The Patterns of Success

One success might look different from another, but there are patterns that can’t be denied. You can adopt these patterns of success and greatly enhance your odds of success. Model yourself after others that have achieved great things. Successful people share many qualities. You can develop these same qualities in yourself.

Pattern your success after the success of others:

1. Success begins with a vision and the belief that vision can be accomplished. Know where you’re going and have confidence you can get there.

2. Success requires prioritization. There are only so many minutes in a day. You can’t accomplish 20 amazing things each year. Focus your energy on just a couple of things. Ensure that you spend the first couple hours of each day on those most important priorities.

3. Successful people anticipate self-sabotage. The future is a mystery to everyone. Even the most successful people can’t predict their behavior 100%. Never assume that you can take it easy today because you’ll work every night next week instead. That type of thinking is a form of procrastinating and never ends well.

4. Delegation is key. You can’t do it all without help. Use the people around you to your best advantage. That doesn’t mean take advantage of anyone, but get the help you require. Rather than doing everything yourself, ask yourself what your options are for ensuring the task is done.

5. Failure is a regular occurrence. Failure happens to successful people all the time. The most successful people are those that failed quickly and often. Examine each failure and learn what you can. Attack the next opportunity with new knowledge and an improved approach.

6. Results are tracked. Success requires feedback, but that feedback is worthless if it’s ignored. Measure your progress, progress toward your goals, and progress with your behavior. Then make the necessary adjustments.

7. Commitment. Commitment is required to put forth the effort necessary to make success a likely outcome. Where there is no commitment, long-term failure is likely.

8. Perseverance. Successful people have an amazing ability to persevere. The ability to never give up is a cornerstone of success.

9. Sacrifice. Prioritization in one area of your life means sacrificing in others. You might have to give up the softball league, the book club, or your morning trip to Starbucks. Be prepared to sacrifice.

10. Take calculated risks. Great rewards require dealing with some level of risk. If you want 100% certainty and no risk, stay at home. Great successes often involve considerable risk, even if that risk is only wasting a lot of your precious time. How much are you willing to gamble?

11. Action-oriented. Lots of people are good at dreaming, setting goals, and planning. Some are also skilled at talking a good game about how much they’re going to accomplish. Not many are willing to actually take action. The most successful people take massive action and expend a lot of time and energy actually doing things, rather than just thinking about them.

Which of these qualities are you lacking? Do you have a plan for developing them? Could you imagine failing if you had all of these qualities? Success would be almost automatic! Develop the necessary qualities to greatly increase the odds of success. Have an objective, prioritize your life accordingly, take action, and never give up.