Success Advice
6 Psychological Forces That Determine Your Success
How do you define success? If asked this question a couple years ago, I would have answered that success means getting a college degree, working a 9-5 job, climbing the corporate ladder, finding a nice wife, and retiring with a white picket fence. Since starting on my self-development journey, however, my definition has changed. Now, I believe that there is only one success and that is to live life on your own terms.
Everyday we are exposed to a multitude of ideas and belief systems through the content we consume and the people we associate with. If you don’t consciously define what success means to you, then you will subconsciously succumb to the definition of society. You’ll climb the ladder towards what you think is success, but once you reach the top you’ll realize that the ladder was leaned up against the wrong wall and you won’t be fulfilled. And success without fulfillment, as Tony Robbins says, is the ultimate failure.
Once you’re clear on your ideal future, execution is where rubber meets the road. Determine the price of your vision and develop the discipline to pay it every single day.
Below are the six psychological forces that determine the extent of your success as well as your ability to sustain taking massive daily action over the long term:
1. Standards
Your standards are what you’re willing to live with. Everything from your financial situation to your body fat percentage is determined by your standards. A major breakthrough is in the realization that we are not the highest version of ourselves that we can imagine but the lowest version of ourselves that we can accept.
Understand that you will do very little to achieve your goals but fight like hell to not breach your standards. Your standards are like a subconscious thermostat that determine what you think you deserve in life. The only way to achieve your goals is to turn them into irrefutable standards.
2. Mindset
Carol Dweck is a researcher and University of Stanford professor that has dedicated her life to figuring out what separates the people that fulfill their potential from the ones that don’t. After decades of research, Dweck’s major finding was that of mindset. More specifically, she found that having a growth versus a fixed mindset determines the extent to which one fulfills their potential.
With a fixed mindset, you believe that your abilities are limited. You believe that the cards you’ve been dealt are the ones you’ll be stuck playing with for the rest of your life. You don’t believe that you can improve and you see challenges as a threat to your sense of self. As such, you are focused on maintaining an image rather than on growth and improvement.
“In a growth mindset, challenges are exciting rather than threatening. So rather than thinking, oh I’m going to reveal my weaknesses, you say, wow, here’s a chance to grow.” – Carol Dweck
With a growth mindset, you believe that your abilities have tremendous room for improvement. You understand that you’ve been dealt a certain set of cards, but you know that the cards will change as you play the game of deliberate practice. You see challenges not as threats, but as opportunities for growth. As such, you are focused on learning and improvement rather than maintaining an image.
The only way to achieve success is by improving yourself and becoming the type of person that deserves it. Shifting from a fixed to a growth mindset is a prerequisite to making any type of considerable progress in your life.
3. Energy
The word energy literally means a capacity for work. And work is the bridge between where you are right now and where you want to be in the future. Your energy level will determine the extent to which you’re able to follow through on your daily actions over the long term.
To achieve and maintain high levels of energy, you must have the fundamentals of eating, moving, and sleeping handled. Moreover, ask yourself what activities drain you of energy and seek to eliminate or reduce them.
4. Skillset
To achieve a certain result, you need to acquire certain skills. Elon Musk tells us that the modern education system is obsolete because it doesn’t equip us with the skills necessary to thrive in a world of exponential technology. Think about what skills will remain relevant in the future and work on developing them every single day. Some skills that I’m working on right now include public speaking, writing, and email marketing.
5. Vision
Making progress is great, but the all important question is: To what end? Having a vision for your end goal allows you to align your efforts with your destination. You could be really good at taking action, but it will be all for nothing if the place you end up isn’t where you want to be.
To gain clarity on your vision, write down your eulogy. Journal on what you would want people to say at your funeral. A lot of us have a fear of death but if we look closely, we can see that death is the veil behind which everything unimportant – external expectations, fear of failure, pride, and vanity – disappears.
“Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.” – Steve Jobs
6. The Mastermind Effect
You already know that you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with, but are you actually living in alignment with that truth? Are your friends people that you admire and respect or are they your friends because that’s the way it’s always been? Have you shared your goals and ambitions with those around you? If not, why not?
These are important questions to answer because your relationships have a profound impact on your future. We subconsciously pick up the habits, beliefs, and thought patterns of those around us. This is known as the mastermind effect. The people you surround yourself with will determine the direction of your destiny. Hang out with five millionaires and you’ll be the sixth.
Whatever success means to you, the essence of it comes down to living life in your own way. Visualize your ideal future, determine the price of it, and develop the discipline to pay that price every single day. Once you get the six psychological forces working for you rather than against you, the road to success will be travelled with far fewer road bumps.
Image courtesy of Twenty20.com
Success Advice
How to Alter Your Business Approach With Technological Advancements
Keeping up with technological trends has become a challenge for almost every business owner.
Technology’s evolution has impacted everything, and business is no exception. Keeping up with technological trends has become a challenge for almost every business owner. Entrepreneurs unable to do so are being wiped out of the market.
There is no doubt that AI (Artificial Intelligence) and ML (Machine Learning) have taken over the business world. These technological advancements are impacting decision-making, success percentages, and other entrepreneurial aspects.
Adapting to these developments is integral to business success. Let’s explore how you can accomplish these milestones.
Embed the strength of AI and ML.
AI has modified business operations in major ways. For instance, companies have employed bots for customer support. These bots go through an effective learning process via Machine Learning before being able to answer like humans.
Bots can also perform detailed data analytics and make business moves with high success percentages.
ML is used more for the analysis of data chunks and generating successful predictions. This simply means that business owners do not have to worry about large-scale financial losses.
In terms of deployment and usage, a reputed company like Netflix employs machine learning for decision-making.
Blockchain is increasing the count of business opportunities
Tampering of financial transactions is quite common and causes severe monetary damage to customers. With the rise of digital payments, this risk has increased.
Blockchain is used to elevate your experience for monetary transfers. It combats penetrating events to extract confidential customer information.
Most business sectors are using block chain but finance and supply chain management sections have a higher count. These two corporate sections have several monetary deposits and withdrawals taking place.
In terms of percentage, approximately 72% and 5% of finance and supply chain firms have implemented block chain successfully.
Dedicate Yourself to Continuous Learning and Individual Development
You invest in learning some of the very important skills, including digital marketing, financial management, and how to gain customers as an entrepreneur.
You need to set up your knowledge base about doing business on Coursera and Udemy with the basics that are necessary for the business, building further by networking with experts through webinars.
Besides, Agile methodology will introduce elasticity to your company: this review and feedback system with further correction regularly will allow for enhancing efficiency and promptly reacting to the market.
Developing key skills to achieve goals
Running a business successfully is not only about having niche/domain knowledge. Business owners need to have communication / soft skills as well in addition to niche information.
Here are some key technical/domain-related areas that business owners should have a strong grip on.
Data Storage on Cloud: These days, companies do not store their data on physical servers. Therefore business owners should know how data is stored/edited/removed/updated via AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and other platforms.
Data Analysis/Interpretation Qualities: These days, data is as precious as gold. Business owners with data analysis abilities make correct predictions. As a result, their ventures grow in volume.
Development/Coding Knowledge
Programming knowledge gives business owners an edge whether the application is developed in-house or outsourced. It assists in getting updates deployed and handling application underperformance without getting professional support every time.
Hacking proof framework
There is no benefit of having an advanced automated system if can be penetrated. Successful business owners have above-average knowledge of cyber security and hacking attempts. They are able to choose top-notch anti-hacking software without much of an ambiguity.
Communication Abilities/Soft Skills
Here are some key communication qualities that business owners should have:
Communication/Conversation: Business owners should use to-the-point sentences in both written and oral communication.
Issue Resolution Abilities: Business owners should be able to drill down to problems and solve them. This is done successfully only if an entrepreneur has in-depth business domain knowledge.
Agile Implementations
It is mandatory for business owners to have knowledge of iterative/agile models. With such a competitive environment, it is impossible for business owners to succeed without adopting an agile framework.
Create a productive well-crafted Business Strategy
A productive business venture starts with a clear vision. The first factor making a business successful is the idea behind it. It helps with endless growth and combating competition successfully. Katherine Philips once mentioned that business goals are inevitable if goals are set concretely.
- Goals should be based on smart achievements instead of complexity. Focus on the value that each one of them adds.
- Business objectives should not be vague. Key indicators should be constructed to measure the success/failure of each milestone.
- Be realistic when setting goals. Do not aim at impossible milestones since they can be demotivating.
- Milestones/goals need to be time-bound. Set a completion deadline for each one of them.
- Business goals should not be alien. Owners can think out of the box but not be obsolete / unrelated.
Create a productive well-crafted Business Strategy
Business owners cannot succeed without having a network. Some tips help in this case. Attend conferences and professional gatherings to connect with other entrepreneurs.
Here are some other related points business owners should pay attention to.
- Attend meetings and conferences to stay updated with trends and meet business owners who already have well-set ventures. This helps in enhancing the learning curve of new / growing entrepreneurs.
- Being a part of business communities/groups is very productive. When one shares opinions and discusses decision-making tactics, it helps in preventing errors and enhancing success rate.
- Even the most experienced business owners have mentors as learning never stops. Take part in mentorship programs so there is an assurance that you are following the correct roadmap.
Conclusion
There is absolutely no doubt that business dimensions have evolved with technological advancements. Successful entrepreneurs have grabbed these changes in due course of time and continue to evolve. On the other hand, people following old paths and conventional steps fade out of competition. In a nutshell, keep an eye on the processes and practices you follow as these factors decide success rate.
Success Advice
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Motivation
From Couch Potato to Go-Getter: A Step-by-Step Motivation Plan for Everyone
By understanding what motivates you, you can turn your dreams into reality
Are you tired of feeling like a couch potato? Do you want to transform your life and become a go-getter? You’re not alone! Many people struggle with motivation, but the good news is that change is possible. (more…)
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10 Micro Financial Habits for More Wealth and Peace of Mind
The World Economic Forum still reports that half of U.S. adults lack financial literacy
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