Attention & Focus · “You Become What You Hold”
Automobile University & the Positive-Input Diet
Deliberately feed the mind a steady diet of positive, instructive input and guard the doors against negative input.
Feed your mind on purpose. Turn the commute into “Automobile University” — instructional and motivational audio instead of idle or negative noise. Read something constructive daily; keep good material within reach; distribute the input (a little every day). Guard the doors: limit the negative streams and the people who tear you down. Recharge daily — and convert the motivation into goal-steps.
What it is
Zig Ziglar’s input-management practice, built on one of his core lines: “What you feed your mind determines your appetite.” If the self-image is the picture and goals are the destination, this is the fuel supply: a deliberate daily intake of motivational and instructive material, paired with active guarding against the negative input that erodes attitude.
His most famous expression of it is “Automobile University” — turning the hours spent commuting into a rolling classroom by listening to teaching, motivation, and skill-building audio instead of letting the time (and the mind) run idle or negative.
Where Emmet Fox’s “mental diet” is about refusing negative thoughts, Ziglar’s emphasis is the complementary half: what you actively put in.
The Method
Faithfully synthesised from Ziglar’s teaching:
- Decide the mind is an input system. Accept Ziglar’s premise: “When you put the good, the clean, the pure, the powerful, and the positive into your mind, your life will dramatically improve.” Negative input → negative outlook; positive input → possibility and performance.
- Enroll in “Automobile University.” Use otherwise-dead time — above all the commute — as a classroom. Listen to motivational talks, instructional audio, great speakers, sales or skill training, or books on audio. Ziglar’s claim: the average driver can learn an enormous amount simply by converting drive-time into learning-time.
- Build a daily positive-input habit beyond the car. Read something constructive each day; keep good books, talks, and material within reach so the input is steady, not occasional. Distribute it — a little every day beats a binge.
- Guard the doors. Actively say no to the negative: turn off or limit the streams (news, certain TV/radio/social media) and the “friends and family who tear you down instead of building you up.” Be selective about what you read, watch, and listen to. The point of action against negative thinking is choosing your inputs.
- Repeat the input regimen daily, and pair it with action. Ziglar called this regular re-charging — like bathing, you do it daily because motivation, like cleanliness, doesn’t last. The input feeds the goals and self-image work; it isn’t a substitute for them. (Sourcing note: “What you feed your mind determines your appetite” and “When you put the good, the clean, the pure, the powerful, and the positive into your mind, your life will dramatically improve” are attributed Ziglar/Ziglar-Inc phrasings; “Automobile University” is Ziglar’s own coined term. The numbered protocol is a faithful synthesis of his teaching, not a reproduction of his text.)
Source & Lineage
Zig Ziglar (1926–2012) made “feed your mind” a pillar of See You at the Top (1975) and returned to it across his speaking career; “Automobile University” became one of his best-known phrases.
The idea descends from Earl Nightingale’s “we become what we think about” (Nightingale co-founded the audio-program industry Ziglar drew on) and the broader New Thought conviction that the subconscious is shaped by what is repeatedly impressed on it.
Common refinements
Passive listening. Background audio you don’t attend to teaches little. Engage; take a note after.
- Bingeing instead of dripping. A weekend marathon fades; a little every day compounds.
- Only intake, no guarding. Adding good input while leaving the negative streams wide open nets out weak. Do both.
- Curation as avoidance. Don’t use “I only allow positive input” to dodge necessary bad news, feedback, or real problems.
- Input instead of action. Motivation that never converts to a goal-step is entertainment. Pair with the goal-setting procedure.