Have you ever pondered how successful people think? What motivates them?
And how can you apply their thinking or actions to your own life for greater success? Well, prepare your mind for action.
First of all, let’s briefly define success:
The media-driven narrative is of a beautiful woman or handsome man driving a luxurious car and adorned with expensive clothes, maybe standing in front of their mansion with a big pool and hanging out with other beautiful people.
Well, that’s not really success.
If anything, those kinds of people are either wealthy from inheritance or maybe a little vapid and shallow trying to project success.
Success is… the father or mother who makes an ongoing effort to spend quality time with their kids and family members and connect with them deeply.
Success is… being able to commit some regular time to volunteer and help those in need.
For me, success is seeing my 9-year old trying to comfort his younger brother by using breathing techniques we do at home in practice and discussion related to mindfulness and meditation.
Success is… when the same son plays on a sports team and one day just decides to go around the locker room and fist bump each teammate and use their name saying “good game” to each one of them and starting to do that after every game.
Success is… when you are driving with your 3-year old and see a firetruck or ambulance speeding by and he says… “I hope everyone’s okay.”
To me, those things are success.
Success isn’t cash or fame, diamonds, and Ferraris. Those things are nice, but success is achieving your dreams, however big or small they are. Success is finding happiness and joy in the little things.
Success is lifting others up and fighting oppression. Success is working to love and forgive those people you strongly disagree with.
Success is working to leave the world better than you found it for future generations. Success is working to show everyone respect and doing little acts of kindness for random people.
And maybe most importantly… success is helping build leaders and healthy communities. To me it is all about people and connections and being engaged and supportive.
Back in 2018 I wrote an article about the differences between Personal Success and Business Success which made me think of a quote i like…
Simon Sinek mentioned in his book, Start With Why, the idea of Success vs Achievement. In this idea he states…
Enter, What I Call… Success Habits™
And success… starts with habits. You see success requires a positive growth mindset and actions or the things you do daily on your journey.
It is said that habits take around three weeks to form. That’s what the recent research tells us and good or bad habits can last for an entire lifetime.
That is why just like breathing, something simple can mean the difference between success and failure in the long run.
Habits are so important that I created a mindset idea around them. I try to build Success Habits™ into my life to fill my time with habits that will point me where I want to take my life. In business I always shared the idea of starting with the end in mind.
Where do I want my life to be at the end of my days? Well, as someone who has lived and honorable, respectful, loving, and supportive life. One where I help other people do the same. How does one do this? Habits.
It takes deciding where I want to go, what is important to me, what I want to accomplish, and then what will I need to do to get there.
It takes a growth mindset where I accept I do not know it all and I need to continually learn and grow. It also means I will make mistakes and being okay with them and asking for help when I need it.
I defined my WHY or my purpose to keep me on track. My purpose is to challenge people to become innovative leaders so that we can change the world together.
You can do all these things in your own life. You walk will be different, but finding your own path and your own goals or end result are what it’ll take for you to accomplish what you want or defining what success looks like in your world. I hope this site helps you work on your path and assists you on the journey.
How successful people think key points?
John C. Maxwell talks about how important the right thinking is. I think this is so true and changing my thoughts set my on a new path for sure. It truly does prepare the mind for action and in my mind create the habits of successful people.
The subtitle on his book on How Successful People Think is Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life. He goes on to say… “There are a couple of things one must do in order to change its thinking habits:
- Get exposure to new ideas
- Connect with extraordinary and smart people
- Choose your path
- Act upon the good thoughts swarming into your mind
- Make your emotions in tune with your mindset
- Rinse and Repeat”
How Successful People Think:
Prepare Your Mind For Action…
Here Are 5 Habits and Mindset Ideas You Can Practice to Support Your Own Path to Success…
#1 Time Management
Probably the most important one right out of the bat is proper time management.
Given that everyone, rich or poor, has exactly 24 hours in the day, time is the one resource that you can’t just buy, even if you’re very wealthy.
While schedules may seem restrictive, we’ve begun associating them with success and the high status already in our cultural zeitgeist. For clarity, a zeitgeist is the collective attitude or outlook of people or a culture at a specific point in time.
Now remember, part of this journey is defining your own goal and what success looks like for you. From there you can plan how to use your time and what to fill your days with.
A calendar and scheduling your time give you control and keeps you on track. So for example I meditate daily, first thing in the morning. Why? Because meditation and self-care is important to me and I decided I wanted to add this to my life for a healthy future.
I commit to reading an 30 hours a month or so, roughly an hour a day. Why? because it is important to me and because it pushes me closer to that end result I am aiming for.
Although these two examples are NOT on the calendar per se, I am committed to them and I do them consistently. On a more formal structure, I block out times on my calendar as well. So for example, Saturday I blockout time for my meditation group, Thursday I block out time for my book club and Tai Chi class.
I also have family time formally blocked out for sports and informally for play time.
What’s on your calendar? Do you commit to certain things you do weekly? Do you have informal things you do consistently?
#2 Self-Discipline
A disciplined mind is a strong mind.
No one says it’s easy, but building muscle takes pain, building wealth takes saving, and by that logic, you can only imagine what building a hella-good life takes.
Of course, this isn’t to say that success necessitates constant suffering, but just like you have to exude an amazing amount of force to swim through water or leave the atmosphere if you want to make a change, expect some resistance from the outside world.
This goes back to the Success Habits™ I mentioned earlier. Progress over perfection. You consistent discipline will pay off just stick with those positive habits that a true to your heart. Slow and steady wins the race as they say.
This is one of the reason I am so passionate about habit building – it helps build the consistency needed to reach real success.
What area are you most disciplined? What area would you like to be more disciplined?
#3 Nutrition
Ah yes, nutrition, nutrition, and the great lie that’s been perpetuated that healthy food is expensive. I will say I have been and still get caught up in this concept at times.
Whole Foods and many other “trendy” bio, organic, wholesome, or other labels slapped onto overpriced products for marketing purposes.
The truth of the matter is, yes, it can be convenient to pay extra for prepared salads and healthy options, but easy, green meals that fortify your body and mind aren’t nearly as hard to prepare as the media would lead you to believe. Not only will a good diet improve your concentration, but also your energy levels and mood as well.
How is your nutrition? Are you eating a healthy diet? Are there areas you struggle? Are there areas where you are knocking it out of the park? What wins do you find about your current eating habits? What would you share with others as an easy way to implement a healthy meal or snack?
#4 Perception Of Failure
This is not so much a habit but a mindset.
Successful people stay cool when things don’t go according to plan and treat failure more as a teacher than as defeat.
This is partly because they have a safety cushion to fall on, but this only means a proper plan takes into account that everything won’t go smoothly 100% of the time and factors in contingencies.
Meditation and mindfulness practices have helped me on my own walk related to this concept. It is very empowering.
I think it also helps when you redefine failure. To me failure is only when you stop doing something or quit. Having things not turn out the way you had hoped or planned for is what I now see as a great learning opportunity.
#5 Adopting The Growth Mindset
All of these tips and habits are just parts of the puzzle as to how people succeed.
Of course, the main factor has and always will be-intentions, attitude, actions, and hard work.
Keeping an open mind, gracefully accepting everyone might have something to teach you, and realizing the bigger the goal, the bigger the sacrifices have to be, are others.
That is the growth mindset.
Yes, unfortunately, there isn’t some secret… like eating avocados and raw eggs will give you 24-hour energy. It’s simple yet immensely powerful, so don’t let that discourage you from filling in your own niche, and building the ladder to your specific goal.
Final Thoughts
And so, what can we learn from the habits of successful people? How do they think differently, and what do they focus on to achieve their goals?
We’ve looked at a few examples in this article, but there are many more out there. If you want to be successful, it’s important to study what others have done and find out what works best for you.
I’ve been following Brian Tracey for some 20 years and one thing I like is some of the things he shares about honesty beyond just the business and achievement focused suggestions he offers.
Now the Dalai Lama as another example boils it down to just a few things to build a successful life. He shares these items –
- Meaningful Life
- Serve Others and Not Doing Harm
- Having Friends and Establishing Trust
- Honesty
- Compassion
And here is an interesting person you may have never heard of before. Let me introduce you to the Metal Motivator. He seems to be on to something and he calls it like he sees it and holds us accountable and gets real. He’s a metalhead celebrating Mr Rogers but also walking in his footsteps by trying to change the world by kindness and helping others.