I am so very excited that you are here today because today we are chatting about SUCH a juicy topic. If you have ever been curious what separates the “success stories” from those who are on the struggle bus for years and years and years, that’s EXACTLY what we are diving into today.
Today we are chatting all about the things that successful people do differently. And I think it’s important to note that the term successful is very relative here, so feel free to take that with a grain of salt and apply it based on whatever your version of success is. But the point here is there are certain things, like actionable steps taken and how the mind is trained, that differ between highly successful people and the general population. So today we’re going to talk about some of those key things so that you can apply them to your own business.
Thank you so very much for tuning in today and let’s go ahead and jump right in.
1. Attitude
As we already know, a positive mindset is such a key to success. If you don’t believe that you’re going to be successful, 9 times out of 10, you won’t be. And of course a lot of that is a domino effect. If you don’t believe you’re going to be successful, you’re not going to be willing to put yourself out there, you’re not going to be willing to fail, or you’ll take that as confirmation that you’re not meant to do this. It sort of becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Success stories tend to have a positive outlook, a rock-solid mindset, and a “can do” attitude.
Your attitude can make or break your success, especially since your attitude has a direct correlation with your behaviour, your capacity to deal with challenges that pop up, and the actions you take to move you towards your goals.
2. Failure.
If you’re willing to take the risk, if you’re willing to fail, if you’re willing to do it messy… you’re going to learn. You’ll do it better the next time. You’ll grow. You’ll evolve.
If you’re waiting for it to be perfect or until it feels comfortable or until the stars align or whatever, you’re going to be waiting until the end of time.
Success stories are willing to take the risk and they’re willing to fail. Failure means that you’re one step closer towards success. It makes you stronger, wiser, and more adaptable. So long as you take that failure and learn from it and don’t let it stop you. Which leads straight into number 3.
3. Grit.
It matters if you just won’t quit.
There’s a great book called, you may have guessed it, “Grit” by Angela Duckworth that goes into detail about this in 368 pages. I highly recommend that book, by the way, but to sum up those key points in a couple of minutes right now, Angela discusses why some people succeed and others fail, and it often comes down to grit.
It matters if you just won’t quit. As Angela describes it, grit is a combination of passion and perseverance for a goal. It means you have tenacity and you’re going to keep going until you achieve that goal, even if it’s years in the making. Because to be honest, overnight success stories are almost never truly overnight. There are usually years and years of failures or learnings that have led up to that “overnight success.”
I think our industry has really shifted over the years towards the flashy marketing. I do think it’s trending AWAY from that now, but by this flashy marketing I’m talking about “I had a 6-figure launch from 6 emails” or “I made 7-figures in 7 weeks.” And all of that is fine and dandy, but what isn’t always talked about is the determination, the failures, the tears, the questioning, and the GRIT that it took to just keep going UNTIL they got to that point.
And if you aren’t seeing success yet and you feel like something is wrong with you and you don’t understand why Sally Sue got that 6-figure launch from 6 emails or made 7-figures in 7 weeks… just keep going. There is NOTHING wrong with you. The success stories are not made overnight, even if they don’t share the behind-the-scenes. In reality, they had grit and they kept going.
4. Vision.
Things that separate success stories from the status quo are that they have a vision.
So if we’re talking about you, you probably already have this too, but if not, now is a great time to start working on that vision. Vision includes the business that you want, the relationships that you want, and the life overall that you want.
Your vision is going to change over time, which is totally fine. The big things that you wanted 10 years ago are going to be different from what you want right now, or at the very least they have likely evolved.
One great way that I’ve found to help keep your vision at the front of your mind is to create a vision board or write down whatever it is that you’re trying to achieve and keep it front and center. You can create a vision board in Pinterest and then use it as your phone screen saver and your computer screen saver. Or you could even cut out photos and phrases from magazines and stick them on a white board. Or for writing things down, that could be goals you have or things that you want to achieve that are part of your vision. But with vision, you do want to make sure that you’re being specific.
With that said, number 5.
5. Specificity.
Getting specific is going to help you so much more than being vague. So for example, lose 5 pounds by Christmas is MUCH more specific than a generic “lose weight.” It gives you a target number and a target date, and then you can reverse engineer from there. When you’re getting specific, you do want to be optimistically realistic though. So when I say that, getting specific and saying “Be a billionaire in 10 weeks” is not really what we’re going for here. Unless that is actually realistically attainable, you’re better off getting clear and specific on things that are a stretch, fine, but a realistic stretch.
Writing down your goals, getting clarity on what it is that you want – like actually, truly want and getting specific – and then taking steps towards fulfilling that vision is the key. Which leads us into our next point, action.
6. Action.
You need to have a rock-solid belief in yourself, yes. You need to be willing to fail – and then learn and grow. You must have the determination to keep going. But there’s more.
I know I sound like an absolute broken record here, but it does not matter how lofty your goals are, how life-changing your vision is, or how impactful your work can be if you don’t actually take action.
You MUST take that next step. It’s imperative for you to put yourself out there, get uncomfortable, do the thing that you’re not wanting to do, and run headfirst into that fear, be scared shitless, and do it anyway. Only by taking action can you actually achieve whatever it is that you’re working towards. Otherwise you’ll just be sitting on the sidelines for the next however many weeks, months, or even years, wondering why others are celebrating success and you’re still in the same spot you were.
7. Surroundings.
Who is in the room with you.
If you’ve listened to any of the podcast episodes before or you’re familiar with me, you probably have heard me screaming from the rooftops about how important community and who you’re surrounding yourself with is. And I think this is often something that is SO overlooked.
But who is in the room with you is crucial.
You want to be surrounding yourself with people who get it, people who have been where you are and have moved beyond that, and people who will push you, celebrate you, and support you.
Be the smallest fish in the ocean, not the biggest fish in the pond. So what I mean by that is you don’t want to be the most successful person in the room. I would argue that you actually want to be one of the least successful and surrounding yourself with people who are far beyond you. Because that’s going to help you see what is physically possible but also give you resources and support when you’re going through those growing pains and challenges that come with scaling.
If you’ve been in business for a little while, chances are very good that you’re already doing some of these. And this is not a be-all and end-all formula for success, but these are oftentimes traits that separate success stories and successful business owners from those who are flailing about having no idea what they’re doing or what they’re working towards.
I would love to hear – are any of these points that you’ve struggled with in the past? Or are any of them points that have absolutely changed your life or business? I would LOVE to hear from you.
