Internal Attributes for Success
Continuing from the previous section and the medical diagnosis example, the internal attributes are what you use to help prevent getting sick and improve your health. In the medical example, these could include exercise, eating healthy, and getting enough rest.
In order to improve your external areas of focus you first need to work on your internal attributes for success.
In this section, I describe 6 internal attributes for success. Based on my personal experiences and interviews, I have chosen these attributes that I believe are critical for success in anything you do. By all means, these are not the only attributes for success and I encourage you to add additional ones from your own personal experiences.
The internal attributes for success that I describe here are passion, motivation, energy, perseverance, flexibility, and renewal. When used together, these attributes will empower you to be successful at whatever you put your mind to. Your goal is to internalize these attributes and use them in your everyday life.
Passion
The dictionary definition of passion mentions ardent love and boundless enthusiasm. The passion I describe here are things that you would work on or do without anyone asking or persuading you to do them. These are things that you love and you would do even if you won the lottery. They may include personal interests such as your love for a particular sport such as golf or basketball. Those of you who already your own business know the feeling of constantly thinking about and working on your business everyday.
For many people, your business is one of your passions. However, don’t confuse responsibility with passion. Responsibilities are things that you “should/have to do” or things that “are right to do”. Even if you “like” these responsibilities, they are not passions unless you truly enjoy doing them without ulterior motives.
Motivation
Other words to describe motivation include ambition, inspiration, or the intention of achieving a goal. Motivation is the trigger to do something that no one asks or requires of you. Right now, take a few moments and think about something you are passionate about. If you can’t think of something right now, just pretend that you are immensely passionate about golf. How can you tell that someone is passionate about golf? Perhaps it is because they will play golf at any opportunity or because they get up at
6:00 am in the morning during the weekend to play when they could be sleeping in. Those are some of the actions that show you are passionate about golf. Now, actions need not be physical in nature; they can also be mental actions. If your passion is writing poetry, the mere fact that you think about poetry everyday shows your motivation. Remember that motivation is the “trigger” for those actions.
Energy
Have you ever been around someone who seems down and tired? How did that make you feel? That person probably brought you down as well. On the contrary, if you have energy, it radiates to those around you and makes them feel good. This is how having energy can affect others. But how does having energy affect you? Think about passion without energy. Can you really pursue your passion without the energy to keep you going?
Let’s go back to the golf example. Imagine that you are passionate about golf and you have the motivation to get up at 6:00 am in the morning on a Sunday to play. Now when you go out to the course, do you become lazy or do you give it your 100% every time you play? You can’t be passionate about golf but be too tired or lazy to play the game. However, having energy does not mean you are not allowed to be lazy. We all get lazy at times and it’s important that we allow ourselves time to relax and do nothing.
The definition of energy I am using here is the energy to follow through your passions.
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