10 rules self-made women follow to elevate their life

The self-made women.

The woman every girl wants to grow up to be and every man is too intimidated to approach.

She’s built her life and career through hard work and dedication.

I’m a woman myself and I’ve always looked up to the confident, sexy woman who uses her feminity to get ahead.

The question is:

Are you a self-made woman?

Let’s find out.

Here are 10 rules self-made women live by to elevate their life.

But first, what are self-made women?

A self-made woman is a woman who has achieved success on her own rather than achieving it through the help of others.

She’s independent, determined, and driven, and has worked hard to overcome challenges and achieve her goals.

While in today’s society, the term self-made women are often used to describe women who have built their own business or career, this article refers to self-made women as women who have found success in whatever way they define success.

This could include starting her own successful business, achieving success in a male-dominated field, or building a career as a freelancer or artist.

For example, my name is Tina Fey and I am the founder of the website Love Connection, a site dedicated to helping people with their relationship problems. Over 500,000 people a month read my articles, and I have also written one book.

While my website may not be staggeringly successful financially, I still consider myself a self-made woman because I did all of this on my own accord and through my own hard work.

To become a self-made woman, it’s all about hard work, determination, and perseverance. 

It’s about taking control of your own life and doing whatever it takes to reach your desired outcomes.

Here are the top 10 rules self-made women live by:

1. Set clear goals and work towards them consistently

Successful women know what they want and work towards it consistently, whether it’s in their career, personal life, or both.

While people might see self-made women and look at certain figures and think that they were merely overnight successes.

While, yes, it may have taken a night for them to be recognized, especially with the age of the internet, a successful woman knows that it’s all a lie.

There is no such thing as true overnight success.

The reality is that overnight successes are built on the back of hours, days, and months of hard work.

As self-made stays focused and motivated, even when faced with challenges or setbacks.

She needed to learn how to do something, gain new skills, and grow as a person.

After potentially months of putting in the hours, that’s when the world finally recognizes her.

2. Take calculated risks

Some may argue that women should play it safe and avoid risks in order to protect themselves and their careers.

But self-made women know that taking calculated risks is an essential part of growth and success.

They understand that there is always a chance of failure, but they are not afraid to fail.

In fact, they see failure as an opportunity to learn and grow.

The truth is:

She wouldn’t be where she is without aiming high and taking risks.

Others might be aiming for modest goals, but a successful woman has global dreams.

She might first start out by providing the best value in her neighborhood.

Then she slowly branches out to her city, state, country, then the world.

She has big visions for what kind of life she wants to live and what success she wants to reach.

While other people might be afraid to set goals too large, maybe because they’re afraid they might fall short, a successful woman goes for it.

It might even scare her still, but she acts despite the fear and tries her best to make her goals a reality.

3. Don’t be afraid to stand up for your beliefs

A self-made woman isn’t on the lookout for arguments, but they are also aren’t afraid to say what they think.

A hallmark trait of a self-made woman is to express her opinions even when her beliefs are against the majority.

They don’t express their opinion rudely, or with the intention of annoying others, but they simply state their opinions in a calm and matter-of-fact way.

While some people who can’t think outside of the status quo find this intimidating, most people respect honesty and the ability of someone to speak from the heart.

4. Adopt a growth mindset

There might be some things in life you want to do, but because of your lack of background and experience, you feel like they’re out of reach.

You’ve been incorporated, so you don’t feel like you can ever be a great artist.

You tell yourself since you have no experience in business, you could never start that company you’ve always wanted.

Self-made women don’t settle.

They know the experiences they have don’t define where they want to go.

They don’t let their degrees or background tell them what they can and can’t do.

If they don’t know how to do something, then they’ll learn how to do it.

This is what psychologist Carol Dweck calls a “growth mindset.”

It’s the ability to keep going in spite of setbacks and failures.

Self-made women understand that making mistakes is a natural part of the learning and growth process.

They recognize that no one is perfect and that everyone makes mistakes from time to time.

Rather than dwelling on their mistakes or beating themselves up about them, they take a constructive approach and use them as an opportunity to learn and grow.

5. Be real…always

She won’t be fake-nice. She won’t compliment someone if they haven’t earned it.

A successful woman is not trying to impress other people. She knows who she is and doesn’t need outside validation to feel better about herself.

She shows how she feels and what she thinks. This is refreshing in an age of social media where everyone is faking it to look better than they really are.

A self-made woman is comfortable in her own skin and confident in her beliefs, values, and actions.

This makes her self-assured and confident, which is not only inspiring to be around but allows her to make quick decisions and back herself until the cows come home. 

6. Don’t bother comparing yourself to others

Social media has made it easier than before to compare ourselves with other people’s achievements.

While we might think too much about it when we do it, it can actually lower our self-esteem, as this article writes. 

Comparing ourselves not only brings us down but also distracts us from what we need to do: move forward toward our goals.

While they can congratulate their friends for jobs well done, successful women don’t let it get to them.

They focus on their own achievements and base them on their own criteria for success.

7. She questions everything.

Society isn’t kind to women.

It likes to put women into neat little boxes and hates it when women aren’t content to sit still in those boxes.

A self-made questions everything because she doesn’t want to be put in any box—ever.

That is to say, she is never gullible.

She questions everything from the things she reads online to the rules set in the office. But it’s not because she’s just “stubborn” or contrarian. It’s because she believes the world will be a much better place if we don’t just accept everything we’re handed.

She believes that the way to move forward—personally and as a society— is to keep asking questions.

8. Don’t let opportunities slip by

Opportunities for personal and professional success are more abundant than you might think.

Self-made women are always on the lookout for new opportunities for them.

Maybe there’s someone close to them complaining about poor service; that’s an opportunity to build a better one.

When they stumble upon a workshop to learn how to code, that’s an opportunity to be introduced to something she has no experience with.

When there’s someone who feels down and needs someone to talk to, that’s an opportunity to deepen a relationship.

The unsuccessful let these opportunities just sail by maybe out of fear or simply being too blind to see them.

9. She isn’t afraid to say no.

A self-made woman has no problems setting boundaries. And she has no problems being different, either. So saying no is so easy for her.

She says NO without having to explain anything. And when others set their boundaries, she respects it, too.

She knows how to prioritize herself. It doesn’t mean she’s being selfish. It’s her way to ensure that she keeps her word and doesn’t burn herself out.

It’s also easier for her to say no because she isn’t afraid to let others down. For her, if they get hurt or pissed when she says no to something, they’re clearly not the people she wants to be with.

10. Spend time with positive people

The people that you spend time with will affect your mindset.

If you surround yourself with people that complain and gossip all the time without doing anything to improve their lives, you might get sucked into their whirlpool of negativity.

But if you have a friend group that is supportive, and that motivates each other, then you’re in the right place.

Keeping good company is essential not only to one’s success but to one’s mental health too.

The self-made woman chooses her friends carefully. If they don’t align with her values, then she doesn’t bother pursuing a friendship.

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Tina Fey

I'm Tina Fey, the founder of the blog Love Connection. I've extremely passionate about sharing relationship advice. I've studied psychology and have my Masters in marital, family, and relationship counseling. I hope with all my heart to help you improve your relationships, and I hope that even if one thing I write helps you, it means more to me than just about anything else in the world. Check out my blog Love Connection, and if you want to get in touch with me, hit me up on Twitter

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