The Science of Success.

[craigharper.com]

If, like me, you have a propensity to spend inordinate amounts of time navigating your way around some of the squillions of personal development / motivational / inspirational / be-your-very-best-in-next-to-no-time sites, then you've probably found a massive amount of repetition, fluff, feel-good, mumbo-jumbo crap and the occasional valuable article.

I am of the opinion (and yes, I know it's not a popular one) that success isn't as hard, or as complex as some people make it. And before you write to disagree with me, yes, I acknowledge that the above statement is dependant on your definition of success... but I am speaking generally (as I often need to, when speaking to an audience of more than one).

I have spoken with many people who have been on the personal development journey for years..... and they're still in the same place (physically, emotionally, spiritually, psychologically, financially and professionally). They've read eight million books, been to thirteen thousand workshops, therapists and specialists, and they're still miserable, unfulfilled, stressed and directionless.
Still complaining, rationalising, justifying, excusing, blaming, procrastinating... and waiting.
If they put one tenth of what they've read or heard into practice... things would be drastically different but the truth is, they consistently do nothing.

While I acknowledge (and know from experience) that there are many variables, factors and considerations to negotiate when we set out to create specific outcomes, I also believe that there exists a scientific, practical formula for success if only we can step out of our emotional, psychological and behavioural limitations.

As you may or may not know, I am a scientist by qualification (not a very good one), and in science we usually look at results (collected data) and do our best to discover what produced those observed outcomes.
In other words; reasons for things being as they are.

So for the purpose of this chat (okay, it's a one-way chat) let's call success the 'result', and let's explore what the common denominators are; the reasons for things (typically) being as they are. For the sake of pseudo-scientific accuracy and validity, we'll do our best to de-emotionalise the process and take a practical, analytical glimpse at what consistently produces optimal results in the big wide world of Personal Growth.

Who succeeds and why.

We've already established (in previous posts) that we all want to be successful and we've also discovered that success is represented by different things for different people.
No brainer; easy.
What might be cause for celebration, jubilation and overwhelming joy for one person, may produce a response of panic, stress and unhappiness for someone else; a pregnancy, for example.

In my post, the success myth I discussed the common denominator on the personal growth journey being that we all want to be happy. How we get 'there' will vary greatly depending on our standards, values, beliefs, knowledge, attitude, resources, drive and life-situation.
And where, and what, happy is.

When it comes to creating positive change (which is what we're all about - that's why you're reading this) there are (in my opinion) certain non-negotiables. When we stand back and look objectively at a collective of (what would generally be regarded as) successful people,we discover that there are certain traits, qualities and characteristics which are universal across the group; irrespective of their particular area of endeavour.

Of course this is not really a research article (in the strict sense) but it is based on many years of working with, and observing, a range of people, teams, corporations and organisations all trying to achieve a broad range of positive outcomes.

So, this is what 'science' has taught me about successful people.

1. Consistency. They have an ability to finish what they start. When most people throw in the towel, these guys persevere. Whether it's convenient, practical, fun, easy, hard or popular, they get the job done. The number one reason people fail is they don't finish what they start (health club owners are safe in the knowledge that most people will join their centre and rarely show up!).

2. Discomfort. These people have an amazing capacity to deal with discomfort. They are tough. While others are getting precious, they're getting busy and getting their hands dirty. They don't look for quick fixes or magic pills. They 'get' the short-term pain, for long-term gain concept. They have an amazing ability to adapt to ever-changing (dynamic) situations and circumstances. They identify, and develop their own weaknesses and limitations.

3. Talent. Not absolutely necessary but kinda helpful! Many people with less talent have created amazing outcomes and many highly-talented people have been treading water for years. Talent and commitment ....now there's a combination.

4. Passion and Drive. It's pretty easy to pick whether or not someone is genuinely ready to change and do what's needed. Successful people ooze motivation and enthusiasm... their passion is infectious.

5. Creativity and vision. They have an ability to 'see' something before it actually becomes a reality. They are innovators not imitators.

6. People of action. They do stuff. While many are talking, they're doing. As boring and old-fashioned as it sounds, your Grand-dad was right when he said "there ain't no substitute for hard work". In science we would call this a correlation between investment of energy and outcome.

7. Decision Makers. While many people are perpetually considering, analysing and hoping things will 'fall into place', these girls are making decisions... and not those fluffy, inconsequential decisions... but those big-ass, change-your-life-forever decisions.
You know the ones.

8. Attitude. These people are always finding reasons to succeed. They deal with problems quickly and effectively. They focus on what they can change, rather than bitch about what they can't. They are realists but they are also glass-half-full people. People want to hang out with them because they have great energy.

9. Practical and Logical. While still being in touch with their emotions, they have the capacity to think clearly and logically in all situations. When others might succumb to their own emotions (fear, insecurity, self-doubt) these people have a capacity to find practical solutions to challenging situations. They set goals, they create action plans and they research. They are well organised and good time-managers.

10. Self Control. While others let the wheels fall off, these guys stay in control. Even when there's a 'reason' to panic, complain, criticise or react negatively, they don't. They are in charge of their internal state, no matter what's going on around them.


Q. You know what's good about articles like this one?
A. Lots of great information and practical ideas.

Q. You know what's bad?
A. Most people won't do anything with it.

What about you?

[TheColonel]

Great article.

We've all seen this type of list before, but seeing it again and again is helpful. It's impossible to rush out tomorrow and be all 10 of these attributes. But seeing them - intelligently explained like this - over and over helps to ingrain them.

My problem has always been this: I'm driving toward the goal, focused and determined. Then an unexpected event happens...or an expected one doesn't happen... and I stagger around trying to figure out what to do.

While staggering, I lose precious momentum.

Perhaps #11 would be...Bounce Back.

[Fusebox]

TheColonel has hit the nail on the head, reading this stuff over and over again helps to ingrain it. Why else would people keep visiting StevePavlina. For me the basic fact is that helps motivation levels, until you build your own strenght where you no longer require this sort of external PD injections.

[Liara Covert]

Hello all.

I absorbed Craig's article and think it offers great merit. My own sense of personal success is ever-evolving because I set goals, achieve them and raise the bar to stretch myself. When I speak with other people, they have diverse views on the subject. I offer extensions to Craigs points and would welcome feedback.

1. Craig initially remarks on consistency. I agree that success often hinges on having an ability to finish projects. I would expand to add that defining a clear vision is necessary beforehand. Without it, a person could consistently exert effort ad infinitem without a sense of progress or achieving any goals.

2. In my mind, dealing with discomfort also implies a willingess to embrace and learn from challenges and to appreciate the energy generated by turbulence. High achievers are known to explore feelings of fearlessness. The resulting exhilaration can propel them forward at an incredible rate!

3. For me acknowledging talent suggests a degree of self-confidence which a self-directed person would consciously seek to apply, develop and improve.

4. Passion and drive cause me to think of desire to exert control over aspects of time, the direction of life paths and speed of achieving new heights. Routines enable people to accomplish tasks without much thought whereas passion enables you to connect, see patterns and move ahead no matter what. A worthy proverb reads: “Living without faith is like driving in a fog.”

5. Creativity and vision. For me , successful people are not discouraged by mistakes. Vision enables them to imagine what others don't. This foresight breeds resilience which resists being discouraged. I think of Thomas Edison. He had only 3 months of formal schooling, yet earned over 1000 patents and also spent almost 10,000 hours developing the incandescent lightbulb. He said, "Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up."

6. Rather than simply people of action, I would expand by saying successful people are discerning in that they sense when, where and how to make prudent decisions. Russell Page said, "A discerning eye needs only a hint, and understatement leaves the imagination free to build its own elaborations."

7. Some successful people evolve into roles as decision-makers. Yet, its important to remind yourself that some people rise to their level of incomptence and other people erode their decision-making reputations when they become victims of their own success. On this topic, I like Woody Allen's quote, "In my house I'm the boss, my wife is just the decision maker.”

8. Attitude (to me) can nurture competence, commitment, focus and other traits which enable people to feed themselves a regualr diet of motivational material, through literature, relationships and other uplifting experiences. To this end, Elbert Hubbard stated, "Leadership character is the result of two things: mental attitude and the way we spend our time.”

9. Practical and Logical--my interpretation is the ability of an individual to break down goals into incremental, achieveable steps. We each have our own logic of how and why we can achive what we set out ot do. Motivator Napoleon Hill reminds us that, "There is always plenty of capital available for those who can create practical plans for using it.”

10. Self Control implies emotional maturity and emotional intelligence. These traits are developed most often through meaningful life experience. Dale Carnegie is one of my inspirations who notes that "Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain but it takes character and self control to be understanding and forgiving.”

[hollowman]

Thanks Craig. Human weaklings (like me) need the consistent reminder and motivation to do what we read and not just reading and do nothing.

And to Liara, your extension to Craig's points reali intrigue me. You reali dig deeper and provide some different dimensions of Craig's points. If you dun mind, can you please elaborate futher on point 7 about decision-making, something about 'becoming victims of own success'?

Thank you both so much. Hope you guys don't mind me printing ur essays to share with friends.

[shivraj]

All self development/ self help is all about "GOOD COMMON SENSE" and it is not so common among people..

[Sam988]

Great post craig. These 10 attributes are really fundamental for someone who's serious about wanting to succeed; and they are explained quite clearly on your post.

The #4 "passion and drive" is really important. If one isn't motivated and optimistic about his future he will have a hard time to succeed, if he ever does.

[Uplift]

I agree it is simple, I think its even simpler. It comes down to what you really, honestly think, and believe. Having absolutely no doubt, despite what others think. You see it everywhere. For instance, one person honestly believes he needs 2 hour workouts, daily, and succeeds, another thinks like Mentzer, Yates and so on, and succeeds. One person thinks they are lucky, another thinks they aren't, and guess what.

[jbsmith]

With over 20-years experience in executive ranks in business, an upscale neighborhood where I saw lots of happiness, but also a great deal of unhappiness and an entrepreneur who now regularly partners with millionaires on projects (I'm not trying to blow my own horn here - only to say that I've been exposed to lots of high achievers with about an equal mix of what I call successful people - happy, balanced, etc...)

Your list holds very true in large part, but there is one other MAJOR factor that distinguishes these achievers apart from all others...the X factor if you will.

It's also the factor that often attracts just as much jelousy and negative attention to high achievers - even though they do not threaten anyone.

The trait is best described as..."They do NOT accept the standard definition of what is possible"

Think about how damned irritating that is for the rest of society when you get this maverick in that simply ignores (not defies) limitations, previous notions of what is possible and all of the politics and things that get in the way for most of the rest of us.

At work, this person is often looked at as a "dreamer", a "kiss ass" because they don't worry about who they need to make friends with to achieve their goals, and can make you look very petty as you focus on the obstacles to achieving while they operate as if there are no obstacles in their way.

At first, I used to think - are they really that naive or stupid to notice there are major obstacles?

On the contrary - they are well aware of them - but simply choose to ignore them completely setting their own definition of what is achievable.

This is an extremely consistent and important factor in anyone I have known who has achieved breakthrough success. Not only do they over-achieve, but they are much happier people because they don't always focus on the negatives that stand in their way.

Do any of you relate to this??

Jeff

[Sam988]

jbsmith, great post. You are so right on this point, the "X" factor is really important, because it's what distinguishes the ordinary people from the extraordinary people. Redefining the limits, not accepting the startard definition of what's possible, is very important.


And in the beggining of your post, i don't consider that you're showing off at all, it's actually good that you display your credentials, so we know what's the credibility of the person giving the advice and we can have a better measure of the relevance of the advice, because there's so much people out there speaking as if they knew everything yet they have no credibility.

[Uplift]

Originally Posted by jbsmith

With over 20-years experience in executive ranks in business, an upscale neighborhood where I saw lots of happiness, but also a great deal of unhappiness and an entrepreneur who now regularly partners with millionaires on projects (I'm not trying to blow my own horn here - only to say that I've been exposed to lots of high achievers with about an equal mix of what I call successful people - happy, balanced, etc...)

Your list holds very true in large part, but there is one other MAJOR factor that distinguishes these achievers apart from all others...the X factor if you will.

It's also the factor that often attracts just as much jelousy and negative attention to high achievers - even though they do not threaten anyone.

The trait is best described as..."They do NOT accept the standard definition of what is possible"

Think about how damned irritating that is for the rest of society when you get this maverick in that simply ignores (not defies) limitations, previous notions of what is possible and all of the politics and things that get in the way for most of the rest of us.

At work, this person is often looked at as a "dreamer", a "kiss ass" because they don't worry about who they need to make friends with to achieve their goals, and can make you look very petty as you focus on the obstacles to achieving while they operate as if there are no obstacles in their way.

At first, I used to think - are they really that naive or stupid to notice there are major obstacles?

On the contrary - they are well aware of them - but simply choose to ignore them completely setting their own definition of what is achievable.

This is an extremely consistent and important factor in anyone I have known who has achieved breakthrough success. Not only do they over-achieve, but they are much happier people because they don't always focus on the negatives that stand in their way.

Do any of you relate to this??

Jeff

Yeh, exactly. Spot on. Nothing, or no one, absolutely nothing shakes the self assuredness and self belief of people who do what others deem impossible.

Same thing, I say this as one example. I've said it on this site before. I ate 20 -30 eggs a day, as much cream, butter, cheese, yoghurt and milk as I could. Meat and fish. Virtually no fruit and vegetables, just a few nuts and grains sparingly. For around 12 years until a moral decision of mine intervened. At the time I was training with Neil craig, Mark Williams (who were Uni Students studying Physical Education), Olympic cyclists, sprinters, basketballers, and top footballers, soccer players and athletics competitors. They were all dumbfounded, but all used to regularly ask me what I was doing to be so lean, muscular, strong and fit. I remember Mark Williams set up a test to measure explosive quadriceps strength and I blew the needle off the meter, wrecked the test. He wanted to test me, because at the same time everyone was training for hours a day, whereas as I would be in there for 30 - 40 minutes a few times a week. For a while we had to run 5 miles regularly as part of our fitness testing in basketball, but I refused to do their repetitive daily running as I felt it was depleting fitness. My deal with that coach was if I did well in the once monthly tests, I wouldn't have to do it. Naturally it drove him and my teammates crazy when I would be in the top 3 always. All my medical tests, blood profiles, cholesterol levels etc indicated awesome health, and the doctors were constantly horrified.

I felt unbelievably healthy and fit. I'm in my early fifties and still feel the same.

So do you think I give, or gave one iota what anyone, and I mean anyone, has, or had to say about eggs, dairy, fat, cholesterol fruit, vegetables. I was bombarded daily by 'experts' and must be a walking 'miracle'. I am supposed to be dead a thousand times over.

[Jose Edayadil]

Hi everyone. It's nice to be in your company.
Jose