Brian Tracy answers audience questions about goal-setting, staying motivated, and overcoming procrastination. He advises daily rewriting of goals, breaking goals into measurable small steps (attach numbers), using checklists and a "seven times seven" breakdown to map actions, and applying the 80/20 principle to planning. The video ends with a call-to-action linking to a free 14-step goal-setting guide.
Goals allow us to control the direction of change in our favor. Hello, I'm Brian Tracy, and a few weeks ago on social media, I asked you to send me over any questions you had that you wanted me to answer in an upcoming video. And an overwhelming majority of you had questions on goals. So in today's video, I'm going to answer your specific questions so you can begin to take action and achieve your goals in every area of your life. The first question comes from Sarah, who asked, how can you effectively adapt your goals and stay motivated when you encounter unexpected setbacks? This is a great question and one that a lot of people have. Well, writing down your goals is the starting point. And what I recommend that you do is rewrite your goals with a blank page in a spiral notebook every morning before you start off. Now, what that means is that you take and you turn the book and you turn the page, and you start over a new page. You don't just repeat from the last day. The second thing is you make the decision that no matter what happens, you'll never give up. And that every single setback or difficulty is merely an opportunity for you to learn to achieve your goal in a different or better or faster way. So one of the great success principles is that no matter what happens to you, always look for the good. When if you look for the good, you'll always find something good in every setback or difficulty on the way to achieving your goal. Now, the second question comes from Nishant, who said, I have goals and make plans, but after a few days of working toward my goals, I flatten out and lose motivation. How do I discipline myself to stay on track and achieve my goals? Well, this is a very good question. And you have to understand that the great majority of people fall into the same trap. They set a goal and they think, well, I should achieve this goal quickly. I should earn more money, make more sales, lose weight, grow my business. But everything worthwhile takes a long time. So here's the key. Take your goal and break it down into small pieces and attach a number or measure to each of those small pieces, and then do one small piece at a time. Henry Ford once said, you can achieve the biggest goal in the world if you just break it down into enough small pieces. And you know the old saying, how do you eat an elephant one bite at a time? So that's the key to keeping you on track and keeping you motivated. But make sure you attach a number to every step so that you can measure if you've completed it. Now, the Last question comes from Riaz who said, I am having a difficult time achieving my goals due to procrastination and how I feel like I have lost valuable time and energy, which is very discouraging. What steps can I take to overcome procrastination and begin working toward these goals? Well, as you know, I've been teaching time management for 35 years and I've done complete sections and book chapters on procrastination. And it comes back to what I said a little bit before is what you do is you take the goal and and you make out a detailed list, what we call a checklist, of every single small step that you're going to have to take to achieve the bigger goal. And then what you do is you just take one bite at a time. You start off with your first step and you work on that step. I have a friend who teaches a seven times seven method. He said take your goal and write out seven things that you will have to do to achieve that goal and then write seven things you'll have to do to achieve each of those seven things, which ends up with a total of 49 steps. Now, I've only done this a few times because I don't have problems with procrastination, but it's extraordinarily effective. Remember, 80% of goal achievement comes from the first 20% of time that you spend laying out the goal and each step of the goal in the first place. That first 20% will save you 80% of the time in achieving the goal at the end. So give that a try. And to thank you to everyone who sent in your questions, be sure to check back on my channel in the coming weeks for more videos answering your questions on other topics. Now, before we wrap up, I'd like to leave you with a thought to share with your friends and followers. Here it is. Goals allow us to control the direction of change in our favor. Now I'd like to hear from you. So my question today is what tools or techniques do you use to keep you on track for achieving your goals? Leave a comment below and I'll be sure to follow up with you. Thanks for watching. Remember, if you want to change your future, take action. And take action now. To master the practice of goal setting and get on the path to success, click the button on the screen or in the description to get my free 14 step goal setting guide. If you enjoyed this video and you feel it was valuable in teaching you how to achieve your goals, subscribe to my channel like this video and share this video with your friends or anyone else who might benefit from this information.
