Brian Tracy
In 1970, sociologist Dr. Edward Banfield of Harvard
University wrote a book entitled The Unheavenly City. He
described one of the most profound studies on success and
priority setting ever conducted. Banfield’s goal was to
find out how and why some people became financially
independent during the course of their working lifetimes.
He started off convinced that the answer to this question
would be found in factors such as family background,
education, intelligence, influential contacts, or some
other concrete factor. What he finally discovered was that
the major reason for success in life was a particular
attitude of mind.
Banfield called this attitude “long time perspective.” He
said that men and women who were the most successful in
life and the most likely to move up economically were those
who took the future into consideration with every decision
they made in the present. He found that the longer the
period of time a person took into consideration while
planning and acting, the more likely it was that he would
achieve greatly during his career.
For example, one of the reasons your family doctor is among
the most respected people in America is because he or she
invested many years of hard work and study to finally earn
the right to practice medicine. After university courses,
internship, residency and practical training, a doctor may
be more than 30 years old before he or she is capable of
earning a good living. But from that point onward, these
men and women are some of the most respected and most
successful professional people in the United States. They
had long time perspectives.
The essential key to success in setting priorities is
having a long time perspective. You can tell how important
something is today by measuring its potential future impact
on your life.
For example, if you come home from work at night and choose
to play with your children or spend time with your spouse,
rather than watch TV or read the paper, you have a long
time perspective. You know that investing time in the
health and happiness of your children and your spouse is a
very valuable, high-priority use of time.
If you take additional courses in the evening to upgrade
your skills and make yourself more valuable to your
employer, you’re acting with a long time perspective.
Learning something practical and useful can have a long-
term effect on your career.
The key word, then, to keep in mind when you’re setting
priorities is sacrifice. Setting priorities usually
requires sacrificing present enjoyment for future enjoyment.
It requires giving up a short-term pleasure in the present
in order to enjoy a far greater and more substantial
pleasure in the future.
Economists say that the inability to delay gratification-
that is, the natural tendency of individuals to spend
everything they earn plus a little bit more, and the mind-
set of doing what is fun, easy and enjoyable-is the primary
cause of economic and personal failure in life. On the
other hand, disciplining yourself to do what you know is
right and important, although difficult, is the highroad to
pride, self-esteem and personal satisfaction.
So setting priorities begins with your deciding what you
want most in life and then organizing your time and
activities so that everything you do is the most valuable
use of your time in achieving those objectives.
With your larger, long-term priorities in order, you can
much more easily decide upon your short-term priorities.
You can say that the process of setting short-term
priorities begins with a pad of paper and a pen. Whenever
you feel overwhelmed by too many things to do and too
little time in which to do them, sit down, take a deep
breath, and list all those tasks you need to accomplish.
Although there is never enough time to do everything, there
is always enough time to do the most important things, and
to stay with them until they are done right.
Peter Drucker once said, “Efficiency is doing things right,
but effectiveness is doing the right things.” And this
requires thought. Once you have listed your tasks, ask
yourself this question: “If I were to be called out of town
for a month, and I could finish only one thing on this list,
which one thing would it be?” Think it through, and circle
that one item on your list. Then ask yourself: “If I could
do only one more thing before I was called out of town for
a month, what would it be?” This then becomes the second
thing you circle on your list.
Perform this exercise five or six times until you have
sorted out the highest priorities on your list. Then number
each according to its importance. With these priorities,
you are now ready to begin working effectively toward the
achievement of your major goals.
Another popular method for setting priorities on your list,
once you have determined your major goals or objectives, is
the A-B-C-D-E method. You place one of those letters in the
margin before each of the tasks on your list.
“A” stands for “very important; must do; severe negative
consequences if not completed.”
“B” stands for “important; should do; but not as important
as my ‘A’ tasks, and only minor negative consequences if
not completed.”
“C” stands for “nice to do; but not as important as ‘A’ or
‘B,’ and no negative consequences for not completing.”
“D” stands for “delegate, or assign to someone else who can
do the task in my place.”
“E” stands for “eliminate, whenever possible.”
When you use the A-B-C-D-E method, you can very easily sort
out what is important and unimportant. This then will focus
your time and attention on those items on your list that
are most essential for you to do.
Once you can clearly see the one or two things that you
should be doing, above all others, just say no to all
diversions and distractions and focus single-mindedly on
accomplishing those priorities.
Much stress that people experience in their work lives
comes from working on low-priority tasks. The amazing thing
is that as soon as you start working on your highest-value
activity, all your stress disappears. You begin to feel a
continuous stream of energy and enthusiasm. As you work
toward the completion of something that is really important,
you feel an increased sense of personal value and inner
satisfaction. You experience a sensation of self-mastery
and self-control. You feel calm, confident and capable.
Here are six ideas that you can use, every day, to help you
set priorities and to keep you working at your best:
1. Take the time to be clear about your goals and
objectives so that the priorities you set are moving you in
the direction of something that is of value to you.
Remember that many people scramble frantically to climb the
ladder of success, only to find that it is leaning against
the wrong building.
2. Develop a long time perspective and work on those things
in the present that can have the greatest positive impact
on your future. Maintain your balance in life by setting
priorities in the areas of your health, your personal
relationships and your financial goals.
3. Make the commitment to improve those aspects of your
life that are most important to you. If you’re in sales,
learn how to be an excellent salesperson. If you’re a
parent, learn how to be an outstanding mother or father.
The power is always on the side of the person with the best
practical knowledge.
4. Be sure to take the time to do your work right the first
time. The fewer mistakes you make, the less time you will
waste going back and doing it over.
5. Remember that what counts is not the amount of time that
you put in overall; rather, it’s the amount of time that
you spend working on high-priority tasks. You will always
be paid for the results that you obtain, not merely the
hours that you spend on the job.
6. Understand that the most important factor in setting
priorities is your ability to make wise choices. You are
always free to choose to engage in one activity or another.
You may choose a higher-value activity or a lower-value
activity, but once you have chosen, you must accept the
consequences of your choice.
Resolve today to set clear priorities in every area of your
life, and always choose the activities that will assure you
the greatest health, happiness and prosperity in the long
term. The long term comes soon enough, and every sacrifice
that you make today will be rewarded with compound interest
in the great future that lies ahead for you.
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Brian Tracy is a leading authority on personal and business
success. As Chairman and CEO of Brian Tracy International,
he is the best-selling author of 17 books and over 300
audio and video learning programs. Visit:
http://www.briantracy.com/
Today's Subscriber Article
Are you positioned for the next big thing?
Tyler Pratt
If you purchased $10,000 worth of Microsoft shares back
in 1985 that stock would be worth over a million dollars today.
Back in 1994 if you put a search engine online you were almost
guaranteed to attract hundreds of millions of venture capitol
dollars that would have made you a millionaire.
If you owned tech stocks in 2000 and sold them before March
of that same year. You would till be a millionaire and would
have missed the biggest tech stock sell off in history.
Timing is everything. Are you positioned for the next big
thing? Timing basically means that everything falls into place.
Part of having good timing is luck, but the larger portion
is having business savvy. You need to be able to recognize
an excellent business opportunity when you see one, and you
need to be able to anticipate the needs of the market.
Anticipation is important because if you wait until the needs
of the market become common knowledge, there will already
be a half dozen or more competitors meeting those needs.
Business opportunities are a lot like cars. There are race
cars that can go more than 200 mph and there are jalopies
that would do good to push 10 mph. In the marketplace right
now, there's no question that one is more valuable than
the other, but for some reason there's always some business
man trying to sell one of those jalopies as if they were
the best thing since sliced bread. Chances are though they
won't be fooling anybody.
So the question I have for you is are you trying to create
a race car or a jalopy?
The bottom line is if you want to make money fast in business
you have to match your product or service to the wants and
needs of the current marketplace. Timing is choosing the right
product or service, in the right place, at the right time.
"Find an opportunity that is about to explode"
The above statement is the essence of timing. You need to get
in on a ground floor opportunity, or a ground floor niche.
What you're looking for is a train that is getting ready
to take off for a great destination, then you just hop on
for the ride.
That doesn't sound complicated does it?
In truth the whole thing is obvious, especially to people
who've made it big in business. They can pinpoint the business
opportunity that helped them zoom up the ladder of success.
For example, when I started my hosting company online in 1996,
I was taking advantage of a good business opportunity. I'm sure
lots of other people out there would have dismissed it; they
probably would have said "Not enough people are going to want
a web site" or "Personal web sites are just another stupid
trend." I'm not going to tell you that I'm just a better
business person than all of them, but I am going to tell you
that I was willing to trust my instincts, and they told me that
this opportunity was hot! And, of course, I was right. We saw
our hosting company go from zero to millions a year in sales
in less than 3 years.
"Choosing the right vehicle at the right time is a rare and
highly profitable skill that can be learned!"
Most importantly, however, remember that timing is everything.
If you choose the right product at the right time, your road
to Massive Wealth will definitely be faster and easier!
********************************
Timing is only 1 part of an 8-step process that will
make you a millionaire in your own business in 3 years
or less. Tyler Pratt who is the President of Total
Mastery Trainings, is also the author of Massive Wealth.
Please preview Massive Wealth at:
http://www.massivewealthsystem.com
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