No Excuses!

In his book, No Excuses, author Brian Tracy discusses 21 ways to achieve lasting happiness and success. We can all be happy and successful through self-discipline. It is through self-discipline that we persist in meeting our personal, career, and financial goals, which ultimately leads to a life filled with joy and fulfillment. This is the reason some people are happier and more successful than others. Thus, if truly want to be happy and successful, we must learn to discipline ourselves and never teeter from our goals.

Since there is no way for me to cover all 21 chapters of Tracy’s book, I am going to focusing on the ones I feel are the most beneficial to HR Practitioner.

I believe that if you are taking the time to read my blog, you are interested in being a successful HR Practitioner. Thus, I will begin by discussing the author’s first chapter—success.

Tracy learned early on that the key to success is by doing what other successful people do. Contrary to what most of us think, successful people, for the most part, didn’t just land there by happenstance. They watched the key behaviors of these successful people and began doing them over and over until they became a habit in their own lives.  Thus, if we really want to be successful, we must model the behaviors of those we feel are successful.

For me, one of the most successful HR Practitioners is Alan Collins. He is the former Vice President of Human Resources at Pepsi and is now the CEO of SuccessInHR.com. He is successful to me, because he has achieved those things I aspire to achieve in my own HR career—VP of Human Resources and the CEO of my own company. As a result, I have read every book written by Alan, and I am a dedicated follower of his blog. In other words, I am doing just as Brian Tracy suggests—doing what other successful people do.

Another thing I really like about Tracy’s book, is that each chapter ends with some action exercises to help us focus on the information presented in the chapter.

Here are some of the action exercises from the Success chapter:

1. What one skill could you develop that would help you to realize more of your goals?
2. Why aren’t you already as successful as you would like to be, and what one discipline would help you the most to achieve all your goals?

I think you will agree, that in thinking about these questions carefully, and our answers to them, we can gain some important insight into the behaviors we need to achieve our perception of success.

In summary, as HR Practitioners, we are often so involved in the success of others, we sometimes forgot that we also need to focus on our own success. Yet, if we fail to do this, we may become dissatisfied with our positions and fail to continue to improve our knowledge, skills, and abilities. The result can not only lead to career stagnation, but it often may result in our termination. If you don’t want this to happen to you, I suggest that you pick up a copy of Brian Tracy’s book—No Excuses. There really are no excuses for every HR Practitioner to be successful.

About the Author

Brian Tracy is the CEO of Brian Tracy International. In addition, he has written over 45 top selling books. Moreover, he has written and produced more that 300 audio and video learning programs. Lastly, he is a sought-after speaker and addresses more than 250,000 people annually.

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