My inbox fills with all sorts of junk everyday, but amongst the dull, the pointless and the unsolicited, there is the occasional gem. The following Brian Tracy email was sent to persuade me to buy another book, but it manages to say, in a nutshell, a lot of the stuff that I harp about regularly. I replicate it here on the basis that if I put a link in to the book that he is trying to sell, then he won’t care too much.
You may have a thousand different goals over the course of your lifetime, but they all will fall into one of four basic categories. Everything you do is an attempt to enhance the quality of your life in one or more of these areas.
The Key to Happiness
The first category is your desire for happy relationships. You want to love and be loved by others. You want to have a happy, harmonious home life. You want to get along well with the people around you, and you want to earn the respect of the people you respect. Your involvement in social and community affairs results from your desire to have happy interactions with others and to make a contribution to the society you live in.
Enjoy Your Work
The second category is your desire for interesting and challenging work. You want to make a good living, of course, but more than that, you want to really enjoy your occupation or profession. The very best times of your life are when you are completely absorbed in your work.
Become Financially Independent
The third category is your desire for financial independence. You want to be free from worries about money. You want to have enough money in the bank so that you can make decisions without counting your pennies. You want to achieve a certain financial state so that you can retire in comfort and never have to be concerned about whether or not you have enough money to support your lifestyle. Financial independence frees you from poverty and a need to depend upon others for your livelihood. If you save and invest regularly throughout your working life, you will eventually reach the point where you will never have to work again.
Enjoy Excellent Health
The fourth and final category is your desire for good health, to be free of pain and illness and to have a continuous flow of energy and feelings of well-being. In fact, your health is so central to your life that you take it for granted until something happens to disrupt it.
Peace of Mind is the Key
Peace of mind is essential for every one of these. The greater your peace of mind, the more relaxed and positive you are, the less stress you suffer, the better is your overall health.
The more peace of mind you have, the better are your relationships, the more optimistic, friendly and confident you are with everyone in your life. When you feel good about yourself on the inside, you do your work better and take more pride in it. You are a better boss and coworker. And the greater your overall peace of mind, the more likely you are to earn a good living, save regularly for the future and ultimately achieve financial independence.
Control Your Attention
Life is very much a study of attention. Whatever you dwell upon and think about grows and expands in your life. The more you pay attention to your relationships, the quality and quantity of your work, your finances and your health, the better they will become and the happier you will be.
Action Exercises
Here are three things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.
First, take time on a regular basis to think about what would make you really happy in each of the four areas.
Second, set specific, measurable goals for improvement in your relationships, your health, your work and your finances and write them down.
Third, resolve to do something every day to increase the quality of some area of your life - and then keep your resolution.
(c)2006 Brian Tracy, why not buy the book that he is flogginh, 101 Great Ways to Improve your life.
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July 3rd, 2006 at 8:35 am
Matt,
I’ve read a few of Brian Tracy’s books, listened to some of books on CD’s etc… I’ve been reading these types of books for years. The one message that is constantly repeated over and over and I believe it to be the single most important message is: Change your thinking and you can change your life. It’s all comes down to our thoughts. It’s really that simple. I could go on and on but I think you understand what I am saying. “As you think so shall you be†It doesn’t get any clearer than that!
Make today a FANTASTIC DAY!
Matthew
The Winning Attitude