Education & Experience Don’t Guarantee Success—Attitude & Habits Do

The 5 difference-makers that fast-track your career

Larry Alton

 

June 24, 2015

Professional success is a culmination of many factors. Your education matters—maybe not as much as you think, but a degree in your field can really jump-start your progress. Your experience certainly matters, but that can only come to you after years of dedication. Your talent matters, too, but aside from skills (which develop from experience) most of your talent is innate, meaning you have a natural tendency to perform well in certain areas more than others. Your network of contacts matters, but you can’t always control who you interact with. And ultimately, at least some of your career success is going to come down to a factor of luck.

Looking at these things, it seems like there is little you can control. But none of these things will matter if you neglect the most important things you need to create for yourself:

1. A Positive Attitude

The whole “positive attitude” angle might seem like a gimmick—after all, can you think of anybody successful who got to where they are only because they thought positive thoughts? Of course not. But you can trace almost any successful entrepreneur or professional’s journey and find at least one major obstacle that nearly disrupted everything. And in the face of that obstacle, they remained positive, which motivated action rather than submission, and eventually, they rose to the top.

Positive thinking is about more than helping you through the tough times. Research shows that positive self-talk, rather than negative self-talk, can actively reduce your stress levels, giving you greater physical and mental health and a greater capacity to perform to your maximum potential. The best part is that there aren’t any naturally positive or naturally negative people—your thoughts and your self-talk can be controlled with practice, meaning a positive attitude is something you can, and should, create for yourself.

2. Ongoing Habits

Our habits make us who we are. Over time, our repeated actions become automatic, or second nature, and once we’re in that groove it’s nearly impossible to break the chain. With bad habits, like sleeping through your first alarm or working through your breaks, this unbroken chain can come to destroy you. But with positive habits, like regularly reading or fact checking all of your work, this unbroken chain can lead you to success.

Though many habits form unconsciously through our natural actions, it is possible to create ongoing habits for yourself. The key to creating these habits is consistency—if you want to start doing something every day, you must force yourself to start doing it on a daily basis, and don’t allow yourself to slip in the first few weeks. After a few rounds of consistent effort, it will become easier. Breaking bad habits can be tougher, but it’s entirely within your power.

3. Goals

While your specific job may have company goals that dictate your actions, your professional goals are entirely within your control. Create goals that are too lofty and you’ll never be able to make significant progress. Create goals that are too easy, and you’ll never reach your true potential.

The reliable standby for creating good goals is the SMART criteria—an acronym that describes the five key qualities that all goals must have: specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-specific. In addition to meeting these criteria, you should create goals on multiple scales. For example, you should have broad, flexible long-term goals detailing your plans for your long-term success, but you should also have smaller, more immediate, actionable goals that can lead you to those broader visions, and medium-sized goals in between the two to act as milestones.

4. Tactical Plans

Goals are good for helping you to hone your desires and set the tone for your career, but without a solid plan of execution, those desires are only pipe dreams. As an extension of your goals, you must learn to create tactical plans that detail how you’re going to achieve those goals. That might include a list of tasks you must accomplish before reaching the goal, a series of strategies you’re going to use while pursuing that goal, or a list of prerequisites you’ll need to have before moving on to the next phase of your plan. If you’re having trouble coming up with an initial plan, you may need to do additional research before moving forward.

5. A Healthy Environment

As humans, we are often products of our environments, and in the professional world, this is no different. If your desk is messy, your mind may be more frantic and cluttered. If you work in a noisy area full of distractions, you’ll never be able to focus. But perhaps more importantly, if you’re surrounded with negative, apathetic or downright lazy people, you’ll never be able to motivate yourself to achieve your goals. If you’re working in a place that doesn’t acknowledge hard work, you’ll never be able to progress.

Create your own environment to maximize your chances for success, whether that means working within the confines of your current organization or moving on to a better opportunity. Surround yourself with the types of people who will lead you to success, and structure your work environment so you can be your most productive.

Once you start creating these things for yourself consistently and with dedication, you will find yourself naturally gravitating toward a path of success. With a strong vision in your mind and the right attitude and environment to carry you through the obstacles that lie ahead, there should be nothing stopping you from achieving your goals.

Do you have what it takes to succeed? Check out the 5 best (but unheard-of) books on success and be officially way smarter than everyone else.

- See more at: http://www.success.com/article/education-experience-dont-guarantee-success-attitude-habits-do#sthash.qBJBRX9R.dpuf

When You Aim High, You Set Yourself Up to Fall Far

When You Aim High, You Set Yourself Up to Fall Far—Here’s Why It’s Worth It

Isa Adney

 

January 8, 2016

When I graduated with my M.Ed. in 2012, my grandma gave me a card in Spanish that, loosely translated, said: "Aim high." ​It meant a lot to me. I was the first in my family to graduate with a bachelor's degree, and now a master's degree.

My grandma did not receive formal education after the fourth grade. She made sacrifices that made it possible for me to aim high. I was grateful, and I took her card as a call to action, one that said, "Don't stop here."

So I kept aiming high, even as high as Harvard. But when that failed, I started to wonder if I'd taken my grandma's encouragement too far. I couldn't ask her, because she died weeks after that card brightened my day. But I wondered, truly. Do I aim too high? Do I dream too big? Should I stop? Should I be "normal"? Should I settle?

I’m guessing that if you’re reading an article on SUCCESS.com, then you’re probably an achiever like me. You try hard. You aim high.

But what I wasn’t prepared for—the part about aiming high that no one ever told me—was gravity.

When you aim high you also set yourself up to fall far.

And it hurts. It’s embarrassing.

For some people, that’s enough reason to never try hard, to never aim high. They want to avoid those hard, long, fast falls. This strategy works. If you never aim high, you will never fall hard in that particular way.

But it also guarantees you stay firmly where you are, never growing, never learning, never changing. Maybe that works for some people. But me? I just can’t seem to get comfortable being on the ground. I need to climb.

Along the way, I’ve learned that there’s no such thing as a “4.0 GPA” of aiming high—there’s no straight-A version. There’s no way to climb without the falls, the bruises, sometimes even the helicopter EVAC rescues.

And occasionally after a big fall, I wonder if it means I should stop, if trying has gone from brave to stupid. It can be hard to tell until you get to the end.

When I’m in the pain of the initial fall, body bruised and in shock, the harsh reality of the ground, being back where I started—that is when I start to wonder if the problem is that I aim too high. I wonder if all this madness could be stopped if I just started ignoring my grandma’s graduation card.

But then I think about my grandma at my age, moving from Puerto Rico to New York to find work, raising her younger siblings after her mom died, successfully navigating the subways without knowing English. I think about her moving to Staten Island when things got rough in the Bronx projects, to find a safer environment for my dad and his sister. I think about how she cleaned other people’s bathrooms, how my grandpa exterminated other people’s bugs, all to earn a living. I think about the house they eventually bought and paid off in Florida, one with a pool and a grapefruit tree that yielded fresh fruit every October without fail.

When I think about where they started and where they ended, all I see is aiming high. I’m sure there were falls, so many I don’t know that I wish I could ask them about. I wish I could ask my grandma what kept her aiming high. What kept her from giving up?

I can imagine answers and they all make me feel spoiled and selfish. And I think that’s a good thing, because compared to her, I am.

Because of her, I am.

I have so much opportunity, including the opportunity to think about things, like what I want to do with my life. There are still of course times when glass ceilings and inequalities in our culture make me feel so small I want to give up, but aiming high, continuing what she started, is the only way I can think to say thank you, to make use of the privileges and opportunities she created for me.

So I aim high. And I fall.

Sometimes I get there. Sometimes I fall short.

Sometimes I achieve exactly what I aimed for.

Sometimes I achieve something totally different, but better than I could have ever aimed.

And sometimes, I just fall, fall, fall.

There are moments when I forget Staten Island and subways and grapefruit trees and simply question whether trying hard works, whether aiming high is just for suckers, whether the American dream is just a nice story to keep us from going insane.

There are real barriers. The world is not an equal or fair one. It’s often more cruel than I ever dreamed.

But what gives me hope is not that that playing field is fair.

It’s that, even despite all the injustice, a young woman from Puerto Rico can still move to another country and find a job as a seamstress and support a family.

That there are still some people for whom aiming high means helping those who are the victims of the harshest injustices. 

It’s not easy. Aiming high is not a guarantee. Sometimes things don’t work out the way you hoped. But I’ve come to think that aiming high is part of what makes something great possible.

It’s the possibility that keeps me aiming.

Because I’ve come to realize that the only real answer to the question, "Am I aiming too high?" is this: "There's only one way to find out." To aim high and try. To experiment, test, climb, fall, learn and try again. That maybe aiming high isn’t about an external outcome at all, but about aiming for something higher in you.

I think about this every time I slice through a fresh grapefruit and sprinkle a little salt on each half, just like I always did at my grandparents’ table. It’s sour and salty. It takes me by surprise, oddly unpleasant and pleasant all at the same time—my lips puckering and eyes wincing. And yet I don’t stop. I finish the whole thing.

I used to think “ambition” was a dirty word—something only cold, cut-throat people had. But then I learned otherwise…

How I Stepped Up to Be a Leader

John Addison

 

January 11, 2016

As I was thinking about writing this column for SUCCESS—my first as Leadership Editor—I wondered how some people become leaders in the first place. What makes one person step forward to hone those skills when others don’t?

In my case, there might have been a few signs in my childhood. We lived in Georgia, way out in the country, and I was my own best playmate. I had to be creative! I couldn’t get on my bicycle and ride over to visit the kid next door. He was too far away. So I developed the ability to be absolutely fine by myself. To this day I still have it. I travel by myself, I have dinner by myself, but most important, I am comfortable with myself.

That was very helpful when my own path toward leadership became clear. Twenty-six years ago I worked at a financial services company, A.L. Williams & Associates, which was renamed and underwent a host of other changes before, eventually, I went on to serve as co-CEO. In 1989 our company was sold to Citigroup, which was then headed by Wall Street wonders Sandy Weill and Jamie Dimon, and it was a big sea change for us. Suddenly we were owned by these guys from New York who really didn’t know anything about our business.

During this trying time, I stepped forward. There was nothing mysterious about what I did. It was as simple as building relationships with the people sent down from New York and being strong enough to take a stand and talk to them without kowtowing and being intimidated. I earned their respect.

For me that experience underscored the importance of sheer likability.

It’s a skill: the ability to take positions without being a jerk. It’s about being honest, friendly and approachable, having a perspective on things, and being able to win people over to your way of thinking. If you boil leadership down to one word, it’s influence.

Going forward, I’m using my influence to help people. As a leader, I have done what so many of you are trying to do. My ideas are not theoretical or formulaic. I don’t follow affirmations posted on the refrigerator. And I didn’t wake up one day and say, I’m a good communicator; let me write books and columns on leadership.

I have been a leader when times were terrible and when times were great. I’ve been baptized by fire. I believe leadership is a verb, not a noun—and I have done it.

You’ll find my column in SUCCESS magazine every month. I’m going to share my experiences and give practical advice on what works and what doesn’t to help you grow, lead and realize your goals. Because you need to develop your leadership skills before you have a position that requires them. That’s how it was for me, and that’s how it will be for you.

Life is a process. We’re getting better every day. We are growing, changing—we are always stepping forward.

Let’s do it together.

To give you a little extra inspiration on your leadership journey, read 4 quotes from people I consider to be among the most influential leaders of all time.

- See more at: http://www.success.com/blog/john-addison-how-i-stepped-up-to-be-a-leader#sthash.uKxKMFEx.dpuf

Choose to be Epic

Josh Ellis

 

January 12, 2016

A friend recently described to me her new outlook on life: After years of lamenting family, career and relationship disappointments; of dwelling on the past and living a life wrapped in regret for what it wasn’t, she changed.

She explained that she now attempts to purposefully view her existence from a third-person point of view. She sees herself as the main character in a movie and makes every major life decision based on what would be the most exciting thing for her to do in each instant. She writes her own script, and she’s trying to make it epic.

I think she makes a lot of sense. We don’t cheer for our big-screen heroes and heroines to play it safe and live life at a lesser volume. Fortune favors the bold. Sure, you can calculate the odds and approach the game of life conservatively—go to college, get a decent job, claw your way up slowly over the course of decades and maybe even make enough money to retire into part-time work as a big-box store greeter. That’ll probably work out OK.

Or you can choose to go for it. Put yourself out there. Take a risk. At every step in life, there’s a daring detour we can make to realize a new and exciting existence: Skip college and start a business; introduce yourself to a cute stranger at the coffee shop; take off mid-career for a year or two and backpack through South America.

The greatest rewards of wealth, love, experience and joy come from doing something big—something epic.

The February issue of SUCCESS is a testament to that idea. It’s about people who refuse to set limits for themselves—from our transformative cover guy, Joel Osteen, to our seventh-annual Achievers of the Year; to James Lawrence, the man who completed 50 grueling Ironman endurance races in 50 days last summer. Our pages offer incredible profiles this month. But, as is the case every month, February’s issue is ultimately about you.

I hope SUCCESS can be the muse to the epic screenplay of your life.

7 Personality Traits of a Great Leade

7 Personality Traits of a Great Leader

The qualities of skillful leadership

Jim Rohn

 

April 22, 2014

If you want to be a leader who attracts quality people, the key is to become a person of quality yourself. Leadership is the ability to attract someone to the gifts, skills and opportunities you offer as an owner, as a manager, as a parent. Jim Rohn calls leadership the great challenge of life.

What’s important in leadership is refining your skills. All great leaders keep working on themselves until they become effective. Here’s how:

1. Learn to be strong but not impolite. It is an extra step you must take to become a powerful, capable leader with a wide range of reach. Some people mistake rudeness for strength. It's not even a good substitute.

2. Learn to be kind but not weak.We must not mistake weakness for kindness. Kindness isn't weak. Kindness is a certain type of strength. We must be kind enough to tell someone the truth. We must be kind enough and considerate enough to lay it on the line. We must be kind enough to tell it like it is and not deal in delusion.

3. Learn to be bold but not a bully.It takes boldness to win the day. To build your influence, you've got to walk in front of your group. You've got to be willing to take the first arrow, tackle the first problem, discover the first sign of trouble. Like the farmer, if you want any rewards at harvest time, you have got to be bold and face the weeds and the rain and the bugs straight on. You've got to seize the moment.

4. Learn to be humble but not timid.You can't get to the high life by being timid. Some people mistake timidity for humility. But humility is a virtue; timidity is a disease. It's an affliction. It can be cured, but it is a problem. Humility is almost a God-like word—a sense of awe, a sense of wonder, an awareness of the human soul and spirit, an understanding that there is something unique about the human drama versus the rest of life. Humility is a grasp of the distance between us and the stars, yet having the feeling that we're part of the stars.

5. Learn to be proud but not arrogant. It takes pride to build your ambitions. It takes pride in your community. It takes pride in a cause, in accomplishment. But the key to becoming a good leader is to be proud without being arrogant. Do you know the worst kind of arrogance? Arrogance from ignorance. It's intolerable. If someone is smart and arrogant, we can tolerate that. But if someone is ignorant and arrogant, that's just too much to take.

6. Learn to develop humor without folly.In leadership, we learn that it's OK to be witty but not silly; fun but not foolish.

7. Learn to deal in realities.Deal in truth. Save yourself the agony of delusion. Just accept life as it is—the whole drama of life. It's fascinating.

Life is unique. Leadership is unique. The skills that work well for one leader may not work at all for another. However, the fundamental skills of leadership can be adopted to work well for just about everyone: at work, in the community and at home.

Now check out 15 traits of a terrible leader—and if anything sounds familiar, fix it, stat.

- See more at: http://www.success.com/article/rohn-7-personality-traits-of-a-great-leader#sthash.KiJFs8Fh.dpuf

A Good Life Contains These 6 Essentials

The values that make up the foundation of a life well lived—and, no surprise, money isn’t one of them

Jim Rohn

 

September 9, 2014

The ultimate expression of life is not a paycheck. The ultimate expression of life is not a Mercedes. The ultimate expression of life is not a million dollars or a bank account or a home. The ultimate expression of life is living a good life

Here's what we must ask constantly, "What, for me, would be a good life?" And you have to keep going over and over the list—a list including areas such as spirituality, economics, health, relationships and recreation.

So, what would constitute a good life? Jim Rohn has a short list:

1. Productivity. You won't be happy if you don't produce. The game of life is not rest. Yes, we must rest, but only long enough to gather strength to get back to productivity.

What's the reason for the seasons and the seeds, the soil and the sunshine, the rain and the miracle of life? It's to see what you can do with it—to try your hand to see what you can do.

2. Good friends. Friendship is probably the greatest support system in the world, so don't deny yourself the time to develop it. Nothing can match it. It's extraordinary in its benefit.

Friends are those wonderful people who know all about you and still like you. I lost one of my dearest friends when he was 53—heart attack. As one of my very special friends, I used to say that if I was stuck in a foreign jail somewhere accused unduly, and, if they would allow me one phone call, I would call David. Why? He would come and get me. That's a real friend—somebody who would come and get you.

And we've all got casual friends, friends who, if you called them, they would say, "Hey, if you get back, call me and we'll have a party."

You’ve got to have both real friends and casual friends.

3. Your culture. Language, music, ceremonies, traditions, dress. All of that is so vitally important that you must keep it alive. The uniqueness of all of us, when blended together, brings vitality, energy, power, influence, and rightness to the world.

4. Spirituality. It helps to form the foundation of the family that builds the nation. And make sure you study, practice and teach—don't be careless about the spiritual part of your nature because it's what makes us who we are, different from dogs, cats, birds and mice.

5. Don't miss anything. My parents taught me not to miss anything, not the game, the performance, the movie, the dance. Just before my father died at 93, if you were to call him at 10:30 or 11 at night, he wouldn't be home. He was at the rodeo, he was watching the kids play softball, he was listening to the concert, he was at church—he was somewhere every night.

Go to everything you possibly can. Buy a ticket to everything you possibly can. Go see everything and experience all you possibly can.

Live a vital life. If you live well, you will earn well. If you live well, it will show in your face; it will show in the texture of your voice. There will be something unique and magical about you if you live well. It will infuse not only your personal life but also your business life. And it will give you a vitality nothing else can give.

6. Your family and the inner circle. Invest in them, and they'll invest in you. Inspire them, and they'll inspire you. Take care of the details with your inner circle.

When my father was still alive, I used to call him when I traveled. He'd have breakfast most every morning with the farmers at a little place called The Decoy Inn out in the country where we lived in Southwest Idaho.

When I was in Israel, I'd have to get up in the middle of the night, but I'd call Papa. I'd say, "Papa, I'm in Israel." He'd say, "Israel! Son, how are things in Israel?" He'd talk real loud so everybody could hear. I'd say, "Papa, last night they gave me a reception on the rooftop underneath the stars overlooking the Mediterranean." He'd say, "Son, a reception on the rooftop underneath the stars overlooking the Mediterranean?" Now everybody knew the story. And giving my father that special day only took five or 10 minutes.

If a father walks out of the house and he can still feel his daughter's kiss on his face all day, he's a powerful man. If a husband walks out of the house and he can still feel the imprint of his wife's arms around his body, he's invincible all day. It's the special stuff with your inner circle that makes you strong and powerful and influential. So don't miss that opportunity.

The prophet said, "There are many virtues and values, but here's the greatest: one person caring for another." There is no greater value than love.

So make sure in your busy day to remember the true purpose and the reasons you do what you do. May you truly live the kind of life that will bring the fruit and rewards that you desire.

Find the very best of Jim Rohn's life philosophies—foundational principles that anyone can learn to achieve success in both business and in life—in his influential book Leading an Inspired Life.

f

The responsibility is on you for a bad hire.

3 Rules I Learned From Hiring the Wrong Person (Twice)

Amy Anderson

 

January 12, 2016

As an entrepreneur, I didn’t think hiring a team would be that big of a deal.

Step one: Figure out what I needed someone to do.

Step two: Find someone to do it.

Voila! Good hire. Right?

Um, yeah, not so much.

The process of hiring the right person has been one of the most challenging parts of growing my once-solo operation into a team of happy, productive people working toward the same goals.

There are two massive mistakes I made early on that I want to warn you about so you know what to pay attention to—and then I want to give you three little-known rules of making a good hire. Here we go.

Warning No. 1

When I relaunched my solo business into an LLC, one of the first people I brought onto my team was a certified professional accountant. I got a recommendation from a trusted colleague. I contacted Mr. CPA, asked for a few more references, then hired him.

Within a month, I fired him.

Look, I don’t know about you, but before owning a business I had never hired a CPA in my life. I had no idea what that relationship was supposed to look like. Nor did I understand that each relationship looks different depending on CPA style and client needs.

Turns out, I am a very needy client for a CPA.

I’m decent with numbers and for years did my own taxes. But I am terrible at dates, organization and regulations. For me, this means that the date when my quarterly taxes are due will fly right by me, even if it’s on my calendar. And if I happen to catch it, I have no idea where I put that form I’m supposed to fill out. And if I get that filled out, I’ll probably have to look up the rules of filling it out again, even though I just filled it out three months ago. Dates, organization and regulations are my weaknesses.

The problem is I didn’t tell Mr. CPA any of this. So when the date for my first tax payment came and went without any word from him, I called him. Long, uncomfortable conversation made short: He was subtly annoyed that I couldn’t remember something so simple but promised to remind me next time.

Then the franchise tax date came and went. Same phone call. Only this time, I fired him.

I felt bad, too, because it wasn’t his fault. It was mine.

There’s a myth that if you do your due diligence, it will give you enough information to find and hire the right person. But I had asked peers for recommendations. I had asked Mr. CPA for references. I had even called those references and asked if they were happy with his work. It was not enough.

I didn’t ask what their relationship was like with their accountant. How information was passed along.

Whether they had to remember all the requirements while Mr. CPA just processed the paperwork. If I had spent more time learning about this kind of relationship and what was common practice, I would have realized that what I needed was a coach, not just a CPA.

Warning No. 2

The next hire I made was a virtual assistant.

After doing research through a professional VA organization, I narrowed my list down to three candidates. Then I hired the least experienced person on my list. We’ll call her Vera.

Now, I told myself that I chose her because I was strapped for cash and since she was just starting out, Vera had the cheapest packages. But the truth is it was a pity hire.

Vera had a blog. She didn’t advertise this blog as part of her professional online presence, but I’m a researcher and found it. In this blog, she talked about her family issues, her cat, her general lack of friends, and her dream of making some money while working in her pajamas so she could finally feel some self-esteem.

There is a tiny Rescuer in me that immediately fell for Vera. (I should know not to listen to this Rescuer after a couple of interesting boyfriend experiences, but what can I say? I’m human.)

I wanted to help Vera get started. I envisioned a sort of mentorship relationship where I could pull Vera along and—oh my gosh, seriously, I can’t believe I didn’t see it.

I wanted to pull her along? What was I thinking? I was hiring a VA not a puppy. I should never have to pull her along. Encourage, train, even coach? Maybe. But pull her along, no.

And pull her along is what I did. She couldn’t master the app I was using for project management. She couldn’t create the payroll spreadsheet I needed. And she didn’t respond to my other team members promptly.

It was a disaster—and I had paid for 10 hours up front. I ended up using the last three hours on data entry and that was the end of a fruitless relationship and a valuable lesson.

The 3 Hiring Rules You Don’t Hear

Since making these huge hiring mistakes, I’ve stuck with three rules that have saved me a lot of headaches:

1. Do your research on the relationship not just the person. Ask for referrals, yes, but then ask more questions. Find out about the relationship style, the expectations on both sides, the duties of each, and the level of professionalism vs. friendliness if that’s a concern for you. If the answers don’t jive with the style of relationship you’re looking for, why even bother to interview?

2. Never hire out of emotion. Never. Ever. Look, we all want to help out the new gal. We all want to bring on the funny guy. We love to be around people who make us feel good—whether it’s for our magnanimity or our sense of humor. And if you were hiring an intern or someone to MC your celebrity roast, I’d say go with your feel-goods. But you’re not. So hire for what you need, not just what you like.

3. Be brutally honest from the start. First, with yourself. If you are someone who can’t remember the due date for your taxes, you need to be realistic about this weakness. If you get a little snippy after a long day and expect people to overlook your rude emails—well, first of all you might want to work on that—but you need to admit that this is part of your current work style. Then, be honest with whomever you’re looking to hire. If you don’t give them an accurate picture of who they’re going to be working with and what you truly need from them—as a fallible human being not just a boss with a to-do list—then they will end up disillusioned and you will end up without an employee.

Here’s what all of this means: The responsibility is on you for a bad hire. But it also means that the opportunity is yours to make a great hire. Take time today to get honest with yourself and make a list of questions that will guide you to the right person. I know you can build a team that you’re proud of and that makes you feel truly supported.

Being an entrepreneur definitely has its ups and downs. Make sure you do these 4 things to avoid losing your mind.

- See more at: http://www.success.com/blog/3-rules-i-learned-from-hiring-the-wrong-person-twice#sthash.evjRLcj6.dpuf

Never Go Back: 10 Things You'll Never Do Again

10 Things Successful People Never Do Again

We all make mistakes but the people who thrive from their mistakes are the successful ones.

Dr. Henry Cloud

 

June 24, 2014

“Never go back.” What does that mean? From observations of successful people, clinical psychologist and author of Never Go Back: 10 Things You'll Never Do Again (Howard Books, June 2014), Dr. Henry Cloud has discovered certain “awakenings” that people have—in life and in business—that once they have them, they never go back to the old way of doing things. And when that happens, they are never the same. In short, they got it.

“Years ago, a bad business decision of mine led to an interesting discussion with my mentor,” Dr. Cloud says. “I had learned a valuable lesson the hard way, and he reassured me: ‘The good thing is once you learn that lesson, you never go back. You never do it again.’

“I wondered, what are the key awakenings that successful people go through that forever change how they do things, which propel them to succeed in business, relationships, and life? I began to study these awakenings, researching them over the years.”

Although life and business have many lessons to teach us, Dr. Cloud observed 10 “doorways” of learning that high performers go through, never to return again.

Successful people never again…

1. Return to what hasn’t worked.

Whether a job, or a broken relationship that was ended for a good reason, we should never go back to the same thing, expecting different results, without something being different.

2. Do anything that requires them to be someone they are not.

In everything we do, we have to ask ourselves, “Why am I doing this? Am I suited for it? Does it fit me? Is it sustainable?” If the answer is no to any of these questions, you better have a very good reason to proceed.

3. Try to change another person.

When you realize that you cannot force someone into doing something, you give him or her freedom and allow them to experience the consequences. In doing so, you find your own freedom as well.

4. Believe they can please everyone.

Once you get that it truly is impossible to please everyone, you begin to live purposefully, trying to please the right people.

5. Choose short-term comfort over long-term benefit.

Once successful people know they want something that requires a painful, time-limited step, they do not mind the painful step because it gets them to a long-term benefit. Living out this principle is one of the most fundamental differences between successful and unsuccessful people, both personally and professionally.

6. Trust someone or something that appears flawless.

It’s natural for us to be drawn to things and people that appear "incredible." We love excellence and should always be looking for it. We should pursue people who are great at what they do, employees who are high performers, dates who are exceptional people, friends who have stellar character, and companies that excel. But when someone or something looks too good to be true, he, she, or it is. The world is imperfect. Period. No one and no thing is without flaw, and if they appear that way, hit pause.

7. Take their eyes off the big picture.

We function better emotionally and perform better in our lives when we can see the big picture. For successful people, no one event is ever the whole story. Winners remember that – each and every day.

8. Neglect to do due diligence.

No matter how good something looks on the outside, it is only by taking a deeper, diligent, and honest look that we will find out what we truly need to know: the reality that we owe ourselves.

9. Fail to ask why they are where they find themselves.

One of the biggest differences between successful people and others is that in love and in life, in relationships and in business, successful people always ask themselves, what part am I playing in this situation? Said another way, they do not see themselves only as victims, even when they are.

10. Forget that their inner life determines their outer success.

The good life sometimes has little to do with outside circumstances. We are happy and fulfilled mostly by who we are on the inside. Research validates that. And our internal lives largely contribute to producing many of our external circumstances.

And, the converse is true: people who are still trying to find success in various areas of life can almost always point to one or more of these patterns as a reason they are repeating the same mistakes.

Everyone makes mistakes…even the most successful people out there. But, what achievers do better than others is recognize the patterns that are causing those mistakes and never repeat them again. In short, they learn from pain—their own and the pain of others.

A good thing to remember is this: pain is unavoidable, but repeating the same pain twice, when we could choose to learn and do something different, is certainly avoidable. I like to say, “we don’t need new ways to fail….the old ones are working just fine!” Our task, in business and in life, is to observe what they are, and never go back to doing them again.

- See more at: http://www.success.com/article/10-things-successful-people-never-do-again#sthash.w1TUfpXB.dpuf

Positive mind. Positive Vibes. Positive life.

It Takes a Positive Attitude to Achieve Positive Results

Realize that YOU are in control of how you think and feel.

Mark Victor Hansen

 

January 12, 2016

Your attitude determines the state of the world you live in. It is the foundation for every success and every failure you have had and will have. It will make you or break you.

Your attitude controls your life. But the good news? You control your attitude.

Attitude creates the way you feel about people and situations. Your actions are a result of your attitude—which in turn creates a reaction from others.

It is your attitude toward others and the universe that determines the resulting attitude toward you. Have a positive, joyful attitude and you’ll have positive, joyful results. Put out a bad, negative attitude and you’ve failed before you begin.

Basically, what you think is you get.

I know it sounds simple, but, the truth is, it is:

Where do negative attitudes come from?

Negative attitudes come from thinking negative thoughts over and over until they become part of your subconscious, part of your personality—they become habitual. You may not even realize you have a negative attitude because it’s been with you for so long. Once you have a bad attitude, you expect failure and disaster. And that expectation turns you into a magnet for failure and disaster.

Then it becomes a vicious cycle: You expect the worst, so you get the worst. Your negative beliefs are reinforced. So you expect the worst, and you get the worst.

So, how do you shift your thoughts and create a positive attitude?

It takes work, but creating anything of value takes work. In order to have a new attitude, you have to change your subconscious thinking. How? By analyzing every thought you have until positive thinking becomes habit. You’re merely replacing an old habit with a healthy habit, much like replacing smoking with exercise.

You can’t just stop being negative—you have to replace those negative thoughts with positive ones.

Some people would say, “But negative situations are a reality. They just show up in everyday life.”

This is absolutely not true. Situations are a reality, yes. They do show up, yes. It is your attitude that makes a situation positive or negative. It’s time for you to realize that you are in control of how you think and feel—no one else on earth has this power unless you give it away.

Take control of your attitude, your state of mind, and you take control of your results.

Positive habits lead to success. Pick up these 6 “me” habits to be a better you.

- See more at: http://www.success.com/article/it-takes-a-positive-attitude-to-achieve-positive-results-0#sthash.FQsEtgf6.dpuf

Why you Should Think Like an Ant

4 Reasons You Should Think Like an Ant

Imagine what you could accomplish if you never quit and always did all that you could do.

Jim Rohn

 

January 10, 2016

When was the last time you saw ants reach an obstacle and give up with their heads down and head back to the ant hole to relax? Never.

Here’s another question. How much will an ant gather during the summer to prepare for winter? All that it possibly can.

Imagine what you could accomplish if you never quit and always did all that you could do.

I think everybody should study ants and their philosophy—it’s simple, but it’s powerful:

1. Ants never quit.

That's a good philosophy. If ants are headed somewhere and you try to stop them; they'll look for another way. They'll climb over, they'll climb under and they'll climb around. They keep looking for another way. What a neat philosophy, to never quit looking for a way to get where you're supposed to go.

2. Ants think winter all summer.

That's an important perspective. You can't be so naive as to think summer will last forever. So ants are gathering their winter food in the middle of summer.

An ancient story says, "Don't build your house on the sand in the summer." Why do we need that advice? Because it’s important to be realistic. In the summer, you've got to think storm. Think ahead.

3. Ants think summer all winter.

That is so important. During the winter, ants remind themselves, "This won't last long; we'll soon be out of here." And the first warm day, the ants are out. If it turns cold again, they'll dive back down, but then they come out the first warm day. They can't wait to get out.

4. Ants think “all-you-possibly-can.”

How much will an ant gather during the summer to prepare for the winter? All he possibly can. Ants don't have quotas or "good enough" philosophies. They don't gather a certain amount and then head back to the hole to hang out. If an ant can do more, it does. What an incredible philosophy, the "all-you-possibly-can" philosophy.

Never give up, look ahead, stay positive and do all you can.

Failure happens. The best thing is to learn from your mistakes and keep moving forward. Learn the 7 reasons you might be failing.

Leadership Lessons from Eagles

What is it about eagles that make us associate this majestic bird with leadership qualities?

Eagles can teach us a few things about leadership. 

We take a look at the leadership lessons that our eagle friends would love to tell us about if they could.

What is it about eagles that make us associate this majestic bird with leadership qualities?

The bald eagle is, for example, America's national bird. We use the bird to convey our leadership positioning in the world. 

In the Boy Scouts, the top scout ranking is that of the Eagle Scout.

If you think about it, it makes sense that the eagle is a symbol of strong leadership.

Eagles live on top of lofty mountains. Just as a leader is at the peak of an organization, an eagle sits atop the highest points in the natural world.

The eagle soars high above when it is hunting. This is a good leadership lesson. To be effective, leaders must have vision. They must be able to see things that others cannot. They cannot get mired in the details and must soar above the minutiae of running the business. At the same time, like an eagle, they must occasionally swoop down and get hands on with the business.

Eagles, like good leaders, are bent on self-improvement. An older eagle will tear out its older feathers to maintain its flying abilities. This is quite painful, but the eagle knows that it cannot rest on its laurels. So too, a good leader knows that he must set an example for his organization and engage in a continuous exercise of self-improvement.

During winter months when prey is scarce, eagles sometimes scavenge on carrion to supplement their diet. Is there a leadership lesson in this otherwise fairly disgusting trait? You bet. A good leader will do whatever it takes to succeed. On occasion, a leader must do unpleasant things. It's part of the job.

Finally, it is interesting that bald eagles lay two, occasionally three, eggs that are incubated by both parents, in turns for 34 to 36 days. It's noteworthy that the eagles take turns building up the next generation. It is a good lesson for leaders. You can't do it alone. You need to get the team involved. And, importantly, you need to constantly be thinking about raising the next generation of good leaders from within your company.

Source: http://www.gaebler.com/Leadership-Lessons-from-Eagles.htm

Why Not Control Your Destiny?

Why Not Control Your Destiny? To the extent that you can control your habits you will be designing your destiny. When we form those habits to do the things on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis, without thinking about them, we are freeing
our minds of the need to ponder the various courses of action we need to perform and then able to focus on getting results.
Are you ready, (if you haven't so far) to start building (through positive actions/thoughts) the great destiny that lies at the
winner's circle. You certainly have what it takes to do anything you set your mind to do. 

Remember, by the yard, it can be yard, by the inch it is always a cinch.