First and foremost,  from a deeper and more profound perspective, the definition for success is highly subjective. It depends on our point of reference, whether these are our life goals, our values, priorities, needs and so on. Success is, in a way, similar to happiness. In 1984, an American psychologist, Edward F. Diener, developed an interesting method to evaluate the level of happiness which he called ‘SWB- subjective well-being). Without going into details, let us remember that it is a subjective construct. Which means that everyone has the liberty to measure his/her success against what one regards as important.

But let us move into a more pragmatic definition for success. My experience as a manager and as a coach, showed that not many people could identify what brought them the success, and yet, acknowledging this has a huge power -> we can consciously choose to repeat that successful behavior.

In most cases, success is ensured by the PASSION with which things are done, by the actions taken and by the positive attitude. Intelligence and the level of seniority in a job were not the determining factors.

Let us discover 5 things that I’ve observed in the behavior of successful people:

1. They are extremely specific in drafting their objectives.

They know what they want and when they want it. In this way, “the how” is much more easy to find. How can you achieve something if that something is unclear or blurry?

For example:

I want to make my business more profitable! vs. I want my profit margin to increasy by 5% in the upcoming 18 months.

Or I want to lose a few kg in the upcoming period vs. I want to lose 10 kg by the 1^st of December.

2. They have a positive attitude and a high self-esteem.

Such persons, whom I call optimal-realists, have the capacity to visualize the good that can happen, not the bad. Their capacity to positively influence themselves is a determining factor. Moreover, their trust in themselves, in their own judgement and, consequently, in their own decisions, is a decisive contributor to the achievement of their objectives.

3. Patience and determination

Patience is indeed a virtue (“Patience is bitter, yet its fruit is sweet”, said Aristotle) and works hand in hand with ambition. Having the patience not to give up when things are getting challenging and the ambition to overcome these challenges. Such characteristics are as associated with the term “grit” from across the ocean. (detalii aici <-click).

4. They are constantly training their willpower to do something

The willpower to do something is similar to a muscle – you can always train it. Successful people train their will muscle regularly, until it becomes natural. They are training themselves out of their comfort zone. It may seem like a tough cardio workout at first, but it will gradually become a walk in the park.

5. They are good planners

They know their priorities very well and, consequently, have the capacity to plan real actions that would help them reach their objectives.

Finally, all of these things are interconnected:

We are specific with our objectives and we know our priorities, so we can plan actions that bring us closer to our main objective by helping us reach intermediary ones. When challenges emerge, we use our patience and positive attitude to find the best solutions. Trusting ourselves means that we can find the best solutions, even if they are outside of our comfort zone.

Easier said than done, right?

Luckily, all of these can be trained. We are defined by our actions, not our intentions, regardless of how good they are.

What’s stopping you from starting now?

#shiftforthebestofyou