7 Characteristics of Highly Successful People

Success is a journey, however, many people think it’s a destination. You often hear those people saying things like, “When I graduate from college, I’ll be successful” or “When I earn a million dollars, I’ll know I’m successful.”

These achievements are not success. They are the results of successfully doing what it takes to graduate from college and what it takes to earn a million dollars. And, if you ask a successful person about their success, most will answer, truthfully, that they had a lot of fun getting there. What they may not think to tell you is that they built their success with consistent effort over time. Success didn’t just come suddenly to them.

Most successful people have a few characteristics in common.

1. Resilience
Just as a tree bends and sways in the wind, which strengthens its trunk and roots, successful people have the capacity to go with the flow and to bounce back from any obstacles they may encounter in life. Practice resilience and you will be light years ahead of your peers.

2. Persistence
Many people give up just before they’re about to achieve their goals. Successful people know that if they want to achieve a specific goal, they must be persistent in going after it or they will never achieve anything worthwhile.

3. Curiosity
Successful people are curious and they’re not shy about asking questions or showing their interest. They are willing to go after their dreams because their curiosity is stronger than their shyness or fear. Their curiosity drives them.

4. Thick-skinned
Successful people develop a thick skin. They know that if they don’t, other people’s words may sidetrack them. If words can’t hurt you because you just shrug them off and keep working toward your goal, you’re more than halfway there.

5. Positive attitude
This one’s kind of a no-brainer. Positive people generally accomplish more, are happier, and are more successful than negative people. They are also more creative because their positive attitude allows them to feel happy and more relaxed.

6. Sense of humor
Successful people know how to laugh at themselves. If they make a mistake or forget something, they easily find the humor in the situation. They are especially good at dealing, humorously, with failure or obstacles that slow their progress toward their goals.

7. Strong communication skills
Strong communication skills, sometimes in more than one language, are a critical characteristic of highly successful people. Being able to effectively communicate with others can put you on a sure track to success.

What other characteristics do successful people have?

Reach for the Stars

“You are never given a wish
without also being given the power to
make it come true. You may have to
work for it, however.”
           —Richard Bach, Illusions

The saddest thing in the world is a person without a dream. Children are amazing dreamers. And they dream big—probably because they have no limits. Children don’t know they can’t do whatever it is they are dreaming about doing, so they often easily accomplish what they set out to accomplish.

Whereas, many adults leave their dreams behind when they leave childhood. Perhaps they’ve been disappointed too many times. Perhaps they’ve failed to accomplish some of their goals, so they’ve stopped trying.

The biggest obstacle to achieving our goals and reaching our fullest potential is ourselves. Really. It is. You see, oftentimes people are a bit scared that if they do achieve their goals, they may lose their friends, or they may be unable to sustain their success, or they may have any number of reasons why they can’t achieve their goals.

As long as they argue for those limitations, they will be right and they will not achieve their goals.

However, one thing remains the same. If you stop trying to reach your goals, your life will stagnate and at some point you will look back and wonder where your life went and you will be saddened that you didn’t ever try.