Have you ever wondered how to succeed at life? Is it starting your own business, beginning a new hobby, losing some weight, or changing your career? The truth is that everyone has their own definition of success, what we want in life and what it means to become successful.
We can define success as reaching a predetermined goal and accomplishing something valuable to you or others you had purposed to accomplish.
Success means the desire, aspiration, and zeal to achieve something important, valuable, meaningful, and significant that will substantially impact your life or the lives of others.
Do you want to be successful in life? Then you need to realize that achieving goals in life and success is about your mindset just as much as it is about effort. You have to adopt a mindset that will help you achieve your goals and grow as a person.
Yet there’s more to that, and in this article, we’ll cover tips that will help you achieve success.
How Can I Become Successful In Life?
There’s a sea of books out there on achieving success. However, success is personal and unique to each individual. The advice in the books may not be relevant depending on your definition of success. As such, following the advice of a single individual can often be unhelpful.
Still, reading books about successful individuals can give you ideas to incorporate into your own journey, as you pursue success. Below we have compiled a list of the 10 best ways to be successful in life.
1. Build A Growth Mindset
Research shows that two types of mindsets influence how people think about themselves and their abilities. They include; the fixed mindset and the growth mindset.
People with a fixed mindset believe that success is a result of inner talents instead of hard work. They believe that things like intelligence are unchangeable and static.
Because they believe that people are born with the talents that make them triumphant, they tend to give up easily when faced with obstacles.
People with a growth mindset, on the other hand, believe that they can change, grow and learn through effort. People with this mindset are driven to accomplish things. When things get tough, they look for ways to improve their skills and continually work to achieve success.
How can you build a growth mindset?
- Believe that your efforts are worth it: Instead of thinking that their abilities are fixed or stuck, people with a growth mindset believe that effort and hard work leads to success.
- Learn new skills: People with a growth mindset overcome obstacles by looking for ways to develop the knowledge and skills they need to achieve their goals.
- They view failure as a learning experience: People with a growth mindset don’t give up when they experience failure. Instead, they look at failure as a learning phase and commit to improving their skills or strategy.
2. Develop Mental Toughness
Mental toughness refers to the ability to carry on and continue trying even when faced with a challenging situation. Any person that possesses this mental strength is resilient and views challenges as opportunities. They feel that they are masters of their destiny and are committed to completing what they start.
If you doubt your mental toughness, then the good news is that there are ways to improve it. You can:
- Keep trying: The truth is that nothing comes easy in life. Therefore, when faced with setbacks or obstacles, you can focus on improving your skills and striving to realize your goals. View the success and failures as learning opportunities and keep pushing forward.
- Believe in yourself: Get rid of negative thoughts and look for ways to stay positive and encouraged.
- Set goals: Successful individuals set time-bound goals. It is important to ensure that these goals are not unrealistic and that they are attainable. When you have goals to focus on, you’ll be in a better position to move forward and overcome challenges.
- Find support: Doing things alone can be difficult, but having a strong support system simplifies the journey. A life coach, family members, co-workers, and friends can cheer you up when things get tough. They can also offer advice and assistance that will help you improve your chances of success.
3. Become A Fast Learner
If you want to be successful in this competitive world, you will need to become a fast learner. You can develop this skill by training your brain to accept new information. Incorporating regular exercise into your routine also helps your brain to boost productivity.
Successful individuals are always learning new things that will help them accomplish their dreams. It may take some time to identify what works for you when it comes to learning. For instance, do you learn faster when you create mind maps? Are you a physical learner, or are you okay learning purely from visual content?
You can start by creating the habit of learning new things every day. The more frequently you engage in learning, the faster your brain will adapt.
4. Make Your Goals Happen
Most people create goals each year but only a few people stick with them until they are accomplished. When a new year begins, we often tell ourselves, “It’s going to be a great year,” “This is the year I’m actually going to make my goals happen.”
Fast-forward a couple of months into the year, and you’ve become so caught up with life that you’ve stopped paying attention to your goals. You’re still stuck in a career that you detest, and you don’t even know where you saved that document with all of your new years resolutions listed down.
One way to make goals happen is to create actionable plans and projects to help you accomplish them. Take your annual goals and break them down into monthly goals, weekly goals, and daily goals. Next, prioritize the goals and revisit them often enough to avoid the temptation to slack off.
Simply put, if you want to make goals happen, then you have to take more action.
Related: Seize The Moment: 16 Practical Ways To Take Control Of Your Day
5. Improve Your Emotional Intelligence
Generally, it’s been a long-held belief that intelligence contributes to success in different areas of life. A recent article demonstrates just how important emotional intelligence is. Emotional intelligence refers to one’s ability to be aware of, control, and express their emotions and handle interpersonal relationships judiciously and empathetically. Emotionally intelligent people not only understand their emotions but also those of others.
You can improve your emotional intelligence by:
- Listening to others: This involves hearing what they are saying and paying attention to non-verbal cues, for example, body language.
- Pay attention to your emotions: Be mindful of what you’re feeling and what is causing those feelings.
- Manage your emotions: You can do this by taking a step back and trying to view things with an impartial perspective. Instead of repressing your feelings, look for healthy and appropriate ways to handle your emotions.
6. Strengthen Your Willpower
In a study that focused on highly intelligent children, psychologists observed that the children were successful from childhood to adulthood because they shared some key characteristics. These included, perseverance and willpower. Successful individuals tend to have these characteristics as part of their personality. But, you can also work on developing these traits.
You can strengthen your willpower by practicing delayed gratification, learning to persist when faced with challenges, and waiting for the fruit or reward from your hard work. Strategies that you can use to strengthen your willpower include:
- Practice: It takes time to build willpower. The best way to start is to make small goals that require willpower to achieve, such as, avoiding sugary foods if you are looking to lose weight.
- Distraction: For example, maybe you’re trying to lose weight but can’t stay away from your favorite snack. Learning to distract yourself during those moments of weakness can help you beat the temptation.
- Plan ahead: When you plan ahead, you make it easy to overcome temptation. For instance, if you’re trying to eat healthy food, you can pre-plan your meals for a week. This will help you avoid impulsive stops at fast-food restaurants.
- Mindfulness: This can also help you strengthen your willpower. It will help you act based on intent rather then giving in to cravings.
7. Nurture Traits That Boost Your Potential
Psychologists have worked for a long time on identifying specific traits or personality characteristics that people need to live life successfully. They have identified six traits that play a role in how well people perform in their careers. They include:
- Conscientiousness
- Ability to adjust
- Accepting ambiguity
- Courage
- Curiosity
- Competitiveness
You can work on nurturing some of these potential traits to increase your chances of succeeding in life.
8. Seek A Life Coach
A life coach can help you clarify goals, identify any obstacles that are holding you back, and develop strategies that will help you overcome those hurdles. If you’re struggling with achieving success in your career or any area of life, you can work with a life coach.
Life coaches help people focus on their unique skills and gifts. By helping you make the most out of your strengths, life coaches provide you with the much-needed support that you perhaps need to obtain your own success.
9. Overcome Self Doubt/Limiting Beliefs
If you want to be successful in life, you need to free yourself from self doubt and limiting beliefs. Self doubt is that inner voice that tells you “You can’t succeed”, “This time won’t work either”, “You have failed before and you will just fail again.” If you allow self doubt to step in, it will kill your dreams before they even materialize. This voice will make you quit prematurely whenever you’re faced with obstacles, setbacks or experience failure.
You overcome self doubt and limiting beliefs by being kind to yourself. Instead of focusing on your failures, take note of your past achievements. You can also spend time with supportive people and avoid comparing yourself with others.
If you don’t get rid of self doubt, you will lack confidence and motivation. You will end up procrastinating or simply giving up before you become successful.
Related: I Don’t Know What I Want To Do With My Life: 14 Steps To Get Unstuck
10. Track Your Progress
Set aside time to evaluate your progress and reward yourself whenever you achieve a specific, measurable milestone that you had set. Imagine your path to success as a journey that you need to chart out in your mind to know where you are going and how you’ll get there.
At specific intervals of your journey, you need to assess the location where you are in relation to your end destination. How close or how far away are you from success? How much distance have you traveled so far? Are you on the right path to become successful?
Tracking your progress keeps you more focused and productive because you know what you’re after and what you need to do in order to achieve it.
What Are The Keys To Success
Success is not for other people. You can also make it in life. Imagine what life would be like once you realize that success. What would the future look like? Now, write down that image that you have of a successful life and take action to achieve it no matter what obstacle you face.
Here are top tips on how you can accomplish success.
Believe In Yourself
There will be people who will doubt you, but you cannot afford to doubt yourself. Successful people wholeheartedly believe in themselves and their goals. The journey to achieving those dreams may be hard, but you remain positive and focused when you believe in yourself.
Find What You Love To Do And Do It
Marc Anthony said, “If you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.” This quote is true if you want to lead a successful life. Instead of being stuck in a career that you hate, you can choose to pursue a job that you love. When you put effort in to what you love to do, you will have the motivation to keep going.
Learn How To Balance Life
A successful life requires you to balance work and family life. One of the biggest mistake people make is that they think that to be successful, they must be obsessed with getting there at any cost. For example, if a person thinks their career will lead them to success, they may spend countless hours working after hours, evenings and on the weekend. However, this robs them of time spent with their friends, family and can even rob them of their health.
Success is all about balance. When you create time for rest, family, and work, you’ll discover that you develop a healthy mindset. This, in turn, makes you more productive in your career or goals.
Do Not Be Afraid Of Failure
Henry Ford had this to say about failure, “Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.”
Never let failure birth self-defeating thoughts in your mind. Rather, view it as a lesson. Study the failures and craft out a strategy for moving forward.
Have An Unwavering Resolution To Succeed
Don’t let obstacles, failures, or other people’s opinions dissuade you from your goals. When you have an unwavering resolution to come out victorious, you will find a way to overcome the obstacle. Not everything will go your way, and that’s okay because you are firm in your resolution to define success on your own terms.
Cultivate Positive Relationships
We all need some help from time to time. In your journey of success, you’ll realize that being good to people does help make the journey easier. If you do a bit of digging, you’ll realize that some of the best leaders in history were people who knew how to cultivate good relationships.
You can do the same by being empathetic, thoughtful, generous, and fair. It is important not to just reach out to people when you need something. Rather, genuinely appreciate others for who they are.
Don’t Be Afraid Of Introducing New Ideas
It’s a scary world when you consider that people with new ideas are often disregarded. Most of us are taught from childhood to think and do things similar to how everyone else does them. This can be great if you are interested in a certain career, But if you have a mind for entrepreneurship or desire to bring change to the world, you’ll need to embrace thinking differently.
Celebrate different ideas that come to your mind. Write them down instead of throwing them away.
Believe In Your Capacity To Succeed
It is so important to be able to envision yourself succeeding. No doubt there will be low points in life where you feel that perhaps you should change course. But as Walt Disney once said, “If you can dream it, you can do it.”
If you keep dreaming, and you’ll achieve it. The key to success lies within you.
Always Maintain A Positive Mental Attitude
Napoleon Hill said, “Your mental attitude is something you can control outright, and you must use self-discipline until you create a Positive Mental Attitude – your mental attitude attracts to you everything that makes you what you are.”
This quote says that you need a positive mental attitude to succeed in life. Therefore, choose to think differently by replacing negative thoughts with positive ones. If you stay positive, setbacks won’t affect you as much. However, a negative mindset makes it easier for you to quit. When we quit, we forfeit ourselves the opportunity of being successful.
Don’t Let Discouragement Stop You From Pressing On
Imagine a family member sitting you down to tell you that maybe you should drop your idea of setting up an online business. Besides, you have bills to pay plus other financial obligations. Maybe you should postpone the idea or abandon it altogether?
If you’ve been paying attention this far, then you realize that it’s up to you to guard your heart and mind from discouragement. It can come in any form, from self-talk or from someone you trust, like your best friend. However, do your best to ignore it and stay on track. Use wisdom and do whatever you need to do, to ensure that you stay on track.
Be Willing To Work Hard
Your starting point on the path towards victory is to get out of your comfort zone and strive to achieve your goals. To most people, getting out of their comfort zone is hard work. Some people feel that they don’t have the free time to pursue their goals. Others feel that they need a 9 to 5 job to meet their own needs, and their goals will come later.
Yet, like most things in life, accomplishing your goal requires you to be willing to put in the work. It’s up to you to make the baby steps to achieve it because no one will do it for you. You don’t want to live a life of “What ifs.”
We all crave for success in life-be it in career or simply with life in general. This article is here to remind you every day that you can make your dream to be successful come true.
