Successful Habits That Lead To A Winning Mindset
How do you define happiness? According to research in the domain of positive psychology and happiness, a happy person is defined as one who experiences positive emotions such as pride, interest, and joy frequently and does not, on a regular basis, experience negative emotions like anger, sadness, and anxiety (Lyubomirsky et al., 2005). Happiness is also related to satisfaction in life: life, appreciation, and moments of pleasure. An important note about these definitions is that the presence of positive emotions does not mean that negative emotions are absent. A happy person will experience a range of emotions like any other person, but the frequency of negative emotions differs.
Maybe, happy people do not experience negative emotions as much because they find meaning and process it differently than others. Actually, it is probably incorrect to use the phrase “happy person” because it assumes that good things always happen to them or they are naturally happy. Life’s stressors affect everyone. The difference is in how you perceive them, as moments of opportunity or moments of opposition. Each person defines happiness in his or her own way. Politicians, actors, philosophers, have all made a contribution based on their view. Here are some of the best definitions. According to ancient Greeks, happiness is the joy that people feel when they are working to reach their potential. Shirley MacLaine, who is an Academy Award winner, asserted that to be happy, you must be willing to “be compliant without knowing”.
For Michael J. Fox, his happiness is directly proportional to his acceptance and indirectly proportional to his expectations. The founder of Daily Love, Mastin Kipp, says that “he does not expect to be happy always, he simply accepts what is”. That acceptance, to him, is key. Self-love is all about this, acceptance and being able to love yourself where you are. Gabrielle Bernstein said that, “choosing happiness is the path of least resistance.” According to Aristotle, “happiness is a state of activity.” Dr. Shefali Tsabary said that you could only be truly fulfilled and happy when you fill your own need and feel satisfied from within. Eleanor Roosevelt said that she was once asked what she considered the three top most requirements for happiness.
Her answer was: it is the feeling that comes with knowing that you have been honest with those around you and yourself, knowing that you have given your best in your work and personal life, and being able to love other people. The best thing about these definitions is that they share some commonalities. Michael J. Fox and Shirley MacLaine talk about accepting life situations and uncertainties. The more you can do that, the happier you are likely to become. Mastin Kipp says it is okay to accept whatever you are feeling and not strive for happiness. Acknowledgement takes you to the happy space faster since your emotions are not striving for your attention. Aristotle also has an important point about happiness; staying active. Happiness is easily found when you are doing what you love and building meaningful connections.
Personal Leadership Skills
Nobody is born a strong personal leader. Everyone has to strive to master it. It is something you work at and commit to every day and it is not easy. You have to be intentional about it and make a decision, take the journey and become a strong personal leader. Discipline is the driving force for most things, even for things as simple as getting up in the morning. You need discipline to begin a journey, go on with it and finish strong. In simple terms, discipline is all about forcing yourself to do what you have to do, especially on days when you do not feel like it (and some days are harder than others).
The absence of self-awareness can be compared to having a piece of toilet paper at the bottom of your shoe. People can see it and are talking about it. To be self-aware is to see what other people can see and be able to improve or adjust where necessary. It helps you present the best version of yourself in every situation. Gratitude comes with a myriad of benefits such as enthusiasm, energy, attention and increased determination. Gratitude also reduces physical pain, makes you optimistic, lowers depression, helps with anxiety, and helps you sleep better.
The greatest thing about gratitude is that it is free; you only have to choose it. Commitment to excellence: according to Aristotle, people are what they do repeatedly and therefore, excellence is a habit, not an act. In this case, if you give your best, you are practicing excellence. Perfection is not important, commitment is. Always show up and give all you have. Routines and rituals: routines and rituals help you as a strong personal leader to cultivate strong habits in your life. They help your leadership run smoothly and have the same purpose as gas, oil changes, and regular tune-ups to a car.
Patience: a certain degree of patience is required if you are determined to live out your purpose. The wisdom and maturity that comes with patience is the foundation of your success, both professionally and personally. Patience is a virtue and it needs intentional effort. You have to be intentional about all that you do as a strong personal leader. Apply effort, thought, commitment, planning, and reflection in your life. Being unintentional is like letting go of the steering wheel; how will you get where you want to go? Grit: this is going through the rough patches of life without complaining, grumbling, lamenting, or whining. It is going on with the journey even when you feel like giving up.
Knowing that life is just life and you must take it as it comes. Having more fun in life translates to less stress. Stress will kill you bit by bit every day. In the USA, 77% of the people experience the physical symptoms of stress regularly and 73% experience the psychological symptoms. Stress is very common and affects mental, physical, relational, and emotional health. Incorporate fun into your life because it is great for your soul and health.
Successful Habits That Lead To A Winning Mindset
What makes someone succeed? What kind of successful habits do they possess? There are countless self-help strategies all over but the most crucial one is focusing on your mindset. Mindset is responsible for your attitude in any situation. A positive mindset will guide you. A negative mindset, on the other hand, can be the source of problems. These habits will help you think of yourself as successful. Think positively about yourself.
Tell yourself that you will achieve your goal, that you are a confident and powerful person. Affirmations are most effective when you do them in the morning, as the first thing when you wake up. This will ensure that the benefits last throughout the day. Negative visualization has its roots in the olden Greek philosophy of stoicism and involves visualizing yourself losing your possessions. This does not sound positive but it is very useful. For instance, imagine your car disappearing out of your driveway and not being able to buy another one. How would that affect you?
You will be more grateful to have your car the next time you are in it. This is a successful habit that helps you appreciate your current situation in life. Your problems will not affect you that much because you will be thankful for everything that is going right. Harvard researchers maintain that happiness is love. The decision to surround your life with loving relationships is an important key to happiness and success. Where love is concerned, chances are that you will get what you have given. Invest time in cultivating loving relationships with family friends and pets.
Gratitude involves seeing the positive side of life. Being grateful always helps people to keep going even when things get tough. You simply need to keep a gratitude journal to develop this mindset. List at least three positive experiences that you helped to create every day. You will begin to automatically notice positive situations and even take complete advantage of them. Being grateful also protects you from the negative energy in the world. Recognizing only the negative events will stress you. Framing is the idea of seeing things from various perspectives.
Many people are always in a problem framework; they only see problems and never look for solutions. Shifting to a solution-based perspective is a successful habit. Do not complain in the face of problems or try to blame others. Look for solutions. You will feel confident and capable and other people will find you valuable. Stubbornness is not a virtue. People who are not flexible cannot be effective. Be more flexible to be more successful. Curiosity is a huge part of success.
A curious mindset involves asking a lot of questions. Have a desire to learn new skills and look on the positive side in failure. Look for new challenges and see if you can get anything valuable out of them. It is difficult to stay positive at all times but it helps to adopt an optimistic mindset. If you are not optimistic, you are likely to give up often and very early in business struggles. Avoid too much negativity and surround yourself with other optimistic people.
Personal Management
Personal management involves creating a personal life plan where you set both long-term and short-term goals, then come up with different methods to attain these goals. Choosing the best path and sticking to it while leaving room for fresh opportunities and adjustments is the wise thing to do. For your plan to succeed you need to meet a few personal management requirements. You have to value time if you want to attain your goals within a set period.
Pareto’s law states that, “80 percent of our output is generated by 20 percent of our input.” With outstanding time-management skills, you will work less and yield more. You should be able to see problems in time management and solve them fast. Procrastination will steal your time. Never postpone tasks for later if you can do them now. One way to combat this issue is by having a calendar and scheduling each activity. You may want to limit your expenditure and live within your means. For instance, make a point of budgeting for necessary items such as rent, food, transport, and books. Prioritize your needs in such a way that clothing and entertainment expenses are at the bottom of the list because they are obviously not essential.
Successful financial management requires a lot of discipline. Financial power improves all other areas of your life. Making your financial situation better affirms the realization of your goals. Try saving daily expense receipts so that you can analyze your monthly expenditure. This will help you see your spending habits and make changes where necessary. Communications helps you talk about your views in a confident manner. It is a crucial aspect of personal management. When you discover your voice, you can have internal dialogues that will assure you and direct you towards success. Having unlimited communication skills will give you the power and confidence to encourage and inspire other people. Another great thing is cultivating good listening skills.
For instance, learn to look at the person speaking in the eyes and think about only what they are trying to put across so that you can get more content. Speak eloquently at all times and make your point in a way that those listening understand. Sticking to your personal development journey helps you identify the aspects of your life that need attention and correction. Making this realization gives you more power to put your organizational, communicational, time, and financial skills into good use.
For instance, you can schedule an appointment for personal evaluation to analyze all that you did during the week. It also helps you focus on the goals you want to achieve every day when you get out of bed and review your day when it ends. This will make it easier to make improvements where necessary and celebrate your victories, however small. Keep going and never stop, even when it is too difficult to continue. Lastly, remember to remain flexible because you cannot avoid change.
Manifesting Your Desires
Every thought you have creates some kind of energy flow in and around your physical being which attracts its likeness. If you think you suck, then your energy sucks and that is what you will attract—sucky experiences. The law of attraction has become trendy; which is awesome, but it is a little misleading to lazy people. In order to use your energy to manifest greatness, you have to remove all the obstacles that won’t allow you to believe in your greatness. These key principles are for genuine manifestation. As you practice them, ensure that you focus on feeling good first then attracting good stuff second. Remind yourself that you attract goodness by feeling good.
Principle One: Make Some Space
Before you even start the manifestation process, you need to take some time and believe in your power to be happy. One way to do this is to pray for release. Cultivate a daily prayer practice asking to be set free from all your limiting beliefs. Keep your eyes open for any signs that you may receive. The sign may be in the form of losing your job to teach you about self-reliance.
Principle two: Be Clear About What You Want
Clarity is key in manifesting your desires. Be sure to have clear intentions and know what you want to invite in to avoid manifesting what you do not want. Know what you desire and create a list of everything that accompanies it. This will help you have a vibrant mental picture of your desire. The crucial part in this step is establishing how you desire to feel then you can start accessing the feeling. The feeling will form your manifestation.
Principle Three: Think, Feel, Believe
Combining the above two steps, take the clear intention then take some time every day soaking in the feeling of your desire. You can either access the feeling via visioning or meditation exercises. Alternatively, call on the feeling while doing your favorite exercise or when in nature. Allow the feeling to take over your energy. As you feel the feeling of your desire, you will believe more that it is coming. This next step is very important in your manifestation process. To completely manifest your desires, you have to relax. “Those who are sure about the outcome have no problem waiting without anxiety”. Do not forget this message. Let your faithfulness lead you to believe that your desire will manifest. You may know what you want but you cannot control how or when it arrives.
Principle Five: Be Calm, Have Some Faith
When you are intentional about what you want, your energy is no longer one of disbelief or fear. The more your disbelief fades away, the more knowing replaces wanting. You will naturally get into the know. Practice these steps diligently and you will become happier. The process will bring you to a point of healing and let you know that you are exactly where you are supposed to be.
“Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.”
Napoleon Hill
Interpersonal Skills An Effective Leader Must Possess
Over the years, there have been numerous influential leaders in the world, each one unique in their own way. A leader, by general perception, is the pioneer to new ideas. The creation of a new idea does not signify the end of their work since they have to motivate their followers to keep following the path they have traced. One important question to ask yourself is this: what unique quality did someone like Martin Luther King or Abraham Lincoln have that made them outstanding in their field and remain immortal in their followers’ hearts? It is possible that interpersonal skills had a key role to play in the making of these icons. A leader, using the power of his personal skills, captures the minds of his followers.
As a leader you need to have these skills if you want to be effective at your workplace. See the basic interpersonal skills below and learn how they help to make an effective leader. Most leaders have a gift of the tongue, which makes them articulate speakers. It is all about sharing their ideas in a captivating way, whether verbal or written. They establish liaison between team members and come up with the best solution. There are always different perspectives and ideas for any given agenda. An effective leader always strives to reach a consensus.
Encourage others to attain their set goals with dedication and commitment. It also entails leading followers in a clear direction. Leaders are made, not born. Leadership skills constitute an entire set of individual skills combined. Leadership skills can build a self-motivated team and help them understand the purpose, making the process of attaining goals smoother. Mentoring entails offering constructive guidance and when it is required in a wise manner. It enables followers to overcome stumbling blocks and glitches. It provides an opportunity to understand the other person better and helps people know where to draw the line. Negotiation involves resolving conflicts by accepting the terms favorable to both sides. Think of a win-win scenario, establish and maintain a sincere relationship with others.
Influence and motivation skills is a combination of both leadership and communication skills. Using good communications skills, one can persuade people and through leadership skills they can demonstrate their motivational skills and boost the followers’ spirits. A leader is required to make numerous decisions. One may pay a very high price for a wrong decision and one right decision can be a lifesaver. Planning is making strategic decisions that involve the future.
It is a list of activities and the possible plan to be followed. Integrity is when a leader creates trust; it fosters collaboration and encourages sharing of information. This helps him build a solid team. Teamwork entails working together with fellow members and nurturing their aspirations in the process. A sense of collaboration is developed when a leader works with his subordinates and peers. A leader is effective in managing stress. He does not dwell on negative thoughts and bounces back easily from setbacks.
Keeping Control In Chaos
Every person desires to learn how to stay in control of their thoughts, emotions, and behavior especially when a situation requires them to. However, the exercise of self-control can be hard when there are serious environmental or genetic vulnerabilities or other difficulties that weaken you. Moreover, maybe you have not yet developed assertiveness or learned to speak up without anger and deal with frustrations successfully. Thanks to human psychology, everyone is flexible and capable of learning.
The difficult part is that learning is an uphill task and you have to apply self-control teachings. Life is a combination of feelings, self-generated ideas, experiences, and stimuli. You react to what you think and feel as well as what is happening in the outside environment. Even in the worst situations, what do you do to remain focused on attaining your goals? Everyone has an able side filled with solutions, strengths, and motivations. Maybe you have kept your able side inactive for a very long time, but now is the time to let it solve your problems. You have the ability to bring out your able side.
Bringing out your gifted capabilities will require you to work on it and also ask others to help you build it. Your loved ones can help, even by listening. They do not have to solve your problems for you, but solutions found through conversations show the input of all involved parties. Communication begins with one idea and ends with a better one. In case you do not have friends and family available, there are books, magazines, and other forms of media that can help. You can also turn to professionals if necessary. You can determine how far your ability grows, even the ability to face the greatest life challenges. It is up to you to define yourself by your social and task-oriented skills. There are stories all around about ordinary people that have achieved great things. Everyone can head in the right direction and do better than the past. Your tower of abilities can be built one skill at a time.
You increase your capacities through effort, good planning, application, and energy. All kinds of intrusion, interference, and distraction are kept at bay. Feeling able partly comes from staying in control amidst the chaos surrounding you and partly from changing the chaos in your environment. You can reorient and harness chaos to what suits you best. Even the smallest feeling, action or thought can lead to a chain with huge consequences.
You bring out your ability by taking the first step. As you take the first step out of chaos, a new path will open up before you. Chaos is not all bad as it helps you stay alert and enables you to make the necessary improvements in your life. Too much chaos, though, might cause difficulties, but that is unavoidable. Almost everyone faces the worst calamities, at least once in a lifetime. Be prepared for the worst chaos because it is inevitable. However, chaos should not make you regress. Along with it comes progress and opportunity. Your able side can keep growing. There are many ways in which you can grow. For instance, you can work on recreational, study, and work skills.
Learning From Failure
It is said that failure is an amazing teacher. But if that is the case, why are so many people unable to gain knowledge from this supposedly “great teacher”? Why do people keep failing? The issue is that, although failure is an amazing teacher, it is a cryptic one as well. It is not easy to obtain its lessons, especially when you are still lost in demoralization, disappointment, frustration, and nursing your bruised ego. Sometimes failure also comes with hopelessness, resentment, and embarrassment.
To be able to benefit from your failure, you need to find a way to decipher the “teachable moments” that are hidden tactfully within failure. You need a method to help you understand what the lessons are and how you can use them to improve your chances of a successful future. The guidelines below will enable you to assess your failures and find the specific issues that you have to correct as you pursue tasks and goals. You will need to do a lot of soul searching and thinking so do not hesitate to take some time to recover from the punch of a new failure before you start. Reevaluate your planning: how long did it take you to plan the best way to attain your goal before you began? Did you think about the problems or hurdles that you might face and how you would overcome them?
A big number of people barely spend time planning things like these even though unexpected obstacles are part of life. In the future, have a general strategy, think about potential setbacks and find a way to overcome them beforehand. Reevaluate your preparation: this step is a very crucial one but still, many people skip it. For instance, think about someone who aspires to live a healthy life by joining a gym and attending at least three times per week. This plan can be easily shattered if the babysitter cancels at the last minute and there is no alternative.
If there is a prepared backup plan for childcare, the parent would be able to attend gym more consistently and slide into the habit. Another example is when someone begins a diet but does not get rid of unhealthy foods in the house to replace them with healthy ones. When making future plans, take measures that will increase your chances of success. Reevaluate your execution: were your efforts consistent? Were you lacking motivation and lagging in your work ethic?
Go back and analyze when and why your efforts dropped. Understand what circumstances led to the derailment of your efforts and know how you will address them should they occur in the future. Focus on the variables within your control: it is normal for failure to make you feel helpless and passive, leading you to believe that you may never succeed even if you try. However, understand that these feelings are perceptual distortions. You have more control over situations than you realize. There is always something you can do to improve a situation such as being more knowledgeable, improving your network, or building relationships with potential clients.
Reinvent Yourself
Change is reinvention. Whenever a big shift occurs in your life (such as a relationship, leaving a job, moving, or losing a loved one), you have to choose who you want to become. Otherwise, you risk never achieving your potential. Many adults have reinvented themselves several times in their lives. However, what many people forget is that you must choose reinvention. Every time you do it, you forge a new path for yourself, intentionally and with foresight.
When you wait for your future to find you, you will wait in vain. You will be lost in sadness and confusion or find yourself in a situation that you do not want. When you have been struggling in a bad situation for a while, one day you will realize that part of the reason you have been stuck is that you have no idea where you want to go; you have no end goal. This happens when you are thinking about your past and not your future. Find a quiet place and sit with your eyes closed. Imagine all the people, situations, and places that you know you have to leave behind. Next, imagine your ideal future; it could be a group of people, a feeling, or even a situation—such as a great job. Imagine how you feel being in that new place. Imagine the sun rising up behind your future and it’s warm glow lighting your face.
Take a moment to stand and quietly voice your gratefulness for all the things that came before. After thanking the past, look towards the sun, with appreciation and compassion, picture yourself walking away from it and into your future. Picture a scene from your reinvention or write about how you want it to play out. Where do you see yourself living? What are your morning, afternoon, and evening routine? How do you spend your days and who are your friends?
Keep writing until the excitement of the exercise wears out. Write everything from scenes, to dialogues, to plans. Keep the writing safe and look at it every now and then. Surround yourself with things that remind you of your ideal life. If you desire a job in a certain field, put images or objects from that place where you can see them daily. If it is a home, get a picture of the house of your choice and place it near your door.
Whatever it is, let it be something that reminds you of where you want to be. What do you have to do on a daily basis to create your vision? Find new friends? Looking for a job? Be specific. Create a list and a schedule of everything that you need to do. Commit yourself and do it, one day at a time. Each morning or evening, imagine yourself moving towards the rising sun and all your dreams. Remind yourself why you have to do this.
“Sometimes life is going to hit you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith.”
Steve Jobs
CONCLUSION
The ideation and concept phase is very deceiving and every time you carry out a meeting with your partner the discussions and action plan will always give you a deadline of the Weekend. It will seem that after a week you will be finally an Entrepreneur but the days drag into weeks, weeks into months and unfortunately, months drag onto years before you actually become an Entrepreneur. And after all this, you may have wasted precious time which in fact could have been used to learn some really great insights for your business. Every human being has a dream.
Every dream starts with a swell of excitement. However, as you start working towards it you realize that the journey is not a sprint but a marathon. It is a journey of a thousand miles and every step has an impact. The seven truths below will help you as you go after and live out your dream. You will wonder whether you are qualified to carry out a task. You cannot avoid running into people with more degrees. Think of Richard Branson who dropped out of school at 16 to become an entrepreneur or Joyce Hall who never even went to college.
Education is important—no question—the issue is self-education vs. traditional institutions. Obviously, the people named above did not stop learning; they just pursued education in other ways. At the end of the day the quality of your work or product will be more important than your qualifications. The most inspirational people that ever lived are famous because their dreams were not just about themselves. It is no secret that money is important. It can make great changes. When an ambition is a success, wealth follows inevitably. The way you handle wealth tells a lot about you. Money can be dangerous and it is not hard to prove that.
Allow your vision for success to go beyond your own life. There is a unique power behind failure—it uncovers your blind spots. Major improvements are made when you study your weaknesses, not your strengths. Thomas Edison once said, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” There is a difference between repeating a process and doing it with improvement. People will always have their opinions and give advice. Not everyone will support your dreams.
Human beings are created with the desire to love and be loved but going to extra lengths just to make others happy only creates bitterness. David, before fighting Goliath, was advised to put on King Saul’s armor. However, he found it too uncomfortable and heavy, he could not even walk. David stripped the armor and killed Goliath with his sling. It is good to seek advice, but be wise and learn to filter. The human imagination has power that baffles even the best scientists. Elite athletes use visualization exercises and the results are incredible.
Your imagination blurs lines with reality. Writing down your dreams and goals involves your imagination and bears profound results. Whenever you write down your goals, include clear details. You subconsciously take in information from your environment. When you are exposed for some time, it starts to show in your behavior. As Jim Rohn put it, “You are the average of the five people you spend most time with.” The people you allow into your life will impact you deeply. Do the people you associate with bring you down or lift you up? Success will not come without a fight. You will only achieve your dream through scars and scratches. You should be willing to sacrifice your comfort zone; as you can imagine, that is not pleasurable. Keep going, endure the pain; pain changes people but it doesn’t have to make negative changes on your life forever.
