No Excuses Book Summary

Book Summary

15 min

Audio available

Brief Summary

To join the ranks of successful people stop making excuses and take control of your life. Through self-discipline you can make progress in all the meaningful areas of life. Start by clearly defining your goals and the actionable path to achieving them. Stop blaming other people for your problems and master your craft. Manage your time so you’re only spending time on the most productive and important activities. Use regular discipline to tend your health, business, money and relationships and you’ll find yourself in a life you never thought was possible.

About the Author

Brian Tracy is a motivational public speaker and self-development author. He is the author of over 80 books that have been translated into dozens of languages including the bestsellers Eat That Frog and The 21 Success Secrets of Self-Made Millionaires. He is the chairman and CEO of Brian Tracy International, a company that sells counseling on leadership, selling, self-esteem, goals, strategy, creativity, and success psychology.

Topics

Management & Leadership

No Excuses Book Summary Preview

What You’ll Learn

How excuses keep you from living your best life.
How to prioritize your day so that you accelerate towards your goals.
The best way to take control of every aspect of life.

Who Should Read This

Anyone afraid to pursue their dreams.
Those interested in better time management.
People who struggle to delay gratification and plan for the future.

Key Insights

In this book, Brian Tracey asks us to rethink the role of excuses in our life; maybe they’re the only thing truly holding us back. He details ways to take control and make progress towards our goals in everything from relationships to money to physical fitness. Once you reject excuses, understand your goals, and start taking responsibility you’ll find a lot more room for progress.

Successful people know that excuses only hold you back.

Think of the most successful people in your life. Maybe they’ve accrued wealth and found happiness and renown. What are they doing with their days that’s different? How do they get around the obstacles in life that seem to keep us from thriving?

Tracey starts the book by arguing that it’s their self-discipline that sets them apart. These are the people who eat “dinner before dessert” and sacrifice short-term pleasures for long-term outcomes. By hunkering down and working hard on career and happiness goals, anyone can pull away from the pack in this way.

The excuses we make for why we aren’t successful are endless. Maybe we believe that our parents didn’t teach us the right things or that the economy is too difficult to navigate. In reality, most people face these problems, but some people manage to reach the goals they set for themselves despite everything.

The author explains that he too spent his younger life making excuses. When he was 21, he worked in construction, felt chronically lonely, lived in a tiny apartment, and barely made enough to pay his rent. One night, sitting alone in his apartment, he had a realization. He was the only person who could change his situation. This acknowledgment was the first step towards a new life.

Tracey started studying self-help books religiously. He learned that his unhappiness was coming from his tendency to blame everyone but himself for his circumstances. After accepting that he was responsible for his success, or lack thereof, he started to take control of his life.

Tracey writes that learning and practicing principles of self-discipline can help us become the kinds of people we dream of being. Disciplined people tend to have higher self-esteem since they can control their story and know they deserve everything that’s coming to them. It’s extremely empowering to have a sense that you can change any situation that’s non-ideal.

Tracey divides our goals into three categories: personal success; business, sales and finances; and personal life. He argues that these are the areas that you can transform through self-discipline.