12 Things Successful People Do Differently

I’ve always been fascinated by people who are
consistently successful at what they do; especially
those who experience repeated success in many areas
of their life throughout their lifetime. In
entertainment, I think of Clint Eastwood and Oprah
Winfrey. In business, I think of Steve Jobs and
Warren Buffett.  We all have our own examples of
super successful people like these who we admire.
But how do they do it?
Over the years I’ve studied the lives of numerous
successful people. I’ve read their books, watched
their interviews, researched them online, etc. And
I’ve learned that most of them were not born into
success; they simply did, and continue to do, things
that help them realize their full potential. Here are
twelve things they do differently that the rest of us
can easily emulate.
1. They create and pursue S.M.A.R.T. goals.
Successful people are objective. They have realistic
targets in mind. They know what they are looking
for and why they are fighting for it. Successful
people create and pursue S.M.A.R.T. goals.
S.M.A.R.T. goals are S pecific, Measurable, A ttainable,
R elevant, and T imely.  Let’s briefly review each:
Specific – A general goal would be, “Get in shape.” But
a related specific goal would be, “Join a health club
and workout 3 days a week for the next 52 weeks.” A
specific goal has a far greater chance of being
accomplished because it has defined parameters and
constraints.
Measurable – There must be a logical system for
measuring the progress of a goal. To determine if
your goal is measurable, ask yourself questions like:
How much time? How many total? How will I know
when the goal is accomplished? etc. When you
measure your progress, you stay on track, reach your
target dates, and experience the exhilaration of
achievement that spurs you on to continued efforts
required to reach your goal.
Attainable – To be attainable, a goal must represent an
objective toward which you are both willing and able
to work. In other words, the goal must be realistic.
The big question here is:  How can the goal be
accomplished?
Relevant – Relevance stresses the importance of
choosing goals that matter. For example, an internet
entrepreneur’s goal to “Make 75 tuna sandwiches by
2:00PM.” may be Specific, Measurable, Attainable,
and Timely, but lacks Relevance to an entrepreneurs
overarching objective of building a profitable online
business.
Timely – A goal must be grounded within a time
frame, giving the goal a target date. A commitment to
a deadline helps you focus your efforts on the
completion of the goal on or before the due date.
This part of the S.M.A.R.T. goal criteria is intended to
prevent goals from being overtaken by daily
distractions.
When you identify S.M.A.R.T. goals that are truly
important to you, you become motivated to figure out
ways to attain them. You develop the necessary
attitude, abilities, and skills. You can achieve almost
any goal you set if you plan your steps wisely and
establish a time frame that allows you to carry out
those steps. Goals that once seemed far away and out
of reach eventually move closer and become
attainable, not because your goals shrink, but because
you grow and expand to match them.
2. They take decisive and immediate action.
Sadly, very few people ever live to become the
success story they dream about. And there’s one
simple reason why:
They never take action!
The acquisition of knowledge doesn’t mean you’re
growing. Growing happens when what you know
changes how you live. So many people live in a
complete daze. Actually, they don’t ‘live.’ They
simply ‘get by’ because they never take the necessary
action to make things happen – to seek their dreams.
It doesn’t matter if you have a genius IQ and a PhD in
Quantum Physics, you can’t change anything or make
any sort of real-world progress without taking
action.  There’s a huge difference between knowing
how to do something and actually doing it.
Knowledge and intelligence are both useless without
action.  It’s as simple as that.
Success hinges on the simple act of making a decision
to live – to absorb yourself in the process of going
after your dreams and goals. So make that decision.
And take action. For some practical guidance on
taking action I highly recommend Getting Things Done .
3. They focus on being productive, not being
busy.
In his book, The 4-Hour Workweek , Tim Ferris says,
“Slow down and remember this: Most things make
no difference.  Being busy is often a form of mental
laziness – lazy thinking and indiscriminate action.”
This is Ferris’ way of saying “work smarter, not
harder,” which happens to be one of the most
prevalent modern day personal development clichés.
But like most clichés, there’s a great deal of truth to
it, and few people actually adhere to it.
Just take a quick look around. The busy outnumber
the productive by a wide margin.
Busy people are rushing all over the place, and
running late half of the time.  They’re heading to
work, conferences, meetings, social engagements,
etc. They barely have enough free time for family
get-togethers and they rarely get enough sleep. Yet,
business emails are shooting out of their smart
phones like machine gun bullets, and their daily
planner is jammed to the brim with obligations.
Their busy schedule gives them an elevated sense of
importance. But it’s all an illusion. They’re like
hamsters running on a wheel.
The solution: Slow down.  Breathe. Review your
commitments and goals. Put first things first. Do one
thing at a time. Start now. Take a short break in two
hours. Repeat.
And always remember, results are more important
than the time it takes to achieve them.
4. They make logical, informed decisions.
Sometimes we do things that are permanently foolish
simply because we are temporarily upset or excited.
Although emotional ‘gut instincts’ are effective in
certain fleeting situations, when it comes to
generating long-term, sustained growth in any area
of life, emotional decisions often lead a person
astray.  Decisions driven by heavy emotion typically
contain minimal amounts of conscious thought, and
are primarily based on momentary feelings instead of
mindful awareness.
The best advice here is simple:  Don’t let your
emotions trump your intelligence. Slow down and
think things through before you make any life-
changing decisions.
5. They avoid the trap of trying to make
things perfect.
Many of us are perfectionists in our own right.  I
know I am at times.  We set high bars for ourselves
and put our best foot forward.  We dedicate copious
amounts of time and attention to our work to
maintain our high personal standards. Our passion
for excellence drives us to run the extra mile, never
stopping, never relenting. And this dedication
towards perfection undoubtedly helps us achieve
results… So long as we don’t get carried away.
But what happens when we do get carried away with
perfectionism?
We become disgruntled and discouraged when we
fail to meet the (impossibly high) standards we set for
ourselves, making us reluctant to take on new
challenges or even finish tasks we’ve already started.
Our insistence on dotting every ‘I’ and crossing every
‘T’ breeds inefficiency, causing major delays, stress
overload and subpar results.
True perfectionists have a hard time starting things
and an even harder time finishing them, always. I
have a friend who has wanted to start a graphic
design business for several years.  But she hasn’t yet.
Why? When you sift through her extensive list of
excuses it comes down to one simple problem: She is
a perfectionist. Which means she doesn’t, and never
will, think she’s good enough at graphic design to
own and operate her own graphic design business.
Remember, the real world doesn’t reward
perfectionists.  It rewards people who get things
done. And the only way to get things done is to be
imperfect 99% of the time. Only by wading through
years of practice and imperfection can we begin to
achieve momentary glimpses of the perfection. So
make a decision. Take action, learn from the
outcome, and repeat this method over and over again
in all walks of life.  Also, check out Too Perfect . It’s an
excellent read on conquering perfectionism.
6. They work outside of their comfort zone.
The number one thing I persistently see holding
smart people back is their own reluctance to accept
an opportunity simply because they don’t think
they’re ready. In other words, they feel
uncomfortable and believe they require additional
knowledge, skill, experience, etc. before they can
aptly partake in the opportunity. Sadly, this is the
kind of thinking that stifles personal growth and
success.
The truth is nobody ever feels 100% ready when an
opportunity arises. Because most great opportunities
in life force us to grow emotionally and
intellectually. They force us to stretch ourselves and
our comfort zones, which means we won’t feel totally
comfortable at first. And when we don’t feel
comfortable, we don’t feel ready.
Significant moments of opportunity for personal
growth and success will come and go throughout
your lifetime. If you are looking to make positive
changes and new breakthroughs in your life, you will
need to embrace these moments of opportunity even
though you will never feel 100% ready for them.
7. They keep things simple.
Leonardo da Vinci once said, “Simplicity is the
ultimate sophistication.” Nothing could be closer to
the truth. Here in the 21st century, where
information moves at the speed of light and
opportunities for innovation seem endless, we have
an abundant array of choices when it comes to
designing our lives and careers. But sadly, an
abundance of choice often leads to complication,
confusion and inaction.
Several business and marketing studies have shown
that the more product choices a consumer is faced
with, the less products they typically buy. After all,
narrowing down the best product from a pool of
three choices is certainly a lot easier than narrowing
down the best product from a pool of three hundred
choices. If the purchasing decision is tough to make,
most people will just give up.  Likewise, if you
complicate your life by inundating yourself with too
many choices, your subconscious mind will give up.
The solution is to simplify. If you’re selling a product
line, keep it simple. And if you’re trying to make a
decision about something in your life, don’t waste all
your time evaluating every last detail of every
possible option.  Choose something that you think will
work and give it a shot. If it doesn’t work out, learn
what you can from the experience, choose something
else and keep pressing forward.
8. They focus on making small, continuous
improvements.
Henry Ford once said, “Nothing is particularly hard if
you divide it into small pieces.” The same concept
configured as a question: How do you eat an
elephant?  Answer: One bite at a time. This
philosophy holds true for achieving your biggest
goals. Making small, positive changes – eating a little
healthier, exercising a little, creating some small
productive habits, for example – is an amazing way to
get excited about life and slowly reach the level of
success you aspire to.
And if you start small, you don’t need a lot of
motivation to get started either. The simple act of
getting started and doing something will give you the
momentum you need, and soon you’ll find yourself
in a positive spiral of changes – one building on the
other. When I started doing this in my life, I was so
excited I had to start this blog to share it with the
world.
Start with just one activity, and make a plan for how
you will deal with troubles when they arise. For
instance, if you’re trying to lose weight, come up with
a list of healthy snacks you can eat when you get the
craving for snacks. It will be hard in the beginning,
but it will get easier. And that’s the whole point. As
your strength grows, you can take on bigger
challenges.
9. They measure and track their progress.
Successful people are not only working in their job/
business, they are also working on it. They step back
and assess their progress regularly. They track
themselves against their goals and clearly know what
needs to be done to excel and accelerate.
You can’t control what you don’t properly measure.
If you track the wrong things you’ll be completely
blind to potential opportunities as they appear over
the horizon. Imagine if, while running a small
business, you made it a point to keep track of how
many pencils and paperclips you used. Would that
make any sense? No!  Because pencils and paperclips
are not a measure of what’s important for a
business. Pencils and paperclips have no bearing on
income, customer satisfaction, market growth, etc.
The proper approach is to figure out what your
number one goal is and then track the things that
directly relate to achieving that goal. I recommend
that you take some time right now to identify your
number one goal, identify the most important things
for you to keep track of, and then begin tracking
them immediately.  On a weekly basis, plug the
numbers into a spreadsheet and use the data to create
weekly or monthly trend graphs so you can visualize
your progress. Then fine-tune your actions to get
those trends to grow in your favor.
10. They maintain a positive outlook as they
learn from their mistakes.
Successful people concentrate on the positives – they
look for the silver lining in every situation. They
know that it is their positivity that will take them to
greatness. If you want to be successful, you need to
have a positive outlook toward life.  Life will test you
again and again. If you give in to internal negativity,
you will never be able to achieve the marks you have
targeted.
Remember, every mistake you make is progress.
Mistakes teach you important lessons. Every time
you make one, you’re one step closer to your goal.
The only mistake that can truly hurt you is choosing
to do nothing simply because you’re too scared to
make a mistake.
So don’t hesitate – don’t doubt yourself! Don’t let
your own negativity sabotage you. Learn what you
can and press forward.
11. They spend time with the right people.
Successful people associate with people who are
likeminded, focused, and supportive. They socialize
with people who create energy when they enter the
room versus those who create energy when they
leave. They reach out to connected, influential
individuals who are right for their dreams and goals.
You are the sum of the people you spend the most
time with. If you hang with the wrong people, they
will negatively affect you. But if you hang with the
right people, you will become far more capable and
successful than you ever could have been alone. Find
your tribe and work together to make a difference in
all of your lives. Tribes by Seth Godin is a great read
on this topic.
12. They maintain balance in their life.
If you ask most people to summarize what they want
out of life they’ll shout out a list of things like: ‘fall in
love,’ ‘make money,’ ‘spend time with family,’ ‘find
happiness,’ ‘achieve goals,’ etc. But sadly, a lot of
people don’t balance their life properly to achieve
these things. Typically they’ll achieve one or two of
them while completely neglecting the rest. Let me
give you two examples:
I know an extremely savvy businesswoman who
made almost a million dollars online last year. Based
on the success of her business, every entrepreneur I
know looks up to her. But guess what? A few days
ago, out of the blue, she told me that she’s depressed.
Why? “I’m burnt out and lonely. I just haven’t taken
enough time for myself lately, and I feel like
something is missing in my life,” she said. “Wow!” I
thought.  “One of the most successful people I know
doesn’t feel successful because she isn’t happy with
how she has balanced her life.”
I also know a surfer who surfs all day, every day on
the beach in front of our condo complex in San
Diego. He’s one of the most lighthearted, optimistic
guys I’ve ever met – usually smiling from ear to ear.
But he sleeps in a rusty van he co-owns with another
surfer, and they both frequently panhandle tourists
for money. He has admitted to me that the stress of
making enough money to eat often keeps him up at
night. So while I can’t deny that this man seems
happy most of the time, I wouldn’t classify his life as
a success story.
These are just two simple examples of imbalanced
lifestyles that are holding people back from their full
potential. When you let your work life (or social life,
family life, etc.) consume you, and all your energy is
focused in that area, it’s extremely easy to lose your
balance.  While drive and focus are important, if
you’re going to get things done right, and be truly
successful, you need to balance the various
dimensions of your life. Completely neglecting one
dimension for another only leads to long-term
frustration and stress. For some practical guidance
on balancing your life, I recommend Zen and the Art of
Happiness .