There is a famous saying that “habits can either help or hurt your success in life.” Ever wondered why getting ahead can sometimes seem like such a struggle? To become successful in life, you need to be highly motivated and disciplined, which takes hard work.
Where other people let themselves be overcome by failure to act, procrastination and burnout, highly motivated and successful people get things done and are happy doing it. A successful person has habits that work to help them stay motivated. Individuals who keep themselves continually motivated are, first of all, spurred on by what they want to achieve in life.
To fully understand the depth of this article, let’s start by defining what success, motivation, and habits mean.
What is a success?
Success means the achievement of a desired vision or planned goal. Success is very subjective, however, the feeling associated with it, is the same. Think of success as the peace of mind attained when you achieve a desired outcome. It is being able to live your life on your terms.
The process to attaining any great goal is difficult. This means, to accomplish an ambitious goal, you will require a high tolerance for pain, monotony, boredom, patience, and discipline. On the journey to success, you cannot become exceptional without putting in a lot of time and effort.
What is Motivation?
Motivation is the reason you carry out any action. It is the desire that helps you act in the service of a particular goal. Motivation comes in different forms; it can either be intrinsic (driven by internal rewards), extrinsic (motivated by external rewards).
Intrinsic motivation, according to Edward Deci Ph.D. and Richard Ryan Ph.D., is derived from the three basic psychological human needs, which are the need to feel self-determined, the need to feel competent, and the need to feel autonomous.
Extrinsic motivation on the other hand is derived from external rewards such as money, praise, fame, and so on.
What are Habits?
Habit(s) is an acquired behavior that you perform automatically, and often carried out subconsciously. Habits can be either good or bad. Good habits are habits that improve a person’s overall well-being, while bad habits deteriorate a person’s overall well-being.
Now that you understand what success, motivation, and habit mean, and how they co-depend on one another, let’s expound on the five habits that highly motivated and successful people live by daily.
Proactive
Being proactive means taking the initiative to get things done. A proactive person is someone who can anticipate challenges before they occur. The primary source of motivation for proactive people is intrinsic. Proactive people do not wait for things to happen; they make things happen.
On the road to success, acquiring the habit of proactivity is very important. With proactivity, you can identity and create innovations, set and achieve long term goals, mitigate the effects of future incidents or accidents, save money and time, and so on.
Elon Musk, who is one of the most successful entrepreneurs in the world, is an excellent example of a proactive person. He saw the havoc fossil fuels are having on the environment and started a company that will help mitigate the disastrous effects of climate change. His vision of transitioning the world to sustainable energy has experienced tremendous success.
Time-conscious
There is a saying that “time is a non-renewable resource.” Time-consciousness requires being aware that time is your most valuable resource and learning to respect it. Respecting time entails carrying out all activities in life and business in their order of priorities.
Without being time-conscious, you are bound to waste time on frivolous and inconsequential things. Highly successful people make judicious use of their time, making sure they achieve set goals within a specific time frame.
To be a successful business owner or freelancer, you will have to be conscious of time; this includes respecting other people’s time as well as yours. This habit allows you to know how to delegate responsibilities, set measurable goals, plan ahead, and prioritize.
Voracious readers
A voracious reader is a person that reads vast quantities of books. Reading gives you the benefit of acquiring new knowledge, and there is a saying that “knowledge is success.” Gaining knowledgeable about any field is essential in order to be successful in that field. With knowledge, you can make better decisions, reduce loss due to ignorance, stimulate growth, increase efficiency, and so on.
Oprah Winfrey is an example of a voracious reader. She said that if not for reading, she would not have gotten her first job in a radio station. This job was the beginning of an illustrious career that propelled her to fame and riches.
Courageous
Courage is the willingness to pay the price for what you desire. It is following your heart even when the odds are not in your favor. This quality is one of the essential habits to acquire if you want to achieve any success in life. Life can be very uncertain and filled with setbacks, but in order to be successful, you must have the courage to take risks needed to live your dream.
Let’s paint a scenario: you have a comfortable nine to five job, but you want to open a hairdressing salon. You are already aware of the risks involved and the amount of time you will need to put in for this business to become a success. You are aware of the statistics that say 70 percent of small business owners fail in the 10th year in business, so you are uncertain. Courage is what allows you to take the leap to open your business regardless of what the statistics are.
They do not take things personally.
Bill Gates said, “when you have the level of success we have, you will have to learn not to take things personally.” On your road to success, you will be called a lot of names, be betrayed by close friends/associates, be deceived by your employees, and so on. To be successful, you will need to acquire the habit of overlooking trivial things and focusing on what is essential.
Conclusion
Success is a hard and tedious road that requires a lot of sacrifices and hard work. In order to be successful in any endeavor, you will have to acquire good habits, and this process can be long and tedious. Doing the hard work necessary for acquiring good habits is a must for anyone that wants to be successful in any business endeavor.
