Copyright 2016 by Brian Tracy
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Contents
INTRODUCTION
Winning Is for Winners
Deep within man dwell those slumbering powers; powers that would astonish him, that he never dreamed of possessing; forces that would revolutionize his life if aroused and put into action.
Orison Swett Marden
You probably have more talent and ability than you could use in one hundred lifetimes. You have all the intelligence you need, right now, plus the ability to learn any subject you need to learn to achieve any goal you can set for yourself. There are no limits on what you can be, do, and have, except for the limits you place on your own mind.
The Big Question
Many years ago, I began asking the question Why is it that some people are more successful than others?
The most important answer surprised me, as it surprises most people. It is simple. Your success is based on what you do, the results you get, and how quickly and efficiently you achieve those results.
It is not based on what you say, wish, hope, or intend to do at some time in the future. Success is only based on what you are doing right now in this moment. As Henry Ford said, You cant build a reputation on what youre going to do.
We are living in the fastest moving, most turbulent, disruptive, and unpredictable time in all of human history. This kind of rapid change often causes people to become distracted, unsure, insecure, and unmotivated. As a result, they just slow down, sit around, and accomplish very little.
The Most Valuable Asset
What is a companys most valuable asset? According to the Harvard Business School, it is its reputation. A companys most valuable asset is what people say about the company, and its products and services, to other customers or potential customers.
Because technology, information, and customer tastes are changing rapidly, products and services are changing faster than ever before. But reputation remains. In fact, it is everything. Think about companies like Apple and Google. Their reputations are so excellent that they are world leaders in the products and services they offer.
So, what is your most valuable asset? It is your reputation as well. It is what people think and say about you when youre not there. It is the words that people use to describe you and especially how well they think you do your work.
Getting Things Done
The most important part of your reputation is your ability to start and complete important tasks, to get things done, and to be known for speed and dependability. This will do more for your happiness, health, success, and wealth than any other facet of your reputation that you can develop.
What is your main goal in life? According to Aristotle, behind every goal there is another goal until you finally reach the main goal, which is to be happy. Everything you do is an attempt, successful or not, to achieve happiness in some way. In fact, you can measure your level of success by what percentage of time you are a genuinely happy person. This is more important than all the money and accomplishments in the world.
The Achievement of Happiness
How do you achieve happiness? In its simplest terms, happiness is the progressive realization of a worthy goal or ideal. It is only when you feel that you are moving step-by-step toward the accomplishment of something that is important to you that you feel genuinely fulfilled and happy.
Everyone wants to be a winner. They want to be seen and thought of as a winner by others. How do you achieve this? Simpleyou win!
What is winning? In running, when you cross the finish line before any of the other runners, you win.
In life, you win when you start and complete your most important tasks on time and, ideally, before anyone elseyou cross the finish line first. As a result, you feel wonderful about yourself. Your brain releases endorphins, natures happy drug, which gives you an overall sense of peace and well-being. You feel like a winner.
Get Started and Keep Going
In its simplest terms, your ability to get started and to keep going until you complete those things that are most important to you and to your company is the key to winning, to happiness, to a great reputation, and to success in life.
In the pages ahead, I will share with you a simple, practical, proven, seven-part method to accomplish more in the next few months and years than most people accomplish in a lifetime.
LETS BEGIN.
It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.
Confucius
CHAPTER ONE
The Biggest Obstacle to Success
We first make our habits, and then our habits make us.
John Dryden
Fully 95 percent of what you do, or fail to do, is determined by your habits. Your actions are determined by your habits of belief (the way you are programmed as a result of your lifetime of experience) and your habits of behavior (what you are accustomed to doing or not doing).
The biggest obstacle to success is that people have negative habits, sometimes unconsciously, that hold them back, year after year, from realizing their full potential.
The good news is that all habits, first of thought and then of behavior, are learned. Because your habits are learned, they can be unlearned and replaced with new, positive, constructive habits that enable you to get going, keep going, and do great work that gets you paid more and promoted faster.
Develop New, Better Habits
Habits are developed by taking in new information thats either positive or negative for us and then repeating actions based on that information until actions become automatic. Once the habit is locked in, you respond automatically, neither questioning nor explaining to yourself what you have decided to do.
The worst habits of all are based on your self-limiting beliefs. These are areas where you believe yourself to be limited in some way even though it may not be true. But as a result, you act as if it was true, and it then becomes true for you. As the old saying goes: You are not what you believe you are, but what you believe, you are.
Challenge Your Beliefs
The starting point of greater success is for you to take some time to challenge the automatic assumptions you make that may be holding you back from success.