Internal Attributes for SuccessContinuing 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. |
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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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