Book #6
Brian Tracy
There are certainly a lot of outstanding books on the topic of goal setting but this is the best I’ve read. It is detailed and simplistic in its approach. Tracy takes you through a thorough process to first understanding the importance of goals before determining those goals that you need to set for yourself. He then follows it ups with action plans of how to implement those goals. This book has made a difference in me and it is often a book that I give to my players after they graduate to prepare for the next phase of their journey.
I particularly like the first paragraph in the book:
“Success is goals, and all else is commentary. All successful people are intensely goal oriented. They know what they want and they are focused single-mindedly on achieving it, every single day.”
YOUR WORST ENEMY
The greatest enemies of success and happiness are negative emotions of all kinds. Negative emotions from the beginning of time, have done more harm to individuals and societies than all the plagues of history.
One of the most important goals, if you want to be truly happy and successful, is to free yourself from negative emotions.
THINK ABOUT THE FUTURE
Dr. Edward Banfield of Harvard concluded, after more than fifty years of research, that “long-time perspective” was the most important determinant of financial and personal success in life. Banfield defined long-time perspective as the “ability to think several years into the future while making decisions in the present.”
CLARIFY YOUR VALUES
One of the most important characteristics of leaders, and the most successful people in every area of life, is that they know who they are, what they believe in, and what they stand for.
Life is lived from the inside out. The very core of your personality is your values. Your values are what make you the person you are. Everything you do on the outside is dictated and determined by your values on the inside, whether clear or fuzzy.
YOUR MASTER PROGRAM FOR SUCCESS
Perhaps the greatest breakthrough in the twentieth century in the field of human potential was the discovery of self-concept. Everything you do or achieve in your life, every thought, feeling, or action, is controlled and determined by your self-concept. You self-concept precedes and predicts your levels of performance and effectiveness in everything you do.
THINK IN TERMS OF SOLUTION
Successful people think about solutions most of the time. Unsuccessful people think about problems and difficulties most of the time. Solution-oriented people are constantly looking for ways to get over, around, and past the obstacles looking for ways to get over, around, and past the obstacles that stand in their way.
The fact is that you have the ability to solve any problem or to overcome any obstacle on the path to your goal if you desire the goal intensely enough. You have within you, right now, all the intelligence and ability you will ever need to overcome any obstacle that could possibly hold you back.
BECOME AN EXPERT IN YOUR FIELD
One quality of the most successful people is that at a certain point in their careers they decided to “commit to excellence.” They decided to be the best at what they do. They decided to pay any price, make any sacrifice, and invest any amount of time necessary to become very good in their chosen fields.
ASSOCIATE WITH THE RIGHT PEOPLE
Everything in life and business is relationships. Everything you accomplish or fail to accomplish will be boun up with other people in some way.
A key part of goal setting is for you to identify the people, groups, and organizations whose help you will require to achieve your goals. To accomplish goals of any kind, you will need the help of lots of people.
MAKE A PLAN OF ACTION
All successful people work from written plans.
The number one reason for failure is action without planning.
Bonus blog spot from Brian Tracy’s Goals! On seven goal setting questions to ask yourself.
