“Success leaves clues.” – Jim Rohn
What do the greats of this world have in common? What does Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Mark Cuban, and other influential and successful people all do the same? There’s not one clear cut answer. If there was, we could bottle it up and sell it for $1,000,000,000.00. The best way to answer this question is to look into these people habits, and then model after their success.
No one ever wants to admit it, but their weight is a direct reflection of their daily eating and exercise habits. Someone’s mood is a direct reflection of the thoughts they let into their mind, and their financial wealth is a direct reflection of their investing and spending habits each day. As hard of a pill it is to swallow, there is an indisputable truth: HABITS equals RESULTS. Our daily habits define the results we have, short term and long term.
With this in mind, then, the most obvious question would be: what are those habits that these highly successful people have? How can I model their habits so that I can model their success? Here are some key factors that will direct you in the path to success, whatever success means to you.
Success Mindset
Everything starts with mindset. Whether you want to beat your own bowling record, climb a mountain, ask someone for a date, have success at business or achieve you financial and life goals, everything starts with mindset. Individuals with a success mindset always seem to figure out how to make things happen, even when the odds seem impossible. 80% of all success is psychology, and 20% is the actual mechanics, the strategies and the tactics. There is no high level math or science on this. If 80% of all success is mindset, then, this means that by having a success mindset, you have 80% of the game already figured out. But what is really a Success Mindset?
Simply put, our mindset is determined by our beliefs. A belief is a sense of certainty we have about something. For example, if you believe you are good at sports, all you are really saying is “I feel certain that I am good at sports.” We can have empowering beliefs, like the example we saw (I am good at sports), but we can also have disempowering or limiting beliefs. A disempowering belief would be something like ” I cannot be successful in business” or “I do not have the capabilities to achieve my goals”. Our beliefs is one of the most important key factors that will determine our level of success.
Success breeds success, and it all starts in your mind. You see, success is really like a cycle, and it starts with your beliefs. Let’s say that you want to complete a project, or pass a test. The successful achievement of these goals start with the belief ” I can certainly do this”. Now, based on this feeling of certainty (belief), you will draw upon your internal resources and skills to start taking action toward the attainment of your goal. In fact, humans capabilities are directly related to their beliefs. Once you take the first step, you start generating momentum, and taking action daily. These actions produce results (pass the test, complete the project) which consequently reinforce the initial belief (I can certainly do this). It is a cycle that feeds on itself. Unfortunately, it also works in the opposite direction. Let’s take the same example of the project. Lets say that your belief related to this project or task is ” I cannot do this”, or “I do not have the capabilities”. Then, your actions will be in accordance with this belief. You will take little action or no action at all and, as a consequence, you will not complete the project. This result will then reinforce your initial belief (I cannot do this).
To be successful, the very first step we need to take is to make the decision to believe that we can be successful. Believe in yourself! There is this quote from James Allen from his book As a man thinketh ” As a man thinketh in his heart, so shall he be”. Also, Henry Ford said: “Whether you think you can or you can’t, either way you are right”. We must get rid of any limiting beliefs we have and replace them with empowering beliefs. Start today by believing that you can actually achieve the level of success you desire and deserve.
Make your Self-Development a Top Priority
Something that you hear in interviews all the time is how much successful people read. Whether its Elon Musk talking about the latest advancement he read about in neuroscience or Warren Buffet speaking about how the new trading methods he read about, people with great knowledge didn’t stumble upon it, they learned it.
In the book The Compound Effect, Darren Hardy talks about how the smallest habits are the ones that make the biggest difference in your life. One of his more famous examples is about listening to an audio book, a self-help podcast, or even something somewhat educational on your every day commutes. Assuming that the average American is in the car for at least 65 minutes a day, 5 days a week, there is a lot of time to learn. If you dedicate that time each day to learning, you are now 281 hours more educated than the man standing next to you. Listen to music while you work, and learn on the way to work. If you work from home, then you can also listen to an educational book while exercising or working out, or while preparing yourself breakfast or lunch. “Where there is a will, there is a way”. Find the method best suited for you, but make a commitment to your continuous growth and learning.
Goal Setting
“If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time.”– Zig Ziglar
One thing all successful people have in common is the goal setting aspect of their lives. Brian Tracy is famous for his 10 list. Write down 10 things you want right now, in order of the severity that you want them. Then trim off the bottom few items, they don’t mean enough to you. The goals must be as specific as possible. For instance, if one of your goals says: “I want to earn more money”, this goals is not specific enough. You must be more specific in terms of what you want to achieve and when you will do it. This goal should be more like: “I will increase my income by 15% before the end of 3rd quarter of this year”, or something like that. You can also use the SMART strategy for goals setting. It is very important that you write down your goals and review them at least once per quarter to make sure you are on track. Once you have set your goals, the next step is to take massive, consistent and determined action towards the attainment of your goals. The universe respects goal-setters and go-getters, so be both of those things. Napoleon Hill said: “Goals are dreams with a deadline.“
One of Elon’s best quotes says “If you have a five year plan, ask yourself how you can achieve the same goals in five months. You probably won’t do it, but you’ll be a lot closer than you would’ve been if you told yourself it was going to take five years.” Be relentless with your goal setting, be patient, and most of all, work hard.
“Success requires both urgency and patience. Be urgent about making the effort, and patient about seeing the results.”– Ralph Marston
Willing to Fail
No one has ever woken up in the morning and though to themselves, “Wow I cannot wait to get rejected, fall on my face, and fail today!” But that is exactly what many successful people have in common. They are willing to take risks, albeit calculated ones, and they are willing to fail in the pursuit of being the greatest. Thomas Edison, the inventor of the lightbulb, said that “I haven’t failed — I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work…”. Napoleon Hill also said: “Remember when your plans fail, that temporary defeat is not permanent failure.” Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. If you are still skeptical of this, you can go and ask Henry Ford, who failed on his first attempt to start a car manufacturing business. If after asking Henry Ford you are still skeptical, you can ask Walter Disney, who was fired by an editor who thought he lacked of imagination, lost his rights to his first commercial character, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, and then got rejected by 302 banks before finally getting financing for his dream of creating Walt Disney World. I could go on and on with other successful people who faced temporary challenges and defeats, but they kept believing in their dreams and as a consequence, achieved them.
“Make failure your teacher, not your undertaker”– Zig Ziglar
You’re closer than you think, just keep going.
No one has ever won a game 7 without losing 3 games. If you take a loss, take it on the chin and keep your head high. Your life is 10% what happens to you and 90% of how you handle it. Make sure you aren’t giving up too quick, you’re closer than you think.
Surround yourself with Success
If someone told the 7th-grade version of yourself that everyone you come in contact with, everyone you play against in sports, and even your teachers, could be your business partners in the future, you would’ve behaved a lot differently. The truth is, your success is determined by the people you surround yourself with. If you’re always around 5 idiots, you are going to be the 6th. If you are surrounded by 5 successful business owners, you are going to be the 6th. We are the product of the environment we choose. Tony Robbins says : “The quality of your life is a direct reflection of the expectations of your peer group.” The only way to surround yourself with greatness is to openly talk about the dreams and ambitions you have and share them with people. The right groups will embrace you.
See the Big Picture
It’s so easy to get blinders on when working on a project, but knowing what is not only going to help you in the next week, but also in the coming months and years is one of the things all successful people do. Elon Musk didn’t start SpaceX or Tesla because he thought it would be a massive hit right away, but he knew that the future was trending towards what those business models represent. The only way that you can be a part of the future is if you project and launch yourself into it. Peter Drucker said: “The best way to predict your future is to create it.”
If you have big plans for the future, its important that you work on them. You need to take care of your day to day and week to week needs for you and your family, but set time aside each day to make sure you are building the future you want to live in. Ask yourself: Where do I see myself in a year, 5 years, 10 years from now? You can choose to get to a designed future, one you have designed with your values and your dreams, or you can choose an undesigned future, one that not even you know what does it looks like, full of uncertainty. You must choose now. Choose well.
Invest in Yourself
Whether you are buying new audio books specifically for the profession you want to dominate or buying a course on entrepreneurship, don’t be afraid to spend some of your cash. You’re willing to go spend $50 at the bar on a Friday night, but you won’t spend $15/mo for a mastermind course. Be smart and know that each time you are investing in yourself, your returns come in so many more ways than just money.
If you are willing to do what no one else is doing right now, you will be able to live like no one else can. Spending money on non-tangible objects is hard, but the knowledge that is behind that stubborn paywall is well worth your time and money. Imagine that you are a million dollar race horse. How much would you invest on yourself to make sure you are going to be able to run races and make a million dollars? How much would you invest in your mind and your body to make sure you are at the peak of your performance level consistently? That is what high achievers and successful people do. They stay at the top of their game. Another important factor to stay at the top of your game is to have the best tools available to execute your work. If you want to add the best productivity app into your tools inventory, click on the link below to learn more about the GamePlan App.