PPI #164: How Successful People Think

Today I'm going to share with you a handful of things shared by successful people so that you can outperform the competition, outperform who you were yesterday, and achieve the level of success that you're seeking in your work and life.

Hi, my name is Eric Partaker and I've been recognized as the CEO of the year. And, and I'm also the author of two best selling books including the Three Alarms. So one of the first things that successful people do is that they create magnetic goals. Goals that magnetize you, goals that pull you into action. They set goals that allow them to dare and to dream big again. And they take those goals and they break them down. They break them down from a ten year vision down to a five year, down to one year, down to a single calendar quarter of three months, and then within the quarter, down to a monthly achievement level and then down to a weekly and even down to a daily, all the way down to the very moment that they're sat in, that they're standing in so that they know precisely what they should be doing or not doing. That keeps them in alignment of achieving their goal. Recognizing at the same time that the path won't be linear, that there'll be ups and that there will be downs, but knowing where they're going help. Having that goal that inspires them, having that goal that gets them to dream big again, keeps magnetizing them into action and keeps them on the path so that eventually their success becomes inevitable. Number two. Successful people think about their days in terms of structures and routines. How can they bring structure and more routine to their days? And I'll give you three quick examples and and one of the most powerful things you can do is start with an evening routine. So break down your evening into three simple things. Sid Date SD8 A shutdown ritual. A static time at the end of your day when you're going to choose what are the top three things that you're going to work on the next day? Program them into your calendar and then stop your work for the day. The D stands for digital sunset. One hour before your bedtime such that you can get eight hours of sleep. For shut off all the electronics so that you maximize the melatonin in your brain so that you can induce as deep and restorative sleep as possible. And then the eight stands for simply getting those eight hours of sleep so that you could start your day productively as possible, feeling refreshed, full of energy, and ready to weather the ups and downs of any given day. The morning routine Next routine To install. Highly recommend that you start your day creative before reactive. Don't start in your inbox, don't start on social media, and also start with some exercise to get your energy up to the level that it needs to be. And last but not least, you need a solid workday routine. And one of the simplest things that I do is I take my day and I divide it up into maker time versus manager time. Manager time being that time in the afternoon when I'm going to be meeting with other people internally or externally. And maker time is my protected time in the morning when I'm working on one of those top three tasks that I decided the night before in my evening routine as part of that shutdown ritual. And by having these three routines installed in my day, my evening routine, my morning routine, and my workday routine, I'm programming my day for success. I'm putting structure in my day so, so that I can achieve the things that I look to achieve. Number three, Successful people have incredible self belief. They know that they will figure it out along the way if they have to, if they need to. One of the most beautiful quotes I've ever come across is a quote from John Burroughs that says leap and the net will appear. There's been so many times, so many times professionally and personally when I've been out of the edge and not sure whether I should do something, when I've been holding myself back because I don't feel ready yet or I don't feel I know enough. And every single time that I've left, every single time that I just take that plunge, I've realized that it's not as scary as I thought it was going to be. And that once I've done that, I figure it out along the way. I gather the people I need, the resources I need, the knowledge that I need, and I apply it to ensure that I build and create that net which softens my landing. But that's only possible by having the self belief that if you go ahead and take that dive and if you try, you will figure out along the way. Next up, accountability. Successful people think constantly about accountability. Accountability for themselves, accountability for the people that they're working in. You need to hold yourself to account every time that you say you're going to do something and don't deliver on that you've made a withdrawal from your personal integrity bank account. And soon enough that balance will be so low that you have no personal integrity to the point where, where you can't even believe what you're saying anymore. You can't even trust that the words that come out of your mouth will actually be actioned in the way that you're saying to others. You can't even trust that you'll do the things that you say that you're going to do. And you don't want to reach that point. And if you are at that point already, well, you need to rebuild your balance. And how do you do that? You do that through accountability. You do that by taking small steps. You do that by at the start of the day saying no matter what, today will do X, Y and Z and make it so small that it's impossible for you to fail. Make small deposits back into that personal integrity bank account. One penny here, two pennies there, eventually getting it up to a dollar again. And then soon the dollar becomes 5, 10, 100,000. You get the point. But you rebuild that balance. And as the balance grows, so does your confidence, so does your strength, so does your personal integrity once again. But, but it all revolves around accountability and it starts with being able to hold yourself accountable. Next up, embracing failure. Successful people don't just think that failure might come, they expect it to come. They anticipate it and they run towards it. They embrace it. Now look, I'm not saying that you should deliberately try to fail, but what I am saying is that you should expect to both succeed and to fail. And that that's part of the game. Because when you succeed, you win. And, and when you fail, you learn. You don't lose, you learn. And it's that combination of winning and learning so that you can win bigger, better, more quickly in the future and constantly going through that cycle, that's what breeds success. And that's how successful people think. When I make mistakes, when I screw up and I've had some huge screw ups and I have small screw ups, you know, every single day, every time that happens, I just ask myself what, what can I learn? As a matter of fact, when I get to the end of my day, I have a simple calendar up on the wall and I put either a W or an L in the, in the day in the calendar box and the W is for win. And I give myself that W. If I did my best in the context of the day, and I give myself an L for learn, not for lose. If I don't feel like I did my best in the context of that day, if I thought that I could have shown up a little bit better somehow in some way, place, place, shape or form, and my game is simple, never two L's in a row and never more than six L's in a month. So that 80% of the time I feel like I'm winning. And last but not least, and this relates to the previous point, successful people focus on progress, not perfection. Perfection is impossible. It's the act of doing, it's the act of trying, that you perfect things, that you improve things and you make them better. But we have to continually focus on progress and what is a good way or, you know, how do you focus in the right place when it comes to progress? Well, ask yourself, what are the things that you know you should be doing but that you're not? Or what are the things that you are slightly afraid to do or scared to do, or that you've been putting off that you could be doing more quickly? Then don't just rely on yourself. Ask yourself, how can I bring some accountability into this? How can I bring in some extra help or support to help me achieve it? Is there something that I can learn or do? But don't take too long because as said earlier, you need to leap and the net will appear and I'd love to hear from you. So don't forget to leave a comment and a rating as well. And if you'd like to get a copy of my new book, the Three Alarms, please head over to my website at ericpartaker.com that's E R I C ericpartaker.com where you can pick up a free digital copy of my new best selling book, the Three Alarms.