Life doesn’t get easier tomorrow; you learn how to handle the hard stuff life throws at you today.
And don’t get me wrong, there are days I wish relationships got easier.
Or startups got easier.
Or aging got easier.
Or staying fit got easier.
But it doesn’t; if anything, it gets more complicated.
The thing about success is that you get better at doing the tough stuff.
You need the difficult, rugged, challenging stuff to learn why the easy stuff improves your life.
Here are the seven traits that successful people share.
…
1. Successful people care about this (like a lot)
When trying to become a pro athlete, I’d always have a scouting report for the team we play next (in college or high school). Instead of just watching their player clips of who I’d be guarding, I watched entire games of the team we’d play. I’d not only study the guy I’d be guarding but also their entire team’s tendencies. Weaknesses. Strengths. I’d observe how the team scored and what they were good at and figure out what we needed to do to win, and each week, this process would start over.
Scout, learn, prepare, and execute — this never stops.
Successful people, teams, and organizations apply this process over and over and over and it can apply to almost anything.
Suppose you want to host a fabulous, successful dinner party. Research and read the recipe, experiment, and practice the meal a few times before the dinner party. Figure out what to tweak. What to improve. Gather your dinner guests’ allergies and food tastes. Find fresh ingredients from the best markets and grocers. Then, when your dinner guests arrive, they don’t taste something you’ve never executed.
They taste success.
…
2. Successful people do this quickly
You bounce back from mistakes.
You let go of what just happened without too much attachment to the outcome. You play the next play.
You figure out what happened and try to correct it quickly and efficiently. A great outcome doesn’t mean you’re guaranteed a great result again.
And a watched pot never boils. Get back to the process quickly.
Many successful people I know overcome paralysis by analysis and imposter syndrome by faking it till they make it and by nimbly getting back to the process. Positive energy, success, leadership, confidence, mental toughness, and excellent body language matter aren’t genetic — they’re just the successful humans who have developed their mental muscles.
In pro sports, bouncing back quickly means you show up when you don’t feel like it. It’s getting the reps whether you’re tired or cranky or feeling like a gang of bridge trolls are out to eat you.
Bouncing back quickly is a mental muscle and it’s nothing more than lifting the lightest weight required of you today.
This is why elite sports show us a microcosm of success — they teach you how to stay mentally present and attentive to what needs to be done in the now. You get stronger through periodization and the conscious evolution of showing up for yourself and your team.
And you realize that if you don’t bounce back quickly, you get left behind because you aren’t mentally tough enough to want to stay in the mental weight room.
…
3. But stop doing this kind of bouncing back
People who bounce back too slowly or do the exact thing or process that got them knocked on their asses aren’t going to be successful.
If you’re overmatched fighting Mike Tyson in his prime and you get knocked down, staying down might be the smartest choice. Live to fight and train and improve for another day. And then come back stronger.
If someone got a lucky haymaker in, and you feel like you can beat them, get knocked down seven, get up eight.
This happens in every field and industry and team. You must learn the required lesson and process of success before success happens.
Steal, copy, imitate, and get to work.
10,000 quality hours of intentional work is much better than 10,000 distracted ones. This is how great pro athletes and leaders and organizations keep innovating their next success.
…
4. This trait is a must-have for more success
Be open-minded.
Curiosity doesn’t kill successful creator cats; it helps them work, iterate, and build a better boat to sail through their choppy waters tomorrow.
Egotistical leaders aren’t open-minded and eventually don’t see the cracks in their once impenetrable hull. If the tide doesn’t rise, or your boat is full of cracks, and terrible culture, all the ships will be stuck on the hard. No team or business or family will sail great distances if they aren’t open to collaboration.
And remember, if your ego helps you ascend, it can also cause a quicker descent. So check your ego’s coat at the door. Stay open-minded and flexible to ideas and suggestions and better ways to do things you want success in.
…
5. Invest in diversity, different strengths, and work with women
The world is changing, and our values and consciousness and leaders need to evolve to succeed in today’s environment.
Old white men who can’t sit at the table and help the tide rise for the next generation should retire. Or move over. Or assist the next leader in building the next version of modern success.
The world needs an evolution of collaborative consciousness to get through the challenges our cultures and societies and businesses and teams and families face next.
…
6. Continuously do this
Learn the key drivers of what moves the mileage odometer of success.
20 percent of what you do matters more than 80 percent of what doesn’t drive success forward. 80 percent of productivity comes from 20 percent of tasks. 80 percent of profit comes from 20 percent of your most loyal customers. 80 percent of revenue correlates to 20 percent of your best employees.
Everything is learning. This article is learning. This day is learning. This life is learning. Your startup is learning. You getting fired is learning. Your book flopping is learning. Your health failing is learning.
The only time you stop learning is when you die (and even then, I bet a lot of learning is happening).
You should focus on the 20 percent that moves you and your team forward.
…
7. Successful people also do this with intention
They build relationships well.
They talk to people who know more than them. They create meaningful relationships with leaders, mentors, competitors, strangers, employees, employers, CEOs, headhunters, recruiters, partners, kids, pets, and sales staff — they care for everyone who cares to care about them.
Success is never done in a vacuum.
A meaningfully successful life is more profound than your status in the social hierarchy, how good your ego feels about being right, the individual recognition it receives, or the number of zeroes in your bank account.
…
The more you realize how to detach from the suffering and progress toward meaningful things, the more success and happiness you’ll find.
Lastly, you probably won’t care about how rich or materially successful you became while on your deathbed. You will most likely care about the relationships you built. The love you felt and created and the amazing experiences and team accomplishments you shared with your limited time on Earth.
Success is about helping others become the best version of themselves and their daily process. If you can help yourself and the people who care to find their most meaningful craft and work and strengths and process to build a good life together — this is the only success worth striving for.
Follow for more pro athlete wisdom on slowing down to find your best self, performance, and career.
Follow for more pro athlete wisdom on slowing down to find your best self, performance, and career. Life advice…
trevor-huffman.medium.com
Good luck out there, let me know what you think success is.
—
This post was previously published on medium.com.
***
From The Good Men Project on Medium
 |
 |
 |
 |
***
Join The Good Men Project as a Premium Member today.
All Premium Members get to view The Good Men Project with NO ADS.
A $50 annual membership gives you an all access pass. You can be a part of every call, group, class and community.
A $25 annual membership gives you access to one class, one Social Interest group and our online communities.
A $12 annual membership gives you access to our Friday calls with the publisher, our online community.
Register New Account
Need more info? A complete list of benefits is here.
—–
Photo credit: Thomas Bjornstad on Unsplash
