The sooner you adopt them the better.

Everyone has a different idea of success.

Succeeding in life means getting what you’ve always desired. It means achieving the lifestyle you always wanted and reaching the main life goals you set for yourself.

And it happens when your reality finally matches what you’ve always dreamt of.

Although success is subjective, the path to it is often similar for all of us. If we take a closer look to whose who have become successful in life, we will notice they often share the following habits.

Read also: The 7 Habits of the most independent people

1. They focus on what produces results

People with a successful mindset don’t like to waste their time and energy. They have a bias for action and like to see results. So they identify what produces results and focus on it.

Let me give you an example.

Imagine you have a blog and you want to receive more traffic. While analyzing your blog’s metrics and your competitors’ stats is important, what’s even more important in order to get more traffic to your blog is creating content your readers actually want to read.

If there’s no content, there can’t be traffic. Right?

So, if you want to be successful at blogging, you’ll have to focus 10% of your time on minor tasks (for example, choosing a user-friendly theme, analyzing your blog’s KPIs, studying your competitors) and 90% of your time and energy on the most important ones: understanding what your audience needs, keyword research, writing.

How to apply this, in a nutshell:

Identify the tasks that tend to produce the best results — or that help you reach your goals the most.

Once you have done that, focus most of your time and energy on those tasks.

2. They set high standards (and insist on them)

One of the most important Amazon leadership principles — and one of my favorite ones — is insist on the highest standards:

Leaders have relentlessly high standards — many people may think these standards are unreasonably high. Leaders are continually raising the bar and drive their teams to deliver high quality products, services, and processes. Leaders ensure that defects do not get sent down the line and that problems are fixed so they stay fixed.

If you think about it, this principle can be applied not only to your career, but to any other area of your life. You can apply it to your side hustles, your hobbies, your relationships, and even to your health and wellness.

As Tony Robbins mentions, when you raise your standards, you upgrade your life. Because you not only start to tell yourself that you can do more. You start to believe it.

You also get rid of your limiting beliefs, unlock your potential, and finally start living the life of your dreams.

Think about a person you know who has become particularly successful in life. Think about the path that led them where they are today.

You will probably notice they have believed in themselves and set high standards for themselves — at least at some point in their career or life — or they wouldn’t be where they are.

They told themselves they could do more. And they did it.

How to apply this, in a nutshell:

As we mentioned, you can set high standards for yourself in any area of your life.

An example of setting high standards can be something as simple as applying for that job you know you deserve, even if you don’t meet all the requirements.

Another example can be starting that online business so that you will be able to leave that job that makes you miserable and live your life on your own terms.

Or it can even be choosing a partner who makes you feel respected and cherished.

In any case, it means wanting the best for yourself, always.

3. They break down their tasks

People with a successful mindset know that some large tasks can feel overwhelming. So they break them down into more manageable pieces and simplify the process.

A good friend of mine, Laurie, recently published a book.

I told her how much I admire her. The idea of writing an entire book would make me feel overwhelmed because I wouldn’t even know where to start.

Do you know what she told me? She felt the same way at the beginning. But to make the writing process simpler, she put pen to paper and created a map of the book.

She divided the book into sections, added a short description and a few main points to each one of those section, and assigned a deadline to each chapter.

Obviously, she had to go through the whole writing process and it took her months to write the entire book. But it felt so much simpler — and less overwhelming — than she thought at the beginning.

How to apply this, in a nutshell:

Don’t let a long process scare you. And most importantly, don’t let that overwhelming feeling stop you.

Whenever a task or a process feels too complex or long, remember you can simplify it by breaking it down into smaller and more manageable pieces.

4. They choose delayed gratification over instant pleasure

According to Britannica, delayed gratification is the act of resisting an impulse to take an immediately available reward in the hope of obtaining a more-valued reward in the future.

As Tony Robbins mentions, the ability to hold out now for a better reward later is not only an essential skill everyone should develop, but also a powerful tool for learning to live your life with purpose.

Those who have a successful mindset often choose delayed gratification over instant pleasure. That’s how they are where they are today.

Some examples of delayed gratification are:

Working on your side hustle instead of watching that episode on Netflix;
Going to the gym instead of staying at home drinking beer and watching TV;
Cooking yourself a healthy meal instead of buying a frozen pizza (or any other ultra-processed food);
Saving money to buy an asset instead of spending it on expensive clothes;
Spending five minutes writing that important email instead of scrolling through your phone;
Writing an article instead of spending hours watching cat reels on Instagram (I admit it, this is my weakness; I’m working on it though!).
While it’s totally OK to spend some time on mindless, non-productive tasks to let your mind rest, it’s important not to waste too much time on those activities—and focus back on the tasks that matter.

How to apply this, in a nutshell:

Whenever you’re about to choose instant pleasure over delayed gratification, remind yourself of your goals. Visualize yourself reaching those goals and think about how good it will feel.

It will probably motivate you to choose to work on a productive task instead of giving in to instant pleasure.

And this takes us to the next point.

5. They begin with the end in mind

“To begin with the end in mind means to start with a clear understanding of your destination. It means to know where you’re going so that you better understand where you are now and so that the steps you take are always in the right direction.”

— Stephen Covey

As Stephen Covey mentioned in his bestselling book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, one of the best, smartest habits you can learn is to begin with the end in mind.

Staring with the end in mind means beginning something — a task, a process, or simply your day — with a clear vision of your desired direction.

It means to have a clear idea of what you want and work backwards from there to create that idea.

One of the simplest examples of beginning with the end in mind is when in the morning you write a list of the tasks you want to complete by the end of the day. Yes, I’m talking about the good old to-do list.

When you have a to-do list and follow it throughout the day, you will end your day exactly as you imagined it in the morning.

How to apply this, in a nutshell:

Every time you have a goal in mind, visualize it. Try to enjoy the feeling of achieving that goal.

Write down the details of the final outcome, and annotate all the resources and the tasks you need to get there.

Read also: 5 life rules you should not break for anyone/ anything

Quick Recap

To give you a quick recap of what we have discussed so far, here’s a list of some habits you should steal from successful people:

Focus on what produces results;
Set high standards and insist on them;
Break down complex tasks;
Choose delayed gratification over instant pleasure;
Begin with the end in mind.

CONTRIBUTED BY Sira Mas

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