Tracy refers to a familiar saying when starting the first chapter. “If you don’t know where you are going any road will get you there.” My journey as an entrprenuer was inspired by a fact mentioned by Tracy. I have heard this many times and it might go back to Earl Nightingale. “It seams that only 3% of adults have written goals and plans and they earn more than the 97% put together.
Goals keep you focused. Goals are a measuring tool. Goals are a driving force that gives us something to feed off for inspiration and determination. Keeping your goals in the forefront helps to keep you from giving up.
According to Tracy some people think they have goals but only have hopes and wishes. There is no energy behind it. Goals should be written down and developed into plans. Describing goal setting as a hard disciplined effort, Tracy deems it the master skill of success. Goal setting “increase the probabilities of success by ten times.”
Most of us live our lives not realizing that, “our brain has both a success mechanism and a failure mechanism.” The failure mechanism is the temptation to follow the undisciplined path of least resistance, to do what is fun and easy rather than what is hard and necessary. Going off automatically throughout our lives, “the failure mechanism is why most people fail to fulfull their individual potentials.”
The success mechanism is triggered by a goal. “When you decide upon a goal, you override your failure mechanism and change the direction of your life.”