That is why the ability to work hard and respond positively to failure and adversity is so crucial. Resolve, willpower, and determination help successful people work hard and stick to their long-term goals.
For example successful people are:
- Great at withstanding temptation.
- Able to overcome fear in order to do what they need to do.
- Do not set priorities; they do the things they decide are most important.
It is no coincidence that the above are some of the qualities of remarkably successful people.
Let Your Past Inform Your Future
The past is valuable. Learn from your mistakes, the mistakes of others, then let if go.
Easier said than done? It depends on your perspective. When something bad happens to you, see it as an opportunity to learn something you did not know. When another person makes a mistake, do not just learn from it, see it as an opportunity to be kind, forgiving, and understanding.
The past is just training; it does not define you. Think about what went wrong but ,only in terms of how you will make sure that next time, you and the people around you will know how to make sure it goes right.
See Your Life And Future Totally Within Your Control
There is a quote often credited to Ignatius: "Pray as if God will take care of all; act as if all is up to you."
The same premise applies to luck. Many people feel luck has a lot to do with success or failure. If they succeed, luck favoured them, and if they fail, luck was against them.
Most successful people do feel good luck played some role in their success. But they do not wait for good luck or worry about bad luck. They act as if success or failure is totally within their control. If they succeed, they caused it. If they fail, they caused it.
By not wasting mental energy worrying about what might happen to you, you can put all your effort into making things happen. You cannot control luck, but you can definitely control you.
Learn To Ignore The Things You Can Have No Control Over
Mental strength is like muscle strength, no one has an unlimited supply. So why waste your power on things you cannot control?
For some people, it is politics, for others, it is family or even global warming. Whatever it is, you care, and you want others to care.
Fine, do what you can. Vote. Lend a listening ear. Recycle, and reduce your carbon footprint. Be your own change, but do not try to make everyone else change. It is hardly unlikely that they will.
Do Not Resent Instead Celebrate The Success Of Others
Many people, I guarantee you know at least a few, see success as a zero-sum game. There is only so much to go around. When someone else shines, they think that diminishes the light from their stars.
Resentment takes a massive amount of mental energy, which can be better applied elsewhere.
When a friend does something awesome, that does not preclude you from doing something awesome. In fact, where success is concerned, birds of a feather tend to flock together, so draw your successful friends even closer.
Do not resent awesomeness. Create and celebrate awesomeness, wherever you find it, and in time you will find even more of it in yourself.
Never Stoop To Complaining, Criticising or Whining
Your words have power, especially over you. Whining about your problems always makes you feel worse, not better.
So if something is wrong, do not waste time complaining. Put that mental energy into making the situation better. Unless you want to whine about it forever, eventually you will have to make it better.
So why waste time? Fix it now. Do not talk about what is wrong. Talk about how you will make things better, even if that conversation is only with yourself.
And do the same with your friends or colleagues. Do not just serve as a shoulder they can cry on. Friends do not let friends whine, friends help friends make their lives better.
Do Not Focus On Others Only Try And Impress Yourself
No one likes you for your clothes, your car, your possessions, your title, or your accomplishments. Those are all things. People may like your things, but that does not mean they like you.
Superficially they might seem to like you, but what is superficial is also insubstantial, and a relationship not based on substance is not a real relationship.
Genuine relationships make you happier, and you will only form genuine relationships when you stop trying to impress and start trying to just be yourself.
You will have a lot more mental energy to spend on the people who really do matter in your life.
Consistently Revisit Your Long Term Goals
If you want to lose weight; when you are mentally tired, it is easy to rationalise that you will start changing your eating and exercise habits tomorrow. It is exactly the same if, as a manager of a company you want to have a better relationship with your employees; when you are mentally tired, it is much easier to rationalise that you really need to work on that report instead.
Mental fatigue makes us take the easy way out -- even though the easy way takes us the wrong way.
The key is to create tangible reminders that pull you back from the impulse brink. A friend has a copy of his bank note taped to his laptop as a constant reminder of an obligation he must meet. Another keeps a photo of himself on his refrigerator taken when he weighed 50 Kilos to serve as a constant reminder of the person he never wants to be again. Another fills his desk with family photos, both because he loves looking at them and to remind himself of the people he is ultimately working for.
Think of moments when you are most likely to give in to impulses that take you farther away from your long-term goals. Then use tangible reminders of those long-term goals to interrupt the impulse and keep you on track.
Or better yet, rework your environment so you eliminate your ability to be impulsive. Then you do not have to exercise any willpower at all. If you cannot say no to checking your social media accounts every few minutes, turn them off and put them away for a couple of hours at a time so you do not have to be strong enough to say no.
Count Your Blessings
Before you turn out the light every night, take a moment to quit worrying about what you do not have. Quit worrying about what others have that you do not.
Think about what you do have. You have a lot to be thankful for.
Feeling better about yourself is the best way of all to recharge your mental batteries.
With thanks to Jeff Haden https://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/8-habits-of-people-with-exceptional-determination-and-willpower.html
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