7 Qualities of a Successful Person

7 Qualities of a Successful Person
Guest Author - Katie Byrd

The qualities of a successful person can vary – depending on the person. But there are 7 main qualities and only one success quality they all share in common. Guess what?

Persistence!

Persistence is the only common success denominator of all successful people. As Calvin Coolidge said in one of the greatest quotes of all times:

“Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is filled with educated derelicts. Perseverance and determination alone are omnipotent.”

Seven Main Success Qualities of a Successful Person

1. Know what you want. I’m not just talking about business goals. You need to be crystal clear about all your desires. Everyday hundreds of things tug at our attention. If you don’t know what you want, you’ll end up someplace else or all over the place.

I’ve known people with lots of great success qualities who worked hard, but still ended up just spinning their wheels and getting nowhere. You need to be crystal clear what success means to you. That's how you know when you get there. Only then can you say, “I made it! I achieved my goal! I am successful!”

2. Prioritize. It’s not enough to know what you want; you need to have your priorities in order too. There are many times when you have to choose – even among your own goals. So write down what you want in priority order and check your list whenever you get confused. But don’t engrave it in stone. You’ll need to make adjustments as circumstances change.

3. Manage your time effectively. Effective time management is an essential skill that takes time and practice to master. Few people become successful without it. When you’re on the track to success, organizing all your activities, goals and priorities in your head is just way too difficult. It needs to be written down.

4. Think and speak positively. Although positive thinking sounds like a cliché, pessimists never succeed. Successful people generally use optimistic self-talk, an attitude of gratitude and a positive perspective to stay enthusiastic, creatively motivated and consistently moving towards their vision.

5. Take action. No matter what anyone says, you can't get what you want by just thinking about it. However, if you’re intently focused on a clear enough vision of what you want, you’ll just naturally start taking the appropriate actions to reach your goal. You’ll get great ideas, know what to do and be motivated to do it.

6. Pay the price. Sorry, there are no free lunches. You have to work to get what you want. But when you know how to properly motivate yourself, it’s easy. You'll feel excited about pursuing your goals and truly understand that “the joys in the journey.”

7. Be persistent. Finally, we return to the only quality that all successful people share – they never give up! And, because of that, they tend to make far more mistakes and have far more failures than unsuccessful people. But failure only stops failures. Successful people get right back up on their feet (possibly to fail again), and keep on keeping on, until they finally succeed.

And if you follow these guidelines with patient persistence, you'll succeed too.