A while ago I came across a great article by successful entrepreneur and sales trainer Billy Cox, entitled 10 Best Practices of Successful Salespeople. I’m not a sales person but his 10 points really resonated with me because they are part of a topic that really interests me; successful people and their habits.
So for today’s post I’ve taken the 4 key practices from Billy’s post because I believe that they are generic to anyone who wants to be successful.
1. They control their mental and emotional state.
This is such a critical practice for anyone who wants to be successful. If you can control your state, you can master virtually every situation you come across.
State is very simply the way you feel and how you approach something. You can control your state by changing the following 3 things: physiology, language and focus. When you’re in a state such as happiness, you hold your body in a certain way, you focus on particular things and you say happy words. Your state is influenced by these 3 things rather than them being the result of your mental and emotional state.
Successful people know this and are consistently working on their state. They ensure that when they are dynamic, they put themselves in a dynamic state. When they need to be calm they simple change what their body is doing, where their focus is and what language they’re using.
2. They are prepared.
Successful people know that poor preparation usually leads to poor results. They are aware that what they do in preparation is always critical to the game they want to play, whether that game is business, relationships, fitness or any other area of their lives.
There are some things in life you can wing. Would you want to just wing it with your business? Or would you rather take the time to work out your market and check out the competition?
3. They have integrity.
You’ll always find a successful person with strong principles that they live by. Some people you know may shove those principles down your throat given half the chance but there are plenty of failures who do that too. Successful people have a subconscious code that helps guide them and allows them to solve life issues within a framework.
So for example, if a successful business owner is always on time then there’s a good chance that they hold a principle that says, “successful people are never late.”
What are you principles? What moral code do you live by that makes you a better person?
4. They create desire.
And finally, not only do successful people have desire themselves, they can also fire it in someone else. Lots of things create desire for a successful person. It might be money, fame, notoriety, peace, fairness, family values, or anything else you might care to mention.
We all have a desire of some sorts, even if you don’t think you do. A practice that separates successful people is that they can find ways to instill that desire in others, their teams, their employees, their families or anyone who they come into contact with.
What are your practices that help make you successful?
Ben Lumley writes about Success and Personal Achievement at 6aliens.com. He is a Personal Achievement Coach and Motivational Speaker.
