Are successful men and women born or made?
In fact, it is neither a matter related to luck, nor, even less, a matter related to social and economic position of departure.
Those who really succeed in life know perfectly well that hard work is indispensable. Of course, this does not mean that you have to "ravage" yourself with work.
The right mindset for success
The concept of success is certainly very subjective; however, to understand it better from a scientific point of view, we can take as a reference the famous hierarchical scale of needs developed by the well-known American psychologist Abraham Maslow.
The pyramid scale, elaborated by Maslow, is divided into five distinct levels: ranging from the most basic needs related to human survival, to the most complex needs related to the social sphere. It is the latter needs that relate to the concept of "success," i.e., the need for social, occupational, etc. affirmation.
Compared with the past, today we have a whole range of strategies and resources at our disposal that can greatly accelerate the achievement of set goals and lead to personal and economic success. Mindset, of course, plays a key role in all of this.
Below I offer some of the most effective strategies:
Mindset: identifying one's passion
In order to give meaning to life, one must inescapably learn to recognize one's passions, interests and values: some people will be able to identify them in a very short time, for others it will take more time and effort. One must not give up.
Mindset: strengthening confidence in one's abilities through action/failure
Building confidence in one's abilities comes not only through work or success, but also through failure. In the pursuit of an ambitious dream, it can not infrequently happen that we fail. To accelerate our results, we must learn to fail. Perfectionism will, on the contrary, be the worst enemy of our projects.
The strategy is to fail quickly and often so that you can try again with a new approach until you find the right one.
Mindset: the rewards
Successful people are those who demonstrated more constancy and perseverance during childhood, compared with other peers. In adulthood, these same people have maintained the same constancy and perseverance in carrying out their routines, as opposed to others who seem to be in perpetual conflict between procrastination and motivation.
To improve our ability in delaying gratification, it will be best to start with small things: by choosing one thing at a time, we will see a gradual improvement each day.
This strategy will only work If we adopt the right mindset and demonstrate our commitment to doing something every day (even simple activities that take less than 5 minutes).
Strengthening the mindset: demonstrating passion and drive for long-term goals
According to psychologist Duckworth, who has studied children and adults for many years, the characteristic that, par excellence, significantly predicts success is grit.
Only with grit can we attack the future for real, day after day, until we have made that desired future a reality.
Having an open mind
The ability to succeed and be happy is closely related to the way people perceive their own personality.
With an "open mindset" or "open mindset" we can do different things, which then are the very things that will make a difference. We can succeed in dealing, in the appropriate way, with the daily challenges of life; we can look at failure as a way to grow and to persevere, at least until we have reached the desired levels of achievement.
In contrast, those with a closed mindset believe that qualities such as intelligence, character, are immutable; they consider failure a great defeat, therefore, they will try to avoid it, by all means, so as to prove their ability and intelligence.
Times are changing, years are passing quickly, and staying abreast of innovations, new challenges and opportunities is becoming increasingly important.
One can hardly achieve success without keeping up with innovations in the market and technology. Today, more than ever, it is necessary to inform ourselves, read, experiment and welcome all the creative ideas that our minds will offer us.
Positive mindset: devoting care and love to oneself
Given that there is nothing more important than our health, our state of mental and physical well-being, we deserve to have all the love and care we can get.
When we feel really good, we have so much energy that we are able to achieve improvements at work, in relationships and in any other area of life.
Cultivating personal relationships to improve mindset
Love is, more than anything else, the key to the happiness and, consequently, of personal success.
The well-known psychiatrist Vaillant has amply demonstrated that happiness, fundamentally, depends on love.
According to his studies, even if a man has good health, earns a lot of money and achieves the desired job success, he will never be happy and fully realized if he has a life devoid of romantic relationships.
It has been shown that, especially in the past 10 years, smarter and more socially adept people are more likely to achieve success sooner.
Finding a mentor
If we want to be the best, we must necessarily learn from the best.
Each of us should have a mentor, a wise and trusted advisor who shows himself in his entirety: with his strengths (knowledge) and with his weaknesses (his vulnerabilities). It is precisely his vulnerabilities, his mistakes, that will come in most handy, more so than pre-packaged stories.
The advice is not to look for a random mentor, rather look for a mentor who is willing to recount his or her failures and who has managed, despite "stumbles," to overcome all the obstacles encountered along the way.
Exploiting everything that already exists
Stopping to reflect on what we are doing will enable us to make more informed choices about which activities to invest our time in.
Given that time is precious, it will be good not to waste it in looking for things that already exist and that others have already done; we can take advantage of what is already ready so that we can improve on it and can achieve the much desired success.
Aiming for simplicity
Aiming for simplicity does not at all mean aiming for the easiest thing. Achieving absolute simplicity is, very often, the hardest and most complex thing to do in life.
We must always ask if there is an easier way to do it, if there is a more direct and less convoluted way.
Only if we can understand the essentials and if we can simplify our habits, our work activities, our work spaces, will we be more likely to achieve success.
Winning Mindset: thinking big!
Mediocre people are content with increments of 10%, as opposed to successful people who aspire to achieve 10 times better results.
Making a daily commitment to small daily progress is crucial to our personal growth. Regardless of this, however, mental attitude matters.
If our highest ambition is to achieve an improvement on 10%, we will, almost inevitably, continue to think in the same way and continue to do roughly what we have always done (a smidgen better, at most).
If our ambition is to aim higher, surely, we will start thinking bigger, opening our minds to unprecedented possibilities.
Like, "aim for the moon, bad luck, you'll be among the stars."
Recommended books
- ReWork - Manifesto of the new minimalist entrepreneur
- The 7 rules for success
- Think and enrich yourself
UPDATE: You might be interested in this article of mine on the Time management and the organization of the day. Two fundamental aspects of achieving maximum results, every day.
How do you set your mindset to succeed in life?