The Simplest Formula for Career Success

Nearly everyone knows the right thing to do; the challenge is to actually do it, day after day. It's all too easy to go weeks or even months while forgetting what matters most to you and the people about whom you care most deeply.

This realization has led me to become obsessed with making it as simple as possible to remembers what matters. After listening closely to experts and observing countless people around me, I've boiled success down to three things.

By "success", I mean having a career and life that matters. I mean leaving the world better off than you found it, and having a sense of pride and joy when you look back on your life.

You have no doubt heard quite a bit about grit. It's the long-term pursuit of a vitally important goal. According to experts, grit is not just something you were born with, although some people get more than their share at birth. Grit is also something you can develop.

Growth, as explained by Carol Dweck in her book Mindset, is the perception that with enough effort you can alter your abilities. I like to think of it as a lifelong habit of being curious, eager to learn, and ready to work hard to expand what you are capable of doing.

I use presence to describe paying full attention to the people and circumstances around you. It means noticing if someone is in pain, or is floundering. It means being aware of how your actions impact others.

Presence means being someone to whom others are drawn because they sense that you are truly interested in them.

For much of the past year, I would have used four words to describe this formula: grit, growth, compassion, and clarity. But I've come to believe that presence does a better job of summing up the last two.

I can't give you the ability to be compassionate; you either are capable of this or you aren't. But many people with this capability are too distracted to notice suffering or anything else. Lessen the distractions, and compassion will naturally emerge.

Clarity is important on many levels, from the ability to know what you want to the capability to explain your ideas to others. But clarity is a natural by-product of presence... if you pay attention to how people act around you, it will be easy to know whether - or not - they understand you. Likewise, presence naturally leads to an understanding of what matters most to you.

Grit. Growth. Presence.

GGP.

GGP is easy enough to remember that you can actually live with it day after day.

To maximize the positive impact that these three letters have on your career and life, never stop thinking of ways to practice them. 

1. Know what your long-term goals are, because you can't practice grit without such goals.

2. Treat growth as a weekly task. Do something every week that broadens your skills and expands your perspective.

3. No matter where you are or what you are doing, pay attention! Multitasking is the sign of a dazed and confused person. Do one thing at a time, and you will do nearly everything better.

Bruce Kasanoff is a social media ghostwriter for entrepreneurs, investors, and innovators. Learn more at Kasanoff.com.