What is that one thing that all successful people seem to know that others less successful don’t? Why do so many lose and so few win? It really is very simple. Successful people know the answer to the riddle. Others use it, but it always seems to work against them. Can you solve the riddle?
WHO AM I?
I AM THE ALLY OF ALL MEN THAT ARE GREAT AND I AM THE ENEMY OF ALL FAILURES AS WELL
I WORK WITH THE PRECISION OF A MACHINE, BUT I AM NOT MECHANICAL
IF YOU TEACH ME A TASK, I WILL DO IT ALMOST AUTOMATICALLY WITHOUT YOUR SUPERViSION
IF YOU ARE FIRM WITH ME AND TEACH ME EXACTLY WHAT YOU WANT, I WILL LAY THE WORLD AT YOUR FEET
IF YOU TAKE ME FOR GRANTED AND TREAT ME LOOSELY, I WILL DESTROY YOU
WHO AM I?
Did you understand that it is a habit? If you study some of the most successful people throughout history, they all had rituals or habits they did everyday without fail. Once you find those little details you know produce results in life, in your business or in your relationships, it is the repetition of doing those things daily that produce long term desired results. Think about the riddle. We all use habits every day. There are bad habits like smoking, overeating, drinking to excess that usually have bad long term consequences. There are good habits like exercise, marketing your business, making time for relationships that usually have good long term results. It is all in our control which habits we use. Let’s look at how to form habits.
Psychologists teach us that an act becomes a habit if it is repeated consistently for 21 days. The dictionary defines habit as a noun –A settled or regular tendency or practice esp. one that is hard to give up. Just ask a smoker how hard it is to break a habit. If we build positive and productive habits into our lives we are unstoppable. We have all driven to a job or school the same route over and over. We all have had that feeling of “I don’t even remember driving in this morning”. It doesn’t mean we were unsafe or out of control. It just means our mind was in such of a “habit” to making the drive that we were able to think about other things or maybe even talk on our cell phone, oops, bad habit!
A habit is at its best when it becomes an unconscious competence. Meaning we do the task without thinking about it. No one past the age of 6 thinks about tying their shoe laces. It is an unconscious competent habit. Find those things in your business and make them a daily habit by doing them consciously every day for 21 straight days. You will soon reach unconscious competence start to see good long term progress. For example, I set a goal a year ago to write a new blog once per week. It started out being a real chore to come up with subject matter and finding the time to put it all together. Now over one year later, it is really a part of my week. I got in a habit of writing down ideas as they came to me so I don’t stress about subjects of content. All we need is to work on those good habits to live a very happy life. So start today, forming your new habits. Don’t procrastinate because that is a really bad habit!
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”–Aristotle
Image by www.notcot.org
Tim Wilhoit is owner/principal of Your Friend 4 Life Insurance Agency in Nashville, TN. He is a family man, father of 3, entrepreneur, insurance agent, life insurance broker, salesman, sales trainer, recruiter, public speaker, blogger and team leader with over 25 years of experience in sales and marketing in the insurance and beverage industries.
6 Responses to What Is The One Secret Every Successful Person Knows?