The habits you need to succeed

ADAM Smith once said that: “Self-command is not only itself a great virtue, but from it all the other virtues seem to derive their principle luster.”

Brian Tracy says that the most important habit you can develop for success, achievement, and happiness is the habit of self-discipline. Perhaps the best definition of self-discipline comes from Elbert Hubbard, “Self-discipline is the ability to make yourself do what you should do, when you should do it, whether you feel like it or not.”

The habit of self-discipline is closely tied to the Law of Control. The Law of Control says that, “You feel happy about yourself to the degree to which you feel you are in control of your own life.”

Self-discipline is the key to self-mastery and self-control. The more capable you become of disciplining yourself to do what you have decided to do, whether you feel like it or not, the more positive and powerful you will feel.

The source of personal power

There is a direct relationship between self-discipline and self-esteem. The more you discipline yourself to behave in the manner that you have decided, the more you like and respect yourself. The more positive and confident you will feel. The stronger and more in charge of your life and situation you become.

Every act of self-discipline strengthens every other discipline at the same time. Every weakness in self-discipline weakens your other disciplines as well. Like working a muscle, your ability to discipline yourself to behave in the way that you have decided grows stronger each time you exercise it. This is why the happiest, most successful, and most respected men and women in our society are all men and women of great self-control, self-mastery and self-discipline. And this is a habit you can learn, with practice.

Become a lifelong optimist

Perhaps the most helpful mental habit you can develop is the habit of optimism. Optimists are usually the happiest, healthiest, most successful and most influential people in every group and society. According to Dr Martin Seligman, in his book Learned Optimism, people learn to become optimists by thinking the way that optimists think. They in effect learn to be optimists just as pessimists learn to be pessimistic.

The greatest discovery, and the summary statement of psychology, religion and philosophy is, “You become what you think about most of the time.”

What is it that optimists think about most of the time? In its simplest terms, optimists think about what they want and how to get it, most of the time. They think about where they are going and how to get there. The very idea of thinking about what they want makes them happy and positive. It increases their energy and releases their creativity. It motivates and stimulates them to perform at higher levels.

Pessimists, on the other hand, are the opposite. They think and talk about what they do not want most of the time. They think about the people they do not like, the problems that they are having, or have had in the past, and especially, they think about who is to blame for their particular situation. And the more they think about the things they do not want and who is to blame for their problems, the more negative and angry they become. The more negative they become, the faster they attract into their lives exactly those things that they do not want to happen.

Developing a hardy personality

There is a relatively new field of medicine called “psychoneuroimmunology.” Research in this area has concluded that the quality of your thinking has an enormous impact on the strength of your immune system. The habit of optimism, combined with a positive mental attitude, seems to strengthen and increase the t-cells in the body which are responsible for resisting and overcoming the various factors that contribute to disease and illnesses of all kinds.

Psychologists have now developed a profile of what they call the “hardy personality.” This is the person who seems to respond positively and effectively to adversity and setbacks. They are optimistic and forward thinking. “It seems that the more optimistic you are, the stronger and more resilient is your mind and body. As a result, you will have higher levels of energy and a quicker recovery rate from fatigue. You will seldom be ill for any reason. If you catch a cold or flu, which will be rare, you will bounce back quickly as the fortified t-cells in your body quickly counter attack and eradicate the infection that is causing it.”

Think about what you want

You develop the habit of optimism by disciplining yourself to keep your thoughts and words on what you want, and off of what you do not want. You become an optimist by thinking continually in terms of the specific actions that you can take immediately to achieve the goals that are most important to you. The busier you become working toward the accomplishment of goals and objectives that you have set for yourself, the more energy and enthusiasm you will have, the faster you will move ahead, the more you will get done, and the happier you will be.

Earl Nightingale once wrote that, “Happiness is the progressive realisation of a worthy ideal.” When you are working consistently toward the achievement of something that is worthwhile and important to you, your brain releases a steady stream of endorphins that gives you a feeling of happiness and well-being. You feel more positive and creative. You have more energy and enthusiasm. This positive feeling acts as a reward or reinforcement that motivates you continually to think the thoughts and take the actions that move you even more rapidly in the direction of your hopes, dreams and goals.

The orientations of high performance

Optimistic people think very differently than pessimistic people. They develop a series of “orientations” or general tendencies of thinking that separate them from the average person. These orientations soon become habitual ways of thinking and acting that propel them forward toward the success and happiness they desire. Like all habits, these habitual ways of thinking are learnable through practice and repetition.

“You imagine that you have a ‘magic wand’ that you could wave and create your ideal future vision.”

As you develop the habits of thinking in these ways most of the time, you become a different person. In a way, these are the habits of “mental fitness.” Just as you would become physically fit if you went to health club and worked out with the equipment regularly, you become mentally fit, positive and optimistic, as you work out your mind practicing these orientations.

Think about the future

The first way of thinking practiced by optimists is future-orientation. Optimists are those who develop the habit of “idealisation.” In the process of idealising, you take your thoughts off the present situation and you instead imagine a perfect future for yourself in your business, your finances, your family, your health or any other area. You imagine that you have a “magic wand” that you could wave and create your ideal future vision.

Instead of worrying or becoming preoccupied with the details of the present moment, you ask yourself, “What would I ideally like to be, have or do sometime in the future?”

You develop the habit of practicing “back from the future” thinking. In this type of thinking, you project forward into the future to your ideal result and imagine what it would look like in every way. You then look back to the present and ask yourself, “What would I have to do, starting today, to create the ideal future that I desire?”

You develop the habit of “long-time perspective.” Instead of focusing continually on the moment, and on immediate actions and gratification, you instead think long-term about what you want and where you are going. The greater clarity you have with regard to the results you want to achieve in the future, the better and more accurate will be your decisions in the present moment. When you idealise and practice long-term thinking, you find yourself setting much better goals and priorities in your day-to-day life.

BY CAPT. SAM ADDAIH (RTD)

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