Are you looking forward to the New Year?
Dreading it?
Hoping for a better year? Or praying it doesn’t get worse?
“Self command is not only itself a great virtue, but from it all the other virtues seem to derive their principle luster.” (Adam Smith)
Getting ahead. Winning the race. Earning the highest income. All of that is possible when you become a top performer.
Psychologists, business experts and scientists have studied top performers extensively. Discover what they have learned about high performers – again and again, it comes down to the same habits, drives and attitudes.
Everyone wants to work with high performers — and most driven professionals want to be one.
These employers and employees — strong leaders who get their work done and drive results — not only excel in their own careers; they also tend to be valuable assets to their teams and companies.
“The most important competitive advantage that any organization has is the quality of its talent — the people that run the show, make the decisions, come up with the ideas, design the products, and deliver the services.
So what are some of the habits that successful people have mastered?
1. SELF DISCIPLINE
The most important habit you can develop for success, achievement and happiness is the habit of self-discipline. Perhaps the best definition of self-discipline comes from Elbert Hubbard, “Self-discipline is the ability to make yourself do what you should do, when you should do it, whether you feel like it or not.”
The habit of self-discipline is closely tied to the Law of Control. As you recall, the Law of Control says that, “You feel happy about yourself to the degree to which you feel you are in control of your own life.”
Self-discipline is the key to self-mastery and self-control. The more capable you become of disciplining yourself to do what you have decided to do, whether you feel like it or not, the more positive and powerful you will feel.
The Source of Personal Power
There is a direct relationship between self-discipline and self-esteem.
The more you discipline yourself to behave in the manner that you have decided, the more you like and respect yourself. The more positive and confident you will feel. The stronger and more in charge of your life and situation you become.
Every act of self-discipline strengthens every other discipline at the same time.
Every weakness in self-discipline weakens your other disciplines as well.
Like working a muscle, your ability to discipline yourself to behave in the way that you have decided grows stronger each time you exercise it. This is why the happiest, most successful and most respected men and women in our society are all men and women of great self-control, self-mastery and self-discipline. And this is a habit you can learn, with practice.
2. A PERSISTENT OPTIMIST
It seems everywhere you look in today’s Social Media driven world there is positive information and negative information.
Have you found yourself down and depressed from reading all this negative information? Break away…Think and digest positive information. You are in control.
Perhaps the most helpful mental habit you can develop is the habit of optimism.
Optimists are usually the…
- Happiest
- Healthiest
- Most successful
- Most influential
People in every group and society.
“You become what you think about most of the time.”
What is it that optimists think about most of the time?
In its simplest terms, optimists think about what they want and how to get it, most of the time. They think about where they are going and how to get there. The very idea of thinking about what they want makes them happy and positive. It increases their energy and releases their creativity. It motivates and stimulates them to perform at higher levels.
Pessimists, on the other hand, are the opposite…
- They think and talk about what they don’t want most of the time.
- They think about the people they don’t like, the problems that they are having, or have had in the past, and especially, they think about who is to blame for their particular situation.
- And the more they think about the things they don’t want and who is to blame for their problems, the more negative and angry they become.
- The more negative they become, the faster they attract into their lives exactly those things that they do not want to happen.
3. THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU WANT
Earl Nightingale once wrote that, “Happiness is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal.”
You develop the habit of optimism by disciplining yourself to keep your thoughts and words on what you want, and off of what you don’t want.
- Your Goals
- Your Business Goals
- Your Life Goals
- Your Family Goals
- Social Media Goals
The busier you become working toward the accomplishment of goals and objectives that you have set for yourself, the more energy and enthusiasm you will have, the faster you will move ahead, the more you will get done, and the happier you will be.
When you are working hour by hour and day by day toward the achievement of something that is worthwhile and important to you, your brain releases a steady stream of endorphins that gives you a feeling of happiness and well being. You feel more positive and creative.
You have more energy and enthusiasm. This positive feeling acts as a reward or reinforcement that motivates you continually to think the thoughts and take the actions that move you even more rapidly in the direction of your hopes, dreams and goals.
4. BECOMING A HIGH PERFORMER
They Put In The Work, Day After Day
Optimistic people think very differently than pessimistic people.
Becoming a high performer takes significant effort. There’s no away around putting in the work.
They Work At Learning Their Craft From Others
In his book Mastery, Robert Greene finds that most high performers in history (and in our time) work with mentors to develop their skills. British scientist Michael Faraday worked as a lab assistant to leading chemist Humphry Davy for years before he achieved prominence. Greene finds the same pattern at play with artists, entrepreneurs and many other masters. Learning from other high performers is one of the best ways to make progress.
They Direct Their Own Learning
High performers understand the central importance of lifelong learning to career advancement. While they certainly take advantage of employer provided learning programs, they do not limit themselves to those options. Top performers take night classes, go to seminars, participate actively in conferences and read in their field.
As my father taught me, “The day you stop learning is the day you DIE.” He believed that until he drew his last breath.
So always be learning, it takes effort and time. Life and Social Media are always changing, it can be frustrating and is to my clients and other businesses. Yet, it keeps us alive, challenging us and growing us to be better at our craft.
5. GAIN CONTROL
In every case, control over your life begins with your thoughts, the only thing over which you do have complete control. How you think about any situation determines how you feel, and your feelings determine your behavior.
- Self-discipline, self-mastery, self-control all begin with you taking control over your thinking.
There are basically two ways you can get control of any situation that is causing you stress or unhappiness.
- You can move forward and do something to change it. You can assert yourself in the situation and make it different somehow.
- You can simply walk-away. You can often gain control by letting go of a person or situation and getting busy doing something else.
The self-confidence that comes with feeling in control is why a person with a clear purpose and a plan always has an edge over someone who is vague or unsure.
Examine the various areas of your life with a mental checklist and decide where you feel positive and in control, and where you don’t. Then begin planning and thinking of the specific things you could do to get control in those areas of your life causing stress.
Think about those situations you might be better off walking away from.
One of your major responsibilities is to get and keep your life under control. This sense of control becomes your foundation for building greater happiness and success in the future.
Make sure it’s rock solid!
FINAL THOUGHTS
Everything you are or ever will be, will be a result of the way you think. If you change the quality of your thinking, you change the quality of your life.
Every aspect of personal and business success or failure can be explained by this basic law. If you sow the right causes, you reap the desired effects. If you produce quality products or services that customers want and need and are willing to pay for, and then promote them through Social Media vigorously, you’ll be successful in selling them. If you don’t you won’t.
If you do high-quality work and achieve the results that you or your company needs to grow and prosper, you’ll be successful and happy in your career.
If you treat others well, they’ll treat you well. You’ll always get out of life what you put in-and you control what your put in.
About Blair
Blair Evan Ball is a Social Media Coach and founder of Prepare1, a company that works with businesses, individuals and non-profits. He is a former executive with a Fortune 50 company, and his national division did $1Billion+ in sales annually.
Blair has written three e-books: Facebook for Business Made Easy, Facebook Pages for Business Made Easy, and WordPress Blog Setup Made Easy.
Blair also educates, trains entrepreneurs and business professionals how to amplify their brand, increase revenues, and raise more funds.
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