Signs of success man in blue suit walking down steps outside

7 Signs that you will be successful in life

Success in life is a very subjective thing. To one person, it might mean making a lot of money, to another it might mean having a great family life and to another it might mean being in total control of their time. Everyone is different. And although success in life means different things to different people, it is, at the same time, a universal outcome that most (if not all) humans want on some level. But even though success means something different to each person, there are certain signs of success that point to living a successful life.

The following traits of successful people are, essentially, the 7 keys of success that, if you can inhabit them, will help you to keep on the road to success in life. Read through these signs of success, have a think on if you have these qualities and, if you don’t, have a think on how you can start to adopt them.

Soon, you will know how to get success in life. You will no longer wonder how to be successful in life but, instead, will be creating the life you want and will be successful as you go along.

So, without further ado, let’s get going on the 7 signs of success!

1. You know what you want

One of the most important things in order to be successful in life is to know what you want – to know what your aim in life is. You can’t go through life aimless not knowing where you want to go or what you want to achieve. It doesn’t matter if it’s running your own business, reaching the top of the corporate ladder, having a family, making a hit movie, writing a top-selling book, or anything else. Whatever it is you want in life is crucial to know.

This is why this is at the top of this list of the signs of success – because you need to know what you want and where you want to go in order to actually get started.

So what if you don’t know exactly what that is? Well, it’s fine if what you want right now is to find out exactly what you want! That is a goal, it is something you can go after, and it will fuel you as you move forwards.

If you are the kind of person who knows exactly what they want, then congratulations! You have a great footing to move forwards and are on the path to success in life.

2. You know your why

You can’t just say you want something and not know why. Knowing WHY you want something is what will keep you in the game when things go wrong and when things get hard. It is also pretty empty to say you, for example, want tonnes of money. Well, why do you want tonnes of money? Is it to look after your family? Is it to start a homeless shelter? Is it to make sure you can live with total freedom?

It doesn’t matter what the reason is, you just have to know your reason why. As Simon Sinek’s book says, start with why.

If you already have this success characteristic, good for you! Knowing your why is a massive step in the quest of being successful.

If you don’t know your why yet, never fear. Take some time to explore yourself, find out what drives you, what fuels you. If you need some ideas on how to find out what drives you, try going travelling, exercise, doing something new you haven’t done before, or doing something you know you enjoy. Let your mind relax and take in the world around you.

3. You focus on where you want to go

Focus is so important in order to get to where you want to go. It’s so easy to become distracted in life, especially with everything we have going on in the world around us.

If you don’t stay focused on your aims in life, then you will never get what you want or end up where you want to end up. Soon, time passes and you realise you are another year on without getting anywhere towards you goals.

But if you can stay focused, you can keep moving forwards. And if you keep moving forwards, then that momentum will breed results. And if you get results, you will be moving towards acheiving your goals. And isn’t that what you want?

If you are the kind of person that doesn’t get distracted easily and can keep focused… well… you are officially the envy of most people! This is a hugely important quality for success that many people don’t have or struggle to develop.

Procrastination and distraction are silent killers, so if you don’t yet have this trait of success, then do everything you can to develop the ability to stay focused both when you are working on your goals and as you go through your days.

If you have yet to develop this quality, never fear, it can be developed. Distractions do not have to distract you. You may want to look at the Top 10 Things that Waste Your Time and see if you can cut some of them out.

4. You take action

Action is possibly the most important thing you can do if you want success in life. You cannot sit around thinking about what you want. You must take action.

It’s so easy to think you just need to learn one more thing, you just need to take one more class, read one more book. But, at some point, you HAVE to take action.

If you don’t take action you will never get anywhere towards you goals. Yet so many people don’t ever take action.

Why is that?

Well, it’s usually because they are scared in some way. Scared about not being good enough, scared about not getting the results they want, scared that they will fail.

You have to act in spite of the fear. Once you take action, you will either get results or get information on a way that doesn’t work.

If you have this sign of success going for you, congratulations! This is a big step that most people never take.

If you do not yet have this characteristic of successful people, then don’t fear. Literally, don’t fear. Take action! I know that is scary to even think about. But once you start taking action, you will find it easier and easier, and you will start getting results that you can move forwards with.

5. You don’t let others hold you back or bring you down

Ideally, we would all only ever hear positive things from other people in regards to our dreams and ambitions. But that just is never going to be the case.

Inevitably in life, people are going to put your ideas down, try and drag you down because they are jealous, or generally not be supportive because they don’t understand your goals or don’t have belief themselves.

But a key quality for success is the ability to let this negativity roll off your back, to not let it affect you.

You have to be able to keep acting despite the negativity of people around you. If you let it affect you, then you will find it takes you a lot longer to achieve you goals, if at all.

If you are the kind of person that can keep going towards what they want despite people around you telling you that you are crazy, foolish, or won’t succeed, then hold on to that. You will need that resilience to achieve your goals and it’s great you already have that sign of success.

If you find that you fall apart mentally when people around you discourage you, then you need to work on your mental resilience and determination. You need to get mentally strong enough to keep moving forwards despite what people around you say. It’s not easy, but it can be done. And it is necessary.

Food for thought: We’ve all heard before that you become the 5 people you spend the most time with, so if you are struggling with this, perhaps it’s time for you to get around new people.

6. You always find a way

At some point on your journey towards going after what you want in life, you are going to have things go wrong. It’s just a fact of life. A key success characteristic is the ability to keep going when things go wrong.

And, more than that, it’s the ability to change things up when things don’t go expected. If something goes wrong or doesn’t work the way you expected, you need to be able to pick yourself up and find a new way. This is the idea behind the phrase of, when nothing goes right go left.

If you keep finding a new way, finding a new way, finding a new way, eventually the way you do it will be the right way.

If you have this sign of success, fantastic news! Out of these 7 keys of success, this possibly takes the most energy, as it can be incredibly hard to constantly pick yourself up and find new ways. So be sure to pat yourself on the back and nurture this trait!

If you struggle with this and usually only try one way, well, know that most people find it takes many ways to get the success they are after. Successful people keep trying new ways to get to where they want to get to, and this is a key quality for success that you simply must develop.

Perhaps try starting out small. If something goes wrong, ask yourself what little thing you can try moving forwards. Then do it. Then congratulate yourself and nurture this trait so you can keep doing it and on bigger levels.

7. You are grateful and positive along the way

Having a good attitude is going to be key to you finding and keeping the feeling of success in life. Apart from the fact that a positive mental attitude will help you get to where you want to go, that it will mean others are more likely to want to work with you, and that you will attract more results in your life, having a positive attitude will mean you enjoy the process more.

It would be very hollow to go through your journey towards success and not actually enjoy the process.

So, as you go, try and think about all you are doing, think about who you are becoming, think about what you have achieved and all you are going to achieve going forwards.

Think about all the great things you are bringing in to your life and what you will bring in to your life going forwards.

If you are a naturally positive person, then great work on having a key success characteristic that is going to see you through towards your goals, and hopefully inspire other people along the way!

Positive, grateful people are a joy to be around, so keep your positive attitude and keep on bringing joy in to not only your life, but the lives of those around you!

If you are not the most positive person in the world yet or find it hard to be grateful, never fear! This is absolutely something that can be developed. Negativity is simply a bad habit, and bad habits can be undone. And, more, positive habits can be put in place instead.

Each time you find yourself being negative or ungrateful, stop yourself, and make yourself think of something positive instead.

A useful habit to build is to, every morning or every evening (or both, if you’re up for it!), come up with a list of 5 things you can be grateful for in your life.

The more you practise being grateful and positive, the more you will feel it. And this is something you should really try and build as it is possibly the primary foundation to these signs of success, a top characteristic of successful people, and a key of how to get success in life.

Develop these signs of success and see the results you get!

So there you have it. There are the 7 signs of success that you can adopt right now to move towards success in life. These answer the elusive question of how to get success in life and, if you take steps to adopt them every day, they will help you to achieve your dreams and live the life you want to live.

Are there any particular signs of success you think I have missed out? Please do let me know in the comments below!

Further Reading

A great exercise to do in order to develop who you want to be is to define yourself. When you define who you are and want to be then your mind will focus on that daily and make you act in a way that support that.

It might help you to develop these signs of success as part of your New Year’s resolutions. Try adding them to a New Year’s resolutions essay to solidify them in your mind.

Disclaimer: Nothing on this website should be taken as medical or other professional advice. You should always seek the advice of a professional, qualified person.  

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