Best of Brian Tracy's Blog

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Brian Tracy's Blogs ■

Five Reasons Why People Don Do n 't Be Becc om omee We Weal alth thyy

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How to Let Go

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How to Influence People

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Be the Best You W W W. B R I A N T R A C Y . C O M

Lear Le arn n th thee se secr cret etss to be beco comi ming ng fi fina nanc ncia iallllyy in inde depe pend nden ent. t.

Five Reasons Why Most Don’t Become Wealthy Brian Tracy W W W. B R I A N T R A C Y . C O M

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FIVE REASONS WHY MOST DON'T BECOME WEALTHY | BRIAN TRACY

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FIVE REASONS WHY MOST DON'T BECOME WEALTHY

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hy is it that people don’t become wealthy? In a country like ours, with the opportunities that we have, why is it that so few people retire financially independent? And I eventually found the answers. Here are what I consider

to be the five reasons why people don’t become wealthy. WHO ME?

First, at the top of the list, is that it never occurs to them. The average person has grown up in a family where he has never met or known anyone who was wealthy. He goes to school and socializes with people who are not wealthy. He works with people who are not wealthy. He has a reference group or a social circle outside of work who are not wealthy. He has no role models who are wealthy. If this has happened to you throughout your formative years, up to the age of twenty, you can grow up and become a fully mature adult in our society, and it may never occur to you that it’s just as possible for you to become wealthy as for anyone else.

This is why people who grow up in homes where their parents are wealthy are much more likely to become wealthy as adults than people who grew up in homes where their parents are not. So the first reason why people don’t become wealthy is it never occurs to them that it is possible for them. And of course, if it never occurs to them, then they never take any of the steps necessary to make it a reality.

© Brian Tracy. All rights reserved. The contents, or parts there of, may not be reproduced in any form for any purpose without the written permission of Brian Tracy.


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MAKE A DECISION!

The second reason that people don’t become wealthy is that they never decide to. Even if a person reads a book, attends a lecture, or associates with people who are financially successful, nothing changes until he makes a decision to do something different. Even if it occurs to a person that he could become wealthy if he just did certain things in a specific way, if he doesn’t decide to take the first step, he ends up staying as he is. If you continue to do what you’ve always done, you’ll continue to get what you’ve always got.

The primary reason for underachievement and failure is that the great majority of people don’t decide to be successful. They never make a firm, unequivocal commitment or definite decision that they are going to become wealthy. They mean to, and they intend to, and they hope to and they’re going to, someday. They wish and hope and pray that they will make a lot of money, but they never decide, “I am going to do it!” This decision is an essential first step to becoming financially independent. MAYBE TOMORROW

The third reason that people don’t become wealthy is procrastination. People always have a good reason not to begin doing what they know they need to do to achieve financial independence. It is always the wrong month, the wrong season, or the wrong year. Business conditions in their industry are no good, or they may be too good. The market isn’t right. They may have to take a risk, or give up their security. Maybe next year. There always seems to be a reason to procrastinate. As a result, they keep putting it off, month by month, year by year, until it’s too late. Even if it has occurred to a person that they can become wealthy, and they have made a decision to change, procrastination will push all their plans into the indefinite future. © Brian Tracy. All rights reserved. The contents, or parts there of, may not be reproduced in any form for any purpose without the written permission of Brian Tracy.


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PAY THE PRICE

The fourth reason that people retire poor is what economists call the inability to delay gratification. The great majority of people have an irresistible temptation to spend every single penny they make and whatever else they can borrow or buy on credit. If you cannot delay gratification, and discipline yourself to refrain from spending everything you make, you cannot become wealthy. If you cannot practice budgeting as a lifelong habit, it will be impossible for you to achieve financial independence. As W. Clement Stone said, “If you cannot save money, the seeds of greatness are not in you.” TAKE THE LONG VIEW

The fif th reason that people retire poor is perhaps as important, if not more important, than all the others. It is lack of time perspective. In a longitudinal study conducted by Dr. Edward Banfield at Harvard University in the 1950s and published in 1964 as The Unheavenly City , he studied the reasons for upward socio-economic mobility. He

wanted to know how you could predict whether an individual or a family was going to move upward one or more socio-economic groupings and be wealthier in the next generation than they were this generation.

All his research brought him to a single factor that he concluded was more accurate than any other in predicting success in America. They called it time perspective. This was defined as the amount of time that you take into consideration when planning your day-to-day activities and when making important decisions in your life. Time perspective referred to how far you projected into the future when you decided what you were going to do or not do in the present.



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An example of long time perspective is the common habit of upper class families in England to register their children at Oxford or Cambridge as soon as the child is born, even though he or she will not be attending for eighteen or nineteen years. This is long time perspective in action. The young couple that begins putting $50 dollars a month aside in a scholarship fund so that their newborn child can go to the college or university of his or her choice is a couple with long time perspective. They are willing to sacrifice in the short term to assure better results and outcomes in the long term. People with long time perspective almost invariably move up economically in the course of their lifetimes.

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Learn how to live in the now!

How to Let Go Four People You Must Forgive

Brian Tracy W W W. B R I A N T R A C Y. C O M

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HOW TO LET GO | BRIAN TRACY

HOW TO LET GO FOUR PEOPLE YOU MUST FORGIVE

here are four people you need to forgive if you are serious about changing your

T life and learning how to live in the now.

The first are your parents, living or dead. You must absolutely forgive them for every mistake they ever made in bringing you up. At the very least, you should be grateful to them for giving you life. They got you here. If you are happy to be alive, you can forgive them for everything else. Never complain about them again. Many of my seminar participants have phoned or visited their parents and told them that they forgive them for everything. Often this simple act of courage and character has had a profound effect on their relationship with their mother or father. From that day onward, they have become good friends, which lasted the rest of their lives together. On the other hand, by not forgiving your parents, you remain forever a child. You block your own chance to grow up and become a fully functioning adult. You continue to see yourself as a victim. Even worse, you keep your negative feelings of inferiority and anger alive. If your parents die without your having forgiven them, it can bother you for the rest of your life. CLOSE PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS

The second person or persons you must forgive are the people from your marriages or relationships that didn’t work out. These intimate relationships can be so intense, and so threatening to your feelings of self-esteem and self-worth, that you can be angry and unforgiving toward those people for years. © Brian Tracy. All rights reserved. The contents, or parts there of, may not be reproduced in any form for any purpose without the written permission of Brian Tracy.


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But you were at least partially responsible. Have the personal strength and integrity to say, “I am responsible,” and then forgive the other person and let him or her go. Say the words, “I forgive him/her for everything and I wish him/her well.” Each time you repeat this, the negative emotion attached to the memory will diminish. Soon it will be gone forever. THE LETTER

Many of my graduates have found that “the letter” is the key to putting a bad relationship behind them forever. This is a powerful technique that can free you from feelings of anger and resentment almost instantly. Here is how it works: You sit down and write the other person a letter of forgiveness. It consists of three parts. First you say, “I forgive you for everything you ever did that hurt me.” Second, you write out a description or list of every single thing that you are still mad about. Some people write several pages in this part. Third, you end the letter with the words, “I wish you well.” You then take the letter to the mailbox and drop it in. At that moment, you will feel a huge sense of relief, and you will be free at last. By the way, don’t worry about how the other person might react. That is not your concern. Your goal is to free yourself, to regain your peace of mind, and to get on with the wonderful life that lies ahead of you. © Brian Tracy. All rights reserved. The contents, or parts there of, may not be reproduced in any form for any purpose without the written permission of Brian Tracy.


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CLEAR YOUR SLATE

The third person you must forgive is everyone else in your life who has ever hurt you in any way. Let them go. Forgive every boss, business partner, friend, crook or betrayer who has ever caused you grief of any kind. Clean the slate and forgive to forget. Wipe each of their names and images off by saying, “I forgive him/her for everything, and I wish him/her well.” Repeat this statement each time you think of the person or situation until the negative feelings are gone. SET YOURSELF FREE

The fourth and final person you have to forgive is yourself. You must absolutely forgive yourself for every silly, senseless, wicked, brainless, thoughtless or cruel thing you have ever done or said. Stop carrying these past mistakes around with you. That was then and this is now. Think of it this way. When you did those things in the past that you still feel badly about, you were not the person you are today. At that time, you were a different person, younger and less experienced. You were not your true self. You were an immature version of the person you have become with experience. Stop beating yourself up for something that occurred in the past that you cannot change. Just say, “I forgive myself for every mistake I ever made. I am a thoroughly good person and I am going to have a wonderful future.” Whenever you think of that event or situation, just repeat, “I forgive myself completely.” And then get on with your life. Focus on the future rather than the past and don’t look back. Look at where you are going rather than where you have been.


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Finally, if you did something that hurt someone, and you still feel badly about it, you can go to that person, or write, and apologize. Tell the person you are sorry for what you did or said. Whatever his or her reaction, positive or negative, it doesn’t matter. The very act of repentance, of expressing regret, will set you free.

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How to Infuence People Avoid 5 Common Mistakes


HOW TO INFLUENCE PEOPLE | BRIAN TRACY

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HOW TO INFLUENCE PEOPLE AVOID 5 COMMON MISTAKES

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here are five common errors that salespeople make in the course of the sales conversation that can derail or destroy a sale to even the most qualified prospect. If you want to know how to influence people, it is important that you be aware

of them, and that you avoid them at all costs. HOW TO TALK, NOT ARGUE

The first is arguing. When you argue with a prospect, you are indirectly telling him he is wrong. People hate to be told they are wrong, especially when it is obvious that they are. They dislike people who point out their errors. Learn how to talk in a way that is agreeable during a sales conversation. If the prospect challenges your claims for your product, use the “feel, felt, found” method and say something like, “I understand how you could feel that way. Others felt the same way when we first showed them this aspect of our product. But this is what they found when they started using it.” Eliminating the argument is one of the simplest sales techniques for you to begin with. Your job is to win a customer, not win an argument. Unless the customer questions the integrity of your company or the quality of your products, let it pass. Focus on what the product can do for him, and ignore the rest. BELIEVE IN YOURSELF

The second error that salespeople make is not having faith in themselves. The very best salespeople have an attitude of calm, confident, positive self-expectation. They feel good about themselves and they have a quiet faith that ever ything they are



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doing is contributing toward their inevitable success. They are relaxed about their lives and their careers. They know how to close a sale. Often, their customers decide to buy from them even before they’ve made a sales presentation or described their product or service. In order to learn how to influence people you need to develop the same attitude and attributes of those who are the champions of selling everywhere. Often one of the most powerful sales techniques you can have is a strong belief in yourself. POINT OF VIEW

A third common error that most salespeople make is the inability to connect with their prospects. Human beings are 100% emotional, in that every thing that you say or do, all of your decisions, and your indecisions, are determined by your emotions. Therefore, in order to learn how to influence people you need to be able to understand their point of view and connect with what causes them to feel strongly one way or another. There is a little saying that we teach in our sales seminars, that goes like this, “If you can see Joe Jones through Joe Jones eyes, you can tell Joe Jones, what Joe Jones buys.” What this simply says is that if you can develop a high level of empathy, that you can get out of yourself and put yourself into the mind and heart of the other person, you can have an inordinate influence on their ac tions and their behavior. The very best salespeople are extremely sensitive and empathetic to others. They listen very closely to what others are saying and they listen for the messages that are being conveyed, between the lines. They are aware that there are things that are said and there are things that are not said. © Brian Tracy. All rights reserved. The contents, or parts there of, may not be reproduced in any form for any purpose without the written permission of Brian Tracy.


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Perhaps the most powerful technique you can develop to learn how to influence people is the ability to ask questions carefully and to listen attentively to the answers. Remember, listening can build trust and credibility. The more you listen to what the other person is really saying, the more the other p erson will trust you and be open to your influence. A basic rule is that you should never say anything if you can find a way to ask it, instead. TELL THE TRUTH

The fourth error to avoid is overselling. This happens when you say that your product can do something it cannot. It verges on the border between puffing and misrepresentation. Since the element of trust is the critical catalyst that makes the sale come together in the end, you must tell the truth and not do or say anything that might shatter that trust. In fact, understatement in selling today is probably more impressive than overstatement. Instead of your saying something exceptional about the capabilities of your product, you can tell about an experience enjoyed by one of your customers. Put the words in someone else’s mouth. It’s much easier for a customer to accept and believe a positive remark if it is someone other than you who has said it. DON’T BE AFRAID

The fifth error to avoid is the fear of rejection. People who fear rejection become so overly concerned with not offending the customer that they avoid asking for the order. People who care only about making the sale often offend the customer and end up losing it. Successful salespeople keep their eyes on both balls at the same time. Top salespeople have two qualities, empathy and ambition. The quality of empathy causes them to be sensitive to the best interests of their customers. The quality of © Brian Tracy. All rights reserved. The contents, or parts there of, may not be reproduced in any form for any purpose without the written permission of Brian Tracy.


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ambition causes them to be focused on making the sales expected of them. And they manage to keep these two qualities in balance. They are both concerned about the customer and concerned about the sale. HOW TO CLOSE A SALE

If you can eliminate these five common mistakes that sales people make during the sales process, then you can radically improve your sales results.

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Be the Best

You Seven Keys to a Positive Personality


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BE THE BEST YOU | BRIAN TRACY

BE THE BEST YOU 7 KEYS TO A POSITIVE PERSONALITY

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our physical diet has a large impact on your health and energy levels. If you eat fresh, healthy, high-quality foods of all kinds and avoid the foods that are bad for you, you will have more energy, be generally resistant to most diseases, sleep

better, and feel healthier and happier. In the same way, your mental diet largely determines your character and your personality and almost everything that happens to you in life. When you feed your mind with positive ideas, information, books, conversations, audio programs, and thoughts, you develop a more positive and effective personality. You become more influential and persuasive. You enjoy greater confidence and self-esteem. Those who work with computers use the expression “GIGO,” or “garbage in, garbage out.” But the reverse is also true, “Good in, good out.” When you make a clear, unequivocal decision that you are going to take complete control over your mind, eliminate the negative emotions and thoughts that may have held you back in the past, and become a completely positive person, you can actually bring about your own personal transformation. BE THE BEST YOU CAN BE

Mental fitness is like physical fitness. You develop high levels of self-esteem and a positive mental attitude with training and practice. Here are the seven keys to becoming a completely positive person:


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POSITIVE SELF-TALK:

Speak to yourself positively; control your inner dialog. Use

1 affirmations phrased in the positive, present, and personal tense: “I like myself!” “I can do it!”“I feel terrific!” “I am responsible!”

We believe that fully 95 percent of your emotions are determined by the way you talk to yourself as you go throughout your day. The sad fact is that if you do not deliberately and consciously talk to yourself in a positive and constructive way, you will, by default, think about things that will make you unhappy or cause you worry and anxiety. As we said before, your mind is like a garden. If you do not deliberately plant flowers and tend carefully, weeds will grow without any encouragement at all. POSITIVE VISUALIZATION:

Perhaps the most powerful ability that you have is

2 the ability to visualize and see your goals as already accomplished.

Create a clear, exciting picture of your goal and your ideal life, and replay this picture in your mind over and over. All improvement in your life begins with an improvement in your mental pictures. As you “see” yourself on the inside, you will “be” on the out side. POSITIVE PEOPLE:

Your choice of the people with whom you live, work, and as-

3 sociate will have more of an impact on your emotions and your success that any

other factor. Decide today to associate with winners, with positive people, with people who are happy and optimistic and who are going somewhere with their lives. Avoid negative people at all costs. Negative people are the primary source of most of life’s unhappiness. Resolve that from today onward, you are not going to have stressful or negative people in your life.


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POSITIVE MENTAL FOOD:

Just as your body is healthy to the degree to which

4 you eat healthy, nutritious foods, your mind is healthy to the degree to which you feed it with “mental protein” rather than “mental candy.”

Read books, magazines, and articles that are educational, inspirational, or motivational. Feed your mind with information and ideas that are uplifting and that make you feel happy and more confident about yourself and your world. Listen to positive, constructive CDs and audio programs in your car and on your MP3 player or iPod. Feed your mind continually with positive messages that help you think and act better and make you more capable and competent in your field. Watch positive and educational DVDs, educational television programs, online courses, and other uplifting material that increases your knowledge and makes you feel good about yourself and your life. POSITIVE TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT: Almost everyone in our society starts

5 off with limited resources, sometimes with no money at all. Virtually all fortunes

begin with the sale of personal services of some kind. All the people who are at the top today were once at the bottom, and sometimes they fell to the bottom several times. The miracle of lifelong learning and personal improvement is what takes you from rags to riches, from poverty to affluence, and from underachievement to success and financial independence. As Jim Rohn sald, ”Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.” When you dedicate yourself to learning and growing and becoming better and more effective in your thoughts and actions, you take complete control of your life and dramatically increase the speed at which you move upward to greater heights. © Brian Tracy. All rights reserved. The contents, or parts there of, may not be reproduced in any form for any purpose without the written permission of Brian Tracy.

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POSITIVE HEALTH HABITS: Take

excellent care of your physical health and well-

6 ness. Resolve today that you are going to live to be eighty, ninety, or one hundred years old and still be dancing in the evenings.

Eat healthy foods, natural and nutritious, and eat them sparingly and in proper balance. A nutritional diet will have an immediate, positive effec t on your thoughts and feelings. Resolve to get regular exercise, at least two hundred minutes of motion per week, walking, running, swimming, bicycling, or working out on equipment in the gym. When you exercise on a regular basis, you feel happier and healthier and experience lower levels of stress and fatigue than a person who sits on the couch and watches television all evening. Especially, get ample rest and relaxation. You need to recharge your batteries on a regular basis, especially when you are going through periods of stress or difficulty. Vince Lombardi once said, “Fatigue makes cowards of us all.” Some of the factors that predispose us to negative emotions of all kinds are poor health habits, sleep deprivation, lack of exercise, and nonstop work. Seek balance in your life. POSITIVE EXPECTATIONS:

Practicing the Law of Attraction is one of the most

7 powerful techniques you can use to become a positive person and to ensure positive outcomes and better results in your life. Your expectations become your own self-fulfilling prophesies. Whatever you expect, with confidence, seems to come into your life.


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Since you can control your expectations, you should always expect the best. Expect to be successful. Expect to be popular when you meet new people. Expect to achieve great goals and create a wonderful life for yourself. When you constantly expect good things to happen, you will seldom be disappointed.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR rian Tracy is Chairman and CEO of Brian Tracy International, a company spe cializing

B in the training and development of individuals and organizations.

Brian’s goal is to help you achieve your personal and business goals faster and easier than you ever imagined. Brian Tracy has consulted for more than 1,000 companies and addressed more than 5,000,000 people in 5,000 talks and seminars throughout the US, Canada and 56 other countries worldwide. As a Keynote speaker and seminar leader, he addresses more than 250,000 people each year. He has studied, researched, written and spoken for 30 years in the fields of economics, history, business, philosophy and psychology. He is the top selling author of over 50 books that have been translated into dozens of languages. He has written and produced more than 500 audio and video learning programs, including the worldwide, best-selling Psychology of Achievement, which has been translated into more than 20 languages. He speaks to corporate and public audiences on the subjects of Personal and Professional Development, including the executives and staff of many of America’s largest corporations. His exciting talks and seminars on Leadership, Selling, Self-Esteem, Goals, Strategy, Creativity and Success Psychology bring about immediate changes and longterm results. He has traveled and worked in over 90 countries on six continents, and speaks four languages. Brian is happily married and has four children. He is active in community © Brian Tracy. All rights reserved. The contents, or parts there of, may not be reproduced in any form for any purpose without the written permission of Brian Tracy.

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and national affairs, and is the President of three companies headquartered in Solana Beach, California. Brian is the president of Brian Tracy International, a company that helps individuals and businesses of all sizes achieve personal and professional goals. To learn more about Brian Tracy, please visit www.briantracy.com/AboutBrian. If you have any questions about Brian Tracy learning programs and services, please email [email protected] or call 1-858-436-7300. Brian Tracy International 462 Stevens Ave. Suite 305 Solana Beach, CA 92075


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