BOOK BORROWINGS- The Psychology of Achievement by Brian Tracy

 

Borrow this book if you have to!

Borrow the information inside of the book if you are smart!

And make it yours if you are wise!

Brian Tracy asks, “Why are some people more successful than others?” at the beginning of this book. He eventually answers his question with the statement that achievers, whether they know it or not, practice many of the following methods: Peace of Mind, Health and Energy, Loving Relationships, Worthy Goals and Ideals, and a Feeling of Personal Fulfillment or Self-Actualization.

Perhaps you use at least one of these success methods, or could at least see yourself using one of them very soon. Is what you are doing right now giving you peace of mind? If it is not, then stop struggling against your natural tendencies and find out what creates a sense of peace for you. Down the road you will thank yourself for this. Do you find yourself with an abundance of health and energy? Are you taking care of yourself and doing what you were meant to do? If not, it will wear away your health and energy, and without that we don’t have much. Do you have loving relationships? In the end, these relationships really are why you do what you do. If you lose sight of this you won’t be happy or successful, no matter what you do.

People need worthy goals and ideals. It is what drives us as the highest species on the food chain. It gives us that inner feeling of being successful. If you have nothing to shoot for, then you’ll find a meaningless life of turmoil and struggle. Finally, if you haven’t found personal fulfillment yet, hopefully, someday you will. Personal fulfilment or self-actualization is what Dr. Abraham Maslow talked about on his hierarchy of needs as being the final step to a happy life once our lower more basic needs have been met.

However, self-actualization is not an easy things to obtain. Henry David Thoreau said, “Most people live lives of quiet desperation.” So, why is this? Why is it that after a life time of working only 5% of people ever achieve the kind of financial freedom that will allow them to do what they want to do, when they want to do it? Brian Tracy believes that even though we have been born into the richest and most advanced society that the world has ever seen, we struggle to achieve because we are born into this world without an operating manual. It’s like having a super computer without the owner’s manual. That computer, like ourselves, is capable of doing amazing things, but without the operating manual, we are lost, and so much potential and capability is wasted.

So what do we do about this? Well, if we want to get the best out of ourselves then we have to learn a few laws of success like the Law of Control, Law of Accident, and Law of Cause and Effect. In the Law of Control we want to feel like we have some input or control over what happens in our lives. Unfortunately, though, most of us don’t control our thoughts and then our thoughts run wild and make us feel like we aren’t good enough to control anything, or accomplish anything of real value. In regards to the Law of Accident, many of us feel that life just happens to us. We won’t become achievers with that mindset. We have to make things happen. In addition, in order to become an achiever we are also going to have to get a better grasp on the law of Cause and Effect. Every effect or outcome has a cause. We can cause the effects or outcomes that we desire if we believe it can happen and then do the necessary work to bring it about.

Humans have roamed this planet and been working hard for a long time; so as a species we already know how to do hard work when it is necessary. However, what’s newer on the human scene is the mental laws that either get us to believe that we can do something of believe that we can’t do something. So what are these mental laws and how do we harness their power? These mental laws are the Law of Belief, the Law of Expectations, and the Law of Attraction according to Brain Tracy.

In the Law of Belief we are constantly screening our thoughts and environment and subsequently allowing in some information, while not allowing in other information. Sadly, we mistakenly keep out some empowering information in order to make space for some false dis-empowering information. Unfortunately, this false dis-empowering information strengthens those limiting beliefs of ours that often create our less than optimal reality.

With the Law of Expectations we often find that we get what we expect, as well as, what other people expect. This programing starts when we are just kids. Our well-meaning parents, coaches, and teachers are constantly saying “No” to us and “Be careful.” Thus, we learn to expect less of our little selves in this big scary world. However, we can still stand taller and see further on that horizon if we change our expectations of ourselves by re-programing ourselves for bigger and better things. In order to optimize our re-programming we should also include the expectations that people who look up to us have us. Are we going to let our younger siblings, our peers, or team, our co-workers, or even our own children down?

Next, the Law of Attraction basically states that our dominant thought patterns attract what we presently have in our lives. If we control our thoughts and create a persistent positive mental attitude, feelings, and expectations, even if we have to fake it a little bit in the beginning, we can indeed get ourselves to believe that our life is full of positives. These positives will in turn attract other positives, such as, positive people and positive things. This sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? And it sounds very doable too, right?

Well, Brain Tracy’s book on the Psychology of Achievement goes on to talk about many more wonderful strategies and techniques for becoming an achiever like the Law of Substitution, Goal Setting, and Inspiring Creativity to just mention a few of them here. The book is a great read. You’ll do yourself a favor if you pick it up today and read it from cover to cover. You’re going to like it. I know I did.

Daniel Blanchard is the author of the Granddaddy’s Secrets teen leadership book series.

www.GranddaddysSecrets.com

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