2 Quiet Rituals of Enormously Successful Humans

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Today, let’s begin with the truth:

Just because you’re struggling doesn’t mean you’re failing. Every success requires some type of worthy struggle to get there.

Although the journey may be tough at times, it always feels better to be exhausted from tiny bits of progress, than it does to be tired of doing nothing at all. Every step counts.

And as you know, the result of enormous success is often pretty noisy – lots of people talking, writing, and sharing stories about it. But the actual process of achieving enormous success is far more discreet and mysterious. Yet it’s this process that happens quietly, behind the scenes, that makes all the difference in the world…

Marc and I are fortunate enough to know a number of enormously successful human beings. Regardless of lifestyle, demographic, industry or profession, they all share many of the same quiet rituals. And I want to share two of them with you today… two that I think relate to many of the present challenges we all are facing:

1. They gradually turn life’s obstacles around.

As I mentioned recently on the blog, many of the most iconic books, songs and inventions of all time were inspired by gut-wrenching pain and heartbreak. Therefore, the silver lining of these painful challenges is that they were the catalyst to the creation of epic masterpieces.

An emerging field of psychology called Post-Traumatic Growth has suggested that many people are able to use their hardships and traumas for substantial creative and intellectual development. Specifically, researchers have found that trauma can help people grow in the areas of interpersonal relationships, contentment, gratitude, personal strength, and resourcefulness.

When our view of the world as a safe place, or as a certain type of place, has been shattered, we are forced to reboot our perspective on things. We suddenly have the opportunity to look out to the periphery and see things with a new, fresh set of beginner’s eyes, which is very conducive to personal growth and long-term success and wellness. (covered in the “Getting Out of Your Own Way” lesson of the “Getting Back to Happy Course”)

2. They mindfully focus on the positive.

A recent scientific study Marc and I were discussing earlier today showed that doctors who are put in a positive mood before making a diagnosis consistently experience significant boosts to their intellectual abilities than doctors in a neutral state, which allows them to make accurate diagnoses almost 20% faster. The same study then shifted to other vocations and found that optimistic salespeople outsell their pessimistic counterparts by over 50%. Students primed to feel happy before taking math tests substantially outperform their neutral peers. So it turns out that our minds are literally hardwired to perform at their best not when they are negative, or even neutral, but when they are positive.

Of course, that’s not to say that successful people never get upset, but your effectiveness in all walks of life will fare better if you’re able to mindfully accept and let go of negative emotions, rather than dwelling on them. Think a little less about managing your problems and a little more about managing your mindset.

These techniques work no matter where you stand in your current situation or what you’re up against going forward. Even if you have limited experience with self-improvement and personal development tactics. And even if you don’t know what you really want for yourself…yet.

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