(Photo: Tal Danan)
You cannot become successful overnight. There are a lot of books written about success but very few explain how to achieve solid results, not just a pleasant feeling that you are reading a good book and your life is about to change.
Over time I noticed 2 efficient ways to achieve this:
- You change your habits. Period.
- You select your friends and partners that surround you.
1. Habits determine who you are and how you react to external stimulants.
Examples:
a. Let’s take for example the smoking habit. You start to practice it and until you know it, this habit becomes like an iron chain that keeps you addicted all your life.
b. Washing your teeth. You do this by default or you don’t – it’s still a habit; no need for a reminder in the morning. You’ll see the result after 20 years when you’ll have nice teeth or no teeth.
c. You come home from job and sit on the couch watching TV or you work on your own part-time business 3 more hours. If you are consequent, these small steps will take you very far in the long run.
The way you act has a powerful effect on what others think about you. -> What others think about you determines HOW they act towards you. You’ll be surprised to find out that a promotion at your job starts with a shift in your mindset or that your attitude, beliefs and values are the ones that attract a powerful partner to join your project.
People in general are so bounded by their mediocre habits that most of them miss the opportunities life offers them. For instance most of them are used to have only one source of income, the active income source – their job. They are used with this style, to work all month and at the end get a fix amount of money. It’s not smart to live in this situation all your life, it’s a weak position to be in. If anything happens with your job you end up broke, but they do it anyway because it’s a strong comfortable habit. That is why most people never tried the passive income experience – where they do not work for the money and make the money work for them.
NOTE: You can break a habit or create a new one in 30 days. All you have to do is to actively monitor yourself and your actions in this period, and act accordingly with your new habit. You should think of the habit-breaking process like a marathon. Every step you make to the goal gets you closer to the finish line. You can find a whole study on the web about this 30 days habit breaking.
2. People you keep around influence you
We are creatures that live in communities and we tend to adapt to the environment, says Darwin in his evolution theory, adapt or die.
Examples:
a. Look for instance at a friend you know well that moves in another part of the country. The first thing you’ll notice is the way he changes his accent and adapt to the new community.
b. Look at a community whose members are investing in stock market or real estate. If you become an active member of that community you will feel an invisible external pressure to invest in the same “cool” areas in order to be accepted.
c. Husband and wife tend to take gestures and habits from one another until they communicate just by looking to the other one in a certain way.
It is crucial toselect your friends and partners. It is the only way to control how you shape your values and beliefs Every book about success talks about certain way of thinking, about inner beliefs and values. Success is a state of mind, a way of life and you must be consequent in your behavior and thoughts in order to maintain that state and achieve solid results.
When you read a good book about success it gives you an euphoric state that energizes you for 2 or 3 days but after that everything returns to “normal”. You loose that momentum the good thoughts from the book give you. That’s why it’s important to have around you people who think the right way, people who inspire you and serve as a model. You cannot keep reading all day long. In addition the power of example is indisputable. When you see successful people all day long around you, you learn their style, productive habits, attitude, motivation, belief etc..
CONCLUSION:
Don’t just sit around and wait to wake up one morning and be a successful person. It’s not going to happen this way. Instead, take action, identify bad and unproductive habits and change them. Also select your friends, business partners and your life partner; they have an enormous influence in your life as you spend most of the time with them. Do this and you’ll notice massive improvements in your life in a few days!