Focal Point is author and motivational speaker Brian Tracy's latest guide to professional and personal development. Combining the basic principles of career success and life balance he has advocated in the past with anecdotes for inspiration, the book proposes a unified approach to simultaneously achieving improvement at work and at home. The crux is finding the "focal point" in all pertinent areas--business, family, finances, health--and then launching a seven-step "personal strategic plan" that "helps you identify exactly what is most important to you ... identify what you need to do to achieve your most important goals (and) determine the steps you have to take to get from wherever you are to wherever you want to go." Tracy shows quite explicitly how to incorporate the specific phases of the process, including Values, Vision, Goals, Knowledge and Skills, Habits, Daily Activities, and Actions, into a drive for long-term growth and overall advancement. Not all who follow Tracy's program will find their incomes doubled and work hours pared while their personal relationships blossom, of course, but anyone who applies it diligently should see definite improvement. --Howard Rothman

ANNOTATION

Focal Point helps readers analyze their lives in seven key areas and shows them how to develop goals and plans in each.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

To become an ultimate achiever, you must habitually focus on the one crucial action that will lead you to your goal. You must identify your focal point -- the most important thing you can do at any given time to attain maximum results in any part of your life. Want to substantially increase your income? Improve relationships? Enjoy more time off? Use Brian Tracy's proven Focal Point process, and soon everything you do -- every waking minute of every day -- will create the positive change that will take you higher than you ever dreamed!

SYNOPSIS

Why are some people so remarkably successful? What makes their careers soar? And how do they still find so much time to spend on their personal lives? Bestselling author Brian Tracy shares the secrets to success.

FROM THE CRITICS

Soundview Executive Book Summaries

Focus Your Attention and Actions on What You Want to Achieve
Every person wants to achieve better, faster, easier results in his or her life, but most people are unsure of where they need to apply changes to get the right outcome. The place where we focus our energies is our focal point, and determining where to apply our time and effort takes some concentration and skill.

To deliver this skill in an era of uncertainty, personal development and success guru Brian Tracy offers a new primer on improving the quality of life and work. In this new book, Focal Point, Tracy writes, "Just as the focused energy in a laser beam cuts through steel, your ability to choose the most vital element of any situation will enable you to perform at extraordinary levels in any endeavor."

Four Basic Steps
Tracy's Focal Point Process involves four basic steps that anyone can take: Do more of the things that bring you greater rewards and satisfaction. Do less of certain things that do not help you accomplish the things you want. Start to do things you are not doing at all today. Stop doing certain things altogether if they are inconsistent with what you want and where you want to go.

These simple steps contain the essential building blocks necessary to bring about the changes that can turn anybody's life around. First, a person must have the desire to change. Then, he or she must decide to make the change. With the will to persist until desired results are achieved, anyone is ready to improve his or her world and unlock dormant potential.

Using real-life stories about the people who have taken his advice andsuccessfully changed the course of their lives, Tracy is able to illustrate his basic steps and plot a clear path toward higher achievement and amazing turnarounds.

The 80/20 Rule
When people are trapped in a situation where they feel their energies are being sapped and their lives are out of control, he compels them to ask the question: "Knowing what I know now, if I were not doing this now, would I start it up again today?" Using this as a base line, he urges people to stand back and analyze their actions and make specific decisions that can positively change their lives.

To help his readers double their incomes while doubling their time off, Tracy cites the "80/20 Rule" that says 20 percent of a person's tasks contribute 80 percent or more of the value of the things a person does. Applying this logic, he advises people to spend more time doing more of the tasks that create the greatest value. Once they have identified the time-consuming activities that contribute very little to their results, they should quickly downsize, delegate and eliminate as many of them as possible.

Accept Responsibility
When people accept complete responsibility for their lives they will be better prepared to achieve their goals. This is where leadership begins, Tracy writes. Excuses, criticism and blaming are not the tools of a leader, he writes. Once a person has accepted responsibility for his or her life, then it is time to concentrate attention on a specific area of growth.

Question Yourself
Focal Point asks readers to ask themselves many questions. Within the answers to these are the routes to personal success that Tracy hopes to reveal. By looking deeply into the many facets that make personal success possible, he is able to show his readers that they hold within themselves endless possibilities that simply require focus to turn potential into reality. Among the many important topics he covers throughout his book are: productivity, simplification, decision-making, strategic planning, career opportunities, relationships, financial independence, health and community. Tracy turns each of these into another inroad to success and source of personal development.

Why Soundview Likes This Book
There is more to life than material wealth, Tracy writes in a last chapter dedicated to the inner self and peace of mind. By rounding out his book with more spiritual matters, he reminds his readers that true personal success is the happiness that comes when a person follows his or her intuition and inner voice, and does the things that are right for himself or herself. Because of this well-rounded approach to personal success, Tracy's book is a valuable resource for anyone willing to allow its lessons to shape his or her life. Copyright (c) 2002 Soundview Executive Book Summaries

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