GPS for Success - Part 2
It is impossible to be a professional without training or proper certification. You will not be able to fly a plane or prescribe medicines or complete a tax audit without proper qualifications.
What prepares us to live life effectively? What is our destination? How do we reach there? Do we have a GPS? (GPS is a Geo-positional system that tells you how to reach from point A to point B in the most effective way)
You will not start a journey with just a GPS and no preparation. Are you prepared for the journey to be successful in life? The first step was to know your GPS.( In case you have missed reading Part 1 of this series, you can find it here.) The second step in this journey is preparation.
Step 2: Preparation - Do you have the right mindset and have you understood the two drivers of your success?
- What mindset do you have?
People have a combination of two kind of mindsets. Some people strongly believe that the external world (Boss, Situation, Family, Society ..) creates them. There are others who believe that they are shaping the world. Still others believe that it is a combination of both. There are some who are neither influenced by external world, nor have an internal locus of control.
1.Random Walk – Like Alice in Wonderland they do not care where they are going, so it doesn’t matter what road they take.
2. The world creates me- Also called the Fixed Mindset, these people are always in the “rat race” being driven by external carrots & sticks. They are the subjects of Skinner and his behavioral science experiments.
3. I create the world – Also called the Growth Mindset, these people are not restrained by external constraints and can change external constraints. In extreme cases it leads to Delusion, like Hitler moving imaginary troops towards the end of WWII.
4. Mutual Creation – Healthy Balance of being influenced by others and influencing others. Maintaining this balance and avoiding Delusion requires a healthy dosage of failures.
If you are in more frequently in the zone of mutual creation, you are more likely to be successful. Since the world is not going to change for you, you will have to find out how to acquire a growth mindset. In my subsequent columns, I will give you the latest thinking of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith on how to do this.
- The BIGGEST driver of your success
Success is any way you define it. While it includes all the things you can acquire in the world, most people agree that it is not success if it comes at the cost of your happiness. Therefore, let me start with the secret to happiness first.
2.1 Gratitude - In positive psychology research, gratitude is strongly and consistently associated with greater happiness. Gratitude helps people feel more positive emotions, relish good experiences, improve their health, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships. Expressing gratitude encourages others to put in more efforts. Research reveals that whether you have an innate sense of gratitude for what you have, or an innate sense of entitlement, will determine for sure how happy you are, or you are not, not just in your job, but also in your life.(For more on happiness view this TED talk)
Fact 4: A sense of gratitude sets you up for success
Exercise: Just before you go to sleep, think of three people who you have done something in course of the day, that you did not get an opportunity to thank. Note it down and thank them next day morning. Note the difference in your mental state in a month.
2.2 Grit – The biggest predictor of your success was discovered in Stanford in an experiment on small children which became famous as the Marshmallows experiment. The Stanford marshmallow experiment was a series of studies on delayed gratification in the late 1960s and early 1970s led by psychologist Walter Mischel, then a professor at Stanford University. In these studies, a child was offered a choice between one small reward provided immediately or two small rewards if they waited for a short period, approximately 15 minutes, during which the tester left the room and then returned. (The reward was sometimes a marshmallow, but often a cookie or a pretzel.) In follow-up studies, the researchers found that children who were able to wait longer for the preferred rewards tended to have better life outcomes, as measured by SAT scores, educational attainment, body mass index (BMI), and other life measures. (Source: Wikipedia)
It is not that delayed gratification is enjoyed by successful people, just as the children did not enjoy not eating the marshmallow immediately. This courage or resolve, called grit, is later displayed by many successful people in diligently following the so called “10,000 hour” rule. Whether it is the successful actor, or singer or player or doctor, they have one thing in common: “Deliberate” Practice. While deliberate practice for any length of time is unlikely to make you the best in a skill that you do not have any intrinsic talent, assuming you do, it will impact your outcomes by 20 -25 per cent, depending on the field. That is a huge difference for world class performance.
Fact 5: Successful people make a habit of doing what unsuccessful people do not like to do ie. “Deliberate” practice.
A GPS does not guarantee that you will reach your destination. However, without a GPS you will waste a lot of time asking for directions, and you may not even end up where you want to go. In my next column I will explain what can go wrong in the journey even though you now have the GPS and have prepared for the journey, and what precautions you can take.
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Prasenjit Bhattacharya is the CEO of Great Place to Work® Institute, India, as well as, a Director at Great Place to Work® Institute, Sri Lanka. Views are personal. You can access the first part of this series here.
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5ySuccessful people make a habit of doing what unsuccessful people do not like to do ie. “Deliberate” practice. You have well captured & the facts resonate what sets Successful people apart from the rest. Looking forward for GPS for Success- Part 3 Prasenjit Bhattacharya.
Expert in Training Interventions & Leadership Development. Helping Organisations Achieve Excellence
5yGreat pointers, Prasenjit