Brian Tracy delivers a short, action-oriented talk advising viewers how to make 2015 a highly successful year by increasing their earning ability (human capital), setting clear goals, focusing on one high-impact skill, and managing daily time to prioritize the single most important task. He recommends writing ten goals for the next 12 months, selecting the one with greatest impact, identifying the one skill that will most help achieve it ("sniper school" focus), and planning each day with a simple written list to work first on the highest-value task until completion. The talk emphasizes learning new skills over time (25 years of research), repeated habit formation, and maximizing return on energy.
Questions this video answers
2015
10 goals
25 years
Chapters
Thank you very much for watching. I want to explain to you now what you can do to make 2015 the very best year of your life. Your most valuable financial asset, according to the researchers, is your earning power. Now they're starting to call it your human capital or your intellectual property. It's your skills and your ability to do stuff and get results that people will pay you for. And if you really want to make next year and the year after and the year after wonderful years in your life, financially, what you have to do is you have to constantly increase your earning ability. I sometimes use this analogy on the stage. I say, imagine climbing a ladder. You start off at the beginning of your career, and most people have no earning ability. But yet, after 10 or 20 years, some people are earning 50 times as much as the others that started off at the same place. The difference was that the top people, based on 25 years of research, have learned new skills continually as they go through their careers. Like climbing a ladder, every new skill increases your ability to get results. It increases the value of your contribution. Sometimes I ask my audience, I say, how many people here work on straight commission? And maybe 10 or 15% of people will raise their hands. And then I point out, no, everybody works on commission. Everybody works on a percentage of the value that they create. If you want to earn more money, create more value. It's as simple as that. Get more results. And the only way you can get results in the knowledge age, the age of the mind, is by learning and applying new skills that enable you to get more and better results that people will pay you more and more to get. So how do you make 2015 a great year? First of all, set very clear goals for yourself. Exactly where do you want to be in 12 months? I always encourage my audiences to take a sheet of paper and write down 10 goals for the next 12 months. Then look at those goals and ask yourself, if you could wave a magic wand and achieve any one goal on your list of 10, which one goal would have the greatest positive impact on your life? Now, for most of us, it's a financial goal. For some, it may be a physical goal or relationship goal or business goal. But for most of it, for us, it's financial. Well, if it's a financial goal, then you write it down very clearly and you set a date and you make a list of everything that you can do to achieve that goal. And then the second question you ask is, what one skill will help you the most to achieve this goal? And just think of all the skills that you have. And if you're not clear, by the way, you must become clear. Ask your boss. Look around you, look at people who are earning the kind of money you want to earn, and find out one skill. We call this like the sniper school. One shot, one kill. You don't try to learn a whole bunch of skills. You focus on learning one skill that can help you the most to achieve your most important goal. Now, this formula is an incredible formula and based on 25 years of research. It's the reason why people go from the bottom to the top. They first of all are very clear about where they want to go, and then they're very clear about what skill they will need at each step of climbing the ladder. Every new step on the ladder takes you up higher, increases your earning ability. As you increase your earning ability, you open up new opportunities for yourself. Next rung up is one more skill. You keep adding skills and you keep adding the most important skill that will help you to achieve your most important goal. Now, on top of these two things, you have to manage your time really well. Today we are overwhelmed with too much to do and too little time. So what you have to do is you have to plan every day in advance. And the simplest technique of all is a piece of paper, a pen, and a few minutes of your time. You know, sometimes we say that your goal if you invest your money is to get the highest return on your investment. But if you're going to invest your life in your career, you want to get the highest return on energy, on your mental and physical and emotional energy. Some people work all day and make a few dollars. Some people work all day and make hundreds or thousands of dollars. Which one do you want to be? So manage your time by making a list of everything you have to do in the coming day. And then go down over your list and ask if you could only do one thing on this list today before being called out of town, which one item would have the greatest value in your work? Which one item would help you the most to achieve your most important goals? To achieve the highest possible income, and then start work on that one task. Don't check your email and play with your smartphone and check your messages and so on. Just put your head down. Focus single mindedly on one task, the most important task, and then work on it until it's 100% complete. I just heard a US Army General Chief of Staff who gave a commencement speech at a university and he talked about how in the military they teach you to get up out of bed and turn around and make your bed completely so that it will pass inspection. He said what they're teaching people is to start and complete one task first thing in the morning. And this is one of the great psychological tricks of success. Start and complete a task first thing in the morning. Now, if you're going to complete a task, start and complete an important task and do that every single day before you do anything else. And repeat this over and over again for three or four weeks, and soon it becomes a habit. You wake up in the morning and you start work on your most important task. So if you do that, you determine your most important goal, determine the most important skill that you can develop to achieve the goal, determine the most important thing that you can do each day to achieve your most important goal, and then start and finish with that. Those alone will make you one of the most productive and highest paid people in our society. Thank you for watching. If you enjoyed this video, please subscribe to my channel by clicking on the button that appears on the screen.
