If you’ve ever thought to yourself:
“What are the signs of success? What do successful people do to become successful?”
And perhaps most importantly:
“If I can identify them, could I then replicate these signs and habits to help me become successful as well?”
You’re not alone.
This idea of back-engineering the success of other successful people isn’t a new one.
And you may be pleasantly surprised to learn that it’s completely possible.
The truth of the matter is that successful people tend to deploy a certain range of habits.
These are the signs of success, and you can look for them in your own life—but you can also develop them if you realize that they aren’t present.
The great news about this is that anyone can do it.
The tough thing to figure out, of course, is what those habits are.
What are the exact habits that you should incorporate into your life so that you’re exhibiting the same signs of success as the highly successful people who you look up to and admire?
These are great questions.
And in this post, we’re going to dig deep to find the answers.
I’m going to tell you about the 16 most important signs of success that you should be looking for in your own life.
Of course, if you realize that you’re missing a few of these, the next step will be to incorporate them so that you can get yourself on the track to becoming as successful as the heroes you look up to.
Alright. Let’s dig into it.
16 Signs Of Success That Highly Successful People Deploy On A Daily Basis
1. They Have A Clear Vision
This was Arnold Schwarzenegger’s first rule of success, and many other highly successful people in the world have mirrored this exact same sentiment.
Have a clear vision of what you want to accomplish.
If you don’t have a clear vision, or if your vision is a little bit fuzzy and/or nonspecific, you’re going to put yourself at a severe disadvantage.
Here’s the thing.
If you know exactly where you’re going, then you can head in a straight line toward that destination.
But if you don’t know where you’re going, you’re probably going to zigzag all over the place trying to find something you’ve not even identified.
It’s in your best interest to have a very clear vision of where you’re headed so that you can maximize your odds of success.
2. They Set Big, Specific Goals
Highly successful people set very clear and specific goals for themselves.
They also set BIG goals, dream big, and shoot for the stars!
If you go back and read the biographies of some of the most incredibly successful people in the world, you’ll find that an often present common denominator is that they had not only a very clear vision, but also very clear plans as to how they wanted to achieve their dreams.
This is a universal successful principle, and is probably one of the single most important elements of success that exists.
Simply put, if you’re not writing down your goals on a daily basis, then you’re missing out on a huge portion of what has made many successful people incredibly successful in their own lives.
3. They Write Down Their Goals
Setting goals is the first part—and it’s incredibly important.
However, writing your goals down on a daily basis is also crucial to following through with that process.
Terry Crews is a great example of this.
He wrote down his goals for 10 years before he ever experienced success in his acting career.
This is just one example of someone who understood the power of getting focused and intentional about how they were going to spend their time and energy.
Writing down your goals really matters.
If you miss out on this incredible opportunity in your life, you’re probably also going to miss out on many of the incredible benefits that it has to offer.
And success will just be a lot more difficult to achieve.
4. They Work Hard
Arnold Schwarzenegger describes this as “work your butt off.”
Steve Harvey describes it like this: “you gotta have some dog in you.”
Successful people all throughout history have espoused the obvious benefits of working harder than the competition.
If you become the hardest working person in the room, you’re going to be pretty tough to beat.
This is crucial.
5. They Have A Purpose
Having a purpose is essential.
In fact, it’s one of the most common signs of success among people who end up going on to accomplish their dreams—and here’s why.
People with a purpose don’t just think about what they want for themselves.
They also think about how they want to impact the world and give back to others.
In other words, there’s a ‘why’ behind the desire.
This is crucially important for success, and is a principle that’ll help you to supercharge your own journey.
6. They Take Responsibility For Their Life
Another thing that successful people do is take responsibility for their own success.
You’ll hardly ever see a highly successful person blaming other people for their problems, acting like a victim, or passing the buck to someone else.
Highly successful people understand that it’s in their best interest to take control of their own journey in life.
This is one of those signs of success that can be a challenge to incorporate if you’re not in the habit of doing it.
But once you develop this habit for yourself, you’ll be amazed by the beneficial implications.
7. They Take Risks
You can’t avoid taking risks on the journey to success.
In fact, to get started in accomplishing your dreams, you’re probably going to have to step outside of your comfort zone and do some things that might be a little bit scary.
You’re going to have to put yourself out there.
You’re going to have to risk some failure, and you’re going to have to put some skin in the game.
A lot of people struggle with this.
They’re afraid to take risks—and thus, they really hold themselves back from progress.
So if you really want to embrace the success principles that have made many other highly successful people successful, then you’re going to need to find it within yourself to take some risks to step out of that comfort zone.
8. They Embrace Failure
Successful people don’t shy away from failure.
In fact, they run headfirst into it.
Why?
Because they realize that failure is the greatest way to learn lessons in life.
When you fail at something and then learn from that failure, you better equip yourself to succeed next time around.
This is a huge advantage.
However, it’s also a slightly painful one.
If you never go through the failures, you’ll be hard-pressed to make it through those lessons and onward to success.
But this is one of those signs of success that many incredible people understand as being essential.
If you want to achieve your dreams, you must be willing to risk (and even embrace) failure as opposed to avoiding it or running from it.
9. They Ignore The Naysayers
As you go through life, striving to achieve your goals and turn your dreams into reality—there are going to be all kinds of people who aren’t going to believe in your vision.
These are the naysayers.
- They’ll caution you to stop believing in ‘fantasies,’ and ‘get back to the real world.’
- They’ll warn you not to take that risk.
- They’ll have a negative attitude about your dreams, and they’ll try to bring you down.
Sometimes, this is just a manifestation of their own fear.
Sometimes, it’s because they’re jealous and/or bitter, and they want everyone else to feel the same as them.
Regardless of this, it’s important to stay away from these people.
It’s important to ignore them.
If you spend your time and energy focused on the naysayers, that’s all time and energy that won’t get spent in the pursuit of your dreams.
So…
- Ignore the naysayers.
- Ignore the haters.
- Keep your head down.
- Stay focused on the goal.
- Keep moving forward.
10. They’re Disciplined
Highly successful people have learned that discipline is literally a superpower when it comes to creating your dreams.
Why?
Because opportunity very rarely falls right in your lap.
You need to create and find it by setting goals and applying yourself to those goals every single day.
But this requires discipline.
Without discipline, you’ll struggle to remain committed—and you’ll struggle to keep your head in the game.
Discipline isn’t always fun, but it’s extremely powerful.
So do everything you can to cultivate it.
This is one of those signs of success that’s sure to let you know that you’re on the right path.
11. They Improve Themselves
Even the most successful people in the world are continually trying to learn and improve their knowledge.
For example, Warren Buffett, who is one of the most successful men in modern history, has been famously recognized for reading for 5 to 6 hours per day.
You may not have time to read quite that much, but you certainly have time to spend at least a little bit of your energy improving yourself.
This could include going to the gym, learning new things, studying, taking courses, reading, meditating, etc.
It’s really important to continue to improve yourself.
As we continue to improve ourselves, we become better.
And as we become better, we become better equipped to turn our dreams into goals and create those goals in real life.
It matters.
12. They Believe In Themselves
Confidence is powerful.
Self-assurance is powerful.
When you believe in yourself and you believe that you’re capable of achieving your dreams, you’ll be unstoppable.
This can be a tough thing for some people to develop, though.
Some people struggle to have the confidence and the faith in themselves to know that they have what it takes to succeed.
But that’s partly why goal setting is so important.
When you make a plan and you outline your plan with goal setting—and then you write down your goals every day, and then you work to achieve them…
Guess what?
You’ll literally have a plan for success laid out in front of you—and all you’ll have to do is stick with your goals on a daily basis—and you’ll make it.
This can give you powerful confidence and truly help you to believe in yourself.
13. They Manage Their Time Wisely
It’s incredibly important to be responsible with your time if you want to achieve success.
You only get 24 hours in the day.
You’re going to need to sleep for some of it, and some of it is going to need to be spent on upkeeping your responsibilities.
However, we all have some time that we could spend bettering ourselves and pursuing our dreams.
Every day, you’ll have to make a choice.
When you have a free hour or two, are you going to use it to further your dreams? Or are you going to waste it doing something that isn’t going to contribute to your future?
This is so important.
14. They Never Quit
Listen, the journey to success can be difficult.
There are no two ways about that.
You’re going to face challenges and setbacks in life.
And sometimes, you’re going to feel discouraged.
But one of the greatest signs of success among those who are on the path to actually achieving their dreams is this:
They refuse to quit. They refuse to give up.
When it comes to achieving your dreams, it’s really important to remember this:
You’re going to be living your life anyway.
Regardless of what you choose, you’re going to wake up in the morning, live your days, and go to bed at night.
So why not spend the time and energy required to accomplish your dreams, so that you can live your dreams instead of living a life that isn’t successful?
Of course, it’s difficult to achieve success.
But it’s also very difficult to live a life that’s not in alignment with your dreams.
So if you’re going to be choosing one of these difficult paths anyway, why not choose the path that at least has the payout of bringing you towards success?
Highly successful achievers understand this principle, and they attack their dreams with relentless determination.
They never quit.
They never give up.
This is a vital component of success.
15. They Solve Problems And Adapt
Even the smartest people in the world sometimes fail.
And when they do, they realize that they may need to change their tactics or their strategies in order to win.
See, changing your plan isn’t a bad thing.
When you face challenges in life, it’s in your best interest to take a step back, revise your strategy, solve the problems, and then slightly pivot in your goals to help you achieve the outcome that you desire.
We must learn to be free-flowing, like water.
Bruce Lee said it like this.
“Be water, my friend. Empty your mind. Be formless, shapeless, like water. You put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle. You put it into a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.”
This is another one of those powerful signs of success among people who have achieved their dreams.
16. They Leverage Their Passion
At the end of the day, leveraging your passion is important.
If you don’t care about what you’re doing, you’re going to be highly unlikely to stick with it for the long term.
When you’re passionate about something, that passion fuels you and causes you to want to continue to invest effort and work into the completion of that goal.
People who miss out on the passion component are missing out on a huge success principle altogether.
So as you set your goals and create a vision for the future, make sure that you’re leveraging your passion to help you create a destiny that’ll excite you and bring you fulfillment.
Conclusion
Hopefully, this post has given you some useful information about the signs of success, and how they can help you in your goal-setting and life-success journey.
Of course, at the end of the day, this is just another part of the larger, overarching process of turning your dreams into goals, and writing those goals down to create a roadmap for success in your life.
This is how you begin your journey to success and crush it.
Need some help? Want to start with something a bit more ‘guided’ than a blank-slate notebook? Download my weekly goal-setting sheet, print out a few, and give it a try.
You can also sign up for my email list to get a free copy of my Goal Setting Essentials Starter Kit.
You’ve got this. I believe in you.
Now it’s time to get to work.
Best wishes…
Jay O’Donnell