Anyone who has ever been on a diet can attest that much of a diet’s success has to do with making the right decisions constantly. In entrepreneurship, there are a million and a half things that are out of our control all the time. Successful people thrive, achieve, and enjoy success because they make smart decisions every day. Here are some tough choices to be exceptionally successful.
1. Choose To Feel Good About Yourself
Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” Like many other success stories, Roosevelt realized that she couldn’t choose who was happy with her and who wasn’t (and there were certainly plenty of people unhappy with her).
Although we couldn’t control what people thought of her, she could control the way she thought about herself. A baby step you can start today is leaving yourself positive notes daily.
2. Choose To Set Specific Goals
Successful people don’t start with a million aspirations and attempt to work on every single one of them all at once. Aspiration is not vague, but rather it’s a well-conceived desire. Do this by turning your dreams into specific, time-sensitive goals, and placing them near the top of your priority list.
3. Choose To Work Hard Instead Of Dreaming
Dreams don’t come true just because you spaced off during the workday. Successful people don’t only know this, but they use it to push themselves forward. They realize they’ll achieve their dreams eventually, but they don’t get discouraged when it takes a whole lot of elbow grease to get there. A great way to start is by evaluating your progress every month.
4. Choose Not To Cry Over Spilled Milk
If you’re waking up every morning thinking about what went wrong the day before, you’re probably doing entrepreneurship wrong. Learning from your mistakes is Entrepreneurship 101. But the ultra-successful take a step further by remembering the lessons and then forgetting the rest. Your philosophy should be: “The past is the past and it cannot be undone. Learn from it and move on.”
5. Choose Passion
Some of us get excited about an idea and try to do everything in our power to make it a reality. But oftentimes, when the going gets tough, we lose the fire and our dream fizzles into thin air. Successful people are different.
Knowing your runway and having your financial ducks in a row are vital. Use your passion to keep yourself motivated, especially when the road becomes rough and your destination seems far out of reach.
6. Choose To Surround Yourself With Positive People
Negativity can be incredibly contagious. As Melinda Gates says, “If you are successful, it is because somewhere, sometime, someone gave you a life or an idea that started you in the right direction.” Choose to surround yourself with passionate, motivated, and aspirational people.
7. Choose To Enjoy Life
“It makes no difference how many peaks you reach if there was no pleasure in the climb.” Oprah Winfrey said. To be successful in business, you need to adopt Winfrey’s mentality and appreciate the small victories. You need to learn to love the journey, not just the destination. Your success won’t happen overnight, but it will happen eventually.
