill.

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Shameless self-promotion, Mary-Lynn! But you’re right – the great thing about podcasts is that they’re easy to download and take with you.

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Of course, it doesn’t have to be our show. There’s a lot of great downloadable audio that will help you be wealthier and wiser. You could probably devour an entire week’s worth of our shows in one session on the treadmill. Then fill in the rest of the week with other great podcasts.

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Ride your bike to the library and check out a book on money.
If you have a library within biking distance, this is a great way to get a little exercise while bulking up your knowledge of personal finance.

There are so many great books on investing at the library. You can see such a history. There are books from days gone by full of timeless principles sitting alongside books about current issues.

Just don’t try reading the book on the way home!

Stretch while watching one of the financial news networks.

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This is a great way to get a little extra stretching in. I know I feel a lot better when I keep myself limber!

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There’s so much that can be learned from watching financial news. Get the vocabulary down if you don’t have it already. Learn what’s going on in the economy and how it affects your money. Try to understand why certain stocks, or certain industries, are being recommended. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg!

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Of course, you could also watch a DVD on personal finance.

Take an advisor out for a rousing round of golf!
Don’t rent a cart. Over the course of the course, talk about your finances. Of course, you could wait until the nineteenth hole!

When we say advisor, we’re talking about your financial planner, your attorney, your accountant, your banker, your insurance broker, your coach or anyone else who advises you about your finances.

You may not be into golf. Maybe you prefer tennis. Or racquetball. Or some other activity. Golf is a great activity for talking and walking. However, you can also talk before or after your chosen activity.

Of course, our quote today comes from Ben Franklin. Only we’ve only hit on the last part of it. The full quote is:

“Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.”

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Even on those rare occasions where I get the “early to bed” part done, I can’t seem to get the early to rise part down!

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You’ll be happy to know, Mary-Lynn, our fifth and final activity doesn’t require that.

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Read your goal statement right before you get a good night’s sleep and first thing when you get up in the morning.
There are so many benefits of getting a good night’s sleep – better health, increased productivity and a sharper mind. What more do we need to say?

Reading your goals right before you go to bed and immediately upon rising helps you internalize them. Your vision of success gets fixed in your conscious mind so your subconscious mind can work to find ways to get there.

We love synergy here at Bigg Success. Look for ways to be healthier, wealthier and wiser all at the same time. That’s win – win – win! That’s bigg success!

How do you get healthy, wealthy and wise?

We’d love it if you’d share that with us. You can do that by:

• leaving a comment below

• e-mailing us at bigginfo@biggsuccess.com

• calling us at 888.455.BIGG (2444)

'Q' from Entertainment For The Rest Of Us called us with a compliment on our show. He said:

Hi George & Mary-Lynn, this is 'Q' from Entertainment For The Rest Of Us. I listen to the show every week. I wanted to let you know that I truly appreciate how you guys relate life on your own terms in each and every show. Specifically and most recently about social media and karaoke, and social networking and life longevity. As an entertainment fan, I really, really like that. Keep up the fantastic work and I look forward to more episodes. Take care you guys!

Thanks so much 'Q'! You made our day.

We hope you’ve enjoyed our series on lifelong learning. Thanks so much for the gift of your time.

The Beatles sang about The Magical Mystery Tour. Please join us next time when we’ll look at the magical money illusion.

Until then, here’s to your bigg success!

Subscribe to The Bigg Success Show in iTunes. 

Subscribe to the Bigg Success feed.

Direct link to The Bigg Success Show audio file:
http://media.libsyn.com/media/biggsuccess/00470-082809.mp3

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Some examples

• The first book that Dr. Seuss wrote was rejected by 27 publishers.

• The first time Sigmund Freud presented his ideas to his fellow scientists, he was booed from the stage. His response? He returned to his office and kept writing

• A newspaper editor fired Walt Disney because “he lacked imagination and had no good ideas.” Disney declared bankruptcy several times before he built Disneyland, which was rejected by the City of Anaheim the first time he proposed it.

• And speaking of Walt Disney, he made a mistake of his own when he didn’t hire Charles Schultz. For Schultz, though, that was par for the course. Even the high school yearbook staff didn’t think much of his work – every cartoon he submitted to them was rejected.

• After his first audition, the casting director told Sidney Poitier to “stop wasting people's time and go out and become a dishwasher or something." Poitier resolved at that moment to devote his life to acting.

Sometimes it doesn’t pay to listen

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My first real at-risk business was a Ben Franklin franchise in my hometown. It’s a small town so back-to-school is a bigg season. We wanted to be open in time to capitalize on it. My franchise representative told me it couldn’t be done. His boss said it couldn’t be done. We determined we were going to do it. So we did! We opened to throngs of people patronizing our store and a bigg splash by the local media splash. It was a hit!

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Sometimes it pays to listen and adapt

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When I was in high school, I tried out for the basketball team. I made the first cut. I made the second cut. When the final cut came out, I looked at the list and my name wasn’t on it. I looked again. I couldn’t believe it! But I hadn’t made the team. So I took up music. I won awards. I even won a scholarship. My failure to make the basketball team allowed for bigger success in music than I could have ever imagined!

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So it’s kind of funny. Sometimes it pays to ignore what people tell us. At other times, our disappointments fuel our bigg success. The trick is knowing when to press on with what you’re doing and when to move on to press on.

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We work to get to that comfortable spot, and we want to stay there.

We think he got it wrong, not in the message, but in the semantics. We think he should have explicitly included change as something that is certain, rather than making it implicit in his quote.  

Will you lead or follow?
Even when it’s change that we’re creating ourselves, it can be scary. But it’s especially frightening when it’s a surprise.

For example, picture Jane telling her boss that she’s accepted a new position. She’s going to experience change. But isn’t that more comfortable than Jane’s boss telling her that her job is being eliminated?

It’s better to be a leader of change than a follower.

Who’s in control?
However, you can’t always control change. What you can control all the time is how you choose to respond to it.

You can also try to anticipate it. For example, as technology continues to develop, change is occurring more and more rapidly. Isn’t it safe to assume that this will continue?

So you have a choice to make. You either develop the skills to anticipate change so you get ahead of it or you just respond to it, after the pain becomes too great to do anything else.

Bigg action item – Separate the change into fads and trends
There are fads and there are trends. Fads come and go, so don’t worry about them. Trends are long-term. Get on board with them.

Divide a sheet into two columns – one called “Fads” and the other called “Trends”.  In your chosen career, think about the things affecting your industry. Now start putting those changes into the appropriate column.

What will affect your future income? Something will – for good or for bad!

Is it a short-term phenomenon? Or is it likely to continue? You can position yourself properly by seeing the change coming.

What opportunities will be created? What skills will be important? Do you have them? Can you get them?

Develop a plan for what you need to do to position yourself to take advantage of the trends.

Where do I get this information?
We’ll look at two examples. Search for the name of your industry followed by the word “association”. For example, “beauty salon association” yielded a half-dozen or so associations in Google.

You can also subscribe to magazines for your industry, or just about any industry you’re interested in following. They’re often free, supported by the advertisers. Amazon has an excellent resource that lists magazines by industry. It’s an extensive list!

So there are a number of ways to get the information you need so you can embrace change rather than begrudge it.

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Last time, we talked about Ben Franklin’s system for not just setting goals, but actually getting them. We’ve also posted an article on Ben’s thirteen virtues and a PDF file of the form he used to track his progress.

New Year’s Eve is just days away. That got us thinking about parties, confetti, horns, cocktails … and cocktail napkins.

We have a suggestion for how to put your cocktail napkins to good use.

Before we talk about that, though, let’s quickly discuss mission statements and vision statements. Companies have them. So should you. After all, you are the CEO of the most important organization in the world: You, Inc.

As we’ll define it here, your mission statement describes how you serve those around you, how you touch the people in your world. For example, the mission statement of a business might describe how it serves its customers, its employees, and its shareholders.

A vision statement is a concise declaration of your purpose, your reason for being here, how you make your mark. For example, Google’s vision statement is “Google provides access to the world’s information in one click.” Short. Simple. Yet powerful.

So a mission statement is a longer, detailed version of your vision statement. It fills in the blanks. It flows from your vision statement. Your vision statement is the biggest of the bigg picture …

…. which brings us back to the cocktail napkin.

A vision statement is simple and concise. So concise that you could write it on a cocktail napkin! That’s right … your cocktail napkin is a tool. Because it’s small, it forces you to define and refine your vision statement to keep it short.

Why is it so important to keep your vision statement short? We’re glad you asked! A short, simple vision statement paints a vivid image of your desired future. It’s memorable. So you make better decisions because your vision statement gets into your subconscious mind. It inspires you to reach for this future you picture.

It’s constantly with you. You know what you’re trying to accomplish. Your purpose is etched in your brain!

To show that we aren’t all talk and no action here at Bigg Success, show co-hosts George and Mary-Lynn shared what they wrote on their cocktail napkins.

George:      To make a real, positive difference in people’s lives.
He said that originally he didn’t include the word “positive” in his statement. Then someone made a difference in his life – in a bad way. He realized he should add the word “positive”. Your vision statement will also likely evolve over time.

Mary-Lynn:      To bring out the best in myself and others.
When she thinks of “best”, words such as “ability”, “talent”, “personality”, “attitude”, and “relationships” come to her mind. Your vision statement will likely include powerful words with more than one meaning to you. These rich words are why your vision statement packs so much punch!

Our Bigg Quote today is a challenge from Helen Keller.

“The most pathetic person in the world is someone who has sight, but no vision.”

So put that cocktail napkin to good use – ring in the New Year with a vision!

Next time, for New Year’s Eve, we’ll discuss what we learned about Bigg Success this year. Until then, here’s to your bigg success!