I’ve always been fascinated by people who are consistently
successful at what they do; especially those who experience repeated success in
many areas of their life throughout their lifetime. In entertainment, I think of Clint Eastwood
and Oprah Winfrey. In business, I think
of Steve Jobs and Warren Buffett. We all
have our own examples of super successful people like these who we admire. But how do they do it?
Over the years I’ve studied the lives of numerous successful
people. I’ve read their books, watched
their interviews, researched them online, etc.
And I’ve learned that most of them were not born into success; they
simply did, and continue to do, things that help them realize their full
potential. Here are twelve things they
do differently that the rest of us can easily emulate.
1. They create and
pursue S.M.A.R.T. goals.
Successful people are objective. They have realistic targets in mind. They know what they are looking for and why
they are fighting for it. Successful
people create and pursue S.M.A.R.T. goals.
S.M.A.R.T. goals are Specific, Measurable, Attainable,
Relevant, and Timely. Let’s briefly
review each:
Specific – A general goal would be, “Get in shape.” But a
related specific goal would be, “Join a health club and workout 3 days a week
for the next 52 weeks.” A specific goal
has a far greater chance of being accomplished because it has defined
parameters and constraints.
Measurable – There must be a logical system for measuring
the progress of a goal. To determine if
your goal is measurable, ask yourself questions like: How much time? How many total? How will I know when the goal is
accomplished? etc. When you measure your
progress, you stay on track, reach your target dates, and experience the
exhilaration of achievement that spurs you on to continued efforts required to
reach your goal.
Attainable – To be attainable, a goal must represent an
objective toward which you are both willing and able to work. In other words, the goal must be
realistic. The big question here
is: How can the goal be accomplished?
Relevant – Relevance stresses the importance of choosing
goals that matter. For example, an
internet entrepreneur’s goal to “Make 75 tuna sandwiches by 2:00PM.” may be
Specific, Measurable, Attainable, and Timely, but lacks Relevance to an
entrepreneurs overarching objective of building a profitable online business.
Timely – A goal must be grounded within a time frame, giving
the goal a target date. A commitment to
a deadline helps you focus your efforts on the completion of the goal on or
before the due date. This part of the
S.M.A.R.T. goal criteria is intended to prevent goals from being overtaken by
daily distractions.
When you identify S.M.A.R.T. goals that are truly important
to you, you become motivated to figure out ways to attain them. You develop the necessary attitude,
abilities, and skills. You can achieve
almost any goal you set if you plan your steps wisely and establish a time
frame that allows you to carry out those steps.
Goals that once seemed far away and out of reach eventually move closer
and become attainable, not because your goals shrink, but because you grow and
expand to match them.
2. They take decisive
and immediate action.
Sadly, very few people ever live to become the success story
they dream about. And there’s one simple
reason why:
They never take action!
The acquisition of knowledge doesn’t mean you’re
growing. Growing happens when what you
know changes how you live. So many
people live in a complete daze.
Actually, they don’t ‘live.’ They
simply ‘get by’ because they never take the necessary action to make things
happen – to seek their dreams.
It doesn’t matter if you have a genius IQ and a PhD in
Quantum Physics, you can’t change anything or make any sort of real-world
progress without taking action. There’s
a huge difference between knowing how to do something and actually doing
it. Knowledge and intelligence are both
useless without action. It’s as simple
as that.
Success hinges on the simple act of making a decision to
live – to absorb yourself in the process of going after your dreams and
goals. So make that decision. And take action. For some practical guidance on taking action
I highly recommend Getting Things Done.
3. They focus on
being productive, not being busy.
In his book, The 4-Hour Workweek, Tim Ferris says, “Slow
down and remember this: Most things make
no difference. Being busy is often a
form of mental laziness – lazy thinking and indiscriminate action.” This is Ferris’ way of saying “work smarter,
not harder,” which happens to be one of the most prevalent modern day personal
development clichés. But like most clichés,
there’s a great deal of truth to it, and few people actually adhere to it.
Just take a quick look around. The busy outnumber the productive by a wide
margin.
Busy people are rushing all over the place, and running late
half of the time. They’re heading to
work, conferences, meetings, social engagements, etc. They barely have enough free time for family
get-togethers and they rarely get enough sleep.
Yet, business emails are shooting out of their smart phones like machine
gun bullets, and their daily planner is jammed to the brim with obligations.
Their busy schedule gives them an elevated sense of
importance. But it’s all an
illusion. They’re like hamsters running
on a wheel.
The solution: Slow
down. Breathe. Review your commitments and goals. Put first things first. Do one thing at a time. Start now.
Take a short break in two hours.
Repeat.
And always remember, results are more important than the
time it takes to achieve them.
4. They make logical,
informed decisions.
Sometimes we do things that are permanently foolish simply
because we are temporarily upset or excited.
Although emotional ‘gut instincts’ are effective in certain
fleeting situations, when it comes to generating long-term, sustained growth in
any area of life, emotional decisions often lead a person astray. Decisions driven by heavy emotion typically
contain minimal amounts of conscious thought, and are primarily based on
momentary feelings instead of mindful awareness.
The best advice here is simple: Don’t let your emotions trump your
intelligence. Slow down and think things
through before you make any life-changing decisions.
5. They avoid the
trap of trying to make things perfect.
Many of us are perfectionists in our own right. I know I am at times. We set high bars for ourselves and put our
best foot forward. We dedicate copious
amounts of time and attention to our work to maintain our high personal
standards. Our passion for excellence
drives us to run the extra mile, never stopping, never relenting. And this dedication towards perfection
undoubtedly helps us achieve results… So
long as we don’t get carried away.
But what happens when we do get carried away with
perfectionism?
We become disgruntled and discouraged when we fail to meet
the (impossibly high) standards we set for ourselves, making us reluctant to
take on new challenges or even finish tasks we’ve already started. Our insistence on dotting every ‘I’ and
crossing every ‘T’ breeds inefficiency, causing major delays, stress overload
and subpar results.
True perfectionists have a hard time starting things and an
even harder time finishing them, always.
I have a friend who has wanted to start a graphic design business for
several years. But she hasn’t yet. Why?
When you sift through her extensive list of excuses it comes down to one
simple problem: She is a perfectionist. Which means she doesn’t, and never will,
think she’s good enough at graphic design to own and operate her own graphic
design business.
Remember, the real world doesn’t reward perfectionists. It rewards people who get things done. And the only way to get things done is to be
imperfect 99% of the time. Only by
wading through years of practice and imperfection can we begin to achieve
momentary glimpses of the perfection. So
make a decision. Take action, learn from
the outcome, and repeat this method over and over again in all walks of
life. Also, check out Too Perfect. It’s an excellent read on conquering
perfectionism.
6. They work outside
of their comfort zone.
The number one thing I persistently see holding smart people
back is their own reluctance to accept an opportunity simply because they don’t
think they’re ready. In other words,
they feel uncomfortable and believe they require additional knowledge, skill,
experience, etc. before they can aptly partake in the opportunity. Sadly, this is the kind of thinking that
stifles personal growth and success.
The truth is nobody ever feels 100% ready when an
opportunity arises. Because most great
opportunities in life force us to grow emotionally and intellectually. They force us to stretch ourselves and our
comfort zones, which means we won’t feel totally comfortable at first. And when we don’t feel comfortable, we don’t
feel ready.
Significant moments of opportunity for personal growth and
success will come and go throughout your lifetime. If you are looking to make positive changes
and new breakthroughs in your life, you will need to embrace these moments of
opportunity even though you will never feel 100% ready for them.
7. They keep things
simple.
Leonardo da Vinci once said, “Simplicity is the ultimate
sophistication.” Nothing could be closer
to the truth. Here in the 21st century,
where information moves at the speed of light and opportunities for innovation
seem endless, we have an abundant array of choices when it comes to designing
our lives and careers. But sadly, an
abundance of choice often leads to complication, confusion and inaction.
Several business and marketing studies have shown that the
more product choices a consumer is faced with, the less products they typically
buy. After all, narrowing down the best
product from a pool of three choices is certainly a lot easier than narrowing
down the best product from a pool of three hundred choices. If the purchasing decision is tough to make,
most people will just give up. Likewise,
if you complicate your life by inundating yourself with too many choices, your
subconscious mind will give up.
The solution is to simplify.
If you’re selling a product line, keep it simple. And if you’re trying to make a decision about
something in your life, don’t waste all your time evaluating every last detail
of every possible option. Choose
something that you think will work and give it a shot. If it doesn’t work out, learn what you can
from the experience, choose something else and keep pressing forward.
8. They focus on
making small, continuous improvements.
Henry Ford once said, “Nothing is particularly hard if you
divide it into small pieces.” The same concept configured as a question: How do you eat an elephant? Answer: One bite at a time. This philosophy holds true for achieving your
biggest goals. Making small, positive
changes – eating a little healthier, exercising a little, creating some small
productive habits, for example – is an amazing way to get excited about life and
slowly reach the level of success you aspire to.
And if you start small, you don’t need a lot of motivation
to get started either. The simple act of
getting started and doing something will give you the momentum you need, and
soon you’ll find yourself in a positive spiral of changes – one building on the
other. When I started doing this in my
life, I was so excited I had to start this blog to share it with the world.
Start with just one activity, and make a plan for how you
will deal with troubles when they arise.
For instance, if you’re trying to lose weight, come up with a list of
healthy snacks you can eat when you get the craving for snacks. It will be hard in the beginning, but it will
get easier. And that’s the whole
point. As your strength grows, you can
take on bigger challenges.
9. They measure and
track their progress.
Successful people are not only working in their
job/business, they are also working on it.
They step back and assess their progress regularly. They track themselves against their goals and
clearly know what needs to be done to excel and accelerate.
You can’t control what you don’t properly measure. If you track the wrong things you’ll be
completely blind to potential opportunities as they appear over the
horizon. Imagine if, while running a
small business, you made it a point to keep track of how many pencils and
paperclips you used. Would that make any
sense? No! Because pencils and paperclips are not a
measure of what’s important for a business.
Pencils and paperclips have no bearing on income, customer satisfaction,
market growth, etc.
The proper approach is to figure out what your number one
goal is and then track the things that directly relate to achieving that
goal. I recommend that you take some
time right now to identify your number one goal, identify the most important
things for you to keep track of, and then begin tracking them immediately. On a weekly basis, plug the numbers into a
spreadsheet and use the data to create weekly or monthly trend graphs so you
can visualize your progress. Then
fine-tune your actions to get those trends to grow in your favor.
10. They maintain a
positive outlook as they learn from their mistakes.
Successful people concentrate on the positives – they look
for the silver lining in every situation.
They know that it is their positivity that will take them to
greatness. If you want to be successful,
you need to have a positive outlook toward life. Life will test you again and again. If you give in to internal negativity, you
will never be able to achieve the marks you have targeted.
Remember, every mistake you make is progress. Mistakes teach you important lessons. Every time you make one, you’re one step
closer to your goal. The only mistake
that can truly hurt you is choosing to do nothing simply because you’re too
scared to make a mistake.
So don’t hesitate – don’t doubt yourself! Don’t let your own negativity sabotage
you. Learn what you can and press
forward.
11. They spend time
with the right people.
Successful people associate with people who are likeminded,
focused, and supportive. They socialize
with people who create energy when they enter the room versus those who create
energy when they leave. They reach out
to connected, influential individuals who are right for their dreams and goals.
You are the sum of the people you spend the most time
with. If you hang with the wrong people,
they will negatively affect you. But if
you hang with the right people, you will become far more capable and successful
than you ever could have been alone.
Find your tribe and work together to make a difference in all of your
lives. Tribes by Seth Godin is a great
read on this topic.
12. They maintain
balance in their life.
If you ask most people to summarize what they want out of
life they’ll shout out a list of things like: ‘fall in love,’ ‘make money,’
‘spend time with family,’ ‘find happiness,’ ‘achieve goals,’ etc. But sadly, a lot of people don’t balance
their life properly to achieve these things.
Typically they’ll achieve one or two of them while completely neglecting
the rest. Let me give you two examples:
I know an extremely savvy businesswoman who made almost a
million dollars online last year. Based on the success of her business, every
entrepreneur I know looks up to her. But
guess what? A few days ago, out of the
blue, she told me that she’s depressed.
Why? “I’m burnt out and
lonely. I just haven’t taken enough time
for myself lately, and I feel like something is missing in my life,” she
said. “Wow!” I thought. “One of the most successful people I know
doesn’t feel successful because she isn’t happy with how she has balanced her
life.”
I also know a surfer who surfs all day, every day on the
beach in front of our condo complex in San Diego. He’s one of the most lighthearted, optimistic
guys I’ve ever met – usually smiling from ear to ear. But he sleeps in a rusty van he co-owns with
another surfer, and they both frequently panhandle tourists for money. He has admitted to me that the stress of making
enough money to eat often keeps him up at night. So while I can’t deny that this man seems
happy most of the time, I wouldn’t classify his life as a success story.
These are just two simple examples of imbalanced lifestyles
that are holding people back from their full potential. When you let your work life (or social life,
family life, etc.) consume you, and all your energy is focused in that area,
it’s extremely easy to lose your balance.
While drive and focus are important, if you’re going to get things done
right, and be truly successful, you need to balance the various dimensions of
your life. Completely neglecting one
dimension for another only leads to long-term frustration and stress.
