The One Thing Successful People All Seem To Have In Common
There is something I have noticed that truly successful people have in common. It’s as though this one little thing is the common denominator for getting somewhere in life. Now, I am certainly not talking about success just by the means of wealth or a high position in a company or something traditional like that. I’m talking about the people who have been able to pursue what they truly love and make a life out of it. People who are happy with things as they are, and who live in the moment. I guess you could say, people who are successful in the ways I hope to be successful someday.
I’ve noticed it time and time again, I’ve seen articles written about it, people discuss it on talk shows, and yet, no matter how much publicity this topic is given, people, at large, still can’t seem to implement it entirely (myself included, so not passing judgment over here). It’s the idea of having a tough skin. Of being able to listen to criticism only for the sake of learning, and not letting anything else have an effect.
I don’t know how you go about doing this, honestly, but I imagine it starts with cultivating a genuine sense of self. A love for oneself that is not contingent on the likes or desires of others. That is not affected by anything externally negative.
And this concept manifests itself outside of our “professional” lives too– and it has to be dealt with there as well. I’m talking about not feeling worthless when rejected, but just seeing it as being redirected on your path. Being able to take negative criticism and understand it within the context of both how you genuinely could stand to improve and through the filter of how this criticism is arriving. Because usually, it’s from someone who has their own issues to iron out.
It’s about learning to take direction from your boss, even when it’s delivered in a tough way, and to apply it without making a fuss. At the end of the day, you’re both on the same team, and even if you disagree with what someone is advising you to do, you have to at least respect them enough to nod, thank them, and not be rude.
It’s realizing that setbacks are inevitable; a natural part of the process. They are not to be regarded as the end all of your dreams and goals, because simply, they are not! But we let these things affect us because at the end of the day what we’re all looking for, in one way or another, whether subconsciously or not, is to be validated and accepted by others. And this stems from not feeling validated or accepted by ourselves. You can roll your eyes at that, disagree all you want, claim that your experience has been completely different, but it is only a matter of how we perceive our experiences. This is the reality of the issue, regardless of how you understood it in your own life.