The Top 5 Attitudes You Need for Success
1. Possibility
First, you must believe that success is possible. There are a lot of voices out there telling you that the structures of society are aligned against you. Or that the government hasn’t done enough to provide the opportunities you need to succeed. Or that someone has hurt you so badly you can never make it in life. Or that your past is holding you back. Or (you can fill in the blank) — whatever you might think is preventing you from achieving success.
Well, I promise you that if you believe the universe or the structures of society or your family or your past are preventing your success, you will never be successful. This isn’t to disregard past hurts or unfair societal structures but rather to talk about your perception of the possibility of success.
If you think that way, your own mind becomes the bigger obstacle holding you back. And it doesn’t even matter if it’s true or not because the power to achieve or not achieve isn’t in outside factors — it’s in you. You hold the biggest key by what you believe.
If you believe it’s possible to succeed, it’s possible. If not, then it isn’t. So ask yourself this question: do you believe it’s possible for you to succeed? Do you really believe it?
The first step in gaining success is moving outside of a victim mentality to take control of your own destiny rather than let this world, or this society, or your past, or your family, or whatever decide your fate.
If you don’t believe it’s possible, you will never succeed.
2. Self-Reliance
The second attitude that you need to be successful is the attitude of self-reliance. This attitude refers to the way we think about ourselves and our own agency in the world.
News flash: No one in this world (outside of maybe your parents or family) is going to hand you success. The universe, the country, your social status, your education, your boss, your company — none of them owe you success.
You might think that because you did something or because you have such and such a degree or a particular experience, someone owes you. Forget that. The past doesn’t exist — literally, it is not a part of existence anymore. It is only something that resides in your memory.
The only thing that matters is now and where you are going from here. You can’t change the past so don’t waste your time, your focus, or your mental energy on it. Concentrate on the now and where you are going from here. The present and the future are all that matter.
Sure, your plan A got trashed. It’s time for a plan B. And then a plan C, and so on. In fact, the plans never stop changing because there’s a ton of other factors that we can’t control that always creep in and sabotage us. As the saying goes “The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry.”
But the one thing you can control is you. So, pull up your shorts, tie your shoes and start moving forward. Forget that you were knocked down. Forget that someone else wronged you. Get your butt moving forward.
Guess what? Warren Buffet isn’t coming to your door to hand you a million dollars because you got an A in your economics course. Your future, your success, you’re achievement is on you.
You’re the one responsible. The buck stops with you. You’re the one that makes it happen. And guess what? You can do it. So bet on yourself.
3. Commitment
The third is commitment. An attitude of commitment means that you have grit. In her TED talk, Angela Lee Duckworth studied what made the difference in the success of her students. She found that it wasn’t IQ or ability as much as it was grit — a determination to persevere. Grit is the commitment to keep going when it doesn’t go your way.
And guess what else? It doesn’t go your way. If you haven’t figured that out yet, then you haven’t lived that long because if you live long enough, eventually you’ll find that the universe conspires against you at times. Realistically, it doesn’t go our way more often than it does go our way. It does so to test our commitment.
It’s almost as if the universe is saying, “What are you gonna do now? Quit? Give up?” Well, success comes to those who persevere. Success comes to the committed. You have to be determined.
You have to, as Steven Pressfield says “go pro.” See, the pros don’t give up when they lose a game. They get back in the training room and back in the film room and persevere and get better. They are committed to excellence despite the setbacks. They have the attitude that they will do whatever it takes to succeed even to the point of desperation.
If there’s ever anything like an iron-clad rule of the universe it’s that the winners don’t usually “luck” into it. Sure, some people get stuff handed to them. Sure some people get better breaks. But even those people must be committed in order to be successful.
Successful people will say you make your luck and luck happens more often to those who are dedicated. On my podcast, I have interviewed some incredibly successful people and one thing that they seem to have in common is that they all have experienced incredible failures, obstacles and challenges in their lives. But they all persevered through them and kept going. Are you committed to persevering no matter the difficulty?
4. Work
I wish I could shout this in your ear — anything in the entire world that you want to know about anything is at the touch of your fingers — you just need to stop being lazy and go out and find it.
You want to learn marketing? You don’t have to go to college — it’s all there. A million pages that you can read and learn it.
You want to know how to build a website? You don’t need a degree. There are a hundred thousand websites and blogs that will teach it to you for free.
You want to learn how to do audio production, play the guitar, learn another language, or learn graphic design? It’s all available to you.
You just need to do the hard work. Get your butt off the social media and read the information you need to read. And then read more. Work.
I love what Gene Simmons of Kiss said recently in an interview. He said, “It’s great to have all of this information at your fingertips but what you have to do is roll up your sleeves and get your lazy ass out of bed and go to work.”
Gene Simmons came to America as an immigrant from Israel and he realized that America was a land of great opportunity — for those who would work hard enough to seize it. Technology and times may have changed, but the universe seems to favor those who work hard.
Jim Rohn once said that making a million dollars was easy. It was easy because all he had to do was to work hard at things that were easy to do. He defined easy as something he could actually do.
For example, it’s pretty easy to go out and talk with people about providing a service for them for a certain price. It may be inconvenient. It may be a little scary. But in reality, it’s a pretty easy thing to do.
It’s also probably pretty easy to provide that service. For the most part, the services people need and the things they will pay money for aren’t impossible, wicked problems. They are merely inconvenient.
The problem is that it’s just as easy not to do it. Jim said, it really comes down to a choice between two easies. The difference is in the work. So work hard at what’s easy. Put your nose to the grindstone, get out of bed and go to work.
5. Growth
The final attitude that you need for success is an attitude of growth. It’s an eye-opening experience when you begin to realize that your success will not change unless you change. In fact, the whole world can change but it won’t change your success if you remain the same.
If your family changes, it probably won’t change your success. If the government changes, it probably won’t change your success despite what the politicians say. The only thing that will absolutely guarantee a change in your success is a change in you.
Realize that you can’t change anyone else, you can only change yourself. And to do that, you need an attitude of growth. You need to continue to improve. You need to continue to learn every day, every week, every month, every year.
It doesn’t stop. It doesn’t end at retirement. If you think there’s a time in your life when you will have arrived and that you can stop learning and growing, you have the wrong attitude because you have to believe in the depths of your hear that it’s a lifetime habit. The attitude of growth says — this is how I will live my life from now on.
Successful people are continual learners. I had an opportunity to interview top executive leadership coach Lolly Daskal on my podcast and she floored me when she told me that she reads one book every day!! She’s been doing that for years. It’s a lifetime attitude of growth. Talk to anyone who’s successful and you will find them disciplined about learning and personal growth in their lives.
It really doesn’t matter the topic because it’s more about the discipline and the practice — the habit of growth. Of course, learning in a specific area will help you in a particular field, but really it’s the neurological development and the deep growth in learning that makes the difference. When you learn more, you have greater confidence and you can do more. That all comes out of an attitude of lifetime growth.
Conclusion
What attitudes do you have right now? How are they preventing you from being successful? Do you believe it’s possible for you to succeed in this world? Do you believe in yourself enough to bet on you? Do you have the grit and commitment to keep going when the world conspires against you? Do you have a dedication to hard work? Are you dedicated to a lifetime of personal growth and learning? These are the attitudes that form the foundation upon which success can be built. Without them, it won’t happen.
Call To Action:
Where do you stand with each of these attitudes?
If you liked this article, you’ll love the 52 Essential Skills You Need For Success in Business and Life.