Brian Tracy is a Canadian-born author and self-improvement coach that has written many successful books and personal development courses. Brain Tracy developed the 10 Rules of Success which have been implemented into the lives of thousands of business people and entrepreneurs over the years. Brain’s philosophy on personal improvement follows closely with the law of attraction which states that the thoughts you think about most of the time create your reality. One of his most famous quotes is “You are the architect of your own destiny; you are the master of your own fate; you are behind the steering wheel of your life.” Tracy wrote the popular self-improvement book The 21 Success Secrets of Self-made Millionaires and continues to teach and train people through conferences and seminars today.

Brian Tracy’s 10 Rules for Success

 

1. Don’t Live on “Someday Isle”

The biggest difference between someone who is successful, and someone who isn’t is successful people take action, Don’t live on “someday isle” means that you need to take action on your dreams and goals today. Even if you don’t have everything figured out it doesn’t matter, the most important part is to simply begin moving forward. If you are starting a business this could mean simply incorporating the business, setting up a checking account, and making business cards. This small action of starting the process could be the spark and momentum you need.

2. Learn from the Experts

Humans do not live long enough lives to learn everything for yourself, so it’s important that we learn from experts. The people that succeed are those that learn from the experts that have come before them. In fact, in the Chinese culture, they have a philosophy where they study the experts and then seek to improve upon the design. The unsuccessful person has too big of an ego to learn from others so instead, seeks to figure it all out by themselves. The successful persons know they can’t figure out everything and instead, seeks to build upon and learn from the people who came before them.

3. Find Your Life Purpose

There is a simple exercise that Brain Tracy talks about that will help you find your life purpose. Make a list of 10 goals that you would like to achieve in your life. These goals can be related to earning more income, career goals, or even relationship goals. Once your have your list then sit back and decide which one goal is the most important for you to achieve in your lifetime. Don’t take this exercise lightly, because this could provide the direction for the rest of your life. Once you have decided on the most important goal to achieve then put that at the top of your list as your life purpose.

4. Manage Your Time

Time is the most important asset we have at our disposal. Many people falsely believe that money is the most important, but most of the experts agree that time is more important. When considering a job or a career it is critical that you pursue business ventures that produce the most wealth in the smallest amount of time. In fact, the best types of business models separate time from money, and can even produce money without your time. Although, if you must sacrifice time for money insist upon doing a job that you love and one that doesn’t feel like work.

5. Structure Your Goals

Brian Tracy recommends that your structure your goals in the form of questions. This helps the mind decide the best possible path to achieve these goals. One exercise that helps us do this is called “mind-storming” and involves writing down 20 goals in the form of questions. If your thinking to yourself that you don’t have 20 goals, then you’ve discovered the point of the exercise. The idea here is to push yourself beyond your comfort zone to dig deep into the depths of your mind. This is a great way to draw out information that you wouldn’t otherwise think about.

6. Think Rich

All the great leaders agreed on one thing, you are what you think about most of the time. This one concept is the primary reason why some people achieve greatness and while others don’t. If you start monitoring your thoughts you will notice patterns in your thinking that either serve your or are contributing to your failure. A great trick to controlling your thoughts is to begin reciting affirmations silently in your head. Affirmations should focus on how much money you want to make and how grateful you are for the wonderful life you have created. Affirmations should always deal with the positive and never include negative concepts or scarcity.

7. Don’t Quit

Reality dictates that no idea is successful the first time. The biggest problem I see people make is they jump from one idea to the other without giving an idea time to be successful. In fact, even if your idea is great, it will take multiple tries and lots of effort for it to turn into a successful venture. The majority of great business leaders have all reported that they failed multiple times before ever reaching their goals. How would the world have been different if Steve Jobs decided to give up after Apple went bankrupt and never design and release the iPhone? All great business people are prone to failures and setbacks, but the people who push forward despite these setbacks are the ones who achieve greatness.

8. Be an Example

It’s important that we set an example by doing, and not by simply teaching. When someone learns a new skill or concept their first instinct is to share it with the world. By nature human beings wish to help each other and that is why we want to share our new knowledge. When we decide to become successful in any aspect of life it’s important that we live it instead of preaching it. Humans by nature do not like to be told what to do, instead, they like to discover things for themselves. If you wish to change the world, you must live the change and let others come to you for advice and guidance when they are ready.

9. Form Good Habits

The great philosopher Aristotle said that “95% of everything you do is the result of a habit.” Brian Tracy says that by forming good habits you can make them your master. Plus, good habits are hard to form but easy to live with. On the other hand, bad habits are easy to form but hard to live with. If you are interested in self-improvement then your number one goal should be to form good habits, because the quality of your daily routine and habits will decide the quality of your life and the goals your achieve.

10. Never Give up on Your Dreams

The only people that fail in life are the people who quit. Take some time and decide on what your dreams are, then never quit until you achieve them. In fact, the majority of people will quit after the first sign of difficulty. If you want to be successful, you must realize that failure comes with the territory, and never let failure slow you down. The story of every great business person is always one of the multiple failures before accomplishing their dreams. No dream was ever achieved without some level of the feature along the way, so it’s best to anticipate failure and make plans to work through it.