The Two-Word Advice From Brian Tracy That (If You Apply) Can Enhance Your Life 80%

The difference between regular time and presence time.

Photo created by Alberto García 🚀🚀🚀with Grok.

The greatest luxury you can aspire to after turning forty is feeling like you did when you were twenty.

That’s why there’s no flavor in the world worth ending up feeling bloated, heavy, and drained after eating.

But it’s not enough to just control what you eat, sleep eight hours, hit those famous 10,000 daily steps, get a weekly massage, and religiously go to your hyperbaric chamber like it’s Sunday mass.

Let’s be honest: things have to go reasonably well for you.

Otherwise, cortisol is released into your bloodstream as if your amygdala were a beehive that had been poked with a stick, and millions of angry wasps were stinging you from the inside.

And to prevent that, the magic word is: results.

You need results. You need to see that you’re making progress in order to actually feel good.

I’d love to tell you I discovered how to multiply those results with a shaman in the middle of the Amazon or meditating with a lama at the Potala Palace in Tibet, but no. I learned it from Bryan Tracy, a sales guru.

Yes, I know. Don’t roll your eyes yet. Because what I’m about to tell you, if it really sinks in, can change your life.

The difference between ordinary time and presence time

In one of his seminars, Bryan Tracy said that most salespeople only actually work 90 minutes a day.

People got really upset: “What do you mean 90 minutes? I work 12 hours a day!” they said.

But he proved they were fooling themselves.

“You’re only working when you’re face-to-face with a prospect. That’s called presence time. Everything else — sending emails, reading sales books, researching the market, taking yet another course, attending this seminar — is just warm-up. It’s ordinary time.”

For Brian Tracy, clarity, focus, and concentration are the keys to success.

Therefore, a good salesperson must be very clear that their job consists of three things: getting clients, focusing on presenting the product or service, and concentrating their efforts on closing the sale.

Once you realize this, you start spending more time actually selling and less time preparing to sell. As a result, you double or triple your results, because you’re devoting more hours of the day to what really matters: selling.

So no salesperson would forget it, he had them write down “The Magic Question”

“Is what I’m doing right now taking me directly to a sale?”

If the answer was no, they had to stop immediately and start doing things that would generate results instead of just calming their nerves.

And when you think about it, all those market studies, courses, books, etc., that salespeople (myself included) do usually have an anesthetic, calming effect.

They protect us from the rejection we face when dealing with a potential client, and they make us feel productive.

“I’m not wasting time. I’m learning how to sell,” we tell ourselves. But… how are we going to sell if we don’t practice?

Well, this applies to every single area of life.

And I’m going to prove it to you.

Application to your life

Think about that result you want in your life but aren’t getting yet.

• Finding a partner.
• Landing a new job.
• Increasing your number of friends.
• Losing weight.
• [Insert whatever you want to achieve here]

Now, separate ordinary time from presence time.

1. Finding a partner. How many hours do you spend thinking, fantasizing, browsing profiles on Tinder or Instagram? How much time do you invest chatting, analyzing conversations, deciding what to say or when to reply? That’s all ordinary time. Presence time is the time you spend actually in front of someone: on a real date, having coffee, dinner, or going for a walk. The more you increase your presence time (that is, the more dates you go on), the higher your chances of finding the right person. Everything else is just warm-up.
2. Getting a new job. How many hours do you spend updating your LinkedIn, tweaking your résumé, searching for openings, watching “how to ace an interview” videos, or complaining about how tough the market is? That’s ordinary time. Presence time is the time you spend talking directly to people who can hire you: interviews, calls, informal coffees, networking events, or meetings with recruiters. If you want to change jobs, multiply the real conversations. Every interview counts. Every direct interaction counts. Everything else is preparation.
3. Increasing your number of friends. How much time do you spend thinking about how you’d like more friends, watching stories, replying to messages, or scrolling through WhatsApp groups and social media? That’s ordinary time. Presence time is the time you spend with people in real life: meeting for drinks, going to events, playing group sports, attending workshops, dinners, or simply saying “yes” to plans. Friendship is built in person, not on screens. The more real shared moments you have, the more real friends will show up.
4. Losing weight. How many hours do you spend reading diet articles, watching workout videos, buying supplements, planning perfect meals, or obsessively weighing yourself? All of that is ordinary time. Presence time is the time you actually spend moving your body (training with intensity), eating the right food, and sticking to the calorie deficit in the moment of truth.

There are no shortcuts: results come when you increase the time you’re actually doing what it takes, not when you’re just consuming information about it.

So whatever result you’re looking for, ask yourself the magic question,

“Is what I’m doing right now taking me directly to what I want?”

If the answer is no, stop doing it immediately and start doing the things that will actually generate the results you’re after — instead of just calming your anxiety and making you feel productive when you’re really just procrastinating.

Hope you have a fantastic day :-)

P.S.: Join me here to keep my work coming to you every day (Yes, I’m selling aka presence time :-)

A virtual hug,

AG