 GOALS!
How to Get Everything you Want – Faster Than You Ever Thought
Possible. By: Brian Tracy.
Published: Berrett-Koehler 2003.
288 Pages.
Rating 9.
This book is a devastatingly simple and insightful. I should declare
my interest in advance. Personally, I'm a big fan of Brian Tracy's,
so maybe I'm biased. But I believe if you buy this book yourself,
and read it, you will not be disappointed.
The core recommendation in this book is simple and undeniably effective:
define your goals, write them down, then make a plan
to achieve them and work the plan every day. How could
you fail if you really did this? You really can't fault the method.
The hard part is putting it to work!
Tracy points out that we live in a great time, perhaps a golden
age! The United States for example, has more millionaires than ever
before. In the 1900s, only 5000 Americans were millionaires: today,
a scant century later, the States has 5 million millionaires, mostly
self-made. That will double or quadruple in the next 20 years, so
perhaps one of your goals should be to become a self-made millionaire.
This book lays out, step- by-step, what you need to do in order
to reach that goal.
The first key point that Tracy highlights is that we all have great
potential. But you need to focus on clear goals in order to unlock
that potential. He quips, “it doesn't matter where you are
coming from, all that matters is where you are going." He
suggests that when you change what you think about, you will invariably
change the kind of person you are! For example, he points out
that failures talk about what they don't want. Winners talk
about what they do want. The author simply points out, that this
is no coincidence.
Tracy points out that you need to take control of your life. Only
you can change your life. No one else can, or will, do it for you.
He also points out that the greatest obstacle to success is negative
emotions. Anger, inferiority, jealousy, envy, self-pity, low self-esteem,
fear, and fear of failure are your enemies. In essence, one should
take responsibility for one's own life; you are the only person
who can do something about it.
Goal setting is the most important part of your improvement programme
according to Tracy. But you need to recognise the power of what
you believe. You must be positive, the author maintains. You're
a lot better than you'd think. Don't worry about what people may
have said about you in the past, your intelligence, your ability
to learn or anything else for that matter. Be positive. Negative
beliefs trap you in underperformance! You are in charge
of what you choose to believe. So choose to think better
of yourself.
When you begin your programme of improvement, follow it
step-by-step. Look at where you are now, compared to where you want
to be. What steps do you need to take? Write them down: take them
one day at the time, day after day. Keep track of your progress.
Expect to fail, because failure always happens. But begin again,
and again, and again. As Winston Churchill said "Never, Never,
Never give up.”
This book, gave me a fantastic buzz. I believe it will give you
a great lift too. Not only a great lift, but a blueprint that you
can use to improve your life, and become whatever it is that you
want to become! I would recommend this book highly and give it a
rating of 9.
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