See Yourself as Self-Employed

Accept complete, 100% responsibility for everything you are and everything you will ever be. Refuse to make excuses or to blame other people for your problems or shortcomings. Stop complaining about things in your life that you're not happy about. Refuse to criticize other people for anything. You are responsible. If there's something in your life that you don't like, it's up to you to do something about it. But you are in charge.

The top three percent of Americans see themselves as self-employed, no matter who signs their pay cheque. The biggest mistake you can ever make is to ever think that you work for anyone else other than yourself. You are always self-employed. You are always the president of your own personal services corporation, no matter where you might be working at the moment. When you see yourself as self-employed, you develop the entrepreneur mentality. The mentality of the highly independent, self-responsible, self-starting individual. Instead of waiting for things to happen, you make things happen. You see yourself as the boss of your own life. You see yourself as completely in charge of your physical health, your financial well-being, your career, your relationships, your home, your car, and every element of your existence. This is the mindset of the truly excellent person.

Self-responsible people are intensely result-oriented. They take high levels of initiative. They volunteer for assignments and they're always asking for more responsibility. As a result, they become the most valuable and respected people in their organizations. They continually prepare themselves for positions of higher authority and positions in the future. And you should do the same.

Here's a question for you: if you were president for a day in your company, or were completely responsible for results where you work, what one change would you enact immediately? Whatever it is, write it down, make a plan, and begin on it today. This decision alone could change your life.

by Brian Tracy

Commit to Excellence

Resolve today to be the very best at what you do. Set a goal for yourself to join the top 10% in your field, whatever it is. This decision to become very, very good at what you do, can be the turning point in your life. There are no successful people who are not recognized as being extremely competent in their chosen fields. Remember, no one is better than you and no one is smarter than you. And everyone who is at the top 10% today started off in the bottom 10%. Everyone who is doing well was once doing poorly. Everyone who is leading their field was at one time in another field altogether. And what someone else has done, you can do as well.

Here's a great rule for success: your life only gets better when you get better. And, since there's no limit on how much better you can become, there is no limit to how much better you can make your life. Your decision to become excellent at what you do, to join the top 10% in your field, can be the turning point in your life. It can be the key to great success. This decision is also the foundation of high levels of self-esteem, self-respect, and personal pride. When you are really good at what you do, you feel wonderful about yourself. The quality of your work affects your entire personality and all your relationships with other people. You feel terrific when you know that you are at the top of your field.

Here is one of the most important questions you will ever ask and answer for the rest of your career: what one skill, if you developed and did it in an excellent fashion, would have the greatest positive impact on your life? You see, you can't become good at everything overnight, but you can identify the one skill that can help you the most right now, and then throw your whole heart into developing that skill. Set it as a goal. Write it down. Set a deadline. Make a plan and work on becoming better in that area every single day. You will be absolutely amazed at the difference this commitment to excellence will make in your life.

by Brian Tracy