Brian Tracy believes that the more you persist in the face of disappointment, disillusionment, setbacks, obstacles and temporary failure, the stronger you become as a person. The more you persist, the more you come to believe in yourself. And the more you believe in yourself, the more you will persist, no matter what happens. Each of them, persistence and belief, reinforces the other until you ultimately become unstoppable.
Tracy emphasizes the importance of self-discipline in developing the habits that lead you on to happiness, health and great achievement. “The truth is that persistence is self-discipline in action. Each time you discipline yourself to persist, especially when you feel like quitting, both your ability to discipline yourself in subsequent events and your strength of persistence increases. Each reinforces the other.”
Your level of self-esteem, how much you like and respectyourself,lies at the core of your personality. How much you like yourself determines how positive and optimistic you are, how resilient you are in the face of adversity, the size of the goals that you set for yourself, how well you get along with other people, how healthy you are, and almost everything that happens to you in your work and personal life. Self-esteem is the key to great personal success.
As it happens, each time you discipline yourself to persist in the face of adversity, your self-esteem goes up. You like and respect yourself even more. You become stronger and more determined. You become happier and more confident. Every act of self-discipline reinforces every subsequent act of self-discipline. Every act of persistence reinforces every subsequent requirement for persistence. Every act of persistence and self-discipline builds your self-esteem, makes you stronger and makes you even more capable of disciplining yourself to persist in the future. “All three work together to develop within you the kind of character that makes you a leader in everything you do, and wherever you go.”
In a world where success is often measured by achievements and material gains, the importance of good character can easily be overlooked. But good character defined by traits like honesty, kindness, and integrity and responsibility, is the foundation of fulfilling and respected life. Good character fosters improved mental and physical health while building trust respect and stronger relationships. It enhances career success through reliability and integrity, acts as a personal guide for ethical decision-making, and brings peace of mind.
Character includes the virtues and moral or ethical qualities and traits individuals use to respond appropriately in pursuit of common goals in different situations. Character is how we function and collaborate in a common society. Thus, it is important to consider the kind of character we display in our interactions.
Moral virtues like compassion, honesty, gratitude and respect guide social connections. Intellectual virtues such as critical thinking, judgment, reasoning and resourcefulness enable problem solving and support the pursuit of knowledge.
Attitude of gratitude
The final habit for you to develop in becoming a truly excellent person is the habit of practicing an “Attitude of gratitude” in every part of your life.The habit of feeling and expressing gratitude, of saying THANK YOUto people, and thank you to life in general, for all of the things in your life that you should be grateful for, has a wonderful effect on your personality.
An attitude of gratitude makes you a warmer, friendlier and more genial person. An attitude of gratitude causes you to be more sensitive and aware of people around you, and your environment. An attitude of gratitude gives you a great sense of happiness and inner satisfaction. The more gratitude you have, the more gratitude you express, the better and more positive is your personality, the higher is your self-esteem, and the more popular and liked you are by all the people around you.
Be thankful for everything
Even in the midst of the greatest difficulties you will experience, you can find things for which you are truly grateful. In fact, if you take a piece of paper and begin to write down the parts of your life for which you should be grateful, you will be amazed at how many items appear on your list.
Think about your physical body. No matter what your condition, you can be grateful for all of your senses, for the miracles of sight, sound, touch, taste, smell and feeling. You can be thankful for the functioning of your body and for the health of your limbs. You can be grateful for the incredible gift of the life that you have lived up until now, and the great life that lies ahead of you. Just sitting alone in your room, thinking about your current blessings, can give you a page full of reasons to be truly grateful.
Look around you at your personal life. When you begin making a list of every person in your life, and the good qualities and actions of those people, you cannot help but be grateful. Think of every material item in your world, your home, car, clothes and other possession, and you will not know where to stop. Just thinking about the health and well being of the people you care about, your spouse, children and friends, and the qualities of their personalities, will make up a list that goes on and on.
Think of the wonderful experiences you have had in the past. Look back over the years that have passed and look at the years ahead. Think about the opportunities you have lying ahead of you, and you will be amazed at how many things you have in your life for which you can be truly grateful.
Your great good fortune
The most successful people always seem to describe their successes in life by saying, “Life has been very good to me. I have been so fortunate. I have so many things to be grateful for.”
Virtually every successful person attributes their success to other people, to their spouses, their children, their parents, their coworkers, their friends, associates and customers. Sir Isaac Newton in the latter years of his life was asked, “How is it that you, amongst all men, could have made somany great contributions to so many sciences?” Newton replied, thinking of all the great scientists who had preceded him and who worked for so many years before he came along, “If I have accomplished anything worthwhile in life, it was only because I stood on the shoulders of giants.”
The person you are
“Perhaps the greatest breakthrough thought in my life,” Tracy pontificates, “was the discovery that each of us is where we are, and what we are, because of ourselves.” We are where we are and what we are because of our habitual thoughts and actions. Men and women of great character, competence and leadership abilities are those who have worked on themselves, usually for many years, to become the kind of people that others look up to, respect and admire. They are, in every respect of the word, “self-made” people.
William James of Harvard once wrote, “The greatest revolution of my generation is the discovery that individuals, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives.”
When you go to work on yourself, and you practice the behaviours that you wish to incorporate into your personality and character, you change the inner attitudes of your mind. As a result, you change the outer aspects of your life. You take complete control of your future. You become the very best person that you can imagine becoming. There are no limits.
Who you are in this world matters. How you treat others, how you interact, the decisions you make, this all relates back to your character, and it matters in the grand scheme of society. If we wish to live in a better society, we need to consider our character and how we build character in others. It is good character that is needed if we wish to flourish in this society.
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