Brian Tracy explains why hard work alone doesn't guarantee success. You need to work on the right things in the right order. His three rules: plan backward from your goal, work smarter by seeking advice, and stay flexible enough to adjust course.
Today I want to talk to you about why working hard doesn't always lead to success. Does hard work always lead to success? While hard work may be required, simply working hard isn't enough. It can be hard to accept that despite your very best efforts, you don't end up where you want it to be. You may even have heard people say, just work hard and success will come to you. But it only comes to you if you're working hard, doing the right things in the right order, on the right goal. Remember when I was young, I used to work as a farm laborer. I used to get up at 5 o' clock in the morning when it was still dark and then be in the fields when the sun came up and work all day until it was sunset. And I worked very, very hard on the harvest. But I sure didn't make very much money, and I sure didn't make very much progress. And I sure didn't hell my career. So it's not enough to work hard. You have to work hard on the right things in the right way. The truth is that while hard work may be required to reach your goal, simply working hard isn't enough. So does hard work always lead to success? Simply put, no. That's why I want to share a few tips to make sure that you are committing your energy in the right direction when going after your goals. First you need to explicitly determine what you are trying to achieve. Start at the end, then work backward to where you are now. One of the things I've learned is that achieving a goal is very much like climbing a ladder. There are a series of steps and you have to write down the steps on paper. This is another thing that I found is think on paper, think on paper, think on paper. The more time that you spend planning in advance, the more you'll accomplish and even faster. The rule that I've discovered is called the 10 to 1 rule is every minute that you spent planning your steps in advance will save you nine minutes in achieving the goal in the final analysis. So therefore, take the time to think and plan before you act. I read a story about Einstein recently and he was asked, he said if you had one hour to solve a great problem, the problem that a terrible accident was going to occur and destroy the world and you had one hour to solve the problem, how would you allocate your hour? He said, I would spend the first 55 minutes studying the problem and only the last five minutes executing the solution. He would spend most of the time thinking about the problem before he acted and it's very much the case when you're trying to achieve goals. Number two, you need to have the best plan in place. There are usually several different ways that you can achieve a goal and your job is to think what are the very best or what is the very best plan? You want to work smarter, not harder, whenever possible. And so what is the most efficient path? Should you seek outside advice so that you're doing the right thing in the right way at the right time? 3. Finally, you need to periodically check your progress and look for ways that you can improve your method of working. Have you gone off track? Well, you can always tell because you're working just as hard or harder and you're not making the kind of progress you want. So make sure that you're not just blindly following your goal. You need to be adaptable as you move along. In fact, they did a study recently at the Menninger Institute and found that flexibility in the face of your work today is the most important quality you can develop. To be a big success is to be flexible, adaptable, open minded and willing to try different ways and different approaches. Now I love to hear from you. So my question today is this is what goal are you trying to achieve today, your most important goal? And do you have a plan for success set up that you're working on every single day? Leave a comment below and I'll be sure to follow up with you. If you enjoyed this video and you feel it was valuable in teaching you about how to achieve success, subscribe to my channel. Like this video and share this video with your friends. Don't forget to click the button on the screen for a free gift. Thanks again for watching.
