One of the most influential books I read was entitled No Excuses by Brian Tracy. When I first read Tracy’s excellent text, I realized how many excuses I made for not getting things done. How easy it was to blame someone or something else for my lack of direction and focus.
Two of Tracy’s “21 Ways to Achieve Lasting Happiness and Success” stood out for me – character and character and responsibility. These two seemed to encompass the other nineteen.
Let’s take a moment and learn from Tracy.
First, let’s look at character. Being completely honest with ourselves is fundamental to our integrity. How can we be honest with others if we are not honest with ourselves first? He points out that it takes tremendous self-discipline to always “do the right thing”.
Integrity applies to relationships with our families, friends, business associates and yes, even to strangers. Tracy suggests that our character psychology is rooted in three key attributes of our personality:
Self-ideal which refers to our values, virtues, ideals, goals, and aspirations.
Self-image is how we see and think of ourselves.
Self-esteem is how we feel about ourselves.
Second is responsibility. I was raised to be responsible for my thoughts and actions. As I reflect, I did a respectable job of being responsible. But now I realize there were thoughts and actions which I could have addressed a bit more responsibly. It was a portion of J. Paul Getty’s quote Tracy used that made me ‘stop and take stock’. I paraphrase, “Individuals who want to succeed must appreciate the might and force of habit. They must be quick to break those habits that can break them – and hasten to adopt habits that help them achieve the success they desire.”
Committing to make the changes required to break old habits and replace them with new ones is a challenge that most of us face. Time to get started?
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