Brian Tracy - The Phoenix Transformation: The 12 Qualities of the High Achiever

Other books by Brian Tracy

Entrepreneurship

Get It Done Now!

Make More Money

The Science of Influence

The Science of Money

The Science of Motivation

12 Qualities of High Achievers to Reboot Your Career and Life

BRIAN TRACY

Published 2021 by Gildan Media LLC

aka G&D Media

www.GandDmedia.com

THE PHOENIX TRANSFORMATION. Copyright 2021 by Brian Tracy. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be used, reproduced or transmitted in any manner whatsoever, by any means (electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. No liability is assumed with respect to the use of the information contained within. Although every precaution has been taken, the author and publisher assume no liability for errors or omissions. Neither is any liability assumed for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein.

Front cover design by David Rheinhardt of Pyrographx

Interior design by Meghan Day Healey of Story Horse, LLC

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request

eISBN: 978-1-7225-2460-9

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

T he myth of the phoenix is well known. A purplish-red bird, radiant and shimmering, it lives for several hundred years before it dies by bursting into flames. It is then reborn from the ashes to start a new life.

The great Roman poet Ovid tells a slightly different story in his Metamorphoses:

There is a bird, which the Assyrians call the phoenix,

which renews and reproduces itself.

It lives, not on fruits or herbs,

but on drops of incense and cardamom sap.

When it has lived out the five hundred years of its life,

with its beak and talons it constructs a nest for itself

in the branches atop a swaying palm,

and lines it with cassia and thin stalks of nard, strewn with cinnamon flakes and yellow myrrh.

Thence it is said that a small phoenix, destined to live the same number of years, is born from its fathers corpse.

When age has given the young one the strength to bear its burden,

it relieves the high trees branches of their weight

and reverently bears its cradle, which was its fathers tomb,

through the light breezes until it reaches the city of Hyperion

and before the sacred gates puts the nest on Hyperions altar.

Ovid, Metamorphoses, 15:392407
(translated by Richard Smoley)

The phoenix is part of history, too. Tacitus, one of the greatest Roman historians, says that it was seen in Egypt in AD 34 (other ancient sources give the year as 36). Because of the birds long lifespan, its appearance was thought to herald a new age.

Every age, of course, believes it is a new age, and every age is rightbecause each one poses its unique situations, difficulties, and opportunities. Ours is no exception.

An old frequently quoted Arab proverb says, Men resemble their times more than their fathers. This means that in order to survive and prosper, each of us is obliged to understand the times we live in and adapt ourselves to them. Like the phoenix, we may need to reconstitute ourselves for our new age.

In 1983, I produced an audio program called The Psychology of Achievement. Its become one of the most popular programs on personal success and achievement in history and has been listened to by over a million people. Its been translated into more than twenty languages, and it has changed the lives of more people than we can count.

The Psychology of Achievement dealt with what I called the inner game of successhow you organize your thoughts, attitudes, and personality and how you set goals, get along with others, understand yourself, and release your personal brakes to accomplish extraordinary things.

Times have changed dramatically since 1983. We have had the introduction of the Internet; weve had the dot-com bubble; weve gone through an accelerating technological revolution; weve been through several different political changes and presidencies. In 1983, China was a backwater. Today it is one of the most booming economies in the world.

Today you often hear people talk about reinventing themselves. Usually it has to do with their external imagethe real or imagined need to make themselves look more hip, more fashionable, and more sophisticated about the latest technological gimmicks and gadgets.

Yes, you do need to reinvent yourself, but changing your image is only a small part of the joband far from the most important. Do you want results that are different, and better, than youve had in the past? It takes a lot more than getting a new pair of designer glasses. Like the phoenix, you have to renew and restore yourself from the nest of the old you.

In this book, Im going to show you how to do that. Ive updated my Psychology of Achievement to add cutting-edge research and innovative concepts relevant to the new, wired, and global world we live and work in. The Phoenix Transformation contains a series of powerful ideas that Ive developed to help you compete in this new worldideas that you can use to accomplish more in the weeks and months and years ahead than you might have dreamed of in your whole life.

Im setting out twelve steps to extraordinary achievementone in each chapter. Are they secrets? No, theyre well-known principles, but because so few people use them, they might as well be secrets. Only a tiny minority apply these concepts to their lives. They all have one thing in common: they are successful in every arena.

Twelve Qualities of High Achievers

1. They understandand usethe power of the mind.

2. They unlock their peak potential by focusing on what they want.

3. They use optimism to motivate themselves to peak performance.

4. They know how to get other people to like and respect them.

5. They set goals and work consistently to achieve them.

6. They organize their time for optimal efficiency.

7. They know how to create wealth for themselves.

8. They are on track to financial independence.

9. They know and use the keys to entrepreneurship.

10. They have mastered self-discipline.

11. They have superb problem-solving skills.

12. They simplify their lives by focusing on the things that give them joy.

Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life

S tep number one is to key into the most extraordinary source of power you or anyone will ever have: the mind.

I started life humbly. I did not graduate from high school, I bombed out of the twelfth grade, and the only jobs I could get were laboring jobs. My first job was washing dishes in the back of a small hotel. When I lost that job, I got a job washing cars. When I lost that one, I got a job washing floors with a janitorial service. I thought that washing was in my future. But as you can see, it was a downhill trend.