Personal Productivity
5 Mindset Features of Highly-Productive People
AUTHOR: Brandon Stanley
What is it that makes people successful? There are so many answers to this question, and interestingly, very few of them are untrue. Everyone seems to have a different idea as to what it is that makes a person successful, and we all share the need to become one. At its core, success is a result of numerous factors, the ultimate one being productivity.
Look at the people around you. The most successful people in your life don’t have it all figured out, but they seem to manage their time and work-life balance. Procrastination is the silent killer of a person’s success, but there is a grand secret behind fighting it and reaching the point of productivity.
That secret path is a productive mindset.
Without a productive mindset, you cannot get to do any of the things people consider essential to become successful. Knowing this, it is time to make some changes in the way you think and act. Apply these tips to get the mindset of highly productive people.
1. Control
What do you imagine when you think about time management? Essentially, effective time management is about introducing higher levels of organization in your life. But, on a much deeper level, time management is control over your actions.
Psychology has introduced a concept known as Locus of Control. Not many people know about this concept or really understands it, but we believe that it is exactly what you need to take control over your life.
It goes both ways – internal and external. If you possess the internal locus, you are seeing success as a result of your abilities, skills and efforts. If you are stuck with the external locus, you wait for fate and luck to bring success to you. In some cases, luck was just enough to make a person successful, but having the latter makes it much less likely that you will make an effort to learn something or make something on your own.
If you want to change your life and take control over your life, you need to aim towards the internal locus of control. This should boost your productivity and motivation, and eventually lead to success.
2. Understanding
Changing your locus of control will not work unless you understand the techniques and the logic behind these. Just following tips and applying techniques is simply not enough and is very unlikely to fail you if you do not understand their purpose.
How do you see time management? To really understand its psychology, check out the tree story from Secrets of the Millionaire Mind:
‘’Imagine a tree. Let’s suppose this tree represents the tree of life. On this tree there are fruits. In life, our fruits are called our results…It’s the seeds and the roots that create those fruits. It’s what’s under the ground that creates what’s above the ground. It’s what’s invisible that creates what’s visible. So what does that mean? It means that if you want to change the fruits, you will first have to change the roots. If you want to change the visible, you must first change the invisible.’’
What did you learn? To create the right mindset, you need to look at the problem inside out, not the other way around.
3. Responsibility
The third mindset feature you must possess to be successful is responsibility. You cannot be in control over your life and actions unless you are prepared to take full responsibility for them.
Pride has always been an issue for the human kind, and is often the reason why people didn’t manage to reach the success they wanted. Instead of taking responsibility for their actions, they blame the outside world for everything that goes wrong.
If you want to become successful, start accepting and taking responsibility for your actions. Only in this way you can take control over what you do.
4. Habits
We are proud, but also creatures of habit. Our nature tells us to do the same things continuously, create systems in the form of habits. Instead of trying to get rid of this, why not exploit its power?
When you know what you desire and have the skills to achieve it, make a habit out of it. But only then.
If you don’t understand the thing (see feature number two), you cannot make a habit out of you.
If you do not desire it, you won’t have the motivation to do it over and over again.
And finally, without the skills to make it happen, your understanding and desire is simply not enough.
5. Acceptance
A successful person has a mindset feature called acceptance. This means that they accept who they are, and work with it.
What are your strengths? What are your weaknesses? The first can get you to reach your goals, while the others can pose a barrier. Your goal is not to change the weaknesses, but work around them and exploit the strengths to do this.
Who you are is not something you can change. The most successful people in the world got where they are when they stopped trying to be something else. Instead, they exploited their strengths (we all have ours) and aimed them to become more productive.
Conclusion
So, start by accepting who you are. Set goals that fit your personality, skills, interests, strengths and purposes. You will never become productive if you base your actions on the circumstances, flaws, moods, or urges.
No comments