Consider the Consequences

By: Brian Tracy

Long Time Perspective

Here is an important point to remember: All intelligent people are afraid of something. It is normal and natural to be concerned about your physical, emotional and financial well-being. The courageous person is not a person who is unafraid. As Mark Twain once said, “Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear; not absence of fear.”

Think About Your Future

Successful people have a clear future orientation. They think five, ten and twenty years out into the future. They analyze their choices and behaviors in the present to make sure that they are consistent with the long-term future that they desire.

In your work, having a clear idea of what is really important to you in the long-term makes it much easier for you to make better decisions about your priorities in the short-term.

Determine The Consequences

By definition, something that is important has long-term potential consequences. Something that is unimportant has few or no long-term potential consequences. Before starting on anything, you should always ask yourself, "What are the potential consequences of doing or not doing this task?"

The clearer you are about your future intentions, the greater influence that clarity will have on what you do in the moment. With a clear long-term vision, you are much more capable of evaluating an activity in the present and to assure that it is consistent with where you truly want to end up.

Make It A Top Priority

If there is a task or activity with large potential positive consequences, make it a top priority and get started on it immediately. If there is something that can have large potential negative consequences if it is not done quickly and well, that becomes a top priority as well. Whatever your frog is, resolve to gulp it down first thing.

Keep Motivated

Motivation requires motive. The greater the positive potential impact that an action or behavior of yours can have on your life, once you define it clearly, the more motivated you will be to overcome procrastination and get it done quickly.

Action Exercises

The mark of the superior thinker is his or her ability to accurately predict the consequences of doing or not doing something. The potential consequences of any task or activity are the key determinants of how important it really is to you and to your company. This way of evaluating the significance of a task is how you determine what your next frog really is.

Empowering Others

• The world needs role models, instead of critics. 
• Others know when you have their best interests at heart. 
• You are truly successful when you can extend a strong hand to someone who is reaching out or just trying to hang on. 
• Come through for others, and they will come through for you. 
• People who seek attention need all the help they can get. 
• You know you’re a success when people tell you, “I like me best when I’m with you.”
•  If we succeed without sacrifice, it’s because someone sacrificed for us. 
• Real power comes by empowering others! 
• Promises should not be given lightly unless you want them lightly received. 
• If I help you win, then I win too!

-- Denis Waitley, one of America’s best-loved philosophers, speakers and success mentors, and the author of The Psychology of Winning

These magic words could changed yOUR life

These magic words could changed yOUR life:

"The size of your success is determined by the size of your BELIEF."

Learn how to use the power of belief to change yours!

Napoleon Hill, writing in the classic Think and Grow Rich, said that belief and desire are the beginning of all achievement. If one of those key ingredients is missing, success is almost impossible.

That might explain why a lot of people get excited about an idea (desire) but fail to follow through with it (belief). It's rare that we will attempt to do something that we don't believe in, and we will never give 100% of our effort to something without a strong belief that we can do it. It's our human defense mechanism. In As A Man Thinketh, James Allen tells us, "The will to do springs from the knowledge that we can do." In Above Life's Turmoil he tells us, "Belief always precedes action."

That certainly helped understand why we'd find ourselves with some great ideas that we thought would be successful, and then six months would pass by and we hadn't done anything about them. We didn't have the deep down belief they'd be successful, so we simply didn't take any action on them. And that's the same experience that most people have that steals the great dreams they have for their lives.

How powerful are your thoughts of belief? Dr. Maxwell Maltz, the legendary author of Psycho-Cybernetics, said, "Within you right now is the power to do things you never dreamed possible. This power becomes available to you just as soon as you can change your beliefs."

Four steps to developing rock-solid belief:

One: Why Your Success Will Never Exceed Your Belief

Two: Self-Talk and the Power of Suggestion

Three: What You See is What You Get

Four: Having Faith in the Power of Belief


Burke Hedges outstanding book, You, Inc., has a great chapter on the Power of Belief that we will include as a bonus you can download. Here's an excerpt:

"Belief is so powerful it can actually create an outcome! The medical phenomenon of the placebo effect is the perfect example. A recent review of 15 years of medical articles indicates that up to 70 percent of patients in some studies said they had received significant relief from placebos! Amazing, isn’t it, that people can literally cure themselves of illnesses just through the power of belief!"

The Science of Personal Achievement by Napoleon Hill Click Here