Get it Done Now!

We treat procrastination as a moral failing, a lazy refusal to do what we know must be done. But what if it’s something else entirely? What if procrastination is a simple, solvable mechanical failure in how we perceive a task’s starting line? Consider the marathon runner and the person who can’t bring themselves to walk around the block. Both face a physical challenge, but one sees a finish line miles away, while the other sees only an impossibly distant first step. The runner isn’t morally superior; they’ve just learned to ignore the full distance and focus only on the immediate motion. This reframes the entire problem: the battle is against a trick of perception. We are paralyzed because our brain is showing us the entire, exhausting marathon instead of the single, easy step required to begin.

This exact perceptual glitch fascinated a man who had spent decades observing the subtle differences between extreme high-achievers and everyone else. Brian Tracy, a renowned speaker and authority on personal and professional development, noticed a consistent pattern. The most successful people weren't necessarily smarter or more talented, but they possessed a seemingly innate ability to bypass the mental paralysis that plagues others. They had, often unconsciously, developed a method for redefining the starting line of any task, making immediate action feel not just possible, but easy. Tracy realized this was a learnable skill. He distilled these observations into a simple, repeatable framework, creating Get It Done Now! as a direct method to help anyone overcome the perceptual illusion of the marathon and finally take that first step.

Module 1: The Inner Game of Productivity

Before you can manage your time, you must manage your mind. Tracy argues that your outer world is a direct reflection of your inner world. Your thoughts, beliefs, and self-image create your reality. This is the psychological foundation of high performance.

The first principle is to understand that your thoughts create your circumstances. You become what you think about most of the time. This is the law of attraction in a business suit. If you constantly think about your limitations, you will find them everywhere. But if you focus on opportunities and solutions, you will attract the people and resources needed to succeed. The only thing you have complete control over is your thinking. So, the first step is to take control.

This leads to the next insight. High self-esteem is the engine of high performance. Self-esteem is simply how much you like and respect yourself. Tracy found that every event in your life either raises or lowers it. This makes building and protecting self-esteem a critical job. He suggests a simple but powerful practice: repeating the affirmation "I like myself." A struggling salesman in one of Tracy's seminars did just this. He began repeating "I like myself" throughout the day. His confidence grew. His sales calls improved. He soon became a top performer and eventually started his own company. This is reprogramming. Positive self-talk quiets the two great fears that hold people back: the fear of failure and the fear of rejection.

Building on that idea, you must act the part of the person you want to become. Your brain can't easily distinguish between a real action and one that is vividly imagined or acted out. Tracy wanted to be a patient, positive father. So even when he felt frustrated, he consciously acted as his ideal self would. This consistent action not only shaped his children's development but also reshaped his own internal state. To build a new habit, you act your way into feeling it.

And here's the thing. You become who you associate with. Your reference group determines your reality. If you want to be a top performer, you must spend time with other top performers. The 80/20 rule applies to people, too. Twenty percent of the people in any field earn 80% of the money. Your job is to get into that top 20%. A young salesman was stuck at the bottom of his company's rankings. He started asking the top salespeople for advice. He implemented their suggestions immediately. He even started socializing with them. Most people never bothered to ask. He did. Soon, he was one of them.