No Excuses!: The Power of Self-Discipline (14 page)

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Authors: Brian Tracy

Tags: #Self Help, #Business, #Non-Fiction, #Psychology, #Inspirational

BOOK: No Excuses!: The Power of Self-Discipline
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When you rewrite your ten goals each morning, you will continually see and think of opportunities to achieve those goals all day long. You will become more focused, channeled, and directed. You will be more purposeful and determined. And you will achieve your goals much faster than if they were merely
wishes
floating around in the back of your mind.
 
Writing and rewriting your goals each day can give you your 1,000 percent increase in income over ten years.
 
Step 3: Plan Every Day in Advance.
Make a list, and set priorities on your work before you start off. Your ability to set priorities and to choose the most important thing that you can be doing at every moment is the key to organizing your life and doubling your productivity. (We will talk in detail about time management techniques in Chapter 12.)
 
Working on your top priorities can increase your income by 1,000 percent over ten years, and it is probably impossible to achieve without it.
 
 
Step 4: Discipline Yourself to Concentrate Single-Mindedly on One Thing.
Choose the most important thing that you can do each day. Then, start on it first thing and then work on it until it is 100 percent complete. Your ability to focus and concentrate, when you develop and hone it into a habit, all by itself, will enable you to
double
your productivity, performance, and output in the next month—and it will give you your 1,000 percent increase over ten years.
 
 
Step 5: Listen to Educational Audio Programs in Your Car.
The average businessperson who drives spends 500- 1000 hours per year behind the wheel of a car. When you turn your car into a “university on wheels” or a “mobile classroom,” you get the educational equivalent of one to two full-time university semesters as you drive around.
 
Many people have gone from rags to riches by simply listening to educational audio programs in their cars as they drive from place to place. You could do the same. This alone could give you your 1000 percent increase.
 
 
Step 6: Ask Two Magic Questions After Every Call or Event.
First, ask yourself, “What did I do
right?
” Then, ask yourself, “What would I do
differently?
”
 
The first question, “What did I do
right
?” forces you to think through and recall all the correct things that you did in that last meeting, presentation, or event, even if it was not successful. Write them down.
 
The second question, “What would I do
differently
?” forces you to think through all the different ways you could
improve
your performance in a similar situation. Write these ideas down as well.
 
In both cases, by reviewing your performance, by thinking about what you did
right
and what you would do
differently
, you program yourself to perform even better the next time. This is one of the fastest and most powerful exercises in personal growth and development I have ever discovered. This process dramatically speeds up the rate at which you move into the top 20 percent.
 
 
Step 7: Treat Every Person You Meet Like a Million-Dollar Customer.
Treat each person you meet and work with, both at home and in the office, as though he or she is the most important person in the world. When you treat people as if they are valuable and important, they will return the favor by treating you as if
you
are valuable and important as well. They will want to be associated with you, work for you, buy from you, and introduce you to their friends.
 
You begin treating people like million-dollar customers by starting at home, with the members of your family. Remember, they are the most important people in your life. So when you start your day well, first thing in the morning, by making the members of your family feel important and telling them that you love them, you will be more positive, relaxed, and happier for the rest of the day.
 
Fully 85 percent of your success will be determined by how much people like and respect you, especially in business and sales. Never miss an opportunity to treat people well.
 
When you practice these seven steps each day for a month, you will see changes and improvements in your life, work, and income that will astonish you. After a month of regular practice, you will have formed a new habit of continuous personal improvement that can carry you onward and upward for the rest of your life.
 
Be the Best!
 
Lifelong personal development and the commitment to personal excellence require tremendous dedication, discipline, and willpower. The greatest payoff is that every time you learn and apply something new, your brain releases
endorphins
, which make you feel happier and more excited about your future.
 
Every time you learn and apply something new, you will have a greater sense of personal power. Your self-esteem, self-respect, and personal pride will increase. You will feel very much in control of your earning ability, which is one of the most important parts of your life.
 
In the next chapter, we’ll talk about the importance of
courage
, of overcoming the fears and doubts that hold most people back. It is often the case that we know what we need to do, but we lack the courage to take the risks that accompany trying anything new. Instead, we make excuses for inaction.
 
 
Action Exercises:
 
1. Make a decision today to invest in yourself and getting better, as if your future depends on it—because it does.
2. Identify the most important skills you have that determine the quality and quantity of results you get at your work, and make a plan to get better in each one.
3. If you could wave a magic wand and become absolutely excellent in any one skill, which
one skill
would have the greatest impact on your earning ability? Whatever your answer, set that skill as a goal, make a plan, and work on it every day.
4. Set excellent performance in your work as a goal, and then determine exactly what you will need to do every day to join the top 20 percent or better in your field.
5. Look ahead three to five years and determine the new knowledge and skills you will need in order to lead your field in the future. Then start acquiring them today.
6. Select the top person in your field, the one you admire most, and use him or her as a role model for your own development.
7. Commit yourself today to lifelong learning, and never let a day go by without getting better in some area.
 
 
Chapter 6
 
Self-Discipline and Courage
 
“Courage is not absence of fear; it is control of fear, mastery of fear.”
—MARK TWAIN
 
 
 
 
Y
ou need large amounts of self-discipline to deal courageously with all the fear-inducing events of your life. This is probably why Churchill said, “Courage is rightly considered the foremost of the virtues, for upon it, all others depend.”
 
The fact is that everyone is afraid—and usually of many things. This is normal and natural. Often, fear is necessary to preserve life, prevent injury, and guard against financial mistakes.
 
So if everyone is afraid, what is the difference between the brave person and the coward? The only difference is that the brave person
disciplines
himself to confront, deal with, and act in spite of the fear. In contrast, the coward allows himself to be dominated and controlled by the fear. Someone once said that—with regard to warfare, although it applies to any situation—“The difference between the hero and the coward is that the hero sticks in there five minutes longer.”
 
Fears Can Be Unlearned
 
Fortunately, all fears are
learned
; no one is born with fears. Fears can therefore be unlearned by practicing self-discipline repeatedly with regard to fear until it goes away.
 
The most common fears that we experience, which often sabotage all hope for success, are the fears of failure, poverty, and loss of money. These fears cause people to avoid risk of any kind and to reject opportunity when it is presented to them. They are so afraid of failure that they are almost paralyzed when it comes to taking any chances at all.
 
There are many other fears that interfere with our happiness. People fear the loss of love or the loss of their jobs and their financial security. People fear embarrassment or ridicule. People fear rejection and criticism of any kind. People fear the loss of respect or esteem of others. These and many other fears hold us back throughout life.
 
Fear Paralyzes Action
 
The most common reaction in a fear situation is the attitude of, “I can’t!” This is the fear of failure and loss that stops us from taking action. It is experienced physically, starting in the solar plexus. When people are really afraid, their mouth and throat go dry, their heart starts pounding. Sometimes they breathe shallowly and their stomach churns. Often they feel like getting up and running to the bathroom.
 
These are all physical manifestations of the
inhibitive
negative habit pattern, which we all experience from time to time. Whenever a person is in the grip of fear, he feels like a deer caught in the headlights of a car. This fear paralyzes action. It often shuts down the brain and causes the individual to revert to the “fight-or-flight” reaction. Fear is a terrible emotion that undermines our happiness and can hold us back throughout our lives.
 
Do the Opposite
 
Aristotle described courage as the “Golden Mean” between the extremes of cowardice and impetuousness. He taught that “to develop a quality that you lack, act as if you already had that quality in every situation where it is called for.” In modern terms, however, we say, “Fake it until you make it.”
 
You can actually change your behavior by affirming, visualizing, and
acting as if
you already have the quality you desire. By affirming, by repeating the words, “I can do it!” emphatically whenever you feel afraid for any reason, you can cancel the feeling of “I can’t.”
 
Every time you repeat the words “I can do it!” with conviction, you override your fear and increase your confidence. By repeating this affirmation over and over again, you can eventually build your courage and confidence to the point where you are unafraid.
 
Visualize Yourself as Unafraid
 
By visualizing yourself performing with confidence and competence in an area where you are fearful, your visual image will eventually be accepted by your subconscious mind as
instructions
for your performance. Your self-image, the way you see yourself and think about yourself, is eventually altered by feeding your mind these positive mental pictures of yourself performing at your best.
 
By using the “act as if” method, you walk, talk, and carry yourself exactly as you would if you were completely
unafraid
in a particular situation. You stand up straight, smile, move quickly and confidently, and in every respect act as if you already had the courage that you desire.
 
The Law of Reversibility says that “if you feel a certain way, you will act in a manner consistent with that feeling.” But if you act in a manner consistent with that feeling, even if you don’t feel it, the Law of Reversibility will create the feeling that is consistent with your actions.
 
This is one of the greatest breakthroughs in success psychology. You
develop
the courage you desire by disciplining yourself repeatedly to do the thing you fear until that fear eventually disappears—and it will.
 
BLOW AWAY THE FEAR
 
When I work with sales organizations, they often ask me how to help a salesperson break out of a sales slump, especially in a tough economy. I give them a simple formula that is guaranteed to work, every single time. It is called the “100-Call Method.” In practicing this method, I instruct the salesperson to go out and call on one hundred prospects as fast as he can, without caring at all whether or not he makes a sale.
 
When the salesperson doesn’t care if he makes a sale, his fear of rejection largely disappears. He stops caring if the prospect he is speaking to is interested or not interested. He has a single focus. It is to make one hundred calls as fast as he possibly can.
 
One sales organization I work with has a daily prize for the first salesperson who gets rejected ten times each morning. At 8:30 A.M., all the salespeople sit down at their desks and start making calls to try to win the prize. By the time the contest is over, usually by 10 A.M., everyone’s fears of rejection have been blown out of their systems. They’re ready to call on prospects all day long, not caring at all about the reactions they get.
 

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