Which Attitude and Mindset will best help you to Succeed?

Which attitude and mindset will best support you to succeed further, and (in particular) to achieve your Purpose?

Your attitude defines your altitude

Attitude-wise, surely you must stay focused, and embrace discipline, efforts, accountability and perseverance. Luckily, a clear sense of purpose provides you the necessary inner-strength, as long as you take good care of your health.

Mindset-wise, fear of failure and lack of genuine self-esteem can hinder or stop your progress. Here are a few ideas to avoid those traps.

On the way towards your purpose, you shall meet many more difficulties than people staying in their comfort-zone. For starters, you will face doubt or disapproval from friends and colleagues, discouraging you with their comments, directly ("you're crazy; this isn't safe; it won't work; those who tried before failed..."), or indirectly. As an illustration, from one of my career-development workshops, a brave manager dared to share his career-aspiration to become a "Technical Director"; his peers immediately giggled sarcastically, just as kids hoping to discourage one of them to stand taller...

Look for opportunities through difficulties

Beyond negative social pressure, you will also meet real challenges and risks. To overcome them, remember John F. Kennedy's words: "The Chinese use two brush strokes to write the word 'crisis' (危機 -wēijī-). One brush stroke stands for danger; the other for opportunity. In a crisis, be aware of the danger, but recognise the opportunity."

Indeed, you will need to cultivate that mindset of tirelessly looking for opportunities through difficulties. To nurture it, a favorite practice amongst high-achievers is to reflect a few minutes every morning. They remember their past successes with gratitude, focus on how to positively embrace the challenges of the new day, and gather affectionate thoughts about themselves. For in the words of Siddhārtha Gautama - "You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection."

Don't strive for perfection; leverage your unique talents

That leads us to the other critical component of your mindset for success: truly believing in yourself and your unique greatness. Genuine self-esteem is very rare, as most of us remain wounded by negative comments we received, earlier in our lives, from our parents, teachers or people we respected...

To grow true self-esteem, you first must fully accept who you are, with your strengths and your weaknesses, your positive-side and your dark-side, your successes and your failures. Because "wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are", as Marilyn Monroe aptly said!

Worst of all, wanting to be "Mr. or Mrs. Perfect" is delusional, and fools only ourselves. Do you remember listening to inspiring leaders? Noticing how authentic they are, how readily they talk about their flaws and many failures? And surely they have failed more than the average man-in-the-street, hence they learned more and excelled more.

By the way, my own way to identify high-potential employees in a group, within 10-seconds, is simply to ask "who has made many mistakes in their career so far?"; those who raise their hands almost immediately will be my pick of the most promising talents!

Fully accepting who you are, and tirelessly looking for opportunities through difficulties are the two most critical components of your mindset for Success, as they will channel your energy and unique greatness into achieving your Purpose. The choice is always yours.

Jean-Francois Cousin is a global executive coach and the founder of Greatness Leadership Coaching. His latest book â€œGame Changers at the Circus: how leaders can unleash Greatness in their organization” is available on Amazon.com.

Marshall Goldsmith wrote about it: â€œEnjoyable and compelling, this timely fable and its lessons read like a novel but serves as an important business manual. With wisdom and context from a long and successful business career, Cousin has painted a vivid picture of how to enact change effectively. Page after page of insight!”