The 3 H’s of Success is the eighth in a series of articles to help you reach your goal. What are your goals? I know you thought about it! You know, it is your dream, wish or resolution you made! Before you can get to where you want to be, you need to know where you are going. You wouldn’t get on a bus, train or plane without knowing where it was going.
Background
In sports, they talk about getting your head in the game. Years ago, I was a salesman (retail and door to door) who was having difficulty achieving my sales goals. Someone suggested reading Psycho-Cybernetics which helped me improve my self-image through positive thinking. Self-image is a series of beliefs created by past experiences and how people react to us. Changing failure into success used a technique called visualization. In essence, you are changing the record of your past experience of failure with visualizing success. The mind-body connection is an important part in attaining personal goals.
Good or bad habits are a part of all our lives. What are habits? It is an acquired behavior pattern regularly followed until it has become almost involuntary. Do you think successful people have better habits than others? I do! When I was a consultant, my approach to problem solving helped me when I was faced with an industry I was unfamiliar with or new situations. Did I rely on habits? You bet! Maybe it is called street smarts or common sense. I have heard people refer to it as listening to their gut. Everyone does it, but may call it different names.
Am I a hard worker? Don’t successful people work harder than anybody else? If you enjoy what you are doing, it is not work! I am extremely competitive! I try to do my best in everything I do. Do I work hard or smart? I remember receiving comments by my fellow bloggers that I am constantly commenting. Some bloggers are surprised I read so many (500) articles I a week. I enjoy what I do, don’t you? A long time ago, I tried to become the person, I wanted to be. I looked at what successful people did and did it before I was a success. I developed the habits of the rich and successful.
Head
What we think determines what we do. There is huge difference between thinking you are a winner or loser. The inner thinking of your head determines how successful you will be. What is your attitude? Your mental attitude will aid you in growth, expansion and success. What you think matters! Do you expect success? Positive thinking expects happiness and a successful outcome of every situation. If you think you will succeed, you will. World class athletes use visualization for successful performance. What is your approach to goals?
Habit
Developing good and eschewing bad habits is easier said than done. We all have bad habits! Eating well and exercising will make you fit. As you develop healthy habits, you start to replace some of your bad habits. Success is not something that will only occur in just one part of your life. As you start to achieve success with health, you will use those habits in other parts of your life. One of the reasons a musician is a good student is because they learned a new skill with an instrument, practiced for hours and learned how to succeed by improving their work. They developed habits that helped them reach success.
Hard Work
I cannot imagine working at a job I did not like! According to Forbes, 70% of people hate their jobs! What should you do? It is really difficult to work hard at something you hate. I know I cannot work hard at something I hate. My goal has always been to wake up in the morning and happy to go to work. I achieved that goal eleven (11) years ago. Teaching is a dynamic profession; no day is ever the same. When you love what you do, it is not work! If you like what you do, you will be good at it. Usually the money follows because you are good at it. Working hard can mean different things to people. It may mean accomplishing goals, getting that next promotion or starting a business. Hard work or the necessary effort is needed to achieve success.
Final Thoughts
This is the eighth article in the series about success; I expect to publish throughout 2012. There will be twenty-six (26) of them, one for each letter of the alphabet. The 3 H’s of success are head, habit and hard work. I think everyone wants success in life; business and career; however it takes a concerted effort to reach success. “The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a man’s determination.” Tommy Lasorda sums it up much better than I can!
I started this series because I run into so many people who have difficulty reaching success. They want to know my secrets! So I thought I would share them in a format that will be most helpful. I also think this format may make it more interesting and easier to use. My goal in these articles to provide useful and interesting information that will help you succeed. The 3 H’s of Success is now a series.
Photo by: jcorrius
Perfect pick me up to start the week! These three H’s work great. I would throw in “Heart” for heart of a champion and never giving up, but I’m sure you can use those ideas later in your series. Nice work!
Picking only three or sometimes finding three is a challenge. Later in the alphabet, finding three will be difficult.
I like this one; a lot. In my opinion, habits are the key. As to hard work this is an interesting one. I have noticed that instead of working hard on the things we find easy and enjoyable, we prefer to work hard on the things that we are not very good at. Imagine how much more we will achieve if we work hard on what we are already good at? Also, we probably should use our head a bit more to be able to ‘fall in like’ with what we do. At least till we find what we really love!
I always encourage everyone to do what they like because they will do it well. I think most accomplishments are already solved mentally. Professional athletes see themselves hitting a home run or scoring before they do it. They call this visualization. When I interview, I try to see myself working there. It helps me be what I want to be during the interview.
Great post. I don’t necessarily agree with loving your work. I don’t think it’s necessary. Hating it on the other hand.. yeah, it’s necessary that you don’t hate something you do 40+ hours per week. But other than that, I agree with everything on here!
You must like what you do to be good at it. I find that it keeps me motivated to keep improving my skills.
I have trouble with ‘head’. I work hard to maintain confidence….maybe I’ll take a run at the book you mentioned ‘Psycho-Cybernetics ‘
Most of success is in your head or not. You have to believe you will succeed. Whenever I do not believe I will succeed, I usually don’t!
When hard work becomes a habit, it won’t be hard after all!
Interesting perspective! I never thought of hard work as a habit, but I guess it is. I always work hard because I want to be proud of my effort. I think we all have different reasons for doing something although the result may be the same.
Great post. I have been following these. I can’t wait to see what you come up with for some of the letters later in the alphabet!
Me too! I am working on that aas we speak. I think I will have an interesting solution, although I will let my readers/comenters be the judge of that.
I think the most important one on here KC is habit. No matter what the habit is, you can make it good or bad and leverage your daily patterns to get ahead.
I agree! Habits are important because it can be financial, social or professional. Many interviewers have asked me about my strengths and weaknesses over the years. Working on your weaknesses will make you better. In other words, doing something about your bad habits or improving your good habits is important.
+1 for habit. Habit leads to Work Ethic. Work ethic leads to Success. Success leads to Freedom. Freedom leads to Happiness! Happiness is the Ultimate Goal.
I like the outcome, however I might say work ethic is a habit. Habits can be good or bad. In either case, one should work on habits to improve your success.
I started liking your series. Do you think Honesty is a close miss?
Unfortunately, you do not have to be honest to be successful. Another reason is I limited myself to three words that started with H.
Nice set of H’s! I’m big on hard work and I wouldn’t be where I am today without it. Getting rid of bad habits can be tough because we all get stuck in our own loops. Identifying the habits we want to break is half the battle though! -Sydney
Knock off one bad habit at a time by making small changes.
I cannot understand why people would stay at a job they hated.
Neither do I , but the odds are that only 30% like their job. I think people stay for a variety of reasons including they need the money.
A lot of people have no choice Thad. Whether they like it or not they have to stick with it due to lack of education/ qualifications to be successful in another field.
Michael
Choices are something you make for yourself. Too many people just complain about things and do nothing to solve their problem.
I think actually taking part in promoting a product, whether that be selling or blogging about it, you really need to be interested in it or believe that it will sell!
That is a huge key to success in my eyes.
Michael
If you do not believe in yourself why should anybody else? Belief in yourself is the first step to success.