To be successful we all need to develop certain habits and mindsets that are in harmony with the success we seek. Life is full of principles. Follow them and you will get what you want. Do the opposite and you will get exactly that; the opposite of success.
In this post we will look at 5 essential habits of successful people. They are in no particular order of importance and they are something we should all strive to adopt.
#1 – Practice Positive Thinking
Thinking negatively on a regular basis cannot and will not lead to success. Positive thinking isn’t the be all and end all of success, but it is certainly a starting point and it’s vitally important. Not just to think positive for a while, but to make positive thinking become a daily habit that is firmly entrenched within your subconscious. Your thoughts dictate your actions, so you better make sure they are positive ones if you want to succeed. Read a great book on this subject here.
#2 – Work Harder and Smarter
If you were to interview a group of very successful people, almost all of them will tell you that it took a lot of hard work in one form or another. Working harder doesn’t mean killing yourself at your day job so your boss can get rich, but it does mean giving everything your best effort and giving your all. It’s also about thinking smarter and looking for other opportunities where you can send your efforts, areas that will lead to your overall personal success. It’s very hard to make money sitting on the couch watching endless hours of TV. The effort needs to be there, but you also need to be smart about how you expend your efforts.
#3 – Set Goals and Deadlines
Without goal setting there is no destination to reach or a plan to get there. And without a deadline there is no sense of urgency attached to the goal. In order to really be motivated and have a real vision of what you want to achieve and how long you plan to take, then you need firm goals with deadlines. Otherwise your dreams are merely nothing more than daydreams and wishful thinking. Setting goals and working on them is what makes things happen. Rarely would you meet a successful person and discover they didn’t first set goals. Even if their goals were a bit vague at first, they still set some and, as they worked on them, their goals grew in clarity over time. Goal setting is essential for success.
#4 – Take Risks
There is a big difference between having the balls to take an educated risk and just blindly taking careless risks willy nilly. Education plays a big part in knowing which risks might be worth taking and which ones to avoid. So therefore learn as much as you can about whatever it is you want to achieve, then be prepared to step outside your comfort zone and really go after it. Take risks, but calculated ones. No one ever achieved anything great by always playing it safe.
#5 – Persistence and Perseverance
These two Ps – persistence and perseverance – mean the ability to stick to your plan, goals and dreams and never quit. Go after them with everything you’ve got. You see, everyone, no matter how successful they eventually became, encountered obstacles along the road to success. Not all obstacles are a curse. Some present themselves so you will change course a little and deviate onto a better road. See obstacles as opportunities to learn, grow and improve the path you are on. So many people over the years have quit just when they’ve been on the verge of a breakthrough. Don’t be one of those people.
Conclusion
There are many traits that successful people have, but the 5 mentioned in this post are absolutely vital to your future success if you want to achieve a life that is dramatically different to the one you are living now. Go after the life you want.
Darren Burton
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This was a well written article that I enjoyed reading. I do agree with your points and wish to express gratitude for your time in pulling this together. I have a question for you, as a successful online entrepreneur – how long did it take you to get to the point where you could go full-time from home and what income streams did you go after first? I mean, there are lots of avenues you can go down through affiliate marketing, but did you choose them based on passion or based on which streams would provide the best chance of success?
Hi Andy. My first online venture was writing and publishing eBooks. Mire recently I moved into affiliate marketing. Although you need to have an interest in a niche, it can be a bit of a trade off between passion and what niche is likely to make you more money. At the end of the day we are marketers because we want to make money, so you have to choose a niche that has the capacity for good earnings without being so saturated you can’t get noticed.
This is a very concise and to-the-point list. As I continue to seek success at being an entrepreneur, these 5 habits seem to always be touted for how to get there, particularly settings goals and deadlines.
Do you plan to provide more information on the habit of practicing positive thinking, i.e., how to keep the negative discouraging thoughts at bay?
Thanks for the valuable information.
Barbara
Hi Barbara. Glad you enjoyed the post. yes, I will be writing more posts along these lines. I actually have written several posts regarding positive thinking. Here is a link to one http://manyincomestreams.com/getting-started/the-power-of-positive-thinking