Top 3 Lessons Learned From Over a Decade Studying Success
Tried and true, but not popular
If you just want the main takeaway from this, here it is:
All things worthy of being achieved take time, likely more time than you are willing to give.
That’s the secret. And in theory it is not hard to understand, spend 10–20 years doing something and you are going to become astronomically better at that thing in year 20 vs. year 1.
The problem lies within human psychology though. It is extremely challenging to dedicate so much of your life to something, with no guarantee that it will work out how you plan it in the long run.
So I figured I would share these 3 lessons with you as they seem to be common themes/habits amongst people who have achieved high level of success, which in this context we will define as freedom from having to worry about money, other’s expectations or standards, and the ability to go wherever, whenever they please.
One last note before we get into it, not all successful people do all these things. However in a large amount of them from various backgrounds, origins, and identities, these concepts are present.
1. Do sh*t you love
When I say this, it does not mean to quit your job and forfeit your other obligations to start pursuing all your hobbies. It also doesn’t mean to “quiet quit” and stop giving your best effort at a job you need to be present at anyways.
What it does mean, is spending some of your own voluntary time doing things you enjoy doing. I say voluntary time, because for a good chunk of your life you are going to have to do stuff you may not want to so you can make ends meet (welcome to being an adult, fun right?).
However, if you can get 1% better at something you love doing, which can easily be accomplished by giving it 1 good hour a day, after a year you will be over 30 times better at that thing! Imagine how that continuous improvement evolves over 10 years, by that point you should undeniably be near the top of that field or skill.
Additionally, by doing something you actually enjoy doing for an hour a day, it will be much easier to continue doing it consistently over time, which as I mentioned is the number 1 principle here.
2. Take care of your mental and physical health
This one doesn’t need a ton of explanation, as you do not have to look far to find the benefits of taking care of your body and mind. The problem in today’s day and age is that we want to “accept” everybody and if you think otherwise then you are a bigot, bully, or whatever label you want to place on it.
I would argue though, that by continuing to enable people to be large and lazy (the USA being a front runner in this category with about 36% of our population classified as obese), we are actually doing them a disservice and preventing them from reaching their true potential!
I’m not saying be a jerk, but let’s be realistic here. A study by the NIH Library of Medicine, done in South Korea, shows that with increased obesity comes a greater potential (not guaranteed factual outcome) for a lower salary and less favorable outcomes. A graphic of it can be seen below:
Just as finding studies behind why being healthy is beneficial, studies showing why it is NOT beneficial to be unhealthy are readily available. Keep in mind that in today’s day and age, it might not always be your place to discuss this particular trait of success with certain people. However, you can take it and use it for your own gain.
3. Be willing to do hard things
Finally, success comes with the price of hard things. Just as it is hard to do something for a few decades to get good at it, there are some days where it feels equally as tough to just get through the day and complete a few tasks that need to get done.
It feels like sometimes I have to force myself to write, but I want to become a better writer, so I drink more coffee than I probably should and do it.
The great thing about doing hard things, is that once completed they make subsequent challenges more manageable and navigable. And you are naive if you think that life won’t throw tough stuff at you that you must deal with, like it or not.
You should be willing to commit yourself to (voluntarily) doing challenging things on a daily basis. It could be as simple as doing the laundry right before bed when you would rather get under the covers 10 minutes early, or working a job you don’t particularly like for 5–10 years so you can save up enough money to start your own business. Over time your tolerance for challenge and discomfort builds up, and once you go to actually start your business, when you face inevitable challenges that come with that you can more readily deal with them and come out ahead.
I hope this was helpful for you to take a look at yourself and some of your habits, and get an idea if they line up with where you think you want to go.
It is very important to be introspective and honest with yourself, otherwise you will stay stuck receiving whatever life decides to give you, instead of creating your own path.
Life is a game of probabilities, so do more things that put the odds in your favor to do well and find happiness, and then give it a few decades. As long as you are happy more often than not, then at the end of the day that’s really what matters (ask any billionaire, or business owner in a 3rd world country).
Best of luck to you and I hope you can continue to find happiness.
