1. Dream Big Dreams!
“Only big dreams have the power to move men’s souls.”
I will make a list of everything I would do or attempt if I were absolutely guaranteed of success. I will then decide upon one specific action and do it immediately.
2. Develop a Clear Sense of Direction.
“You become what you think about most of the time.”
Decide exactly what I want in each area of my life.
Write down my goals clearly and specifically:
Write “Goals” on the top of a piece of paper with today’s date.
Make list of 10 goals, in present tense, for achieving over the next 12 months. Begin each goal with “I”.
Set a deadline for each goal, and subdeadlines if the goal is large.
Make a list of everything I can think of that I will have to do to achieve each goal.
Organize my list into a plan of action-what I’ll do first and what I’ll do later.
Ask yourself “Which one goal on this list, if I were to achieve it, would have the greatest positive impact on my life?” Circle that goal and make it #1. Think and talk about that goal all the time-how to achieve it, all the different steps I can take to make it a reality.
Take action on my plan immediately.
Most important: Do something every day that will move me at least one step closer to my most important goal.
Always think on paper. Sit down and begin writing out my goal and creating my plan to achieve them. This exercise alone can make me a self-made millionaire.
3. See Yourself as Self-Employed.
“I am the captain of my soul; I am the master of my fate.”
I will accept complete, 100% responsibility for everything I am and everything I will ever be.
I am the boss of my own life.
I am the president of my own personal service corporation.
4. Do What You Love to Do.
“When you start doing what you love to do, you’ll never work another day in your life.”
If I won a million dollars, tax free, tomorrow, would I continue to do what I am currently doing?
I’ll identify the type of work that I enjoy the most.
What activities have been most responsible for my success in life to date?
If I could do any job at all and be successful at it, what would I choose?
Set it as a goal, make a plan, and begin moving in that direction today.
5. Commit to Excellence.
“The quality of your life will be determined by the depth of your commitment to excellence.”
I resolve today to be the very best at what I do.
I will join the top 10% of my field. I will never be mediocre.
No one is better than me and no one is smarter than me.
Everyone in the top 10% started off in the bottom 10%.
My life only gets better when I get better.
What one skill, if I developed and did it in an excellent fashion, would
have the greatest positive impact on my life?
Identify strengths and weaknesses in specific skill areas and make a plan to improve.
6. Work Longer and Harder.
“The harder I work, the luckier I get.”
I work 40 hours a week for survival; everything over 40 hours is for success.
I will work all the time I work.
I’ll increase the number of hours I work each day.
7. Dedicate Yourself to Lifelong Learning.
“Continuous learning is the minimum requirement for success in any field.”
Reading to the mind is as exercise is to the body.
I will read in my field for at least 30 to 60 minutes each day.
I will listen to audio programs in my car.
I’ll attend every course and seminar that can help me be better in my field.
I’ll select a subject that can really help me to be more productive in my field.
Set a goal to master it.
I’ll make it a “do-it-yourself” project, and will work it as if my future
depends on it, because it does!
8. Pay Yourself First.
“A part of all you earn is yours to keep, and if you cannot save money,
the seeds of greatness are not in you.”
I will resolve to save and invest 10% of my income throughout my working life. I’ll take 10% off the top and put it into a special account for financial accumulation, and then look for every opportunity to add to this account.
Remember, $100 per month in an average mutual fund paying 10% per year over the course of a working lifetime will make me a millionaire.
I will avoid impulse buying.
I won’t become a victim of “Parkinson’s Law” (expenses rise to meet income).
I will begin to study money so that I understand how to make it grow.
I’ll never stop saving, learning and growing until I become financially independent.
9. Learn Every Detail of Your Business.
“If you become good at what you do, there is nothing that can stop you from getting paid more and promoted faster.”
I’ll identify the trends in my business.
What are the core competencies or key skills that I will need to lead my field in the future?
I’ll make a plan today to develop those skills and then work on them every day.
10. Dedicate Yourself to Serving Others.
“You can get everything you want in life if you just help enough other people get what they want.”
All self-made millionaires have an obsession with customer service.
Go the extra mile. My success in life will be in direct proportion to what I do after I do what I am expected to do. I’ll always look for opportunities to do more than I am paid for.
I’ll identify my most important customers, both inside and outside my company. Who are the people I most depend upon?
Who are the people who most depend on me?
What could I do, starting today, to take better care of them?
11. Be Absolutely Honest with Yourself and Others.
“Develop a reputation for absolute integrity.”
I’ll return to my core values.
I’ll be true to what I really believe to be important in my life.
12. Determine Your Highest Priorities and Concentrate on Them Single-Mindedly.
“A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.” Do what comes to your hand to do.
What are my highest value activities?
Why am I on the payroll?
What can I and only I do that, if done well, will make a real difference?
What is the most valuable use of my time right now?
I’ll identify the most important thing that I can do right now to achieve my most important goal and then discipline myself to do that, and only that,
until it is 100% complete.
My ability to do this, and this alone, can change my whole life.
13. Develop a Reputation for Speed and Dependability.
“Do your work; not just your work and no more, but a little more for the lavishings sake, that little more which is worth more than all the rest.”
Time is the currency of the 21st Century.
I will select one key task that I’ve have been procrastinating on starting, and resolve to take action on it immediately.
Keep repeating these magic motivating words: “Do it now! Do it now! Do it now!”
14. Be Prepared to Climb from Peak to Peak.
“Winning is not a sometime thing; it’s an all the time thing.”
“Life is a process of two steps forward and one step back.”
I will develop a long-term perspective and will take the long view in everything I do. Plan 2, 3, 4, and 5 years into the future.
Everything in my life moves in cycles and trends.
I’ll be calm, confident, and relaxed with short-term fluctuations in my fortune.
I’ll identify the key cycles and trends in my business:
Where is the market going?
What is changing and how will I have to adapt to these changes?
What steps should I be taking today to be ready to take advantage of the new world tomorrow?
Whatever my answer, take those steps now!
15. Practice Self-Discipline in All Things.
“Self discipline is the ability to make yourself do what you should do, when you should do it, whether you feel like it or not.”
Self-discipline is the most important single quality for success in life and in becoming a self-made millionaire.
I will have a long-time perspective combined with an ability to
delay gratification in the short term.
I will only do those things that will guarantee that I ultimately achieve my long-term goal.
Self-discipline requires self-mastery, self-control, self-responsibility, and
self-direction.
The difference between successful people and failures is that successful people make a habit of doing those things that failures do not like to do. What are they? The same things that successful people don’t like to do-but they do them anyway!
Successful people are more concerned with pleasing results.
Unsuccessful people are more concerned with pleasing methods.
Successful people take actions that are goal achieving.
Unsuccessful people take actions that are tension relieving.
Successful people do the things that are hard and necessary and important. Unsuccessful people prefer to do things that are fun and easy and that give them immediate enjoyment.
I will change one thing at a time.
I’ll identify one area where lack of discipline is interfering with my success, and will decide today to develop discipline in that area.
I’ll tell others about my decision.
I won’t allow exceptions until that habit is firmly entrenched. This decision alone could change my life.
16. Unlock Your Inborn Creativity.
“Imagination is more important than facts.”
I am a potential genius.
I can actually increase my IQ by disciplining myself to think
creatively all day long.
Take a clean sheet of paper, write my most important goal or most pressing problem at the top in the form of a question, e.g. “How can I double my income over the next 24 to 36 months?”
Now, discipline myself to write at least 20 different answers to my question. Select one of my answers and take action on it immediately.
Action is everything!
17. Get around the Right People.
“You will be the same person in five years except for the people you meet and the books you read.”
85% of my success and happiness in life is going to be determined by the quality of the relationships that I develop in my personal and business activities.
At every turning point, someone is standing there to either help me or hinder me. Successful people maintain a network of high-quality relationships throughout their lives. As a result, they accomplish vastly more than the person who goes home and watches TV each night.
Everything involves relationships.
Over 90% of my success will be determined by my “reference group”- the people with whom I habitually identify and pass the time.
Associate with positive people. Associate with people who are optimistic, happy, who have goals and who are moving forward in their lives.
Network continually. Join my industry and trade associations. Get involved in their activities.
Whenever I meet new people, ask them to tell me all about their businesses, and, especially, to tell me what I would need to know to send clients or customers to them. Then, as soon as possible, see if I can send some business their way.
Be a “go-giver” rather than a “go-getter”.
The more I give of myself without expecting something in return, the more rewards will come back to me from the most unexpected sources.
Identify the most important people in my life, both present and future.
What could I do to help them in their lives and work so that they would be open to helping me? Identify the people I should get to know. What could I do to help them in advance of my needing anything in return?
Remember, first you sow and then you reap.
18. Take Excellent Care of Your Physical Health.
“The key to happiness is a sound mind in a sound body.”
Strive for a proper diet, eating habits and 30-60 minute
walk 3-5 days per week.
Eliminate desserts, soft drinks, candy, and anything else containing sugar from my life.
Identify one health habit that I need to develop. Set this as a personal challenge, and resolve to discipline myself until my new health habit is firmly entrenched.
19. Be Decisive and Action Oriented.
“Take arms against a sea of troubles, and in doing so, end them.”
The key to triumph is for me to try. Think carefully and make decisions quickly.
Unsuccessful people are indecisive. They know that they should do or stop doing certain things, but they do not have the character or will power to make firm decisions. As a result, they drift through life, never happy, successful or fulfilled.
Ask myself, what one action, if I did it immediately, could have the greatest positive impact on my results? Whatever my answer to that question, just do it!
20. Never Allow Failure to be an Option.
“There is nothing to fear but fear itself.”
The fear of failure is the greatest single obstacle to success in adult life.
“If you want to be successful faster, you must double your rate of failure. Success lies on the far side of failure.”
“Make a habit throughout your life of doing the things you fear. If you do the thing you fear, the death of fear is certain.”
I will dare to go forward.
I’ll take calculated risks in the direction of my goals.
I’ll identify one major fear in my life- e.g. failure, criticism, or disapproval- and resolve to act as if the fear didn’t exist.
Imagine that I was guaranteed success if I would only take action in the direction of my goals and dreams. Then, just do it!
21. Pass the “Persistence Test”.
“Nothing can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”
Persistence is the iron quality of character.
I will program my subconscious mind well in advance of the setbacks and disappointments that I am going to have on my upward quest toward success.
I resolve in advance that I will never give up, no matter what happens.
The courage to persist in the face of adversity and disappointment is the one quality that, more then anything, will guarantee my success. My greatest personal asset can be my willingness to persevere longer than anyone else.
My persistence is a true measure of my belief in myself and my ability to succeed.
“Circumstances do not make the man. They merely reveal him to himself.”
I will become the kind of person who never quits, no matter what the difficulty. No matter what obstacle is put in my path, I will find a way to go over it, under it, around it, or through it.
What is the most difficult situation I am facing in my life today?
Whatever it is, imagine that it has been sent to me at this time to teach me a valuable lesson that I need to learn to be even more successful in the future.
What could that lesson be? From this moment on, always seek the valuable lesson in every setback or difficulty. I will always find it, and it will help me in my quest to become a self-made millionaire.
Conclusion: Success is predictable.
Success is not a matter of luck or accident or being in the right place at the right time. Success is as predictable as the sun rising in the east and setting in the west.
By practicing these steps, I will move to the front of the line in life.
I am as good as or better than anyone I will ever meet. I am an outstanding human being. I have talents and abilities far greater than anything I have ever realized or used up to now.
I have within me the potential to accomplish wonderful things with my life.
My greatest responsibilities are to dream big dreams, decide exactly what I want, make a plan to achieve it, practice the strategies taught above, take action every single day in the direction of my dreams and goals, and resolve to never, never, never give up!
