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Leadership Thought #216 – 12 Keys To A Successful Life

September 19, 2011

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Living a successful life requires an intentional focus.

I’ve been giving a lot of thought lately to how the most successful people I know approach their careers and life.  Very few of us ever attain what would be termed, sustained and lasting success.  Instead, we bounce up and down (sometimes sideways) in search of the elusive goals of career success and personal happiness.   In my experience, these two objectives are not mutually exclusive, but intertwined and critical to an individual’s sense of self-worth and meaningfulness.   Fortunately, I work with some amazing people. Heeding the following twelve lessons could make an big difference in your life (it already has in mine):

  1. Be yourself, but be the best YOU that you can be; leverage your strengths and manage your weaknesses
  2. No one is ever successful alone; share the credit and create opportunities for contribution and growth for those around you
  3. Your success and happiness are directly attributable to the people you spend the most time with; they can broaden or narrow your perspective; they can motivate or demotivate you; they will set positive examples, or they won’t – it’s that simple
  4. Work life balance is an illusion, just make sure that you spend focused quality time with your loved ones and close friends
  5. Have a passion and spend time cultivating that passion on a regular basis; your work CAN be that passion
  6. Act like the work you do matters every day, because it does to someone (hopefully starting with you)
  7. Once you think you know it all, you are finished, find something else to do; arrogance is never attractive and only ends up making you vulnerable to what you don’t know
  8. Active listening is equally if not more important than talking, especially if you are trying to win someone over to your point of view
  9. In all your business and life dealings take a Win-Win approach to the relationship, it will create positive energy and cultivate a lifelong network of supporters and fans; the rewards of this investment will only compound over time
  10. Avoid the trap of unnecessary conflict every chance you get; fighting battles not worth fighting is a waste of time and energy
  11. The true test of any relationship is when one of the parties is facing adversity; be there for the important people in your life when it truly matters
  12. Have things in your life that keep you grounded, whatever that means to you