There are a lot of differences between successful people but there are a few skills and mindsets they all have in common which are major contributors to their success.

 

Most of them excel at least in three of them and have some sort of skill in the others.

 

 

Quick decision-making skills

 

They understand the importance of making quick decisions. Not hasty ones, quick choices. They give themselves a bit of time to separate emotions from rationality and to put things into perspective. But after they take action immediately.

 

Making quick thought-through decisions saves time and gets you ahead. Procrastinating decisions hinder your growth. 90% of the time you know what you‘re going to choose from the beginning. Your intuition combined with up to a few hours of journaling, making pro and con lists, and playing out different scenarios gets you your answer, quickly.

 

Do you think you’ve made the wrong decision? Move in the right direction with the choice you’ve made. Make it count. Apart from a few choices, most choices bring you to your goal one way or another. And even if it seems like the end of the world, you can bounce back. You always have.

 

Another skill to learn is to be able to differentiate important choices from irrelevant ones. Recognizing which decisions get you ahead and which are not worth your immediate attention.

 

 

Their mindset toward failure

 

Mistakes are not the end of the world. Failure is a step closer to success and even more reason to keep going. If you fail you learn a whole lot and if you keep going then – boom – character development. So many successful people had so many unsuccessful trials and kept improving until they succeeded and they did. Not only is this mindset beneficial for new inventions and building companies, but it’s also one to apply in everyday life. 

 

This mindset is called a growth mindset. If you shift your mindset  “I failed, I can’t do this, this is not for me. I am not enough” turns into “How can I improve? I can’t do this just yet but if I keep going I will.”.

 

 

Problem-solving skills

 

Ugh, I can’t stress this enough. Learn how to solve problems. Learn to see solutions instead of problems. To connect to the previous point, this is what happens after you decide to keep on moving forward. You analyze what went wrong and find ways to improve.

 

Every successful person has many problems to solve. If the road to becoming successful would be easy we would all be successful in everything. They know in order to achieve anything you have problems to solve and the better your ability to do that the quicker you can achieve the results you desire.

 

Whenever you run into problems make it your first instinct to ask yourself: How can I solve this? Instead of procrastinating and freaking out. I promise you it’s not that big of a deal even if it seems like it. Life is full of challenges the earlier you make it a priority to improve your problem-solving the easier it will be. Not easy, just easier.

 

You can practice them by solving puzzles, solving math problems (boooring I know), playing chess, getting into coding, debating and having decisions, going through decision-making scenarios (like creating dilemmas or analyzing real-life ethical questions), and as I said before making a mental effort to change your approach when encountering problems.

 

 

Networking skills

 

This is crucial. Connections combined with hard and smart work are the formula to success. Get to meet people and improve your social skills. 

 

Successful people get opportunities simply because people know them and they know who to ask. They form connections with people that will be beneficial for both sides. That’s how so many opportunities flow to them.

 

The past year I’ve made an effort to improve my social skills. Not only did it make me happier through all the personal relationships I’ve formed but also improved my ability to have conversations with people who could bring me closer to my goals faster than I could have on my own.

As a former painfully shy person, I can tell you it will suck, it will feel uncomfortable but if you take tiny steps every day it will be the best investment you can make.

 

Attend networking events or any relevant events and set yourself a goal to talk to x amount of people there. Connect with people online. Practice your social skills by simply being social even if it feels uncomfortable and feels embarrassing. This is how you improve.

 

Whenever you reach out to someone (online or not) or try to form a connection with someone, make sure you have something to offer them in return. Networking is a two-way street. Why would you form a connection with someone that’s only for their benefit? You wouldn’t. 

 

 

Good time-management skills

 

Do you see all these successful people doing and achieving so much in a day and you can seem to keep up with them?

Let me spill one of their secrets on how they manage to do that: they have excellent time-management skills and systems.

 

Another thing they learned to get good at is to distinguish which tasks are worth their time and will bring results and which are not that productive.

 

Now, how can you improve your time-management skills?

As I always say: different systems work for different people. So test out what works for you. 

 

At which times during your day are you the most focused? Fill these times with tasks that require the most focus and build the tasks that need less focus around them.

 

Test out time-blocking. Try out different productivity methods. Find out how long you can stay focused and make sure this time is uninterrupted and free from distractions. 

Are there any bad habits that eat up valuable time? Eliminate them.

 

Great time management takes good planning. Make time for planning ahead – a day, a week, a month, or even a year. Have planning habits and routines. I would recommend planning the next day the night before and creating an overview of the next week every Sunday – these are things that work for me. Again: try this and then twist it according to your preferences.

 

Be aware that things will come up and you might not be able to stick to your exact plans and that’s okay. Having a schedule for the day and doing your best to stick to it already makes you a whole lot more productive.