Brian Tracy, Karate Black Belt and Human Potential Expert

Why is it important to have a crystal-clear vision of where a person wants to go in life?

Brian Tracy answers…

This is one of the most important things I’ve ever learned: Successful people tend to be future-oriented. Unsuccessful people tend to be present- or past-oriented. You can tell if a person will be successful by listening to his or her predominant conversation.

If people expect to be really successful, then they can talk about the future most of the time. They talk about where they’re going, not where they’ve been. They talk about what they want to accomplish, rather than what’s happened. They talk about their goals, rather than who’s to blame for their problems.

You find that unhappy people are always looking backward, but successful people have a future vision. Now, what is your vision?

To answer that, apply the “magic-wand” technique. Imagine that you can wave a magic wand over your life five years from now and your life would be perfect in every respect. If your life was perfect in every respect five years from now, then what would it be? What would you be doing? How much would you be earning? How much would you have in the bank? In what kind of home would you live? What kind of lifestyle would you and your family be leading?

In other words, just fantasize about this for a period of time. I do this with Fortune 500 corporations. I did this exercise with the top people at a $170-billion-dollar a few years ago.

Now, you have a clear vision of where you want to be in five years. Let’s return to the present and determine what would be the first step that you would take to begin moving toward making your vision a reality. Then, what would be the second step, and so on.

It’s absolutely amazing how your life changes when you imagine that you have no limitations. You create your ideal future vision and then you take that first important step.

For a martial arts school owner, those key questions could be: “How big of a school do I want? How many staff member do I want working for me? How much money do I want to earn? What kind of car do I want to drive?”

Now, here’s an important thing to remember: There are always several ways to reach your goals. So, you start with the end in mind. For example, “How much do I want earn per month or per year?” There are several ways you can do that. One school owner might say, “I can increase the size of my school.” Another school owner may decide, “I’ll open another school.” There are all kinds of ways you can achieve the your financial goal, once you have it

ACMA board member Brian Tracy is a Karate Black Belt and a world-renowned expert in the field of human development and motivation. Much of his success is a result of the discipline he learned through martial arts training.