What’s the one thing that separates the successful person in any field from the also ran?
Is it luck, education, network or circumstances of birth? Could it be their values, beliefs or attitudes?
Now while many of the things above could influence success, I actually believe none of them matter as much as behaviour.
Oddly enough though, it’s almost never spoken about.
For example go to the shelves of any decent bookstore and you’ll see dozens of books on attitude, self motivation, self help, and getting what you want using spiritual principles.
And while the majority of these tomes speak of adjusting your thinking, asking for what you want and thinking and visualising your outcomes (and having it just happen), I suggest that there’s more to it.
Thinking alone never produced anything. Thinking combined with taking the right actions does. And for many people this means changing your behaviours and imposing self discipline.
So what does that mean in practical terms?
Let’s start with discipline.
Arnold Palmer (the great golfer) hit 1000 balls every day in practice. Stephen King writes 2000 words a day and won’t stop till it’s done.
When I’m writing this newsletter, I force myself to continue even though I may not want to. It’s about getting it done as it moves me closer to my goal of a successful business.
But discipline alone is not enough.
You need to exhibit congruent behaviours.
But congruent to what?
First, and this is the key – congruent with the behaviour of people who are already achieving the goals you want to achieve, living the life style you want etc.
The best way of figuring out these behaviours is to model someone already doing what you want. By taking on their behaviours you’re far more likely to achieve success faster.
It’s not about thinking. It’s about actually doing.
So whether it’s becoming a top tennis player or a titan in business, if your behaviour is incongruent with theirs (i.e. you don’t take the actions that make them successful), you can think about being wonderful all you like, but it’ll never happen.
And secondly, you need to be congruent with the goals themselves.
If your goal is to become wealthy, then you need to spend less than you earn and invest wisely.
If it’s to lose weight, then stopping on the way to work to buy doughnuts, eating inappropriate foods and not getting enough exercise is being incongruent. You need to rearrange your behaviours to be congruent with the goals.
Anything else is self delusion.
Rashid.
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