The super successful think differently and act differently. Like anything, these results can be mimicked in your own life.

There is a list of ideas that all the super successful have in common and it’s what makes them think the way they do.

I’ve spent the last twelve months compiling the ideas that can transform your entire life which I’ve learned by studying how the super successful think.

Any one of these ideas could be the single catalyst for you transforming your entire life.

Nerves don’t stop even when you’re super successful.

“The world’s most accomplished athletes still get nerves before big games. Bill Russell, one of the greatest players in NBA history (winner of 11 championships in 13 years) often vomited before big games due to nerves and anxiety” – Anthony Moore

Even your idols are scared out of their mind when they have to perform at an extremely high level.

The goal is not to avoid uncomfortable situations or be upset with the nervousness; the goal is to use nerves to propel you forward into the unknown, thus creating the results you never thought were possible.

Everything is temporary so just notice it.

“How do you get out of this misery? By understanding that pain, sadness, and suffering are a natural part of life. It is also temporary and ever-changing, as is joy, happiness, and pleasure.

If you stop fighting things you don’t like and trying desperately to hold onto things you do like, life can become more peaceful. Everything is temporary, so just notice it.

Observe it, without any sort of craving or aversion. Everything will ultimately shift, change, or go away, and that’s okay, because something new will take its place” – Ivy Kwong

Right now, may be a difficult time for you. Maybe you’re going through relationship issues, sickness, lack of money or you feel uninspired. Even the super successful experience these challenging moments. The key is to remember that everything is temporary.

These low moments are seasons in your life and like all seasons of weather, they will pass.

Destroy fear by having the guts.

“You just have to outrun everyone who doesn’t have the guts to publish their work” – Jon Westenberg

Anything worth doing requires execution. Trying to overthink your life’s work and whether it will be appreciated is ridiculous.

The reason bloggers like Tim Ferriss have crushed it is because they choose to hit publish. Your work is never finished and aiming for perfection will never allow you to gain feedback.

Success is directly related to the feedback you get and the improvements you make to your life’s work. Transforming your life requires you to get results so you’ll have the energy and motivation to keep going on the tough days when you feel like giving up.

It takes guts to embrace your fear and put your work out there. If you push through this barrier, you’ll get the results of the super successful who many believe have got lucky. Luck has nothing to do with it.

Say yes even when you don’t know how to do something.

“Very rarely do you walk into a situation knowing all the answers, and this ambiguity used to keep me from saying yes to a lot of opportunities. Unless I knew exactly how I was going to do something, I would avoid it” – Nicolas Cole

That’s how I’m writing this very article because I said yes to my friend Joel Brown, to the opportunity to blog on his website. I knew literally nothing and said yes anyway.

As you experiment with different ideas and activities, you’ll quickly learn what you do and don’t like. Then, it’s just a matter of doing more of what you’re passionate about and the results will come from there.

You’ll never quite be able to predict what ends up becoming your life’s work. Saying yes and not having all the answers is how you find the path towards success.

Your purpose always starts with passion.

“Divorce yourself from the results at first. Write because you love it” – Tom Kuelgar

Finding your purpose so you can be super successful requires an element of passion.

That comes from practicing habits because you love them instead of actually aiming for success which is invisible without passion.

Unrelated tasks form part of the process of any successful endeavor. 

“And sometimes ‘writing” doesn’t even look like writing - because sometimes writing is really thinking, which looks a lot like ‘zoning out” or doing “nothing” and only makes it harder” – Kris Gage

Tim Ferriss spends time procrastinating and traveling a lot. He puts these two activities down to how he’s able to come up with ideas for new books and ask powerful questions on his podcast. Travel is where he disconnects from the real-world so he can come up with what’s going to be next.

Tim’s travel and procrastination are part of his personal formula for success.

If he just wrote his chart-topping, best-selling books and never traveled or sat in procrastination for hours, we’d never have heard of his name and thought of him as super successful.

Developing yourself is how you win.

“Formal education makes a living, but self-education makes a fortune” – Jim Rohn

There’s a reason the self-development industry has taken off: it works and the super successful know it. Everything starts with you and unless you develop and grow, you’ll never adopt the habits, mindset or skills needed to master any pursuit.

Making a living sucks and it limits your ability to contribute to a cause that is greater than yourself. Working on yourself so you can make a fortune and give away money to things you care about like J.K. Rowling did is how you leave a legacy.

Legacy gives you a meaning for your life and it will also transform your entire perspective.

Reflect on what you’ve learned immediately.

“When you read, to maximize what you learn: immediately after reading a book write down ‘ten things I learned.’ Else, you won’t remember more than 1 or 2 things at best from the book” – James Altucher

That’s why I blog and share content on social media. It allows me to take the lessons from everything I learn day-to-day and share it with others, while simultaneously making sure I remember and practice what I’ve learned.

As people engage and comment on what I share, the lessons are further ingrained in my own head and I’m forced to defend these newfound views in the form of replies to negative comments.

Don’t rely on your brain to remember anything. It will get distracted and you’ll forget the lessons that you paid a high price to get. Repetition is the mother of skill and it will increase your retention rate.

If you want success, there will be failure.

 “Success becomes a catalyst for failure” – Greg McKeown

People who think failure is bad never go on to do a hell of a lot. If you want to join the super successful and think like they do, you need to realize that all of your successes will also increase your future rate of failure.

Failure and success go hand-in-hand like a beautiful marriage. Put the ring on your finger, sign the marriage papers and join the wedding party of Mr. Failure and Mrs. Success.

The only time you actually have to live is in the present.

“This is a way out of suffering. This is how you live. Not in the past, not in the future, but now, in the present. The only time that you actually have to live” – Ivy Kwong

We all do a hell of a lot of thinking (including the super successful). This thinking can be in either the past, the future or the present. The choice is yours. The present is what you can control and if you never live in that space, then you’ll never get to truly live.

Transformation happens when you quit living in the past and the future. Success lies in the present.

Overworking is the opposite of success.

“For best results: Spend 20% of your energy on your work and 80% of your energy on recovery and self-improvement” – Benjamin P Hardy

Doing your life’s work and leaving a legacy requires hard, strenuous labor. It requires a lot of time to recover from the energy it takes to do the impossible and smash your goals.

Recovery in the form of procrastination, social activities, reading and meditation is how you regain the mental capacity to keep working.

The lie of hustling until you die is stupid. Your growth lies in the recovery.

Value pain.

“Successful people value the process and the work itself over the outcome, the party, the accolades, and the money. In some way, they value the pain” – Jane Hwangbo

Pain is one of the hardest things to manage and it’s what you should value.

Putting up with the pain so you can get the results many dream of instead of drinking alcohol, watching Netflix and arguing about events that are outside of your control is what the super successful value.

It’s as if the struggle is more important than the positive feelings you get when you achieve your goals. Sounds weird at first but it’s true.

The antidote to low moments.

“When we give gratitude to everything in our lives specifically and exactly for the way they are regardless of whether we wish it to be different, something magical happens. It is especially a challenge when we practice this during trying times when it feels as though we are failing at life” – Sheryl Tai

Handling those situations that feel like a tornado has just wiped out your home and family, is tough. Many of us have no idea what to do. The antidote to these times is gratitude.

Gratitude will bring you back to what you can control and rebalance your thoughts in the direction of positivity. From a positive mental state, you can heal from being knocked flat on your face and get back up again to face the next storm.

Think of being grateful from now on as a reset button.

The truth wins every single time. Period.

“Never, ever lie about anything to anyone. Counterintuitive, but this seems to be a huge social hack and people like you a lot more if you always tell everyone the truth, no matter how embarrassing or hurtful” – Serge Faguet

The rarest of traits and something that epitomizes real success is the truth. The Super Successful don’t just have the life we all dream of, they have the following: a quality network, resources to give back, our respect, people’s attention and passion to do, and to become more.

None of this so-called ‘Holy Grail’ can come into your life unless you commit to telling the truth. The truth feels good and it will separate you from everyone else who wants to talk a good game, bend the truth and even straight out lie to your face.

The truth is always the right decision even when it doesn’t look like it on face-value. The truth breeds authenticity and authenticity is sexy.

There’s no need to focus on success.

Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it. I want you to listen to what your conscience commands you to do and go on to carry it out to the best of your knowledge. Then you will live to see that in the long run - in the long run, I say! - success will follow you precisely because you had forgotten to think of it” – John Gorman

Focus on how you think and the character traits that will lead you to success. Doing that is how you become super successful in the first place.

Choose a purpose bigger than yourself.

“Don’t aim at success - the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of one’s dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one’s surrender to a person other than oneself” – Victor Frankl

Focusing on success often leads to a selfish pursuit of falling in love with yourself. The truth is that success comes from not focusing on yourself or the word “success.”

Success comes from what you can unselfishly do to help all of us reach our own ideals of success through our passions and our purpose. Bet you didn’t expect that to be the secret that the super successful all know and embrace now did you?

If you want to increase your productivity and learn some more valuable life hacks, then join my private mailing list on timdenning.net