Summary of “Eat That Frog” by Brian Tracy - Part 04
Golden BooksGuard and Nurture Your Energy Levels
“The raw material of personal performance and productivity is contained in your physical, mental and emotional energies. When you are fully rested, you can get two times, three times and five times as much done as when you are tired or burned out. Your body is like a machine that uses food, water and rest to generate energy that you then use to accomplish important tasks in your life and work. One of the most important requirements for being happy and productive is for you to guard and nurture your energy levels at all times.”
Two of the most important ingredients in the productivity puzzle are focus and willpower. Guess what both of these require massive amounts of?
Energy.
While time management is important for productivity, energy management may be even more important. You can’t really get more time, but you can get more energy. And the more energy you have, the more productive you’ll be.
It’s like the guys from The Power of Full Engagement say: “Performance, health and happiness are grounded in the skillful management of energy. The number of hours in a day is fixed, but the quantity and quality of energy available to us is not. It is our most precious resource. The more we take responsibility for the energy we bring to the world, the more empowered and productive we become.”
Brian Tracy advises to analyze your current energy levels and daily health habits and then resolve to improve your levels of health and energy by asking yourself the following questions:
What am I doing physically that I should do more of?
What am I doing that I should do less of?
What am I not doing that I should start doing if I want to perform at my best?
What am I doing today that affects my health that I should stop doing altogether?
Three Steps to Mastery in Your Field
“ First, read in your field for at least one hour every day. Get up a little earlier in the morning and read for 30-60 minutes in a book or magazine that contains information that can help you to be more effective and productive at what you do.
Second, take every course and seminar available on key skills that can help you. Attend the conventions and business meetings of your profession or occupation. Go to the sessions and workshops. Sit up front and take notes. Purchase the audio recordings of the programs. Dedicate yourself to becoming one of the most knowledgeable and competent people in your field.
Third, listen to audio programs in your car. The average car owner sits behind the wheel 500-1000 hours each year while driving from place to place. Turn driving time into learning time. You can become one of the smartest, most capable and highest paid people in your field simply by listening to educational audio programs as you drive around.”
Brian Tracy, like most highly successful people, is a big advocate of lifelong learning.
If you’re not in the habit of continually getting a little bit better every single day, I highly suggest you get on that. Start reading books. Listen to audio tapes. Watch YouTube videos. Read articles. And so on.
Charlie Munger, billionaire and one of Warren Buffett’s best friends and business partner, is a great example of lifelong learning in action. In a recent interview talking about the secrets of his and Buffett’s success, he said: “The other big secret is that we're good at lifelong learning. Warren is better in his 70s and 80s, in many ways, than he was when he was younger. If you keep learning all the time, you have a wonderful advantage.”
Success Is Predictable
“Then I did something that changed my life. I began to ask successful people what they were doing that enables them to be more productive and earn more money than me. And they told me. And I did what they advised me to do, and my sales went up. Eventually, I became so successful that they made me a sales manager. As a sales manager, I used the same strategy. I asked successful managers what they did to achieve such great results, and when they told me, I went out and did the same things. In no time at all, I began to get the same results they did.”
I’ve read a lot of books by Tracy and this is a concept he comes back to in every single one of them. He usually refers to it as the law of cause and effect. It states: For every action, there is a reaction. For every cause, there is an effect.
Neither success nor failure happen by accident. Any success is the result of doing certain, specific things over and over again. Any failure is the result of doing certain different, specific things over and over again.
The law of cause and effect states that if you copy what successful people do, you will get the results that successful people get.
It’s no miracle. It’s no accident. It’s simply a matter of cause and effect.
Therefore, if you want to become more successful, simply copy what the most successful people in the world do. Commit to lifelong learning, eat that frog every morning, guard and nurture your energy levels, and so on.
Eat That Frog
BEWARE: This book will have a profound impact on your working practices and the results you’ll achieve.
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