Who is Brian Tracy?

Brian Tracy is a well-known motivational speaker, author of self-development literature, and leader in the sphere of success, who has worked with more than 1000 companies and spoken to more than 5,000,000 people in his lectures and seminars around the planet. Since he was born in 1944, Tracy had a hard upbringing, but he deliberately educated himself and applied himself to change his life.

What makes Tracy unique compared to other personal development experts is his practical and results-oriented attitude. Instead of working on motivation, Tracy offers systematic guidelines, which are accessible to all people, to deliver tangible results. His career includes such topics as leadership, sales, personal success, and time management, with over 80 books published over his career.

The Brian Tracy 7 steps have become one of the most powerful goal-setting frameworks in personal development. Decades of research and applied experience distilled down into a repeatable process that removes procrastination and generates momentum towards your most important goals.

The Brian Tracy 7 steps are important because they give form to what could otherwise be nothing more than vague ambitions. Goals remain dreams where there is no framework. Tracy’s style converts elusive wishes into based output with requirements, metrics, and daily to-dos. This systematic approach arouses the psychological factors that increase the probability of success, such as commitments, consistency, and behavioral momentum.

What are the Brian Tracy 7 Steps?

The Brian Tracy 7 steps are an all-encompassing goal achievement system that has been deployed by millions across the world. This framework converts dissipated desires to definite plans with quantifiable results. Before proceeding to discuss each of the steps separately, let’s review the whole system:

Decide exactly what you want – Clarify your specific goal with precision

Write it down – Transform your goal from thought to tangible commitment

Set a deadline – Establish a timeframe that creates urgency

Make a list of everything – Identify all required actions and resources

Organize the list into a plan – Create a sequential roadmap with priorities

Take action immediately – Begin working on your plan without delay

Do something every day – Maintain consistent momentum toward your goal

It matters greatly that one has a framework in regards to personal development because it creates a structure for ambition. If a step-by-step approach is not used, goals usually reside in the world of wishful thinking. The human mind likes order, and a clear framework takes off the load of the brain, as opposed to reinventing the wheel every time; you can put your mental strength into execution.

The Brian Tracy 7 steps are outstanding from other goal-setting strategies because of the balance it strikes between simplicity and comprehensiveness. Whereas over-complicated systems generate friction via too much planning and too simplistic approaches are void of substance, Tracy’s framework is structured enough to be actionable without overwhelming us.

One aspect of this system that makes it especially powerful is that it focuses on both planning and doing things. Many often get stuck in the planning quagmire, or they just start taking action without preparing enough. Brian Tracy’s 7 steps will guarantee that you have a clear destination and an effective map at the same time, and one of these emphasizes direct action and the daily progress to keep the momentum.

Step-by-Step Breakdown with Actionable Advice

Step 1:

Make Up Your Mind Precisely About What You Want

The first of the Brian Tracy 7 steps deals with most primary requirement for achievement: clarity. Tracy insists that there are blurred results from blurred goals. The clearer you can specify what you want to have, the better the chances of getting it.

Your discussion here needs you to be brutally honest with yourself about what you really want, not what you think you should want. Tracy suggests that you ask yourself such questions as: What would I do if I had the feeling I could not fail? and “What would I desire if I did not have any limitations?

For goals to be effective, they should be:

Specific: Make clear what success is supposed to be.

Measurable: Add some quantifiable metrics to monitor the progress

Personal: Write goals in first person (“I will …”).

Present tense: State aims as if they are attained.

Personal: Write goals in the first person (“I will …”).

• For instance, instead of “lose weight”, a well-defined goal will be; ‘’I weigh 160 pounds by December 31st: 15% body fat, energetic and confident in appearance.
• This accuracy triggers your reticular activating system (RAS) – the part of the brain that selects data and offers appropriate opportunities to your attention. Once you are clear what you want, you start seeing resources and possibilities that you didn’t see earlier.
• Real-life example: Oprah Winfrey, when she began her career, was not just interested in “working in television”. Precisely, she imagined herself running her talk show in which she would get to relate to and assist others. Such clarity dictated her choices and enabled her to see those opportunities that matched her vision.
• Practical tip: Have a “clarity session” for yourself. Find a distraction-free environment, and for 90 minutes, use a notebook. Write uninterruptedly about what you want in each major sphere of one’s life (career, relationships, health, finances, personal growth). Seek patterns and things that will produce real excitement. Out of these realizations, write defined aims that appeal to your true desires. This all-important foundation of absolute clarity is the first step of the Brian Tracy 7 steps.

Step 2:

Write It Down 

The second amongst the Brian Tracy 7 steps makes your objective from a mental conception to a practical expression of will. Tracy refers to research that states that an individual who makes his or her dream or goal is 42% likely to attain it than one who does not. There are powerful psychological effects generated through this simple act, which increases your likelihood of success.

The writing has several functions in the process of goal achievement:

1. Crystallization: The writing process requires you to formulate and state your goal clearly.
2. Commitment: Written goals are a psychological agreement with yourself.
3. Memory reinforcement: Writing involves activation of more neural pathways than thinking does.
4. Reference point: A written goal gives an object against which to check.
5. Subconscious programming: Written statements focus your subconscious mind on the opportunities and solutions.

• According to Tracy, one should handwrite as opposed to type his or her goals. Studies show that through the physical process of writing, deeper neural connections are formed and more complex processing occurs than that from digital entries. Instead of loose pieces of paper that can go missing, use a goal journal or goal notebook.
• For the best results, use the present tense, first person, and positive form while writing down your goals, as if you have already accomplished them. For example: “I make $10K every month from my consulting business where I interact with the clients I love and balance my life”.
• Real-life example: J.K. Rowling came up with her idea for Harry Potter and then wrote it down on a napkin while she was delayed on a train. This humble act of writing opened the concretization process of what would later turn into one of the best book series ever written.
• Practical tip: Come up with a “goal card” for your most important goal. Note your primary objective on a little card that you can have in your purse or wallet. Read this card several times a day, and particularly in the mornings and just before going to bed, when your mind is most suggestible. Not only does this frequent reinforcement place your objective in the front of your mind, but it also increases your level of commitment to success. This written commitment is vital in efforts to turn desires into reality, and this is emphasized by Brian Tracy 7 steps.

Step 3:

Set a Deadline

The third step of Brian Tracy 7 steps puts the key ingredient of time-boundedness into the goal pursuit. According to Tracy, wishes without deadlines are nothing but goals. By setting a time limit, you set a psychological urgency that serves as the motivation to act and avoid procrastination.

Tracy suggests the following guidelines should be used when establishing deadlines:

• Be realistic but ambitious: Setting a deadline can be challenging, but still possible.
• Create the final and interim deadlines: Split long-term goals into milestones.
• Establish consequences: Determine what shall be the case in case you meet or miss the deadlines.
• Make deadlines public: Share them with accountability brothers and/ or sisters when necessary.
• Review regularly: Measure improvement against the deadlines and correct it accordingly.

• For intricate goals, Tracy recommends using backward planning -starting with your final deadline and working your way through to when every previous step is due. This establishes a timetable that puts a clear path and direction for what to do without having to feel overwhelmed.
• Tracy suggests you artificially implement an artificial deadline in the case that your goal lacks one. The precision of a date provides actual boundaries for your brain to do its work, utilizing problem-solving character more effectively than unbounded time intervals.
• Real-life example: The announcement by John F, Kennedy in 1961 that America would put a man on the moon “before this decade is out” presented a definite deadline within which NASA’s research and development would be fueled. This period added some sense of urgency that moved mountains regarding seemingly impossible technical barriers in the period announced.
• Practical tip: Use the “deadline multiplier rule” when setting the ambitious targets. Guess how much time it will take you to reach a goal, and multiply it by 1.5 to give space for unforeseen challenges and obstacles. This does not discourage through failure to meet deadlines, yet it still creates time pressure to be productive. Time constraints are recognized as the essence of transforming the potential energy into kinetic achievement by the Brian Tracy 7 steps. Goals not defined with a set time frame usually remain on the horizon forever instead of appearing in reality.

Step 4:

Make a List of all

The fourth Brian Tracy’s 7 steps is an exit from abstract goal-setting to concrete planning. In this step, you will have a comprehensive brainstorming of all that you will need in order to achieve your objective. Tracy reminds her readers of how this lengthy listing process converts daunting goals into workable parts.

When creating your list, include:

1. Required actions: All the tasks that you have to do personally
2. Knowledge requirements: Things that you need to learn or get to know about.
3. Resource needs: Tools, materials, technologies, or money needed
4. People resources: People or groups that you’ll need some help from
5. Potential obstacles: Potential difficulties and measures that can be taken to avoid them.
6. Alternative approaches: Various ways of doing something in the same way.

• Tracy suggests using what he refers to as “mindstorming” in addressing this list-making process, wherein one writes down at least 20 items, without censoring or assessing them. This method goes around your critical mind and frequently generates breakthrough ideas concerning items 15-20 that would not arise from traditional styles of thinking.
• The comprehensiveness of this list rules out the tendency of forgetting essential aspects until they boil up as problems of emergencies. When you define all the parts on the front, then you will assess what achievement will be needed.
• Real-life example: When Elon Musk established SpaceX, he wrote lists of all the parts and procedures required, at a fraction of the costs of traditional means, to build rockets. This thorough list of stocks enabled him to pinpoint certain areas in which innovation could bring the biggest cuts in costs.
• Practical tip: Use mind mapping software or a big sheet of paper to come up with a visual of all that your goal requires. Begin with your objective, then extend out from this into the major categories (skills, resources, people, etc.) and add the specific items under each. This visual representation allows seeing the lines between various items and usually reveals what is not possible to spot using linear lists. This comprehensive inventory process is used in the Brian Tracy 7 steps to make sure that nothing is forgotten in the process of transforming a goal into actionable plans.

Step 5:

Rearrange the List into a Plan

The fifth of the Brian Tracy 7 steps will turn your overall inventory into a strategic action plan. According to Tracy, good organization leads to efficiency, avoidance of waste of effort, and motivates people with the evident progress.

When putting your list into form as a plan, use these principles:

1. Prioritize by impact: Target 20% of the actions that will produce 80% of the outcomes.
2. Sequence properly: Establish the order of performing the tasks.
3. Group-related activities: Cluster similar tasks for efficiency
4. Identify prerequisites: Pay attention to which of the items are based on the other ones.
5. Allocate resources: Allocate time, money, and manpower to where they are needed.
6. Create contingencies: Make backup plans for critical path elements.

According to Tracy, there is an easy A-B-C-D-E prioritization framework that can be used:

• A: Has to be completed (severe consequences if it is not completed)
• B: To be carried out (minor consequences if not carried out)
• C: It’s nice to do (no penalty in case nothing is done).
• D: Delegate (needs to be done, not necessarily by you)
• E: Remove (not needed to obtain the objective).

Such an arrangement to organize eliminates the usual error of mixing up activity with productivity. Through prioritizing high-impact items, you guarantee an actual result regardless of the successful completion of the tasks in your list.

Real-life example: There were dozens of products that were in development when Steve Jobs came back to Apple in 1997. Jobs put these into a simple 2×2 matrix (consumer/professional, desktop/portable) and cut everything that could not be made to fit into any of these four boxes. This ruthless organization helped Apple concentrate on developing revolutionary products such as the iMac.

Practical tip: Make a physical or an online project board of your goal using a project management software. Organize tasks into columns: “To Do, “In Progress”, “Waiting For”, “Completed”. This representational view of what you plan to do produces the feeling that something is getting done as things move across the board and exposes the bottlenecks when they become jammed up in some funnel. This organization phase is a very important step that the Brian Tracy 7 steps insist on being done in the processing of raw action lists into strategic plans with maximum efficiency and impact.

Step 6:

Take Action Immediately

The Brian Tracy 7 sixth step fixes the important shift from planning to doing. Tracy insists that momentum is generated through instant action, and resistance to initiation of the task is overcome. This is where a lot of goal-setting systems fail because here people sink into incessant planning with no action taking place.

When undertaking this step, pay attention to:

1. First action identification: Decide on the first measure you can take immediately.
2. Five-minute rule: If it can be done, do something that takes less than five minutes.
3. Psychological triggers: Generate environmental triggers to take action
4. Public commitment: Inform someone of the action that you are taking today.
5. Documentation: Record your first step to create the pattern of execution.

• Tracy underlines that the immediacy of the first action is more important than its size. You are much more likely to ultimately succeed if you waste no more than 48 hours after setting a goal. This instant action capitalizes on a commitment psychological’- after starting, you do not need that much willpower to keep you going.
• The concept of a bias toward action should also be maintained during your pursuit of your goal. If in doubt over striving to do more planning or taking a leap of action with available information on hand, Tracy is usually of the view that action is the superior, suitable default choice in most cases.
• Real-life example: When Richard Branson made a decision to open Virgin Atlantic, he acted at once; he picked up the phone and approached Boeing to negotiate the lease of one of the second-hand 747s – before he had staff, routes, or regulatory clearances. Such an instant move put him on the path, and he was left with no other option but to find solutions to future challenges.
• Practical tip: Apply what Tracy terms the “Swiss cheese method” to overcome inertia in large projects. Instead of waiting for the times when you have those big blocks of time, do whatever small 5-15 minute things you can when you can, puncturing holes in the project like Swiss cheese. These minor activities will sustain a psychological connection with the goal, and usually, they provide glimpses that lead to more efficient later work. According to the Brian Tracy 7 steps, immediate action is the link between planning and achievement as potential gets transformed into action with momentum.

Step 7:

Do Something Every Day

Constant progress guaranteed by the final of the Brian Tracy 7 steps is achieved due to daily efforts. Tracy insists that sustained effort, even if it is scanty, has compound effects that speed up accomplishment. This principle makes use of psychological commitment as well as the mathematical fact of accumulated effort.

When implementing daily action:

• Minimum viable effort: Set the minimum daily contribution.
• Progress tracking: Record daily activities for the visual evidence of consistency.
• Habit stacking: Relate goal-oriented practices to people’s daily routines.
• Non-negotiable time blocks: Create non-negotiable time for building goals.
• Result review: Assess the daily efforts’ impact regularly and make changes where necessary.

• Tracy suggests the idea of the “golden hour” – begin the day with the one thing that is the most important to you for an hour before other demands hijack the day away from you. This will ensure daily improvement, no matter the unexpected catastrophe that comes along later.
• It is from the combination of the practical progress and neurological reinforcement that daily action exhibits power. Daily action toward your goal builds neural pathways connected with a certain behavior, and further efforts become less dependent on willpower and more automatic.
• Real-life example: Stephen King carries out a writing routine to write at least 2,000 words in a day, even on holidays and despite a lack of inspiration and circumstances. This is a daily routine that has helped him publish over 60 novels and 200 short stories in his career.
• Practical tip: Make a “don’t break the chain” calendar for your goal. For every day that you are active towards your goal, mark the day with an X on a physical or digital calendar. As the chain of Xs develops, the psychological investment in sustaining the streak increases, and with it, the grip it has on you. For many moments of low energy and initial flippancy, the streak ends up being more motivational, far more than the goal itself. The Brian Tracy 7 steps come to bear in this principle of daily action, as it is understood ultimately, consistency beats intensity to make substantial gains. Little efforts repeated assiduously lead to more results as opposed to sporadic flurries of enormous work.

Why the Brian Tracy 7 Steps are Still Applicable Today

Surprisingly, the Brian Tracy 7 steps, which were first developed decades ago, are still rather effective in the modern environment. This resilience arises from the basis of the framework from theories on human psychology and performance that are beyond such changes in technology and cultures.

The up-to-date studies in cognitive science and behavioral psychology confirm the relevance of this system:

1. Goal specificity: Research is unanimous about the fact that specific, measurable goals result in better performance as compared to vague objectives. The importance of Tracy on clear-cut identification of goals corresponds with research conducted in more than a thousand studies on goal-setting theory by Locke and Latham.
2. Written commitment: Neuroscience studies have shown that writing engages other neural pathways than typing or thinking, thus having a more diverse memory and commitment. It was revealed in the Dominican University study that goal achievers who write their goals get miles ahead of those who do not write their goals.
3. Implementation planning: Psychologist Peter Gollwitzer’s research details that specific implementation intentions (”when, where, and how” planning) cause tremendous gains in the rates of goal achievement, which is exactly what Steps 4 and 5 produce.
4. Consistency over intensity: James Clear and other modern habit researchers confirm Tracy and his focus on taking daily action. Neuroplasticity studies reveal that dint to continuous repetition, more powerful neural pathways are developed compared to intermittent intense effort.

In comparison to other goal-setting ways, such as SMART goals, OKRs (Objectives and Key Results), and GTD (Getting Things Done), Brian Tracy 7 steps offer more all-inclusive steps around the actualization of plans and execution. Although there are criteria when it comes to SMART goals for goal definition, there is minimal help when it comes to implementation. OKR performs very well in the organization, but it fails to have an individual motivation aspect. GTD is task-oriented and not object-oriented towards achieving great objectives.

The Brian Tracy 7 steps psychological science behind this work explains why this model keeps yielding effectiveness in our current age of distraction, marked with digital attributes. Working in the framework of how our brains naturally think about goals, create habits, and stay motivated, Tracy’s system does not battle with our system of thought.

Conclusion

Brian Tracy 7 steps are a proven blueprint, which can be utilized to make reality out of your most vital goals. Adhering to this systematic process – deciding about what you want specifically, writing it down, setting the deadlines, compiling the requirements, planning properly, immediately acting, and daily progressing – you put yourself into the success position way above what would be achievable if only random activities were engaged.

Ready to get this framework working for yourself? Download our free printable Brian Tracy 7 Steps Workbook to outline the next important goal from its conception to the finish. Sign up for our weekly tips towards achieving the goals in order to keep up the momentum and avoid typical pitfalls on the road to success.