My Reading Notes From:

No Excuses

By Brian Tracy

Most people think success comes from good luck or enormous talent, but many successful people achieve their accomplishments in a simpler way: through self-discipline. No Excuses! shows you how you can achieve success in all three major areas of your life, including your personal goals, business and money goals, and overall happiness.

 With these guidelines, you can learn how to be more successful in everything you do –instead of wistfully envying others you think are just “luckier” than you. A little self-discipline goes a long way — so stop making excuses and read this book!

Only about 3% have clear set goals and plans.  And they accomplish about 97% of what is done.

Hope is not a strategy for success.  A wish is a goal with no energy behind it.

The disciplined act of writing your goals, and your plans to accomplish them, and working on those goals daily will increase the likelihood of accomplishing them 10x..

Your Failure Mechanism (that looks for the easy path, or fun and easy) works automatically.  Requires no maintenance.  But, your Success Mechanism is triggered by a goal.  When you decide on a goal, it overrides the failure mechanism.

People purpose driven.  You only feel happy and in control when there is a clear goal that you are working toward each day.   So develop the skill of being a lifelong goal setter.

7 Step Method to Setting and Achieving your Goals

Decide exactly what you want.  Be specific!

Write it down.

Set a deadline for the goal:  There are no unrealistic goals, just unrealistic deadlines

If you don’t achieve your goal by your deadline, set a new deadline.

Make a list of everything you can think of to achieve your goal.

Henry Ford:  Any goal can be accomplished if you break it down into enough small steps.

Who’s cooperation and support will you need?  What will you need to learn?

Organize your list by either sequence or priority.   Use to develop a business plan

Take action on your plan immediately.  Don’t delay.  Procrastination is the thief of life.

Winners are action oriented.  Willing to take action without guarantees

Do something EVERYDAY to move you a step closer to your goal.

Develops momentum.  Creates habit of working toward your goals

10 step goal exercise

Take out a clean sheet of paper.  Write “Goals” and date.

Write 10 goals for the next 10 months.  Don’t worry about how to achieve.

Select 1 goal.   If you could achieve 1 within 24 hours – by magic – which one would you choose.

Circle it.

Then write at the top of a clean sheet of paper.

This is your new Major Definite Purpose.   Organizing principal of your new plans

Set a deadline and list everything you can do to achieve it.

Resolve to work on it every single day.  Failure is not an option.

Mindstorm:  Write your MDP at the top a paper.  Then write the question “how do I achieve MDP?” below it.    Now quickly write 20 answers.  Unleashes creativity.

Pick an answer and take action immediately.

We are what we repeatedly do.  So, excellence is not an act.  It’s a habit.  –Aristotle

Your earning ability can either be an appreciating – or depreciating – asset.

If someone is doing better than you today, it just means they have better learned how cause and effect applies to their Major Definite Purpose.

Without a commitment to excellence in your desired field, you will default to “mediocrity.”  Or worse.

The fact that someone has done something is proof that you can too.

Every major change starts with a decision…………….to do something different.

Follow the leaders, not the followers.  Look at the people at the top of what you want to do?   What characteristics do they have in common?  What do they do?  How do they plan and organize their days?  How do they walk talk and dress?  How do they interact with other people?  Who do they associate with?

A Harvard study postulated that who you choose as your reference group can affect success by 95%.

Use the top people as your role model, and emulate the things they do.  ALL of the things they do.

Most major companies invest 3% of sales into training and development.  You should invest at least 3% of what you want to make.

3 steps to being the very best in your field

Read 60 minutes on your field every day.  Preferably before work

Listen to educational audio programs in your car.

Attend courses and seminars in your field.  Online courses at home.

The average person puts in average effort at an average job and has an average life.  It’s been shown that just an extra 2 hours a day will move you to ‘superior performance.’

You can re-write your goals at the start of each day, put into the present tense.  You will be more purposeful and determined.

You will be more effective you plan every day in advance.

Treat every person like a million dollar customer.      Starting at home, with your family.  They are your most important customers.

The only difference between the hero and the coward is that he acts in the face of the fear.

Feel of failure or loss robs us of taking action.  Fear paralyzes action.  Fear undermines happiness and holds us back.

So, do the opposite.  Act as if.  To develop a quality you lack, act as if you have that quality in all circumstances.  Affirm (repeat “I can do it” with conviction), Visualize (yourself as unafraid.  Programs subconscious), Act as if (walk, talk, and carry yourself exactly as you would if you were unafraid).

Law of Reversibility:  If you feel a certain way, you will act in a way congruent with that.  So, if you act like someone with the skill/attitude/emotion you desire – you will acquire that skill/attribute.

Do the thing you fear until it disappears.

The 100 Call Method:  Go out and call on 100 prospects as fast as they can without worrying about making a sale.

One place has a prize for the person who gets rejected 10 times first each day.

Your ability to confront and act in the face of fear is the key to happiness.