Concise Sound Life Advice

“Be brave. Even if you’re not, pretend to be. No one can tell the difference. Don’t allow the phone to interrupt important moments. It’s there for your convenience, not the callers. Don’t be afraid to go out on a limb. That’s where the fruit is. Don’t burn bridges. You’ll be surprised how many times you have to cross the same river. Don’t forget, a person’s greatest emotional need is to feel appreciated. Don’t major in minor things. Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother Teresa, Helen Keller, Leonardo Da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein. Don’t spread yourself too thin. Learn to say no politely and quickly. Don’t use time or words carelessly. Neither can be retrieved. Don’t waste time grieving over past mistakes Learn from them and move on. Every person needs to have their moment in the sun, when they raise their arms in victory, knowing that on this day, at his hour, they were at their very best. Get your priorities straight. No one ever said on his death bed, ‘Gee, if I’d only spent more time at the office’. Give people a second chance, but not a third. Judge your success by the degree that you’re enjoying peace, health and love. Learn to listen. Opportunity sometimes knocks very softly. Leave everything a little better than you found it. Live your life as an exclamation, not an explanation. Loosen up. Relax. Except for rare life and death matters, nothing is as important as it first seems. Never cut what can be untied. Never overestimate your power to change others. Never underestimate your power to change yourself. Remember that overnight success usually takes about fifteen years. Remember that winners do what losers don’t want to do. Seek opportunity, not security. A boat in harbor is safe, but in time its bottom will rot out. Spend less time worrying who’s right, more time deciding what’s right. Stop blaming others. Take responsibility for every area of your life. Success is getting what you want. Happiness is liking what you get. The importance of winning is not what we get from it, but what we become because of it. When facing a difficult task, act as though it’s impossible to fail.”

— Jackson Brown Jr.

http://at.kkoolook.com/post/50276755334/be-brave-even-if-youre-not-pretend-to-be-no

10 Habits That Separate Successful And Unsuccessful People

1. Strong sense of self-awareness

With a strong sense of self-awareness you would be able to go out with confidence and you can face challenges and hold a faith in yourself that you can handle the ups and downs that come with living. Successful people have a strong sense of self-awareness: they know who they are and they are comfortable with themselves. They recognize themselves as unique individuals.

On the other hand, unsuccessful people have a narrow-minded vision of themselves and their character in the world. They might be extremely good at work and want to contribute towards changing the world or the environment they live in, but their effort is self-oriented and personally driven.

2. A desire to improve
The desire to improve generates challenges, experiments, which gives purpose and positive change. Even a failed attempt will create opportunities or challenges almost always more positive than total failure to act. Unsuccessful people generally don’t take risks and feel comfortable by staying on the “safer” side. They won’t feel happy going out of their comfort zone.

Successful people look forward to growing and take action to make positive changes in their careers. Irrespective of the desire of the attempt to improve, and regardless of the actual outcomes, this is an important difference between successful and unsuccessful people.

3. Expressed appreciation

You will hardly catch a successful person talking about his or her successes. In fact, a successful person rarely talks about him or herself. Successful people understand great success is the outcome of a team’s hard work. They give importance to the assistance they get from others.

Unsuccessful people find a wrong spot in everything and will display failures and hide others’ successes. They use a negative tone with other people around them and do not believe in anything.

4. Sense of ownership
Successful people look forward to learning from mistakes. They recognize their faults and take responsibility to make sure not to repeat mistakes again. They are accountable for their own actions.

On the other side, unsuccessful people are persistent; they think they are always right and they know it all, and consider themselves superior to everyone else.

5. Target and goal-oriented
Effective people have short-term and long-term goals which give them direction to meet success. That serves as a guideline and helps keep themselves motivated and on track. They set actual goals they can accomplish while unsuccessful people scramble to discover what they need to do next.

6. Confidence to face any problem
A truly successful person is never defeated by issues that appear in front of them any time. They put up a fight no matter how bad the situation. Successful people’s determined spirit gets stronger with problems. When they fall, they get back up.

7. Big-picture thinking ability
Big-picture thinking brings totality and maturity to an effective person’s thinking which broadens his or her outlook by striving to learn from every experience. While small thinking of unproductive people shortens their vision and leads them to become a follower, not the front-runner.

8. Approach towards work

Another commonality found in the successful is they find pleasure in their work. They focus on essential parts of their work that are quantifiable. That gives them the greatest sense of achievement and brings happiness at work. Unproductive people focus thinking on survival, and take all the good credit from others.

9. Value of time

Productive and effective people never waste time. Successful people endow a great value on their time. They understand time is the most treasured asset they possess, so they do everything they can to acquire supreme results.

Unsuccessful people cannot get ahead in life, because they don’t value time in their life. They look for any excuse to take a break from what they are doing. They get confused and they love putting things pending until the next day. They don’t complete work, responsibilities or projects on time.

10. Ability to delay gratification

Successful people possess higher patience, an aptitude to postpone the enjoyment of their work. They have an ability to work hard to accomplish a goal which is not achieved for a long time. It takes a lot of skills unsuccessful people lack or have not experienced. These comprise proper planning for the upcoming challenges, association, self-confidence and tolerance. These sorts of people by and large can’t see the forest through the trees.

Full article:

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/10-habits-that-separate-successful-and-unsuccessful-people.html