10 Tips that can make you Successful & a Winner in Life

culled from:http://listdose.com

In the journey of life what motivates us is the drive to succeed. Success is a subjective interpretation and what is deemed success for one may only be the first rung for another. But what is inalienable to the human psyche is the need for it. Whilst there can be no shortcut in the road to success, certain tips if kept in mind can surely make the ride a lot less bumpier. A winner in life is one who can learn to master.

10. Goal Oriented Behavior:

You will succeed if you are able to focus, to the exclusion of everything else, on your goal. For this to be true and for one to even begin embarking on the journey to be a winner, one must inculcate the ability to identify goals for themselves and then work towards achieving them bit by bit.

Caution: Don’t set too easy goals or goals that are insurmountable as that will affect your motivation while too easy ones will never help you reach your potential.

9. Active Learning Attitude:

Any individual today, with the goal of being a winner, must ensure that he or she never stops learning nor lose the will to constantly learn from his or her surroundings. We should remember that our friends, colleagues and even juniors have something to teach us and all we need to abide by is the need to question.
Caution: A learning attitude implies flexibility in approach to new challenges. This requires you o be able to retain past knowledge while being open to newer perspectives, and understanding where to apply what. Which leads us to the next tip.

8. Learn from your mistakes:

It is human to err, but the characteristic that differentiates as winner is the ability to accept the mistake and learn from it. A useful English adage to this point is that one should endeavor never to “make the same mistake twice”. But being afraid of mistakes will never help you attain success nor will it bode well for your psychological well-being.
Caution: Japanese car companies gained world dominance when they started applying the six sigma rule i.e the error rate in its manufacturing at any stage was almost zero. This made their car production .rate the most efficient as they did not waste time correcting their mistakes, but rather focused on making none in the first place. Therefore, the note of caution to this tip is that even though for a winner it is important to learn from ones mistakes, it is also important to try and keep the error rate to the minimum.

7. Time management:

This precision of time management by Mother Nature is visible in every activity such as the seasonal changes of the Earth, blossoming of buds into flowers, life cycle of every living being from birth till death and even the working of involuntary organs in human body. It therefore, goes without saying that for attaining true success, a winner is one who is able to manage all his or her commitments.
Caution: Time management is an essential skill for every individual. But it is a skill made up of other components such as: Having the ability to identify ones commitments, predict the time each takes, ability to prioritize, and perhaps most importantly the attitude to stick to what one has decided. But having said so, time management never implies rigidity, rather the one who has contingency plans is more likely to succeed than one who has rigidly mapped only a single plan.

6. Leadership – Being Responsible:

It is impossible to identify a single ‘winner’ who has shirked responsibility in life. The ability to take more responsibility not only in terms of work but also responsibility ‘of’ others, is something that is key to the characteristic of a leader. And all leaders in their own way have traveled the path of being winners. An even deeper understanding of responsibility is reflected in ones work ethic, where they stick not only by  their own word, but also any that might have been made for them by another.
Caution: Taking on responsibility is like a dual edged sword that can anytime end your aspirations as well. But one cannot embark upon the road to success without taking on responsibilities, keeping their word and pushing their boundaries.

5. Positive thinking:

It is possible to push one’s boundaries only if one is focused on positive thoughts and energies. Self- deprecation can never lead to success and a winner is always self-confident. The importance of thoughts and its effects on ones actions is time and again proved in various psychological studies.
Caution:  Thinking positively must not be confused with thinking irrationally. If the odds are not in the favor of something, then no matter how much we may will it so, in all likely hood it will not occur. Thoughts must always be accompanied with action and thus all ways remember- God made it so that even though all animals have food on the earth, it is never made available in their nest. One must go out to achieve it.

4. Perseverance:

An aspect that goes hand in hand with achievement is ‘perseverance’. Therefore, nothing is ever achieved in a single attempt and this is probably one of the most important tips to be remembered when one is aiming for success.
Caution: Perseverance is related to persevering with a cause, this does not imply that one must continuously use the same method until they finally succeed. Sometimes a shift in strategy leads to success.

3. Problem solving and creativity:

While perseverance is linked to keeping up ones determination, problem solving skills are essential for achieving anything in today’s world.  The road to success is paved with challenges and honing one’s ability to creatively solve them is the only weapon available to us. A winner is therefore one who can think out of the box and thus is able to out run the rest
Caution: Sometimes the solution can be a creative and new one and sometimes it can be all about effectively applying an old solution. Thus, one mustn’t always look to solve ‘creatively’ but rather logically.

2. Stay healthy:

Conventionally most guides would place this tip on a lower number, but in actuality this tip is a culmination of a number of tips, such as, positive thinking, taking responsibility , time management and learning form ones mistakes. A physically healthy body is a given for the success of any endeavor, but many a times this endeavor is dogged by stress that comes along with any attempt- successful or unsuccessful. Therefore, if one is to combat the stress, one must doubly ensure that they are thinking positively and effectively managing their time to avoid addition stress. A mind also manages to stay healthy is it is not fearing mistakes and is accepting responsibility in a positive manner.
Caution: keeping healthy shouldn’t be mistaken for weight loss techniques etc, but rather it is one’s own way of finding balance.

1. Self actualization: ‘Attempt to reach and surpass your potential’

Self actualization is nothing but the ability to integrate the self and reach the pinnacle of one’s potential. It is a technical term for the last level in Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs. He believed that few in their lives reach actualization but what is more important is that every individual must attempt the path of reaching actualization. A winner must arm himself with self-confidence and self-awareness and while he may have tangible goals, his ultimate goal should be to reach his potential and transcend it. Thus, as UCLA basketball coach, John Wooden said “Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best you are capable of becoming.”