Ever wonder what successful people actually do that makes them different from others? What type of attitude actually makes them successful? Do they focus on being successful or they just strive to be better and better every day and success follows them? Do they think differently and act differently? Whenever you try to find answers for these questions, you notice that you are also undertaking some actions that resemble the actions of those you call successful ones but what do you lack that is keeping you from being successful.
Here are 10 common ways successful people think differently than others and after reading it you will surely be able to find the missing links between your present state and the one you desire of
1. They consider themselves as their own best competitor
You would have heard about a famous quote “run your own race”! This simply means don’t compare your performance with those of others because it can never be a reliable measure of your success. You will always find someone who will be better than you at something; that does not mean you are less capable or inefficient; you will be better at something else. So, it does not make any sense to measure your success by comparing your achievements with those of others. The best way to measure your performance is to compare your current performance with your past performance, in other words you must compete with your past self.
Moreover, when you start comparing yourself with others, you mostly consider external rewards like money, fame, grade and so on…. but success is not about all this, it’s actually about your inner or mental satisfaction. This is why, successful people compete with themselves rather than with others, they measure their achievements by simply analyzing how much they have improved over time.
2. They align their goals with their purpose
Whenever we talk about success, it automatically triggers struggle or suffering in our mind; what if there is a secret of achieving success effortlessly; effortlessly? Yes, but how? by simply aligning your goals with your purpose. When you align your goals with your purpose, you will be having fun while pursuing them. The more your goals are aligned with your purpose, the more fun you will have and the more easily you will achieve them. But how will you come to know that your goals are exactly aligned with your purpose? By simply judging whether you feel like you are in “flow”, if yes then you are on purpose and vice versa.
Besides it, you may ask yourself, what will you achieve after fulfillment of this goal, if it is what that is sufficient for your inner satisfaction then this is exactly what that is aligned with your purpose otherwise there is a need to redefine your goals. And this is why successful people always align their goals with their purpose.
3. They engage in creative visualization
Random thoughts always try to take up all of our attention and we name it daydreaming, but if we do it purposefully and control it with our intentions, this is deemed as a positive and constructive thing and named as ‘positive constructive daydreaming (PCD) or sometimes creative visualization. Recent researches have proved how constructive role PCD plays in one’s success.
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (FMRI) of different parts of brain has revealed that brain is not able to differentiate among real and imagined things and other systems in our brain too start to direct our behavior according to what we see in our mind’s eye.
So, when we visualize things in our mind that we want to accomplish, we are actually directing our brain to proactively work for us. Successful people always engage themselves in creative visualization to train their brain to work for their cause on its own and to be more productive and creative.
4. They take responsibility for their actions and readily accept their mistakes
We face failures and commit mistakes that’s normal part of life, but real heroes go for readily accepting their mistakes; their biggest regrets; and their failures. Because when you are not willing to admit your failures and mistakes, you are actually looking for some lame excuses to defend yourself and your mistakes. When this happens you lose an opportunity to learn from your mistakes and failures and, this even makes more room for negative and destructive thoughts.
On the other hand, when you cultivate a mindset of accepting your faults and failures, you are actually preparing yourself to take responsibility for the actions that you are going to undertake; and when you take responsibility for your actions, you will be careful enough about outcomes of any decision before making it. This will improve your decision making abilities. Successful people understand very well about their responsibility for any action they undertake and their accountability for it; so at most instances they undertake those decisions that prove right later on (though they may prove wrong sometimes but not always).
5. They understand the importance of highly developed emotional intelligence (EI)
Having higher IQ is not enough to succeed, you also need a highly developed emotional intelligence (EI). Being emotionally intelligent means you are self-aware, have better self-management and social awareness and, able to manage relationships very well.
Being self-aware means you understand your emotions, thoughts and feelings very well; and when you have better self-management you know how to control those emotions and feelings and adapt them according to certain circumstances. Being socially aware means you are empathetic and have good organizational awareness that leads to better relationship management; because better relationship management allows you to influence, inspire, lead, manage conflicts and this in turn helps to getting things done efficiently and effectively. Successful people have highly developed emotional intelligence that plays major role in their success in their personal as well as professional life
6. They take risks and try out new opportunities
Everyone believes that successful people are extraordinary ones, and this is true up to a great extent because there is always something that draws a boundary line between a successful and an unsuccessful individual. Successful people have one thing in common and that is they dare, they dare to take risks, they dare to try new opportunities and better possibilities. In other words, they do have entrepreneurial mindset, and this is why when we talk about successful people, mostly we mention most successful entrepreneurs of the world.
Taking risks and trying new opportunities may lead you towards failure but you will surely walk away with more experience and more knowledge that will surely lead you towards success at some other point in life
7. They aim for excellence not for perfection
Perfectionism is the idea that unless something is absolutely 100% or the highest good, it is not acceptable, while excellence is the idea that for something to be acceptable it does not need to be the highest good, its acceptable when it seems brilliant or outstanding
When people aim for perfection, they in fact set unrealistic and even impossible goals (most of the time achievement based) as a result most of the time they run into difficulty, get overwhelmed and give up. On the other hand, when someone strives for excellence, he sets high standards (mostly performance based) but those are within reach. Although pursuers of excellence may come across temporary disappointment but they don’t quit; they learn from their mistakes and keep going. So, successful people have one thing in common and that is they go for excellence not for perfection. If you have a mindset that resembles that of the perfectionist, there is a strong need to change it because it not only creates hurdles towards your way to success but also creates problems for people working with you and the organization you work for. Strive to overcome it by yourself or by working with a professional therapist.
8. They love to learn new skills and knowledge
Whether working as an employee for an organization or working as an entrepreneur, in order to scale you need to be knowledgeable and consistently learn new skills. Successful people know very well that everything is changing at fast pace and keeping up with the change is challenging until they learn and apply new ways of dealing with them
9. They know the art of focusing
You would have probably noticed someone around you who does not seem to be too busy or painstaking, still his achievements are remarkable, do you wonder how is it possible without considerable struggle? First of all, they do what they love to do and in this way have fun while doing it; secondly, they utilize their time efficiently and finally they master the art of focusing. They do something for little time but employ their whole concentration on it. Thus successful people not only know the ways to employ material resources efficiently but also value the efficient management of time.
To master the art of focusing you must involve in certain cognitive and physical activities like meditation, exercise, yoga, mental games and so on. Take short breaks, spend time in nature and improve your sleep to improve your concentration.
10. They think big but remain realistic
Successful people always think big; they do visualize the bigger picture. But that does not mean that they just visualize and don’t have any idea about from where to start, they do divide their big picture in a series of small actionable goals and move on. So, thinking big does not mean you plan to achieve those goals that seem too unrealistic; rather your goals must have a route that you must clearly understand how to follow to reach the destination.
So to be successful, all you have to do is to start thinking differently i.e. start thinking like successful people, and the good news is that now you know the most common ways to think differently and able to find the missing links between your present state and the one you desire of. When you will start to think differently, you will cultivate a mindset that resembles the mindset of successful individuals and once you cultivate such mindset, you will automatically start acting differently and this is your first step towards your journey to success.
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