Success in Life – What’s the Secret?

30 Aug Success in Life – What’s the Secret?

Why do some people seem to have so much success in life? They seem to be healthy and happy, they’re successful at school and work, and they tend to have good relationships with others.

People like this are probably very conscientious. They demonstrate personal responsibility by taking seriously their obligations to others and doing their share. Their self-discipline shines through in thinking carefully and deliberating over their actions and words. They show persistence by setting long-range goals and working towards them.

Industrious and orderly

If you identify with being conscientious, you are likely both industrious and orderly, or perhaps more strongly one than the other.

If you tend to be industrious, you are probably self-disciplined, dependable and reliable, and hard-working. You are probably also self-directed and persistent, following your own goals and carrying on even when you have failures and missteps.

If you tend to be orderly, you are probably organized, efficient, neat and systematic, and thorough and careful in what you do.

A little self-test

Let’s look at the idea of taking seriously your obligations to others as an aspect of conscientiousness and having success in life. If you say you’ll do something, do you always follow through?  Thinking about the last time you made a commitment or a promise, where did you fit in the following scheme?

• Said you would do something – didn’t intend to do it – and didn’t do it.
• Said you would do something – had every intention of doing it – but didn’t do it.
• Said you would do something – fully intended to do it – and actually did it.

If you are conscientious, you will do what you say you will. If something happens that you can’t follow through, you will own up to it and try to make amends.

Success in life

If you’d like to bring more success to some part of your life, consider which aspect of conscientiousness you want to strengthen first, rather than trying to do everything at once.

For example, if chaos seems to hold you back from being all that you want to be, then you may want to focus on becoming more orderly by getting organized.

Perhaps, on the other hand, you’ve always wanted to do something. If you really want to make it happen, you may decide to focus on becoming more industrious by overcoming a habit of procrastination.

The good news is that developing a strength in one part of your life often has spill-over effects into other parts of your life.