What makes successful people successful? There are countless self-help books with ideas galore when it comes to what you need to do to bring out your best, and I have personally read more of these books than I can count. I also have the great fortune of formally studying these variables through my graduate school training, and it is from these teachings — along with nearly 25 years of clinical experience working with people — that I offer the following strategies and ideas commonly found in peak performers.
The top 5 things successful people do
- They believe in themselves. If you don’t believe in yourself, who do you think will? Belief is what makes the placebo effect “work,” and is what is at the core of every great person and idea. Successful people build their confidence, motivation, and focus on the foundation of belief, and without belief eventual failure looms in the future.
- They regularly engage in active listening. Successful people constantly seek mentoring and advice from knowledgeable people, and then they ask questions — lots and lots of questions. Active listening is a powerful tool and helps us work smarter, not harder.
- They continually set controllable, measurable goals. If you don’t set goals how do you know when you have reached success? Instead, write down specific, measurable, controllable goals and then track your progress — this approach will help build self-confidence, refine focus, and galvanize resiliency.
- They develop healthy and effective ways to deal with stress and adversity. Since stress cannot be avoided, why not learn how to cope with stress in healthy and effective ways? Successful people realize life is full of frustration, adversity, and failure, but they use those experiences to learn and become stronger the next time around.
- They have fun. Yes, it’s not only OK to have fun, it’s actually a really smart move. Love what you do and you won’t work a day in your life — when we are interested and engaged in things, we put forth more effort.
Final thoughts
The tools needed for success are fairly basic, but often in life because things seem simple we tend to devalue their worth. Based on my work with clients who continually experience success, I see the same common factors discussed above as the cornerstones for their success. Think about the goals you want to achieve in the future and build a game plan that includes developing belief, listening to powerful mentors, successfully dealing with stress, and having fun along the way and there’s a really great chance you will soon experience great results.
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