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The Acid Test of Listening

Posted by Brian Tracy on Dec 16, 2008

Paraphrase Your Customer’s Words

The customer is only sure that you have been listening when you paraphrase what the prospect has said and feed it back in your own words. This is where the rubber meets the road in effective listening. This is where you demonstrate in no uncertain terms to the prospect that your listening has been real and sincere. This is where you show the prospect that you were paying complete attention to what he or she was saying. Paraphrasing is how you prove it.

Question for Clarification
When the prospect has finished explaining his or her situation to you, and you have paused, and then questioned for clarification, you paraphrase the prospects primary thoughts and concerns, and feed them back to him or her in your own words.

Use the Right Words
For example, you might say, "Let me make sure I understand exactly what you are saying. It sounds to me like you are concerned about two things more than anything else, and that in the past you have had a couple of experiences that have made you very careful in approaching a decision of this kind."

Feed it Back Accurately
You then go on to feed back to the prospect exactly what he or she has told you, pausing and questioning for clarification as you go, until the customer says words to the effect of, "Yes, that’s it! You’ve got it exactly."

Earn the Right to Sell
Only when you and the customer completed a thorough "examination" and have mutually agreed on the "diagnosis" you are in a position to begin talking to the customer about your product or service. In general terms, this means that you can not pull out your brochures and price lists and begin telling the customer how your product or service can solve his problems or achieve his goals until about seventy percent of the way through the sales conversation. Until then, you have not yet earned the right. Until then, you don’t even know enough to begin an intelligent presentation without embarrassing yourself.

Be a Good Listener
The more and better you listen, the more and better people will like you, trust you and want to do business with you. The more they will want to get involved with you as a person and the more popular you will be with them. Excellent listeners are welcome everywhere, in every walk of life, and they eventually and ultimately arrive at the top of their fields.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.

First, remember that your first job in the sale is to get the customer to like you and believe that you understand his situation. Paraphrasing is the way you accomplish this.

Second, be sure that the customer agrees with you completely when you feed back his concerns to him. Only then can you really start selling.

Influencing Customer Behavior

The Billionaire’s Strategy for Success

Posted by Brian Tracy on Dec 12, 2008

John Paul Getty became the richest man in the world by practicing a few basic principles of risk-taking and reward throughout his life.

In this newsletter, you learn his key insight to risk reduction and success and how you can apply it to any decision you have to make. You learn a series of additional ideas that can help you to make better decisions and reduce the risks associated with success.

The Billionaire’s Strategy for Success
Remember Murphy’s Law: "Whatever can go wrong will go wrong." There are several secondary laws to Murphy’s Law, such as "Whatever can go wrong will go wrong at the worst possible time" and "Of all the things that can go wrong, the most expensive thing will go wrong at the worst possible time."

Another sublaw is "Everything takes longer than your best calculation." In advising businesspeople, I suggest that they take their very best estimate of break-even for any business venture and then triple it to arrive at a more realistic number. Whenever businesspeople follow this advice, they are amazed to find that, in spite of their best initial calculations, it indeed takes about three times longer than they thought it would to start making money.

Always Add a Fudge Factor
Another sublaw is "Everything costs more than you can possibly anticipate in advance." In minimizing risk in any venture, always add a "fudge factor" to account for the degree of uncertainty. Whenever I do a business plan, I always add 20 percent to the total of all costs that I can identify, to come up with the probable cost. Anything less than this, whether in business or your personal life, is likely to be an exercise in self-delusion and open you up for some unhappy surprises.

Once you have identified the worst possible things that could go wrong, make a list of everything that you could do to offset these negative factors. Engage in what is called "crisis anticipation." Look down the road, into the future, and imagine every possible crisis that could arise as the result of changing external circumstances.

Be Intensely Realistic
Men and women who have achieved a high level of success are intensely realistic. They do not put their trust in luck. They carefully calculate every possible risk, and then think about what they would do should it occur. They always have a backup plan in case things do not go as they wish them to. They have a "Plan B" and options to that plan that take all kinds of variables into consideration.

Do the Things You Fear
One of the very best ways to develop your ability to take intelligent risks is to consciously and deliberately do the things you fear, one step at a time.

A very good way to overcome the fear of risk taking is to set clear, written, measurable goals for yourself, and then to review those goals regularly.

When you have clear goals and plans, and you continually work on them and evaluate your progress each day, you will see what you’re doing right and how you could improve your performance. You’ll feel more competent and capable and better about yourself. You’ll become more thoughtful and reflective and willing to take on even greater challenges. You’ll feel like the "master of your fate and the captain of your soul." And your likelihood of success will become greater and greater.

Action Exercises
Here are three steps you can take immediately to put these ideas into action.

First, take any worry situation in your life today and ask, "What is the worst possible thing that could happen?" Then go to work to make sure it doesn’t occur.

Second, look into the future in your life and determine the worst things that could happen. Engage in "crisis anticipation" regularly and continually be taking steps to guard against them.

Third, work from clear, written goals and detailed plans. Review them regularly. Consider alternatives and always look for ways to increase the likelihood of your success.

Crunch Time!

Relax and Recharge Completely

Posted by Brian Tracy on Dec 12, 2008

Regular relaxation is essential for a long life and personal effectiveness.

Here are some techniques for relaxing physically that are used by the most successful and highest paid people in America.

Take Time Off Every Week
First of all, work only five or six days per week, and rest completely on the seventh day. Every single study in this area shows that you will be far more productive in the five or six days that you work if you take one or two days off completely than you ever would be if you worked straight through for seven days.

Get Your Mind Busy Elsewhere
During this time off, do not catch up on reports, organize your desk, prepare proposals, or do anything else that requires mental effort. Simply let your mind relax completely, and get busy doing things with your family and friends. Maybe work around the house, go for a walk, engage in physical exercise, watch television, go to a movie, or play with your children. Whatever you do, discipline yourself to shut your mental gears off completely for at least one 24-hour period every seven days.

Get Away on Mini-Vacations
Second, take one three-day vacation every three months, and during that time, refrain from doing any work. Do not attempt to catch up on even a few small things. If you do, you keep your mental gears in motion, and you end up neither resting nor properly doing work of any quality.

Take Big Chunks of Down Time
Third, take at least two full weeks off each year during which you do nothing that is work-related. You can either work or relax; you cannot do both. If you attempt to do a little work while you are on vacation, you never give your mental and emotional batteries a chance to recharge. You’ll come back from your vacation just as tired as you were when you left.

Give Yourself a Break Today
If you are involved in a difficult relationship, or situation at work that is emotionally draining, discipline yourself to take a complete break from it at least one day per week. Put the concern out of your mind. Refuse to think about it. Don’t continually discuss it, make telephone calls about it or mull it over in your mind. You cannot perform at your best mentally if you are emotionally preoccupied with a person or situation. You have to give yourself a break.

Go For a Walk in Nature
Since a change is as good as a rest, going for a nice long walk is a wonderful way to relax emotionally and mentally. As you put your physical body into motion, your thoughts and feelings seem to relax all by themselves.

Eat Lighter Foods
Also, remember that the process of digestion consumes an enormous amount of physical energy. Therefore, if you eat lighter foods, you will feel better and more refreshed afterward. If you eat more fruits, vegetables, and whole-grain products, your digestive system will require far less energy to process them.

Be Good to Yourself
Since your diet has such an impact on your level of physical energy, and through it your levels of mental and emotional energy, the more fastidious you are about what you put into your mouth, the better you will feel and the more productive you will be. We know now that foods high in fat, sugar, or salt are not good for your body. The lighter the foods you eat, the more energy you have.

Action Exercises
Here are three things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action:

First, plan your weeks in advance and build in at least one day when you will relax from work completely. Discipline yourself to keep this date.

Second, reserve, book and pay for your three day vacations several months in advance. Once you’ve paid the money, you are much more likely to go rather than put it off.

Third, decide that you will not work at all during your vacations. When you work, work. And when you rest, rest 100% of the time. This is very important.

Maximum Achievement Affirmation

Everyone is Important

Posted by Brian Tracy on Dec 12, 2008

Everyone has critical skills and knowledge that are important to many other people in the company.

Use Better Titles for Each Person
Some years ago, when I started in business, the job of the receptionist was to answer the telephone and direct the callers to the appropriate people. Today, however, her job is far more complicated and, therefore, more important. Since she is the first contact that most customers have with our business, her personality and temperament are extremely important.

Think About Your Customers
The prospective client who telephones begins forming an impression of us the instant that the telephone is answered. Then, because our companies are doing so many things, she must tactfully ascertain exactly how the caller may be best served and who is the best person in the company to direct the telephone call to.

One Person Can Make the Difference
In many cases, there are requests for further information, and follow-up telephone calls go through our front-office manager. Her ability to handle these calls effectively, to direct calls to the right people, to take accurate messages, and to act as the core person in a network of communications makes her job so important that it is essential that she sit in on all staff meetings and be aware of everything that is going on.

Keep Yourself Informed
Your job in your company also requires that you know a lot about what is going on everywhere else, as well as being thoroughly conversant with what you do. And the fastest and most accurate way of keeping current with what is going on is to develop and maintain a network of contacts, an informal team of people within your workplace who keep you informed and who you keep informed in turn.

Encourage Participation and Involvement
The old methods of command and control now exist only at the old-line companies, many of which are fighting for their very survival. Today, men and women want a high degree of participation and involvement in their work. They want an opportunity to discuss and thoroughly understand what they are doing and why they are doing it. People are no longer satisfied to be cogs in a big machine. They want to have an integral role in achieving goals that they participated in setting in the first place.

Build a Top Team
Being a team player is no longer something that is optional. Today, it is mandatory. If you want to achieve anything of consequence, you will need the help and cooperation of lots of people. Your main objective is to structure everything you do in such a way that, because you are constantly cooperating and working well with others, they are continually open to helping you achieve your goals.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.

First, recognize that every person in the company is essential to the smooth functioning of the organization. Take time regularly to discuss their jobs with them and understand what they do.

Second, identify the things that you do that can really affect the work of others. Then, look for ways to do your job so that you help others in every way possible.

Leadership: The Critical Difference

Clarify Your Values

Posted by Brian Tracy on Dec 11, 2008

What are your values? What do you stand for?

Decide What You Stand For

What are the organizing principles of your life? What are your core beliefs? What virtues do you aspire to, and hold in high regard when you see them demonstrated by others? What will you not stand for? What would you sacrifice for, suffer for, and even die for? These are extremely important questions that are only asked by about three percent of the population, and that small minority tends to be the movers and shakers in every society.What are your values? What do you stand for? What are the organizing principles of your life? What are your core beliefs? What virtues do you aspire to, and hold in high regard when you see them demonstrated by others? What will you not stand for? What would you sacrifice for, suffer for, and even die for? These are extremely important questions that are only asked by about three percent of the population, and that small minority tends to be the movers and shakers in every society.

Write Out Your Key Values
When I first began this values clarification exercise some years ago, I wrote out a list of 163 qualities that I aspired to. I think I eventually came up with every virtue, value or positive descriptive adjective that referred to personality and character in the dictionary. And I agreed with all of them. I felt that they were all important and I wanted to incorporate every single one of them into my character.

Focus on Very Few Core Beliefs
But then reality sets in. I realized that it is very hard to learn even one new quality, or to change even one thing about myself, let alone dozens of things. So I scaled down my ambitions and began narrowing the values down to a small number that I could manage and work with. Once I had settled on about five core beliefs, I was then able to get to work on myself and start making some progress in character development.

Select Your Five Key Values
You should do the same. You should write down the five values that you feel are the most important for you to live by. Once you have those five values, you then organize them in order of priority. Which is the most important value in your hierarchy of values? Which would be second? Which would be third, and so on?

Learn to Make Better Decisions
Every choice or decision you make is based on your values. Whenever you decide between alternatives, you invariably choose the alternative that you value the most. Because you can only do one thing at a time, everything you do is a demonstration of what you consider to be the most important at that moment. Therefore, organizing your values in an order of priority is the starting point of personal strategic planning. It is only when you are clear about what you value, and in what order, that you are capable of planning and organizing the other activities of your life.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action:

First, clarify your core beliefs and your unifying principles. Write them down and compare your life today with the values that are really important to you. How are you doing?

Second, organize your values in order of their importance to you. Which of your values is most important? Which is second? And so on. Do your current choices reflect this order of values?

The Exceptional Life Package

My Formula For Success

Posted by Brian Tracy on Dec 11, 2008

Whenever I give a speech, make a presentation or participate in a workshop, entrepreneurs and startup business owners ask me the same key questions:

"How can I generate more leads?"
"How do I close more sales?"
"What do I need to do to make bigger profits and more money?"

And they ask me what my formula for success is.

I’m delighted when they ask me the last question, because it provides the answer to the previous three.

A. Think Big
Over and over I talk to entrepreneurs who are struggling to get the next sale so they can cover current expenses. Or they want to make two more sales per day or per month.

Their biggest problem is that they’re thinking too small. If you’re only aiming for a couple of additional sales a month, you’ll never plan big and you’ll never be truly successful. You might be a little better off than you are now, but I bet you want more than that.

What do I mean by thinking big, and how do you do it? Find out how the top marketers and sales experts think. Tap into their minds, and use the same approach.

B. Find Out How The Most Successful Marketers and Business Owners Did It
As a young child, I was embarrassed when my Dad would stop and ask for directions when we were on car trips. Dad was supposed to know everything — and he wasn’t supposed to let on if he didn’t. There are far too many small business owners who still think this way.

Just because you created and launched your business, don’t assume you’re supposed to have all the answers. Seek out the expert advice you need to succeed.

Over the years, I’ve built Brian Tracy International through hard work, smart marketing, and a dedication to helping my clients succeed. I also got some help along the way; help from people who have "been there, done that" and were willing to share with me some of the things they had done to become incredibly successful.

With a little bit of knowledge and a small nudge from the right people, your sales and your profits will boom.

C. Don’t Throw Money Away
Any smart entrepreneur knows that it’s not only sales that count; it’s profits that matter. Now, let me ask you a question. Ever take a hundred dollar bill and flush it down the toilet — or throw a whole handful of bills into the fireplace and watch them burn?

Of course not! You’d never do that. Or would you? I see many small business owners throwing money at marketing, and in most cases it not only isn’t working, it’s hurting their sales. And then they do it again. They’re killing their profits.

Let me tell you a secret about marketing.

Some of the most effective ways to generate leads, get more sales and double or triple profits are practically free. The key is knowing what works and what doesn’t and when to use each strategy.

21 Great Ways to Start and Build Your Own Successful Business

Riding Out the Storm

Posted by Brian Tracy on Dec 4, 2008

Our world is in financial turmoil today.

The chickens have all come home to roost. Millions of smart people world-wide became convinced that they could make quick, easy money without contributing or adding value of any kind. Since it is ultimately impossible to get something out of nothing, the house of cards eventually had to come crashing down.

In 1977, the Jimmy Carter administration passed the Community Reinvestment Act, designed to harass banks into making unsafe loans in poor neighborhoods populated by people who could not afford to buy a house. Eventually these loans became known in the industry as "Ninja Loans."

This meant, "no job, no income, no assets, no money and no credit rating." When Clinton came into power, he fired up the Community Reinvestment Act and threatened banks with lawsuits and fines if they did not make loans to people that they knew could not, or would not pay them back. So called "Community Organizers" and other individuals and groups began holding demonstrations in bank lobbies to bully banks into providing these loans so that more and more people with no credit rating could buy homes that they could not afford and agreed to paying off debts that they had no money to cover.

These "Ninja Loans" began growing in the 1990’s and when interest rates dropped dramatically after the dot.com explosion in 2001, more and more people, including millions with good credit ratings, began demanding these "Ninja Loans" as well.

What to do? The banks, in all good conscious, could not make bad loans. They were forbidden by law to issue mortgages to people who couldn’t repay them. So the federal government stepped in with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government mortgage lending organizations, to "guarantee" these loans, actually converting them into a form of "cash reserve" that banks and other financial institutions could use to inflate their assets.

As you may know, banks have what are called "reserve requirements." This means that they must have one dollar of cash on hand for every ten dollars that they lend to consumers or corporations. This is called "leverage" and is the reason why banking can be an extremely profitable industry.

Banks and other financial institutions found that they could package hundreds and thousands of these mortgages, some good, but mostly bad, into packages that obscured the fact that they were lending far more than the unlined properties were actually worth. This so called "securitization" of mortgages, backed extensively by the federal government through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, became treated as cash reserves for banks all over the world. Since the yield on these "securitized loans" was substantially higher than the banks could earn in the process of normal banking business, banks and financial institutions world-wide began buying these "government guaranteed notes" and adding them to their reserves.

Then the impending disaster began. These financial institutions began to lend against these shaky sub-prime securitized notes, leveraging them by ten times and more. When Lehman Brothers went broke, they were leveraging these underline sub-prime assets as much as 40 times. To put it another way, for every dollars worth of sub-prime mortgage assets they had, they were extending 40 dollars in loans to more and more people and corporations who were then using the money to bid up real estate and assets and corporate stock prices. This was very much like a reverse pyramid with the dollar on the bottom and forty dollars on the top. When the dollar on the bottom shrunk to 50 cents, the banks had to reduce their leverage by ten times and twenty times the shrinkage of their "assets." As we see today, this led to financial collapse of multi-billion dollar financial organizations.

The Bush administration attempted on sixteen different occasions to reign-in in the out-of-control lending of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which eventually reached as high as $1.5 trillion in "government backed loans." Time and time again, the supporters of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, all of whom received huge political campaign donations from these organizations, fought back the federal regulators and refused to reign-in the out-of-control lending. The result is the financial meltdown that we are experiencing today.

What is to be done? If there is any good news, it is the fact that there have been financial panics and crashes since the first founding of the first bank shortly after the successful American Revolution. In every case, the smartest and best brains in America have gotten together to solve the problem and return the situation to some semblance of normalcy.

This financial crisis is the worst since the Great Depression of the 1930’s. Nonetheless, is it not as bad because the experts are far more knowledgeable about what works and what doesn’t work in getting the country out of a financial panic.

The process is messy. Every day people like Henry Paulson and others are announcing different ideas and plans to bail out banks, corporations and institutions. The most important factor is that the economy receive enough government backing to stabilize, very much like a small ship that has been hit by a squall and is listing over, taking on water and threatening to sink. This will not happen.

What can you do? In any storm, you have no choice but to "batter down the hatches." You should cut all discretionary spending and build up cash reserves in any way possible. Make a decision today to get out of debt and stay out of debt. Start paying down your high interest credit cards and be prepared to take a hit in your standard of living. This will mean eating at home more often, spending less on Christmas presents and discretionary expenses, and concentrating intensely on financial liquidity and solvency.

The biggest lesson of this financial crisis is that we have lived beyond our means for far too long. The United States Government has been borrowing 500 billion dollars per year from overseas to give the American voting public benefits and goodies that it is not willing to tax them for. The American public themselves have become like pigs at a trough, demanding ever more money and benefits from the federal government without being willing to pay for it. All of this debt is being passed onto our children and grandchildren.

The average American family now owes $450,000 as their share of the national debt. A child born today starts off with a personal debt of almost $200,000 that will have to be taken out of his standard of living in the form of reduced wages and interest payments for the rest of his or her life.

Here is the bottom line: Government must live within its means. Government should be able to manage 100% of it’s expenditures on 90-95% of its income, and use the balance to pay down the national debt.

Personally, you should make a decision today to live on 90% of your income or less, and save/invest the other 10% for financial security and financial independence. You should never again go into debt. You should never again live beyond your means. You should never again spend money that you don’t have on the off-chance that you might enjoy a financial loophole by flipping a property sometime in the future. Remember, "Hope is not a strategy." The entire population has been on the equivalent of a financial drinking binge and is now going to suffer the effects of a long and painful hangover. But at the end, with what we have learned, each of us should be able to put our financial house in order, budget appropriately, live within our means, and go on to build a solid financial estate in the years ahead.

Brian Tracy

Practice Golden Rule Selling

Posted by Brian Tracy on Dec 2, 2008

To improve your sales performance, adopt the Golden Rule mentality.

The Golden Rule says to, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." It also says, "Love your neighbor as yourself." The Golden Rule mentality in sales, says simply, "Sell unto others as you would have them sell unto you."

Different Strokes For Different Folks
What does this mean? Aren’t there all kinds of different personalities that require different approaches and techniques? Well, yes and no. Practicing the golden rule in selling simply means that you sell to other people the way you would like to be sold to. You sell with the same honesty, integrity, understanding, empathy and thoughtfulness that you would like someone else to use in selling to you.

Seek First to Understand
If you would like a salesperson to take the time to thoroughly understand you and your situation before making a recommendation, you practice the same thing with your customers. If you would like a salesperson to give you honest information and to help you make an intelligent buying decision, you practice the same with your customer. If you would like a salesperson to be thoroughly knowledgeable about the strengths or weaknesses of his or her product or service, and that of his or her competitors, then you do the same with your product or service and your competitors.

Care About Your Customers
Perhaps the most important part of golden rule selling is the emotional component embraced in the word, "caring." Top sales professionals care about their customers. They care about themselves, their companies, their products and services, and they really care about helping their customers to make good buying decisions. If you think about the very best salespeople you know, you will recognize that they are caring individuals.

They Don’t Care How Much You Know
If you think about your very best customers, you will recall that these are invariably people you care about, and who care about you. When you think about the people you buy from, you will recall that they seem to care about you more than the average. In every part of your business life, you will find that the significant people all have the denominator of caring as part of their character and their personalities.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.

First, resolve today to sell to your customers with the same honesty, empathy and understanding that you would like them to use in selling to you.

Second, take time to genuinely care about your customers, their individual needs and their unique situations. Make people feel important and they will make you feel important.

Customers for Life

Neutralizing Your Two Major Fears

Posted by Brian Tracy on Dec 1, 2008

The Greatest Obstacle to Success

The fear of failure is the single greatest obstacle to success in adult life. Taken to its extreme, we become totally pre-occupied with not making a mistake, with seeking approval for security above all other considerations. The experience of the fear of failure is in the words of "I can’t", "I can’t." We feel it in the front of the body, starting at the solar plexus and moving up to the rapid beating of the heart, rapid breathing and a tight throat. We also experience this fear in the bladder and in the irresistible need to run to the bathroom.

The Fear of Rejection Holds You Back
The second major fear that interferes with performance and inhibits expression, is the fear of rejection. We learn this when our parents make their love conditional upon our behavior. If we do what pleases them, they give us love and approval. If we do something they don’t like, they withdraw their love and approval-which we interpret as rejection.

The Roots of Type A Behavior
As adults, people raised with conditional love become preoccupied with the opinions of others. Many men develop Type A behavior which is characterized by hostility, suspicion and an obsession with performance to some undetermined high standard. This is expressed in the attitude of "I have to, I have to," and is associated with the feeling that "I have to work harder and accomplish more in order to please the boss" who has become a surrogate parent.

The Most Common Trap
More than 99 percent of adults experience both these fears of failure and rejection. They are caught in the trap of feeling, "I can’t, but "I have to," "I have to," but "I can’t."

The Key to Peak Performance
The antidote to these fears is the development of courage, character and self-esteem. The opposite of fear is actually love, self-love and self-respect. Acting with courage in a fearful situation is simply a technique that boosts our regard for ourselves to such a degree that our fears subside and lose their ability to effect our behavior and our decisions.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do to increase your self-esteem and self-confidence and overcome your fears.

First, realize and accept that you can do anything you put your mind to. Repeat the words, "I can do it! I can do it!" whenever you feel afraid for any reason.

Second, continually think of yourself as a valuable and important person and remember that temporary failure is the way you learn how to succeed.

The Science of Self-Confidence Training Kit

Your Belief Becomes Your Reality

Posted by Brian Tracy on Dec 1, 2008

Perhaps the most powerful single factor in your financial success is your beliefs about yourself and money.

The Determinant of Your Success
Perhaps the most powerful single factor in your financial success is your beliefs about yourself and money. We call this the Law of Belief. It says simply this: Whatever you believe, with feeling, becomes your reality. Whatever you intensely believe becomes your reality. That we have a tendency to block out any information coming in to us that is inconsistent with our reality.

What Successful People Believe
What we’ve discovered is that successful people absolutely believe that they have the ability to succeed. And they will not entertain, think about, or talk about the possibilities that they’ll fail. They do not even consider the possibility of failure.

Positive Thinking Versus Positive Knowing
You always act in a matter consistent with your beliefs. The most important belief system you can build is a prosperity consciousness where you absolutely believe that you are going achieve your financial goals. We call this positive knowing versus positive thinking. Positive thinking can sometimes be wishing or hoping. But positive knowing is when you absolutely know that no matter what, you will be successful.

The Foundation of Willpower
Another principle related to your beliefs is willpower. We know that willpower is essential to any success. Willpower is based on confidence. It’s based on conviction. It’s based on faith. It’s based on your belief in your ability to triumph over all obstacles. And you can develop willpower by persistence, by working on your goals, by reading the biographies of successful people, by listening to audio programs, by reading books about people who’ve achieved success. The more information you take into your mind consistent with success, the more likely it is that you will develop the willpower to push you through the obstacles and difficulties you will experience.

Beat the Odds on Success
Remember that success is rare. Only one person in one hundred becomes wealthy in the course of a lifetime. Only five percent achieve financial independence. That means that the odds against you are 19-to-1. The only way that you’re going to achieve your financial goals is if you get really serious. To succeed, you must get serious. You must get busy. You must get active. You must get going. Remember, everything counts.

Resolve to Achieve Greatly
Self-mastery, self-control, self-discipline are essential for anyone who wants to achieve greatly. And control over your thoughts is the hardest exercise in self-mastery that you will ever engage in. See if you can talk and think about only what you desire and not talk or think about anything that you don’t want for 24 hours. Then you’ll see what you’re really made of. It’s a hard thing to do but with practice, you can reach the point where you are thinking about your goals and desires most of the time. Then, your whole life will change for the better.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do to build a belief system consistent with the financial success you desire:

First, continually repeat to yourself the words, pictures and thoughts consistent with your dreams and goals. Whatever you repeat often enough, over and over, becomes a new belief.

Second, set a goal for yourself to think and talk only about the things that you want for the next 24 hours. This will be one of the hardest things you ever do. But if you can keep your mind on what you want and off of what you don’t want for 24 hours, you can begin to change your entire future.

Goals!