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!
Ask yourself repeatedly “Is what I’m doing RIGHT NOW leading to a sale?” If not, stop right now and go do that.
The biggest problem that telephone and outside sales people face is rejection. So, we go through a series of “Displacement Activities”. Most common one is making fewer calls. According to Columbia, an avg sales person works 90 min a day.
You are only working when you are ear-to-ear or face to face with people who will buy in a reasonable horizon.
Spend more time with better prospects= THE key to success
If you do what the successful salespeople do, over and over, nothing can stop you from success.
See yourself as the president of your own company. Directly responsible for the sales activities.
Set yourself clear and quantifiable income goals for the next 12 months.
Break it up into months.
Determine how much you have to sell to achieve that.
Determine how many people you need to call on – based on ratios.
Dedicate to constant improvement
Spend every minute of every day getting face to face with people who will buy.
The inability to delay gratification, in the short term, is what causes the bulk of the financial problems we have.
You need to figure out how to go into your psyche to disconnect the “spending = happy” wire and reconnect the “saving=happy” wire.
Open a Financial Freedom account. And generate the feeling of happiness when you add money to it. Be stronger and in control. Activate the law of attraction to it.
The Law of Accumulation= Any large achievement is just the sum accumulation of many small ones.
If you start putting $10 a month in an account, you will probably have more than $120 at end of year
The key is, pay yourself first!
Old rule was to save 10% of your income, right off the top. Many now advise, 15%
Can use the 1% rule. Start with just 1% each month. If you need the visual, use real paper money.
Then increase it to 2% per month. Then next month 3%
Happiness is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal.
Parkinson’s Law – your expenditures will rise to meet income.
Wedge Principal – breaks Parkinson’s law. As your income increases, resolve to save 50% of the increase.
But, it all starts with making the decision today to start taking an active role in savings.
You cannot ‘spend’ time, you can only use it differently. Must use your self-discipline to choose what to do 1st, what to do 2nd, and what to do ‘not at all.’ Procrastination is the thief of dreams.
Assess the true value of everything you do.
Normally people spend 80% of their time on the things they enjoy – that might not be getting you toward what you SAY your goals are.
Your time is valuable. So you want to make sure you are getting a high Rate of Return on Activity.
Because what you do will become a habit. Don’t create the habit of procrastination.
In the evening, make a list of what you need to do the next day. That gives your subconscious mind the overnight to help grow those. Then apply the A,B,C,D,E.
A= you must do. Serious consequences;
B= something you should do. Mild consequences;
C= Would be nice to do. No consequences;
D= something to delegate. Do as much as possible to concentrate on stuff only you can do;
E= eliminate.
Never do a low value task when you have a higher value one ahead of you.
Start work with the task most important to you – at the moment.
Must continually ask: why am I on the payroll? What am I paid to do?
Then: What are the key result items expected of me?
Then: What is my highest value activities?
Then: What can I do – and only I do – that will dramatically improve things?
What is the most valuable thing I can do RIGHT NOW.
“Thoughts are causes, and conditions are effects” The quality of your thinking leads to the quality of your life.
Be solution oriented. When your emotional brain is in charge, you think black and white. When most things are shades of grey. Emotional brain only thinks of “fight or flight.”
Beware any problem that has more than 1 definition or only 1 apparent solution.
An imperfect solution, vigorously executed now is better than waiting for a perfect solution that cannot be executed.
“Every large problem was once a small problem that wasn’t solved then.”
It’s only when you feel that you are truly in complete control of your own life that you will feel content. The Law of Control states that you feel happy to a degree that you feel in control of your own life, and you will feel unhappy to the degree that you feel not in control – or controlled by other factors and people.
Stress is when you feel that you are controlled by outside circumstances.
When you feel like you are moving – step by step – toward something important to you, you automatically feel happy and good about yourself.
About 80% of your happiness will be related to your relationships with others. Man is a social creature.
Mazlow showed that people will generally be preoccupied by covering for any deficiencies (lack of food, money, safety) before trying to reach their full potential. Less than 2% reach the height of “self-actualization” and achieve true happiness. The happiest of all people are the ones who feel they are doing something worthwhile.
Psychologists say that everything we do is to either build our self-esteem, or to protect it from being torn down. Each person is hypersensitive about their own self-esteem and value of self-importance.
Your Self Image has 3 parts
How you see yourself = how you walk, talk, and behave with others.
How others see you= if you think others perceive you in a positive way, you will see yourself in a positive way. Feel higher feelings of self-importance
How others actually see you and treat you= if you see yourself as high, and people treat you bad, it’s rough to the ego. If you see yourself as average, and people treat you with respect – improves
You are happy when all 3 coincide.
Law of Indirect Effort: you can’t really care about others’ feelings until you can put your own aside. You cannot have a friend until you can BE a friend.
Raise other peoples’ self-esteem. When you focus on making others feel good about themselves, they feel good, and they feel good about you as well. And you will feel better about yourself.
Never criticize, condemn, or complain—- about anything —–ever. Don’t discuss others in a negative way. Destructive criticism is the worst force in human nature.
Vow to make others feel better and more worthwhile, just because they spoke to you. Find something impressive about everyone you meet – and let them know how impressed you are about that.
You must regularly apply self-control to your own thoughts to achieve true happiness. Let go of anything that disrupts your inner piece.
People have a tendency to develop attachments. To thoughts, feelings, actions, ideas, material things. And it holds them back. We get too preoccupied by these external factors. Can even keep us up at night.
Get over your need to be right. “You can either be right or you can be happy”
Blame is the primary destroyer of inner peace. First step of blame is “taking it personally.” 2nd cause is “Justification” which happens when you tell yourself or others why you are justified feeling this way. You just relive your suffering.
Forgiveness is the height of inner peace. Forgiveness is actually a selfish act. You do it for your own freedom. It’s different than condoning.
