Posts Tagged Brian Tracy
Master Your Fears
Posted by davev in Take Action on February 15th, 2010
By Brian Tracy
Perhaps the greatest challenge you will ever face in life is the conquest of fear and the development of courage. Fear is, and always has been, the greatest enemy of mankind. When Franklin D. Roosevelt said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” he was saying that the emotion of fear, rather than the realty of what we fear, is what causes us anxiety, stress, and unhappiness. When you develop the habit of courage and unshakeable self-confidence, a whole new world of possibilities opens up for you. Just imagine-what would you dare to dream or be or do if you weren’t afraid of anything in the whole world?
Develop the Habit of Courage
Fortunately, the habit of courage can be learned just as any other habit is learned, through repetition. We need to constantly face and overcome our fears to build up the kind of courage that will enable us to deal with the inevitable ups and downs of life unafraid. The starting point in overcoming fear and developing courage is to look at the factors that predispose us toward being afraid. The root source of most fear is childhood conditioning, usually associated with destructive criticism. This causes us to develop two major types of fear. These are the fear of failure, which causes us to think “I can’t, I can’t, I can’t,” and the fear of rejection, which causes us to think “I have to, I have to, I have to.” Our fears can paralyze us, keeping us from taking constructive action in the direction of our dreams and goals.
The More You Know, the Less You Fear
Fear is also caused by ignorance. When we have limited information, our doubts dominate us. We become tense and insecure about the outcome of our actions. Ignorance causes us to fear change, to fear the unknown, and to avoid trying anything new or different. But the reverse is also true. The very act of gathering more and better information about a particular subject increases our courage and confidence in that area. You can see this in the parts of your life where you have no fear at all because you know what you are doing. You feel competent and completely capable of handling whatever happens.
Analyze Your Fears
Once you have identified the major factors that cause you to feel afraid, the next step is to objectively define and analyze your personal fears. At the top of a clean sheet of paper, write, “What am I afraid of?” Remember, all intelligent people are afraid of something. It is normal and natural to be concerned about your physical, emotional, and financial safety and that of the people you care about. A courageous person is not a person who is unafraid. As Mark Twain said, “Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear—not absence of fear.”
Action Exercise
Begin your list of fears by writing down everything, major and minor, that causes fear, stress, or anxiety. Think about the parts of your work or personal life where your fears might be holding you back or forcing you to stay in a job or relationship in which you are not happy. Once you have written down your fears, arrange them in order of importance, and then pick them apart one by one.
Eating the Elephant
Posted by davev in Start Thinking, Take Action on December 7th, 2009
By Brian Tracy
You have heard the question, “How do you eat an elephant?” The answer is, “one bite at a time.” This metaphor applies to achieving any big goal, as well. How do you achieve a huge goal? You accomplish it one step, one task, one measure at a time.
Identify Your Most Valuable Task
Ask your boss, “What one thing do I do that is more valuable than anything else?” Whatever his or her answer, look for ways to perform more and more of that task and to get better and better at doing it. It is absolutely amazing how much you can accomplish if you break your tasks down into bite-sized pieces, set deadlines, and then do one piece at a time, every single day.
Continuous and Never Ending Improvement
If you want to increase your hourly rate and your income, look for ways to get a little bit better at the most important tasks you do, every single day. Read one hour per day in your field. Listen to audio programs on your way to and from work. Take additional courses whenever you can. These activities will propel your entire career onto the fast track. When you invest an extra one or two hours per day in self-improvement, the cumulative effect on your greater ability to get results can be extraordinary.
Save Your Pennies and the Dollars Will Save Themselves
If you want to become wealthy, begin to question every single expense. Set a goal to save $3, $5, or $10 per day. Put this money away in a savings account and never touch it. As it grows, invest it carefully in well-chosen mutual funds or index funds. Make daily, weekly, and monthly saving and investment into a habit, and keep it up for the rest of your working life.
Become a Learned Person
If you read fifteen minutes each evening, rather than watching television, you will complete about fifteen books per year. If you read the classics of English literature for fifteen minutes each day, in seven years you will have read one hundred of the greatest books ever written. You will be one of the best-educated and most erudite people of your generation. And you can achieve this just by reading fifteen minutes each evening before you go to bed.
Increase Your Income
If you are in sales and you want to increase your income, keep careful track of how many calls, how many presentations, how many proposals, and how many sales you are making each day, each week, and each month. Then set a goal to increase your number of calls, presentations, and proposals per day. Set a goal to increase your number of sales each week and each month. Every day, measure yourself against your own standards.
If You Measure It, You Can Manage It
In each area of your life, analyze your activities carefully and select a specific number that, more than anything else, determines your level of success in that area. Then focus all of your attention, all day long, on that specific number. The very act of focused attention will cause you to perform better in that area, both consciously and unconsciously.
Action Exercise
Set a minimum, specific amount for daily, weekly, monthly saving and investment, discipline yourself to put away those amounts.
Will You Participate In The “BIG Call”?
Posted by davev in Take Action on December 1st, 2009
“December 1st marks the first day of Global Teleseminar Week which also begins ‘Teleseminar Marketing Season’ in winter and spring,” says my friend, Alex Mandossian.
On the first Thursday of December (for the past five years), Alex hosts “The BIG Call” which I have decided to co-sponsor this year, so I hope your participate 
This year, the first Thursday of December falls on the 3rd, so clear your calendar for that evening. If you do register for The BIG Call make sure you use this VIP Discount Code: AM3964. (That VIP Code shaves-off $79 from the $99 tuition everybody will pay without it).
WHY Participate? Because you’ll get private access to over 2 1/2 hours of densely-rich content that will significantly do two things for you:
1) More Money: You’ll dramatically increase the possibility of transforming your annual income into a monthly income within 3 years
2) More Time: You’ll dramatically increase the possibility of maintaining your current income (if happy with it) and triple your time-off
WHAT Is The BIG Call? It is a LIVE and unique Teleseminar training on how to grow (or start) a business by adding the power Teleseminars to your marketing mix. You will get a 21-page Action Guide that you’ll fill-in during the call as you listen and follow along with Alex guiding you along the way.
HOW Do I Participate? Just grab your mouse and click here. If you’re reading this in time to become one of the first 200 who register, you’ll even get an important bonus gift for taking immediate action. Click here and take a look!
WHAT IF I Do Participate? You’ll get access to the same Teleseminar training that many thought leaders such as Jack Canfield, Ivan Misner, Les Brown, Harv Eker, Dan Sullivan, Bob Proctor and Brian Tracy now utilize in their business. Take a look at “Page 15″ of the Action Guide you’ll get after you register.
Alex has an unprecedented 365-day money back guarantee, if you have a sliver of doubt that this Teleseminar Training will exceed your expectations.
So you really have no excuse not to grab your mouse right now, click here and get registered. And because you’ve read this far, I know you’re more than just curious about how The BIG Call may change your personal and professional life.
Dave Vitallo
Prepare Thoroughly Before You Begin
Posted by davev in Take Action on November 24th, 2009
Have Everything At Hand
One of the best ways for you to overcome procrastination and get more things done faster is for you to have everything you need at hand before you begin. When you are fully prepared, you are like a cocked gun or an archer with an arrow pulled back taut in the bow. You just need one small mental push to get started on your highest value tasks.
Clear Your Workspace
Begin by clearing off your desk or workspace so that you only have one task in front of you. If necessary, put everything on the floor or on the table behind you. Gather all the information, reports, details, papers, and work materials that you will require to complete the job. Have them at hand so you can reach them without getting up or moving. Be sure that you have all writing materials, computer disks, access codes, email addresses and everything else you need to start and continue working until the job is done.
Make It Comfortable
Set up your work area so that it is comfortable, attractive and conducive to working for long periods. Especially, make sure that you have a comfortable chair that supports your back and allows your feet to sit flat on the floor.
The most productive people take the time to create a work area where they enjoy spending time. The cleaner and neater your work area before you begin, the easier it is for you to get started and keep going.
Assume The Position
When you sit down, with everything in front of you, ready to go, assume the body language of high performance. Sit up straight, sit forward and away from the back of the chair. Carry yourself as though you were an efficient, effective high performing personality. Then, pick up the first item and say to yourself, “Let’s get to work!” and plunge in. And once you’ve started, keep going until the job is finished.
Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.
First, take a good look at your desk or office, both at home and at the office. Ask yourself, “What kind of a person works in an environment like that?”
Second, resolve today to clean up your desk and office completely so that you feel effective, efficient and ready to get going each time you sit down to work.
Five Ways to Become Rich
Posted by davev in Uncategorized on October 19th, 2009
By Brian Tracy
If you are really serious about becoming wealthy, there are five primary ways that fortunes are made.
Become an Entrepreneur
The number one road to riches, at the head of the list and on the top of the hit parade throughout U.S. history, is entrepreneurship, starting and building a successful business. Entrepreneurship includes every kind of business, from farming and trucking to real estate and computers. Seventy-four percent of self made millionaires in the United States, going back 200 years, come from self-owned businesses. An individual starts with an idea for a product or service, turns it into a business, builds it up from the ground floor, and as a result becomes wealthy.
Work Your Way Up
Another way to become rich is as a highly paid executive of a successful company, or as an employee of a company that awards stock options that become valuable. Ten percent of self-made millionaires in the United States are men or women who have joined large corporations, or companies that became large, and worked for these companies for many years. They usually work hard; were promoted and paid well; earned stock options, bonuses, and profit sharing; and as a result of holding on to that money, become millionaires and multimillionaires.
Become a Professional
A major source of self-made millionaires consists of professional people—doctors, dentists, lawyers, architects, engineers, and others with advanced degrees who can charge high fees for their services. These people earn their degrees and dedicate themselves to becoming very good at what they do, rise to the top of their professions, earn high incomes, and then hold on to the money. Ten percent of self-made millionaires in the United States fall into this category.
Get into Sales
An important source of self-made millionaires is salespeople and sales consultants. Five percent of self-made millionaires in the United States are men and women who are experts and at the top of their fields in selling. They never started their own businesses. Few of them went to college or earned professional degrees. Instead, they became very good at selling a product of service, and were paid well for doing it. In addition, they managed their money well, invested it intelligently, and made it grow until they were millionaires or better.
All the Others
The final 1 percent of self-made millionaires includes all the people who have made their money in the stock market, with inventions, in show business, through the authorship of books and songs, as lottery winners, and all other sources. Unfortunately, because this group gets so much publicity, many think they are typical of the people who get rich. The fact is they are quite rare.
Action Exercise
Project forward 10 to 20 years and begin imagining you perfect life. What would it look like? What steps could you take immediately to begin making it a reality?
