Paul Brian
Success rarely happens by accident.
Those who overcome obstacles and make the most of their lives share a specific playbook.
Here are the top traits that successful people usually demonstrate.
1) Clear communication
First up in the traits of successful people is a knack for clear communication.
We aren’t all born as talented communicators, so sometimes this trait takes a bit of work to develop.
It requires pronouncing words clearly, speaking at an audible volume, facing the person or people we are talking with and making eye contact.
Gestures can also help clarify and emphasize points that are being made.
Clear communication can’t be exaggerated in its importance.
This is an absolutely crucial trait of many of the most successful people.
2) Discipline and organization
Successful people also cultivate discipline and organization in their lives.
They know that if you are disciplined and organized you put yourself on a very good footing for making progress toward your goals.
No matter how wonderful your ideas, colleagues, and health is, a lack of self-discipline and organization can ruin even the best-laid plans.
Oftentimes, discipline must be learned in the hard way by doing everything lazily first and experiencing the consequences.
But one way or another, successful people hold fast to these traits.
3) Patience and long-termism
The next ingredient of success is patience and thinking long-term.
If you’re too hungry for immediate gratification, you end up self-sabotaging in so many ways.
Take the stock market, for example:
Consistent studies show that those who stay in the market longer and have patience tend to be those who end up in the green.
Those who pull out their money after a small bump and invest in something else, on the other hand, often tend to the the losers who get caught in the flux of the market.
Long-term thinking and patience are necessary for almost all real success.
4) Emotional intelligence and social skills
Emotions are extremely powerful and almost all our interactions involve them.
Successful people have a solid grasp of their own emotions and those of others. They understand emotional states, fluctuations and challenges.
They know how to make somebody feel good and comfort somebody who is not.
This ties into social skills in general and the ability to be affable and come across well to others.
5) Thinking outside the box
If you think the same as other folks the most successful you can ever be is within the sandbox they created.
But thinking outside the box opens up entire new worlds.
Successful people tend to be highly creative thinkers who are able to think outside the box and innovate.
They get inspired and come up with new ideas in ways that others often don’t.
For those who aren’t too creative, don’t worry:
Spend more time around creative people and try these creativity exercises to jumpstart your creative side.
6) Curiosity and a desire to learn
Curiosity can’t be faked, but it can be increased.
Many subjects are actually more interesting than you may realize at first glance.
Successful people understand the secret that everything is connected and that the more you know about one subject the more you start to note connections between other subjects.
Asking lots of questions and the desire to learn has innumerable benefits and leads to much greater success in life.
7) Focused mentality and attention
If you can’t focus, then all your best ideas and strategies are guaranteed to fail.
Honing the ability to focus and pay attention fully to what they are trying to accomplish is a crucial trait of most successful people.
There are certainly geniuses and prosperous successful people who have problems paying attention but still manage to change the world.
But for the rest of us, being able to focus and pay attention is a key prerequisite to truly succeeding.
8) Accountability and follow-through
Part of the self-discipline I mentioned earlier is about self-accountability.
We all fall down at time, but successful people have the trait (and habit) of self-accountability.
They are honest with themselves when they fall short of their goals or say they will do something and then do not do it.
They do their absolute best to make their word their bond.
By practicing self-accountability and honesty, successful people ensure that they don’t live for appearances or reputation.
No matter the praise or criticism they’re getting from outside, successful people are always most concerned with the feedback they’re getting internally from honest self-assessment and accountability.
9) Desire for teamwork and collaboration
Many great things have been accomplished in isolation and by dedicated individuals who were a bit of a loner.
But the truth is that even great discoveries by Galileo or Einstein or anyone else were built on the knowledge and discoveries of many others before them.
Great breakthroughs rarely come out of nowhere.
Successful people understand how much we rely on each other and understand that their progress and work requires standing on the shoulders of giants.
Successful folks tend to be open to collaboration and working with other people, and even those who are more reserved and need more space on their own still pay homage to those who came before and build on their accomplishments.
Team work makes the dream work.
10) Courage in the face of failure
We all experience failure.
Successful people take the lessons from failure and they also face it with courage.
Failure is just part of the road to success.
Unless you put your everything into a goal, you can never truly fail or succeed.
That’s why successful people are courageous about failure.
They admit when they fell short, and they decide what to do next.
Sometimes that’s to double down and try even harder, other times to rethink their goal or come at it from a totally new angle.
The recipe for success
The recipe for success starts with you.
The above traits are a great place to start.
By cultivating the traits of winners you ensure that whatever happens you tackle every new situation with the right mindset and the right habits.
