THE SEVEN CS (FROM BRIAN TRACY)

When life becomes challenging, especially financially, it is easy to blame fate or circumstance or people.  Watching the video (40) The 7 C's to Success with Brian Tracy - YouTube changes that wrong perception.  

Mr. Tracy uses personal example to lead off the talk about the seven Cs.  

When he was in his thirties, he was asked to give a presentation on how to become millionaire.  He accepted the challenge and committed to do the presentation without personal experience of being a millionaire.  

He had the courage to transform his commitment into a set of actionable items.  The most important one was devoting two months to study available materials on the subject of being a millionaire.  He discovered that there were more than ten thousand of interviews in addition to other literature on millionaires.  Through commitment and courage, he developed capability to give presentation about millionaires.  He completed the task by giving the presentation to a standing ovation.  That fueled his confidence to deliver more presentations, seminars, and write books on the topic.  (Note the words in bold follow Dan Sullivan 4Cs model to make breakthrough achievement: Commitment; Courage; Capability; Confidence). 

Being a millionaire is a highly visible aspect of success.  However, Brian Tracy quotes Jim Rohn to emphasize that the key to becoming a millionaire is to effect permanent change within.  Like a master chef coaching novices, Mr. Tracy guides us through his seven Cs for success or high performance.

Clarity: It all starts with clearly defined purpose.  It is up to us to assess our own values and clearly define what success means to us.  

Competence: once we defined our goals, we need to break down the knowledge and skills required to take us there.  We need to work on these sets of knowledge and skills continually.

Concentration: Focus or ability to concentrate on one task at a time and see it to completion is a key trait that divides the high performers and the average performers.

Constraints: Taking from Eliyahu Goldratt's Theory of Constraints, Mr. Tracy there are always bottlenecks or pacing items that constrain our progress.  Our major task is to identify these constraints and work on them to increase our rate of progress.

Continuous Learning: We must be lifelong learners.  Mr. Tracy tells us that devoting long hours to reading has helped him progress forward.  He also reminds us that Warren Buffet, the fourth richest man in the States, devotes 5-8 hours a day to reading.

Confidence: We also need to develop the confidence in our abilities to grow.

Courage: Courage is also very important since we will encounter big challenges in our journey towards success.

I am grateful for this video.  It emphasizes being a millionaire involves sowing the seeds of the right mindsets (plants), nurturing the seeds until the mindsets are developed, and finally harvesting the yields from the mindsets.  I appreciate the efforts it will take and the rewards bestowed upon the efforts.