Three Life-Changing Habits to Achieve Greatness

MotivationMarch 9, 2018

Don Yaeger, an award-winning leadership coach and eleven-time best selling author according to New York Times, says that greatness is actually unattainable, but continuously pursuing it whilst knowing that they can never really have it is what makes people successful. This may be an odd thing to say for someone who is actually paid to coach leaders and help them become ‘great’, but Yaeger does have a point; if you could reach the highest level of excellence possible, your journey would stop there.

The truly successful people understand that they may never arrive at that level of greatness, but the pursuit of it is what helps them get out of bed every morning and hustle hard. Greatness isn’t an endpoint, after all. It is the journey.

People set finite goals for short-term success are the ones who see success as a destination and not a journey. Once you change your definition of success and start setting goals that actually make you better today than you were yesterday, you’re putting yourself in the league of the highest achievers. So, what is the secret to greatness, you ask? Yaeger believes that there are a few habits which can set successful people apart from the rest.

Move Away from the ‘Blame Mentality’

In order to move away from the blame mentality, Yaeger recommends asking questions like ‘How do I learn from this?’ instead of ‘Who do I blame for this?’ after facing any setbacks in life

Successful people take responsibility for their shortcomings and learn from their mistakes instead of blaming others around them. Imagine if you’re expecting a big promotion at work but your boss decides to give your dream job to someone else instead. What is the first thing you do? Do you call up your friend to rag the person who snatched the opportunity from right under your nose or do you take it as a learning experience to do better next time and make sure that when the opportunity comes up again, no one is more worth of it than you.

Yaeger says that most people derail their path to success due to their ‘blame mentality’. Most of us tend to react this way when things don’t go the way we intended them to because it’s easier to throw the blame on someone else than to take responsibility for your actions.

Your Inner Circle Matters

Your Inner Circle matters more than you might think

In order to predict the path of success that you’re on, look around at the closest people around you and how they perceive success. Yaeger advises to choose your inner circle carefully since you’re a reflection of the people you spend most of your time with. This old saying that your child’s GPA looks just like that of the five kids he hangs out with also applies to grown-ups. It’s nice to feel comfortable with people around you, but if you want to be great, you need to start spending more time with people who inspire you to do better every day.

If you’re not sure about your inner friend circle, make a list of 5 people you’re extremely close with and ask if they’re going in a similar direction as you are, are they encouraging you to reach your goals, or are they simply dragging you down and getting in the way of your success.

Be Open to Feedback

It is important to be able to listen to feedback and act on the advice instead of being defensive and unaccepting of any criticism. The ability to absorb feedback and use it to learn a valuable lesson is what sets successful people apart from the rest

A huge benefit of having a strong inner circle is that you can always access their feedback on your progress and discuss your long and short-term goals in order to get their advice and support. Most of us can’t see the aspects of our personalities which needs the most correction. But, if you have the support of the friends and family around you, you can expect honest feedback on how you can improve yourself.