Almost every successful person begins with two beliefs: the future can be better than the present, and I have the power to make it so. -Anonymous
Success always comes with a mindset to achieve something. There is no age limit set to succeed in life. There have been many successful people who have achieved success quite late in life and vice-versa. Be it RonaldReagon,Nelson Mandela, Henry Ford, LalBahadurShastri, or the actor Irfan Khan whoachieved success quite late in their lives or be it Elvis Presley, Nadia Comaneci, Sachin Tendulkar, and SundarPichai who tasted it at an early age in their lives, everybody has had its own set of challenges and means to combat them. It isn’t the age that decides what you have to do; rather it’s the mental attitude which makes a person successful. Your mindset decides your mental attitude or inclination.
Psychologists have identifiedfive steps which help in building a mindset towards success in contrast to the common mindset. First is the passion to seek new opportunities which is followed by the pursuit of opportunities with high order discipline which paves the way for opting the very best opportunities and avoiding chasing all available options thereby reducing exhaustion.When the opportunity is availed then the focus is on execution—precisely, adaptive execution, and engaging one’s energy in one’s competitive domain. So whether it is sports, media, education, business, politics or entertainment people with a success mindset always identify the means of making things work despite apparent oddities. Among the successful people discussed above many had difficult upbringings which have nurtured their spirit to fight for success and shaped their attitude to achieve out of difficult situations. These all have the same attributes, a thought process or belief system called the success mindset.
The success mindset also has an inbuilt growth mindset which makes an individual seek for growth rather than remain stagnant to what he/she possesses. It keeps one continuously evolving and improvising on one’s skills. Secondly the success mindset compels one to have an inward-looking propensity which is a must for any individual in order to highlight his/her needs for improvement which gives fuel to the growth mindset. And both of these aspects make one realize the positive possibilities on which one can work diligently to achieve one’s goals.
Success has no shortcuts and so does the success mindset. If one has to build a success mindset then one has to relentlessly work on it. Successful people are never born with a silver spoon in their hand rather they work to have one. It’s their efforts and perseverance which makes them rise to crescendo.
Oprah Winfrey faced a lot of issues because of her race and poverty stricken background in her initial years of life still she fought for herself and is now the most sought after Talk-show hosts in the world and North- Americas first black multi- billionaire. For those who want to develop a success mindset, it takes practice to adopt it. It starts with your belief in changing your outlook. Next step is to start analyzing yourself and working and figuring out the steps to be taken to adapt your mind towards a more successful way of thinking. Just like a sportsman reviews his performance after tournaments and works on the flaws and sharpens his saws every time he comes up to perform to come out triumphant.
Dr. Shalini Sharma
Assistant Professor (GIMS)