Summarising Brian Tracy 21 secrets of Millionaires

1. Dream big dreams:

• Dream big - Imagine your Life, the money you have, etc. different than what you currently have
• 'Back from the future thinking' - Project yourself 5 years from now as being having the perfect life in every aspect

2. Develop a clear direction:

• Clear specific written goals
• You become what you think about most of the time
• Write your goals in 'Present' tense starting with 'I'
• What goal has greatest positive impact on your life - Set a deadline, make a plan, take some action on that goal every day

3. See yourself as self employed:

• Accept 100% responsibility for everything you are and everything you will ever be
• Refuse to blame other people for your problems and shortcomings
• Stop complaining about things in your life that you are not happy about
• Refuse to criticize people for anything
• YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE
• If you do not like something in your life, it is up to you to do something about it
• You do not work for anyone
• Instead of waiting for things to happen, you make things happen
• YOU ARE THE BOSS OF YOUR LIFE

4. Do what you love to do:

• One of your primary responsibility in life
• What you enjoy doing, what you have a natural talent for
• Imagine, if you had a million dollar, tax free, tomorrow; would you continue to do what you are currently doing

5. Commit to excellence:

• Be the very best of what you do
• Join the top 10% in your field
• No one is better than you and No one is smarter than you
• Your life only gets better when you get better
• What one skill, if you developed and did it in an excellent fashion, would have the greatest positive impact on your life

6. Develop workaholic mentality:

• Hard worker
• 40 plus formula: You work 40 hours for survival and everything above 40 hours is for success
• Work all the time you work, don't waste time

7. Dedicate to life long learning:

• You have more brains, more ability and more intelligence than you can ever use, if you were to work on developing yourself for the rest of your life
• No obstacle you cannot overcome, no problem that you cannot solve, no goal you cannot achieve by applying your mind to your situation
• More you learn, more you can learn
• Leaders and learners. Be a student of your craft: Continuous learning
• Read 30-60 minutes each day. 1 book per week. Be better in your field
• Listen to Audio programs when in the car. Make your car into a learning machine

8. Pay yourself first:

• Save and invest 10% of your regular income throughout your working lifetime
• If you cannot save money, then the seeds of greatness are not in you
• Set it as a goal - lock it, make it automatic
• Be careful with every expenditure
• People retire poor because of Impulse purchases - buying without giving enough thought
• Do not fall prey to the Parkinson's law - Expenses rise to meet income. You never get ahead and you never get out of debt
• Start with 1% and increase it every month

9. Learn every detail of your business:

• Become expert in your chosen field
• Read all magazines, attend sessions and seminars

10. Dedicate yourself to serving others:

• Customer service - their needs, improved value
• Your success in life, will be directly proportional to, what you do, after you do, what you are expected to do
• Go the extra miles

11. Be impeccably honest:

• Maintain integrity in everything you do
• Build reputation
• When in doubt, always do the right thing, whatever it is and whatever it costs

12. Concentrate on one thing at a time:

• Set priorities on activities and concentrate single mindedly on one thing at a time till that is complete
• Work on high priority until it is completed is primary test and measure of will power, self discipline and personal character
• Ask yourself: What are my highest value activities? Do your highest value activities.
• Ask yourself: Why exactly am I am on the payroll? Focus on results not activities
• Ask yourself: What can I, and only I can do that can make significant difference. If you don't do it, it will not get done. And, if you do do it, and you do it well, it will make significant difference to your business
• Ask yourself: What is the most valuable usage of my time right now?

13. Be quick and reliable:

• Reputation for speed and dependability
• People are less and less patient
• Move fast, when your customer or boss asks you for something, drop everything else and deliver that first
• Whenever you want to get something done, give it to a busy man

14. Be prepared to climb from peak to peak:

• Life/Career is a series of Ups and Downs. 2 step forward and then 1 step back
• Develop long term perspective, a long view - Think 5 years in future
• Don't get on a emotional roller coaster with the short term ups and downs of daily life
• Keep calm, confident and relaxed with short term fluctuations
• When you have clear goals and plans that you working on every day, the general trend line would be onwards and upwards over the years

15. Practice self discipline:

• Do what you should do, when you should do it, whether you feel like doing it or not
• Long term perspective, combined with an ability to delay gratification in the short term
• Self mastering, self control, self responsibility and self direction
• Successful Vs Unsuccessful: Pleasing results Vs Please methods: Goal achieving Vs tension relieving: hard, necessary and important Vs Easy and immediate enjoyment
• Everyday, hour, minute is a test of self mastery, self control, self discipline. The test is if you can keep your mind on what you want, and where you are going; rather than thinking about the things that you do not want or problems that you had in the past

16. Unlock your creativity:

• You are a potential genius
• Your creativity is stimulated by: Intensely desired goals, pressing problems and focussed questions

17. Get around the right people:

• 85% of your success in life, will be dependent on the quality of relationships that you develop in your personal and business activities
• Virtually all problems in your life will come as a result of you entering into wrong relationships with the wrong people (Negative, critical, complaining)
• Virtually all your successes in life will come as a result of you entering great relationships with good people (Optimistic, happy, moving forward in their lives)
• You take on the attitudes, behaviours, values and beliefs of the people that you associate most of the time
• Be a go giver than a go taker. Always try a way to pay in before you think ways to take out. Help people to achieve their own goals
• The more you give of yourself, without expectation of return, the more rewards will come back to you from the most unexpected sources

18. Take excellent care of your health:

• Set a goal to live at least 80 years old
• Look at the current life style and see if you will live up to 80 in a great shape
• Proper weight - Lean and fit (Eat less and exercise more)
• Proper diet - More lean source protein, fruits and vegetables and less of desserts, soft drinks, candies. Stop extra salt and white flower products. Eat smaller portions 4-5 times a day rather than in 3 large meals
• Proper Exercise - 200 minutes a week (30 minutes a day, rigorous 30-60 minutes walk 3-5 times a week). Join a health club

19. Be decisive and result oriented:

• Think carefully and make decisions quickly
• Get quick feedback for their actions. If they realize that they did a mistake, they are quick to take self corrective action
• Try far more things than the average people
• Ask yourself: What one action, if I did it immediately could have greatest positive impact on my results
• Just do it

20. Never consider the possibility of failure:

• Fear of failure holds you back from trying things that can make your successful
• Dare to go forward - take calculated risks - What is the worst possible thing that can happen, if I fail
• Make a habit throughout your life of doing the things you fear. If you do the things you fear, the death of fear is certain
• When you act boldly, unseen forces will come to your aid
• FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION

21. Develop persistence and determination:

• Resolve in advance that you will never give up whatever happens