Change_Your_Thinking__Change_Your_Life.pdf

CHANGE YOUR THINKING,CHANGE YOUR LIFEHow to Unlock Your Full Potential for Success and AchievementBRIAN TRACYJOHNWILEY&SONS,INC.ccc_tracy_fm_i-xviii.qxd 7/7/03 3:22 PM Page iiiCHANGE YOUR THINKING,CHANGE YOUR LIFEccc_tracy_fm_i-xviii.qxd 7/7/03 3:22 PM Page iccc_tracy_fm_i-xviii.qxd 7/7/03 3:22 PM Page iiCHANGE YOUR THINKING,CHANGE YOUR LIFEHow to Unlock Your Full Potential for Success and AchievementBRIAN TRACYJOHNWILEY&SONS,INC.ccc_tracy_fm_i-xviii.qxd 7/7/03 3:22 PM Page iiiCopyright 2003 by Brian Tracy.All rights reserved.Published by John Wiley&Sons,Inc.,Hoboken,New Jersey.Published simultaneously in Canada.No part of this publication may be reproduced,stored in a retrieval system,ortransmitted in any form or by any means,electronic,mechanical,photocopying,recording,scanning,or otherwise,except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act,without either the prior writtenpermission of the Publisher,or authorization through payment of the appropriateper-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center,Inc.,222 Rosewood Drive,Danvers,MA 01923,(978)750-8400,fax(978)750-4470,or on the web at .Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department,John Wiley&Sons,Inc.,111 River Street,Hoboken,NJ 07030,(201)748-6011,fax(201)748-6008,e-mail:.Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty:While the publisher and author haveused their best efforts in preparing this book,they make no representations orwarranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of thisbook and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitnessfor a particular purpose.No warranty may be created or extended by salesrepresentatives or written sales materials.The advice and strategies containedherein may not be suitable for your situation.The publisher is not engaged inrendering professional sevices,and you should consult with a professional whereappropriate.Neither the publisher nor author shall be liable for any loss of profitor any other commercial damages,including but not limited to special,incidental,consequential,or other damages.For general information on our other products and services,please contact ourCustomer Care Department within the United States at(800)762-2974,outsidethe United States at(317)572-3993 or fax(317)572-4002.Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats.Some content thatappears in print may not be available in electronic books.For more informationabout Wiley products,visit our web site at .Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:Tracy,Brian.Change your thinking,change your life:how to unlock your full potential for success and achievement/Brian Tracy.p.cm.ISBN 0-471-44858-3(alk.paper)1.SuccessPsychological aspects.I.Title.BF637.S8T6342003158.1dc212003006625Printed in the United States of America.10987654321ccc_tracy_fm_i-xviii.qxd 7/7/03 3:22 PM Page ivTo my wife Barbara,from whom I have learned so much about the importance of love and family.You are my mainstay and my greatest inspiration.ccc_tracy_fm_i-xviii.qxd 7/7/03 3:22 PM Page vccc_tracy_fm_i-xviii.qxd 7/7/03 3:22 PM Page viForewordIf you are ready to leverage yourself to greatness and achieve giantresults,you have the right road map in your hands.You have beforeyou the DNA of your future.All you need to create a wonderful fu-ture for yourself is to read this book,decide how you are going toapply it to your own life,write out a plan,and then go forth with en-thusiasm and make it happen.I have a confession to make.I am one of Brians raving fans.Ihave studied him,his brilliant work,and the extraordinary resultshe has achieved.I am also one of his close colleagues and friends.We have worked together on many platforms,and met and talkedwith each other on numerous occasions.Brian is one of the finest thinkers and writers on inner develop-ment and personal success in the world.I know;I have sold over 82million books aimed at helping people get the most out of themselves.Change Your Thinking,Change Your Life shows you how to dis-cover your extraordinary inner resources and tap your incrediblepowers.You will learn how to attract into your life all the people andresources you need to achieve any goal you can set for yourself.You will absolutely amaze yourself as you start to achieve newand better results by employing these concepts and ideas in every-thing you do.These are the same concepts used by all big-time win-ners,self-made millionaires,and leaders in every field.In this book,you will learn a step-by-step process to great suc-cess that you will eventually implement,easily and effortlessly.Thisstrategy for success is so logical,so inviting,and ultimately so fulfill-ing and omni-beneficial that it is virtually a breakthrough in per-sonal performance.As long as you are going to think anyway,why not think greatthoughts and get great results?Brian is a shining light in the speaking and writing world.Hehas done incredible thinking and achieved amazing results,forviiccc_tracy_fm_i-xviii.qxd 7/7/03 3:22 PM Page viihimself and many hundreds of thousands of other people.Briansthinking in this book will inspire you to do the same or more.Get ready for one of the great adventures and explorations intothe last great frontier,and the firstyour mind!You are about tohave a wonderful experience.MARKVICTORHANSENAuthor,Chicken Soup for the SoulviiiFOREWORDccc_tracy_fm_i-xviii.qxd 7/7/03 3:22 PM Page viiiContentsAcknowledgmentsxiIntroductionxiiiChapter 1Change Your Thinking1Chapter 2Change Your Life18Chapter 3Dream Big Dreams40Chapter 4Decide to Become Rich52Chapter 5Take Charge of Your Life77Chapter 6Commit to Excellence90Chapter 7Put People First118Chapter 8Think Like a Genius136Chapter 9Unleash Your Mental Powers154Chapter 10 Supercharge Your Thinking179Chapter 11 Create Your Own Future201Chapter 12 Live A Great Life222Summary and Conclusions249ixccc_tracy_fm_i-xviii.qxd 7/7/03 3:22 PM Page ixBibliography256Index260Advanced Coaching and Mentoring Program268About the Author269xCONTENTSccc_tracy_fm_i-xviii.qxd 7/7/03 3:22 PM Page xAcknowledgmentsThe writing of this book has taken many years of work,reading,teaching,and experience.Many people have contributed to mythinking and have been invisible guides as these chapters came to-gether.I would like to first thank my friend Mark Victor Hansen,whointroduced me many years ago to Emmet Fox,perhaps the finestspiritual thinker of the twentieth century.Ernest Holmes,founder ofScience of Mind,opened my eyes and heart to the incredible universeof potential contained within each person when they changed theirthinking and changed their lives.Great spiritual teachers such asCharles Fillmore,Neville,Eric Butterworth,Wayne Dyer,andRoberto Assagioli have had a profound influence on my thinking.I would also like to thank those great practical thinkers on suc-cess who have had such a wonderful influence on meand on theworldsuch as Napoleon Hill,Maxwell Maltz,Claude Bristol,David Schwarz,W.Clement Stone,Earl Nightingale,Jim Rohn,ZigZiglar,Dennis Waitley,and Charlie Jones.Business thinkers such as Peter Drucker,Andrew Grove,KenBlanchard,Warren Bennis,Tom Peters,Nido Qubein,and MarshallGoldsmith have greatly enriched me with their ideas and insights.I would like to thank my editor,Matthew Holt of John Wiley&Sons,for his unflinching support of this book,and his constant en-couragement over the many months that it has taken to write and edit.Not least,I thank my wonderful wife Barbara and my fabulouschildrenChristina,Michael,David,and Catherinefor their sup-port and patience during the long hours away from them to finishthis book.xiccc_tracy_fm_i-xviii.qxd 7/7/03 3:23 PM Page xiccc_tracy_fm_i-xviii.qxd 7/7/03 3:23 PM Page xiiIntroductionThere is nothing on earth that you cannot have once you havementally accepted the fact that you can have it.Robert CollierTHE TRUTH ABOUT YOUYou are a thoroughly good person.You deserve a wonderful life,fullof success,happiness,joy,and excitement.You are entitled to havehappy relationships,excellent health,meaningful work,and finan-cial independence.These are your birthright.This is what your lifeis meant to include.You are engineered for success and designed to have high levelsof self-esteem,self-respect,and personal pride.You are extraordi-nary;there has never been anyone exactly like you in all the historyof mankind on earth.You have absolutely amazing untapped talentsand abilities that,when properly unleashed and applied,can bringyou everything you could ever want in life.You are living at the greatest time in all of human history.Youare surrounded by abundant opportunities that you can take advan-tage of to realize your dreams.The only real limits on what you canbe,do,or have are the limits you place on yourself by your ownthinking.Your future is virtually unlimited.GET REAL!How did you react to the preceding three paragraphs?You probablyhad two responses.First,you liked what they said,and your fondestwish was for them to be true for you.But your second response wasprobably one of skepticism and disbelief.Even though you deeplyxiiiccc_tracy_fm_i-xviii.qxd 7/7/03 3:23 PM Page xiiidesire to live a wonderfully healthy,happy,prosperous life,whenyou read those words,your doubts and fears arose immediately toremind you of reasons why these dreams and goals may not be pos-sible for you.Well,join the crowd!This is exactly how I felt many years ago.Even though I wantedto be a big success in life,I was unskilled,uneducated,and unem-ployed.I had no idea what I could do to improve my situation.I felttrapped between big ideas on the one hand and limited resourcesand opportunities on the other.Then I discovered a series of re-markable principles that have been responsible for all the great suc-cesses and achievements of the ages,and my life changed forever.After proving these laws and principles in my own life,I beganspeaking,and training others to apply the same ideas.Since then,Ihave given more than two thousand talks and seminars as long asfour days in length,in 24 countries,to a total of more than two mil-lion participants.Most of them were also skeptical when they firstheard these ideas of optimism and possibility,until they learnedwhat you are going to learn in the pages ahead.It changed theirlives,as it will change yours.THE GREAT PRINCIPLEPerhaps the most important mental and spiritual principle ever dis-covered is that you become what you think about most of the time.Yourouter world is very much a mirror image of your inner world.Whatis going on outside of you is a reflection of what is going in inside ofyou.You can tell the inner condition of a person by looking at theouter conditions of his or her life.And it cannot be otherwise.THOUGHTS ARE THINGSYour mind is extraordinarily powerful.Your thoughts control anddetermine almost everything that happens to you.They can raise orlower your heart rate,improve or interfere with your digestion,change the chemical composition of your blood,and help you tosleep or keep you awake at night.Your thoughts can make you happy or sad,sometimes in aninstant.They can make you alert and aware,or distracted and de-xivINTRODUCTIONccc_tracy_fm_i-xviii.qxd 7/7/03 3:23 PM Page xivpressed.They can make you popular or unpopular,confident orinsecure,positive or negative.Your thoughts can make you feelpowerful or powerless,a victim or a victor,a hero or a coward.In your material life,your thoughts can make you a success or afailure,prosperous or poverty-stricken,respected or ignored.Yourthoughts,and the actions that they trigger,determine your wholelife.And the best news of all is that they are completely under yourown control.THOUGHTS,FEELINGS,AND DESIRESYou are a complex bundle of thoughts,feelings,attitudes,desires,images,fears,hopes,doubts,opinions,and ambitions,each of themconstantly changing,sometimes from second to second.Each ofthese elements of your personality affects the others,sometimes inunpredictable ways.Your entire life is the result of the intertwiningand interconnecting of these factors.Your thoughts trigger images and pictures,and the emotionsthat go with them.These images and emotions trigger attitudes andactions.Your actions then have consequences and results that deter-mine what happens to you.If you think about success and confidence,you will feel strongand competent,and you will perform better at whatever you at-tempt.If you think about making mistakes or being embarrassed,you will perform poorly,no matter how good you really are.Pictures and images,from your imagination or from the exter-nal influences,produce ideas,emotions,and attitudes that corre-spond to them.They then trigger actions that bring about certainresults and outcomes.The thought of a person or situation can causeyou to instantly feel happy or sad,elated or angry,loving or lonely.ATTITUDES,ACTIONS,AND EMOTIONSYour attitudes,positive or negative,constructive or destructive,lead to corresponding images,emotions,and actions that affectyour life and relationships.Your attitudes,in turn,are based onIntroductionxvccc_tracy_fm_i-xviii.qxd 7/7/03 3:23 PM Page xvyour previous experiences and your basic premises about howthings are supposed to be.Your actions trigger the emotions and attitudes that go withthem.By the Law of Reversibility,you can actually act your wayinto feeling in a manner consistent with the action.By acting as ifyou were already happy,positive,and confident,you soon begin tofeel that way on the inside.And your actions are under your directcontrol,whereas your emotions are not.In and of themselves,the outer aspects of your life are neutral.It is only the meaning that you give to them that determines yourattitudes,opinions,emotions,and reactions to them.If youchange your thinking about any part of your life,you will changehow you feel and behave in that area.And since only you can de-cide what to think,you have the ability to take complete controlover your life.QUESTION YOUR BELIEFSThe Law of Belief says:Whatever you believe,with conviction,be-comes your reality.You always act in a manner consistent with yourdeepest and most intensely held beliefs,whether they are true ornot.And all your beliefs are learned.At one time,you did nothave them.Your beliefs largely determine your reality.You do not believewhat you see;you rather see what you already believe.You canhave life-enhancing beliefs that make you happy and optimistic,or you can have negative beliefs about yourself and your potentialthat act as roadblocks to the realization of everything that is trulypossible for you.The most harmful beliefs you can have are your self-limiting be-liefs.These are beliefs about yourself and your potential that holdyou back.Most of them are not true.Most of them are the result ofinformation you have accepted without question,often from earlychildhood.Even if it is completely untrue,if you believe yourself tobe limited in areas such as achieving wonderful health and happi-ness and earning a