Tracy - Maximum achievement: the proven system of strategies and skills that will unlock your hidden powers to succeed

SIMON & SCHUSTER PAPERBACKS
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Copyright 1993 by Brian Tracy

All rights reserved,
including the right of reproduction
in whole or in part in any form.

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The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:
Tracy, Brian.
Maximum achievement: strategies and skills
that will unlock your hidden powers
to succeed/Brian Tracy.
p. cm.
1. Achievement motivation. 2. Success.
3. Self-actualization (Psychology). 4. Motivation (Psychology).
I. Title.
BF503.T73 1993
158&.1dc20 93-4534 CIP

ISBN-13: 978-0-671-86518-4
ISBN-10: 0-671-86518-8
ISBN-13: 978-0-684-80331-9 (Pbk)
ISBN-10: 0-684-80331-3 (Pbk)
eISBN-13: 978-1-439-12627-1

Writing a book is an incredible undertaking, especially if youve never done it before. It takes years of research and experience, then months, if not years, of writing and rewriting. This book has emerged from the thousands of hours of seminars Ive given, and the countless suggestions and observations from the thousands of men and women Ive had the privilege of working with over the years.

My life has been one long, continuous process of personal and professional development, including reading thousands of books and articles, listening to thousands of hours of audiocassette recordings and attending innumerable courses and seminars. As Tennyson says in Ulysses, I am a part of all that I have met. I have been influenced by more people than I can even count but I want to thank some of them for making this book possible.

First, let me thank the many fine men and women who have attended my seminars and lectures over the years. Their insights, observations and experiences have been invaluable to me and indispensable to the writing of this book. You know who you are, and my gratitude to you is unbounded!

Specifically, I thank the late John Boyle for opening my eyes to the power of the mind in determining everything that happens to us. I thank Earl Nightingale for his wonderful insights into the potential of the average person and Denis Waitley for summarizing the principles of success in his Psychology of Winning audiocassette program. Ive been greatly influenced in my thinking by many wonderful thinkers, writers, and speakers such as Stephen Covey, Ken Blanchard and Tom Peters, as well as by Zig Ziglar, Jim Rohn, Tony Robbins and Wayne Dyer.

I am extremely grateful to my friends at Nightingale-Conant Corporation, Vic Conant, Kevin McEneeley, Mike Willbond and Jill Schachter, who have worked with me over the years to assure the quality of the audio recordings of these ideas.

Im especially grateful to my seminar sponsors, John Hammond, Dan Bratland, Jim Kaufman and Suanne Sandage, who have made these principles available to many thousands of people by conducting public seminars with me in every major city in North America over the years.

In my company, past and present, there have been, and are, several people who have helped me immeasurably. My heartfelt thanks to Victor Risling, who worked with me on the road for years, starting early and staying late, and who made a vital contribution to my career in its formative stages. I thank my friend and partner, Michael Wolff, my marketing director, Donna Villerilli, my executive assistants and secretaries, Mavis Hancock and Shirley Whetstone, without whose help in typing and retyping the manuscript, this book might never have been completed.

I thank my friends at Simon & Schuster, especially my editor Bob Bender, for their support and encouragement in the preparation of the manuscript, and without whom this book would not have been possible. Perhaps the most important person of all in this whole process has been Margaret McBride, my literary agent, whose faith and confidence in me and my work served as the critical spark that ignited the writing of this book in the first place. Thank you, Margaret.

One of the most important lessons Ive learned in life is that no one ever does it alone. We are all dependent on others for virtually everything. I would like to thank so many people, but I would run out of space, so let me conclude these acknowledgments by thanking my wonderful wife, Barbara, for everything, but especially for patiently putting up with me over the months as I pounded away at this book. And to my dear children, Christina, Michael, David and Catherine, who were continually shortchanged for my time. I promise to make it up to you.

This book is lovingly dedicated to
my wonderful wife, Barbara,
the best friend, wife, mother and partner
I could ever have dreamed of.
God bless you and thank you for everything.
You make me a very lucky man.

The system you are about to learn can change your life. This book contains a unique synthesis of ideas, methods and techniques brought together in one place for the first time. The individual components of this system, however, are not new; they have been learned and relearned throughout all the ages of man. These principles and practices have been tested and proven by millions of men and women, and all great success is based on them.

By integrating these ideas and methods into your daily life, you will feel happier, healthier and more self-confident. You will experience a greater sense of power, purpose and self-direction. You will be more positive, more focused and more able to achieve your goals. You will get along better with the important people in your life. Youll be more successful in your career and you will feel wonderful about yourself.

You will learn how to unlock the great untapped reserves of potential that lie deep within you. By practicing the exercises that accompany each chapter, youll get results out of all proportion to the effort you put in. You will propel your whole life onto a highroad of success, achievement and greater happiness than perhaps youve ever known.

To use a simple analogy, life is like a combination lock, only with more numbers. If you turn to the right numbers in the right sequence, the lock will open for you. Its not a miracle, nor does it depend on luck. It doesnt even matter who you are as long as you have the right numbers. By the same token, there is a proper combination of thoughts and actions that will enable you to accomplish almost anything you really want, and you can find that combination if you search for it.

Health, wealth, happiness, success and peace of mind are all amenable to the same principle. If you do the right things in the right way, youll get the results you desire. If you can determine exactly what it is you want, you can find out how others have achieved it before you. If you then do the same things they have done, youll achieve the same results they have.

This secret of success is so simple that it is overlooked by most people. Whatever you want you can have, if you want it badly enough, and if you are willing to persist long enough and hard enough in doing what others have done to accomplish similar things before you.