MILLION DOLLAR HABITS – BRIAN TRACY

Chapter One

Where Your Habits Come From

“Any act often repeated soon forms a habit; and habit allowed, steadily gains in strength. At first it may be as a spider’s web, easily broken through, but if not resisted, it soon binds us with chains of steel.” [CKK1] (Tryon Edwards)

You are extraordinary! You came into this world with more talents and abilities than you could ever use. You could not exhaust your full potential if you lived 100 lifetimes.

Your amazing brain has 20 billion cells, each of which is connected to as many as 20 thousand other cells. The possible combinations and permutations of ideas, thoughts and insights that you can generate are equivalent to the number one followed by eight pages of zeros. According to brain expert Tony Buzan, this number is greater than all the molecules in the known universe. Whatever you have accomplished in life to this date is only a small fraction of what you are truly capable of achieving.

The psychologist, Abraham Maslow, once wrote that, “The story of the human race is the story of men and women selling themselves short.” The average person settles for far less than he or she is truly capable of achieving. Compared with what you could be, everything you have accomplished so far is only a small part of what is truly possible for you.

The challenge is that you come into the world with the most incredible brain, surrounded by unlimited possibilities for success, happiness and achievement, but you start off with no instruction manual. As a result, you have to figure it all out for yourself. Most people never do. They go through life doing the very best they can, but they never come within shouting distance of doing, having and being all that is possible for them.

Coming From Behind

I started off in life with few advantages. My father was not always employed and my family never seemed to have any money. I began working and paying for my own clothes and expenses when I was 10 years old, doing odd jobs around the neighborhood. I hoed weeds, delivered newspapers, mowed lawns, and raked leaves. When I was old enough, I got a job washing dishes in the back of a small hotel. My biggest promotion at that time was up to washing pots and pans.

I left high school without graduating and worked at laboring jobs for several years. I worked in sawmills stacking lumber, and in the woods slashing brush with a chain saw. I dug ditches and wells. I worked on farms and ranches. I worked in factories and on construction sites. For a time, I was a galley boy on a Norwegian Freighter in the North Atlantic. I earned my living by the sweat of my brow.

When I could no longer find a laboring job, I got a job in straight commission sales, cold calling from door-to-door and office-to-office. For a long time, I was one sale away from homelessness. If I did not make a sale that day, and get my commission immediately so that I could pay for my room at the boarding house, I would be out on the street. This was not a great way to live.

The Key To Success

Then one day I began asking that question, “Why is it that some people are more successful than others?” Especially, “Why is it that some salespeople are more successful than others?”

With that one question, I did something that changed my life and began the formation of a habit that had a profound effect on my future. I went and asked the most successful salesman in my company what he was doing differently from me. And he told me. And I did what he told me to do. And my sales went up.

In the Bible it says, “Ask and ye shall receive.” I soon developed the habit of asking everyone, and in every way possible, for the answers that I needed to move ahead more rapidly. I began to read books on selling, and put into action what I had learned. I listened to audio programs while I walked and eventually, as I drove around. I attended every sales seminar I could find. I continually asked other successful salespeople for advice. And I developed the habit of immediately taking action on any advice or good idea that I received or learned.

As a result, and not surprisingly, my sales went up and up, and eventually I surpassed everyone in my company. Soon they made me a sales manager and asked me to teach other people what I was doing that enabled me to be so successful. Soon I was recruiting people with newspaper ads, teaching them the sales methods and techniques that I had learned, and sending them out to call on prospects and customers. In no time at all, they were making sales and moving upward and onward in their own lives. Many of those early salespeople are millionaires today.

The Iron Law Of The Universe

What I learned from this experience was the great Law of Cause and Effect. [CKK2] This is the foundation principle of western philosophy and of modern thought. It says that for every cause, there is an effect. Everything happens for a reason. Nothing happens by accident. This law says that, even if you do not know the reason why something happens, there is still a reason that explains it.

Here is one of the most important of all success principles: “If you do what other successful people do, you will eventually get the same results that they do. And if you don’t, you won’t.”

Nature is neutral. Nature does not favor one person over another. The Bible says, “God made the rain to fall on the just and the unjust.” When you do the things that other successful people do, over and over again, you will eventually get the same results that they do. It is not a matter of luck, or chance, or accident. It is a matter of law.

This was an extraordinary idea for me. Even today I am awed by the immensity and power of this simple principle. If you want to be happy, healthy, prosperous, popular, positive and confident, just find out how other people who are enjoying these benefits got that way and do the same things that they do. Think the same thoughts. Feel the same feelings. Take the same actions. And as sure as two plus two makes four, you will eventually get the same results as others do. It is no miracle.

You Can Learn Anything

Over the years, I have worked in a variety of businesses and industries. I have traveled in 90 countries, learned different languages, and developed various skills. In my 30s, I completed my high school and got a business degree from a leading university. In every job, and in every situation, I started off by asking, “What are the rules or principles for success in this area of activity?” I then read books, attended courses, and asked everyone I could find for their insights and ideas.

When I became a sales manager, I read every book and article I could find on sales management, and applied the ideas and principles to building and directing a successful sales force. When I got into real estate development, I read dozens of books on the subject. Within a year, starting with no money and no contacts, I developed and built a three million dollar shopping center and came out owning 25% of it.

When I got into the importation and distribution of Japanese automobiles, I again read the books, spoke to the experts, and did my research to find out how to set up a network of dealerships. In the next four years, I established 65 dealerships and imported and sold more than $25 million dollars worth of vehicles.

Over the past 22 years, in my work with more than 500 corporations, my entire focus has been on discovering the reasons for sales, revenues and profits in each business or industry, and then determining how those principles could be best utilized to achieve the results of the most successful companies.

When people complimented me on my successes, I eagerly shared with them what I had learned in each area. I told them that they too could learn anything that they needed to learn to achieve any goal they could set for themselves. All they had to do was to find out the cause and effect relationships in any area of endeavor, and then apply them to their own activities. If they did this, they would soon get the same results that other successful people get.

Taking Control of Your Life

But instead of taking this advice, they would nod, smile and agree, and then turn away and go about their day-to-day business. They would start work at the last possible moment, waste much of the day in idle conversation with co-workers and personal business, leave work at the earliest possible time, and then spend their evenings socializing or watching television.

In frustration, I began to study psychology and metaphysics. I eventually learned that there are a series of universal principles and timeless truths that explain much of human success and failure. These principles explain happiness and unhappiness, riches and poverty, health and ill health, and good and poor relationships. These mental laws explain why some people have wonderful lives and why others do not.

The Law of Control

The first law that I discovered was the Law of Control. This law says that, “You feel happy to the degree to which you feel you are in control of your own life. You feel unhappy to the degree to which you feel you are not in control of your own life.”

Modern psychology calls this “Locus of Control Theory.” Psychologists differentiate between an internal locus of control and an external locus of control. Your locus of control is where you feel the control exists in each area of your life. This location determines your happiness or unhappiness more than any other factor.

For example, if you feel that you are the primary creative force in your own life, that you make your own decisions, and that everything that happens to you is a result of yourself and your own behaviors, you have a solid internal locus of control. As a result, you will feel strong, confident and happy. You will think with greater clarity and perform at higher levels than the average person.

On the other hand, if you feel that your life is controlled by other factors or people, by your job, your boss, your childhood experiences, your bills, your health, your family or anything else, you will have an external locus of control. You will feel like a victim. You will feel like a pawn in the hands of fate. You will soon develop what Dr. Martin Seligman of the University of Pennsylvania calls “learned helplessness.” You will feel helpless and unable to change or improve your situation. You will soon develop the habit of blaming others and making excuses for your problems. This type of thinking leads inevitably to anger, frustration and failure. We will talk more about this later in this chapter.

The Power of Belief

The next law I discovered was the Law of Belief. This is the basic principle that underlies most religion, psychology, philosophy and metaphysics. The Law of Belief says that, “Whatever you believe, with conviction, becomes your reality.”

In the New Testament it says, “According to your faith, it is done unto you.” In the Old Testament, it says, “As a man thinketh, in his heart (his beliefs), so is he.” William James of Harvard wrote, “Belief creates the actual fact.”

The fact is that, “You do not believe what you see, but rather, you see what you already believe.” Your deeply held beliefs form a screen of prejudices that distort your external reality and cause you to see things not the way they are, but the way you are.

The worst of all beliefs are self-limiting beliefs. These are beliefs that you have developed through life, usually false, that cause you to believe that you are limited in some way. Your negative beliefs soon become habitual ways of thinking. You may believe that you lack intelligence, creativity, personality, the ability to speak publicly, the ability to earn a high income, the ability to lose weight, or the ability to achieve your goals. As a result of your self-limiting beliefs, you continually “sell yourself short,” give up easily in the pursuit of a goal, and even worse, tell other people around you that you lack certain qualities or abilities. Your beliefs then become your realities. “You are not what you think you are, but what you think, you are.”

In developing million dollar habits, one of the most important steps you take is to challenge your self-limiting beliefs. You begin this process by imagining that you have no limitations at all. [CKK3] When you develop your mind to the point where you absolutely believe that you can do anything you put your mind to, you will find a way to make that belief a reality. As a result, your whole life will change.

As we will discuss later, beliefs are the hardest things of all to change. But there is good news. It is that all beliefs are learned. And anything that has been learned can be unlearned. You can develop the beliefs of courage, confidence and unstoppable persistence that you need for great success by reprogramming your subconscious mind in a specific way.

Your Self-Fulfilling Prophecies

The next law that I discovered is the Law of Expectations. [CKK4] This law says that, “Whatever you expect, with confidence, becomes your own self-fulfilling prophecy.” [CKK5] In other words, you do not necessarily get what you want, but rather what you expect.

If you confidently expect something to happen, this expectation has a powerful effect on your attitude and your personality. The more confident your expectations, the more likely it is that you will do and say the things that are consistent with what you expect to happen. As a result, you will dramatically increase the probabilities that you will achieve exactly what you are hoping for.

One of the wonderful things about expectations is that you can manufacture your own. You can get up each morning and say; “I believe something wonderful is going to happen to me today.” [CKK6] As you go through the day, you create a force field of expectations that surrounds you and effects the people with whom you come in contact. And in some remarkable way, a series of wonderful things, both large and small, will happen to you throughout the day.

Successful people expect to be successful, in advance. Happy people expect to be happy. Popular people expect to be liked by others. They develop the habit of expecting that something good will happen in every situation. They expect to benefit from every occurrence, even temporary setbacks and failures. They expect the best of other people, and always assume the best of intentions. And they are seldom disappointed.

The flipside of positive expectations are the negative expectations that many people have. Unhappy people expect to fail more often than they succeed. They expect that other people will hurt or disappoint them. They expect their ventures to do poorly. Instead of expecting the best, they expect the worst, and because the law is neutral, they are seldom disappointed.

One of the most important things you can do to assure a happy, healthy, prosperous life, is to expect the very best from every person or situation, no matter how it may look at the moment. Develop the habit of positive expectations. You will be amazed at the effect this has on yourself and on the people around you.

You Are A Living Magnet

The next law I learned about was the Law of Attraction. [CKK7] This law says that, “You are a living magnet; you invariably attract into your life the people, ideas and circumstances that harmonize with your dominant thoughts.”

This law of attraction has been written and spoken about for five thousand years. It is one of the most important of all principles in explaining success and failure. The law of attraction says that your thoughts are activated by your emotions, either positive or negative, and that they then create a force field of energy around you that attracts into your life, like iron filings to a magnet, exactly the people and circumstances that are in harmony with those thoughts.

Like all mental laws, the law of attraction is neutral. If you think positive thoughts, you attract positive people and circumstances. If you think negative thoughts, you attract negative people and circumstances. Successful, happy people continually think and talk about the things they want to attract into their lives. Unsuccessful, unhappy people are continually talking about the people and situations that cause them to feel angry and frustrated.

One of the most important habits you develop is the habit of keeping your mind full of exciting, positive, emotionalized pictures and images of the exact things you want to see materialize in your life, and in the world around you. [CKK8] This is one of the most difficult of disciplines, but one that pays off in extraordinary ways.

As Within, So Without

The summary law of the laws we have just discussed is the Law of Correspondence. [CKK9] This law says that, “Your outer world is a reflection of your inner world.”

It is as though you live in a 360-degree mirror. Everywhere you look, you see yourself reflected back at you. People treat you the way you treat them. [CKK10] The way you think about your physical body will be reflected in your health habits and your appearance. The way you think about people and your relationships will be reflected back to you in the quality of your friendships and your family life. The way you think about success and prosperity will be reflected in the results that you enjoy in your career and your material life. In every case, your outer world reflects back to you, like a mirror image, exactly what you are thinking in the deepest recesses of your mind.

When you put the Laws of Cause and Effect, Belief, Expectations, Attraction and Correspondence together, you arrive at the great universal principle that explains your life and everything that happens to you: “You become what you think about – most of the time.”

Just think! You become what you think about most of the time. You always move in the direction of your dominant thoughts. Everything in your outer world is controlled and determined by what you are thinking in your inner world.

The good news is that there is only thing in the universe over which you have complete control, and that is the content of your conscious mind. [CKK11] Only you can decide what you think about most of the time. And fortunately, this is all the control that you need to shape your own life and determine your own future. By taking complete control of your conscious thoughts, you can control the direction of your life. By taking control, you will feel happy, powerful, confident and free. You will become unstoppable.

Action Exercises:

1. Look at your field today; identify the three most important reasons why some people are more successful than others.

2. Accept complete responsibility for your life and everything that happens to you; refuse to make excuses or to blame others for anything.

3. What self-limiting beliefs do you have that might be holding you back? What if they weren’t true at all?

4. Expect the best of yourself and others; what would you change if you were absolutely guaranteed of success?

5. In what ways have your dominant thoughts and emotions attracted people, circumstances and situations into your life? How could you change this?

6. Everywhere you look, there you are; what do you need to change in your inner world if you want to see changes in your outer world?

7. Determine the three most important habits of thought, about yourself and others that you could develop to be happier and more successful.

“You can do anything you think you can. This knowledge is literally the gift of the gods, for through it you can solve every human problem. It should make of you an incurable optimist. It is the open door to unlimited possibilities.” [CKK12] (Robert Collier)

---