When it comes to the psychology of success, the first thing you need to ask yourself is why you want to be successful. By success, I refer to achieving something in your life that you currently aspire towards. What is emotionally driving you towards it? You might say you want a “pay rise”, or “more free time” however these are objectives, as opposed to the fundamental reason why. The “why” is what you need to consider, it is your emotional driver behind your objectives. For example, the true reason for wanting that pay rise may be because you have a young family and wish to build a beautiful home for them to create unforgettable childhood memories in, or being able to spend more precious time with your family whom you may rarely see due to work. It’s these emotion-based reasons that direct and push us forwards and always deserve reflection to meet our aspirations.
High Level Goal Setting
Another facet of the psychology of success is high-level goal setting. It is easy for us to set goals and not actually stick to them. We are all guilty of writing down a long list of new year’s resolutions, only to find that within a few weeks our good intentions are long forgotten. I believe this transpires when we overwhelm ourselves with the pressure of multiple goals that only serve to drag us down. This is why I recommend “high level” goal setting. That is, identifying what are the most important things you really want to achieve within 6 – 12 months, and write them down. In order to achieve the high level goals you have written down, your next order of business is to come up with the actionable steps that bring you closer towards them.
Self-Belief
You must believe in you. You must believe you are capable of achieving your goals, worthy of success, and have trust in your positive traits and abilities to get to where you want to be. It is about having an inner confidence that you deserve the things that you want in life. You might desire that dream home, exciting holidays, more time with your family, but what prevents you from attaining these things can be self-doubt and self-sabotage. It is that quiet yet convincing inner voice telling you don’t deserve it, a fear of success because “I am not good enough”. The reason the majority of people don’t become successful is that they fear one of two things:
●They won’t become successful and will let themselves down
●They won’t know what to do with themselves if they do become successful
Your environment
The way you overcome these fears is by surrounding yourself with people you aspire to be like. In some way I feel this is the most important part of the psychology of success. Observing the individuals a person spends most of their time with is usually an accurate indicator of where that person is in life. You are the product of your environment. Yet your environment is also a product of you. Meaning proactive people, who tend also to be successful people, will recognise if their environment is not suitably geared toward their goals, and they will change it.
If you have big dreams, there is no other way to achieve them than via setting high-level goals. It is imperative you find the self-belief to put one foot in front of the other, take control of your environment, surround yourself with individuals who inspire you and drive you forward, and remain completely focused on the life you want.
Words by Ebraheem Al Samadi, CEO & Founder of Forever Rose