These are just some of my observations.
Every successful person I know is good at delaying satisfaction and gratification. Consistently or religiously works out as well in some form or fashion. It's not necessarily in a gym setting; most don't have a gym membership. Many successful people have some sort of sports or athletics in their background or are currently active members of a sports team. What is the reason behind this? It may teach commitment, discipline, grit, problem solving, mental toughness, learning to work with others, handling fear and rejection, and resiliency.
Successful people value their health because if you don't have your health, what do you have?
They prioritize their mental and physical health. They block out time to get enough sleep, plan their meals, and stay hydrated.
My success and many others I have witnessed in breaking through barriers of limitations viewed as not having a degree or a certain level of education were all because of their networking skills (strong ability to communicate, pose confidence, and strong social skills).
It's not always what you know; it's who you know.
I only had my successes because I knew the people I knew and openly helped them over the years with zero expectations and return. Being kind, generous, and supportive of others pays off in dividends. Meeting others and building a network has excellent value.
How one treats failure and bounces back or not can determine one's fate in life.
If you make a mistake and avoid trying again at life, you're likely going to plateau right where you're at. Failure can be viewed as a failure, or it can be viewed as an opportunity to learn. It's having that bounce-back factor building up resiliency, discipline, and grit(unstoppable). Everyone faces hardship and challenges in life, but learning how to work through them and growing with each opportunity is where experience or street smarts develops more excellent value than any textbook could provide. One cannot succeed if one sees every challenge as fearful. Being able to navigate failure with confidence is coachable.
Learning to discover who you are and grow to like yourself as a person and human being.
Success comes from doing what really makes you happy and brings you joy, purpose, and fulfillment. What are your skills, talents, and what are you good at? What do you want to be good at? What are the things that, when you do them, you lose track of time? What do other people tell you that you are talented at? What did you want to do with your life between 9-14? Be who you want to be, not who others want you to be. Living authentically how you want to live your extraordinary life. Those who live through what others want often don't become successful because their heart is not entirely devoted to it. Do you know who you are? This is something that a life coach such as myself could help you navigate.
You are only as good as those you choose to hang out with.
This includes your family that you were born to. Remove ALL toxic people from your life, and keep the people who push you and inspire you to be the best version of yourself. Build your network and friends around the area in which you want to succeed. Develop deep rich friendships with these people. Successful people surround themselves with people that challenge them, question their limiting beliefs, and cheer them on. I've seen so many people that struggle in their life because they feel obligated to keep people in their life out of guilt and shame.
Know your worth and never be afraid to ask for help and support.
I broke new sound barriers every single time in my past career, fitness health, and current career by hiring mentors, coaches, and trainers. This is ONE reason I love being a coach.
Invest in yourself.
By hiring people to help you cut out mistakes and show you a better way, you'll succeed at a more incredible speed, stay on track, and achieve more prominent, larger goals than you'd ever imagined. Unsuccessful people are usually held back by fear of spending money on themselves or looking dumb or embarrassed (all fears created by a habit of thinking fearful thoughts). Hiring someone more knowledgeable and experienced can prevent you from injury or going backward.
Not only is it essential to ask for help, successful people inspire, motivate, teach, and contribute to others because when someone can share what they've learned, it improves one's understanding of what they know. Unsuccessful people can take a course and pass a test, but if they're unable to apply or willing to use it in their own life. What did they learn? Could you do a 30-minute presentation in front of 20 people on the topic you're most interested in (with no notes)?
Developing confidence cannot be faked.
Confidence is the rocket fuel to success. If you have doubts, fears, or low self-esteem again, it's investing in people to help you. Life is short! No one is coming for you! Here's an area that I love coaching around. Confidence can be taught to anyone that's open and curious and profoundly wants to change.
Successful people are always willing to go into battle; they know that to change or grow, it's going to take being willing to take some risk; there's always a reward with risks. And the only way you can grow is to seek out risks and rewards in the areas where you want to become great.
Successful people have this take-charge attitude about themselves.
Where does a take-charge attitude come from? It's purely thought. This can be learned anytime. It's a thought habit that can be created through coaching.
Successful people learn to solve their problems.
Those who are unsuccessful try to say that people, places, things, or situations are responsible for their status, blaming everyone else. Become a victor and take responsibility for your life, Decisions, and choices. Society, government, town, job, boss, childhood, and genetics aren't to blame. (victim)
Those that are coasting through life on autopilot often don't find success.
Their awareness is low, and they're just like a robot going through each day doing the same thing every day, rinse and repeat. Successful people break patterns outside their comfort zone and thrive in discomfort, challenging their minds, bodies, and souls to new experiences, new challenges, and opportunities for growth and stretching themselves to new levels.
Expecting quick results.
First, expectations are the killer of joy and result in low achievement levels. Highly successful people are looking for a long game; with some luck on your side, things might happen quickly, but the intention is different. Cheap fast results I'm always highly suspicious of sound like a marketing scheme. Often this mentality parallels looking for the easy route. Nothing great comes easy.
Those who have achieved great success and those who aren't can dream, but the action that follows or non-action will determine the outcome. So it's putting in the work, dreaming, sitting on the couch watching TV it's a surefire way should not be successful.
Self-doubt is something that a successful person either locks or seeks help to overcome. Doubt will destroy any dream; as we all know, life is too short. Whenever there's doubt, there's fear.
Successful people have impeccable follow-through.
They say what they're going to do, and they do it. We all know that person with good intentions never follows through with what they say or are always late often. This is poor time management, lack of valuing their own time and others, and not prioritization.
Successful people understand what is and isn't within their control.
Those things outside their control do not affect their moods or ruin their day or life. Those who are unsuccessful are often consumed by things outside their control, such as the weather. A rainy day affects their mood and productivity. This is living their life from the outside in versus the inside out.
I have yet to meet someone successful that spends time uselessly online, watching TV, playing video games, hanging out at the bar, worrying about what other people think, being obsessed with their phone, complaining or whining about their life, being a people pleaser, attending useless, meaningless meetings, sifting through hundreds or thousands of emails, solving other people's problems, commuting long distances to work, or waiting for something to happen.
The title of this blog is subjective in nature.
Unsuccessful can be viewed as an arbitrary rule or measurement. I sincerely believe that success is in the eye of the beholder. Success could be living minimally in a tent in the woods For one person. Success could be living in a mansion on an island with another person. It's not our possessions. It's how we're experiencing life from the inside out. Are you happy?