The Success Mindset Of Great Leaders

(It Ain'T The Money!)

Yael Eylat-Tanaka

• Publisher: Tektime
• Year: 2020
• eBook ISBN: 9788835415855
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Personal Success

What does success mean? How is it measured - wealth, fame, many friends? This book explores the many layers of what constitutes true success, and how one can achieve it. Success is what everyone claims to want; and yet, few are able to adequately define what it is. For many, success is fame and fortune, yet those that really achieve that "goal" are relatively few. In fact, success is an ephemeral concept that needs constant shoring up and redefinition: Once you have achieved what you think is success, you have to keep working to maintain it! The definition of success is not a simple one, but the means to it are open to everyone who genuinely adopts its underlying principles. Curiously, many of those who do not enjoy what is popularly understood as success still claim to be happy. In fact, as we shall see, happiness is an integral part of the entire phenomenon of success.

Chapter 3

The Seven Pillars of Success

The number seven is almost mystical. There are so many instances where the number seven figures prominently, from the seven days of the week, the seven deadly sins and seven virtues, the seven dwarfs, the upper tier of Michelin awards, Seventh Heaven, the seven seas, the seven wonders of the world – you get the idea. Seven represents completion, wholeness, the acme of achievement, if you will.

Albert Schweitzer said, “Success is not the key to happiness; happiness is the key to success…”. The full quote includes another component to success: “If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.”¹ Success implies the attainment of a favorable outcome or goal. It is not enough to state I want to be successful. That is far too nebulous. If success is the attainment of a favorable outcome, what was the situation that required that successful outcome? In other words, a favorable outcome for what? You must define the problem or desire as specifically as possible, and design parameters and guide posts that spell a successful outcome.

We shall examine precisely how to do so in the chapter on goals. But as an introduction, say your doctor tells you that your blood pressure is elevated and you must do something about it. You could begin a medication regimen, or you might endeavor to tackle that as a project. To do so requires planning with specificity.

The work and dedication required to achieve a lower blood pressure, or to complete a college degree are the same. They are built in certain personality characteristics that will either push you forward or derail your every step. One’s personality can be trained and directed so as to enhance one’s life or render it bitterly unhappy.

For our purposes in this chapter, let us examine these seven pillars, and why they are important as a holistic approach to one’s life. The seven pillars are:

1. Physical
2. Emotional
3. Intellectual
4. Professional
5. Financial
6. Social
7. Spiritual

Let us explore them in depth.

1. Physical. The first pillar is the physical. Far and away your most important asset is your health. In this discussion, I will be focusing on one’s physical health.

It is far too easy to become lackadaisical about our health. We are surrounded by pollutants; we are bombarded with chemicals in everything from our food to our deodorants; we lead sedentary lives, driving everywhere and sitting at desks for hours on end; we smoke; we drink; our sleep is fragmented; we fret in traffic and overschedule our leisure time to the point of exhaustion. This stressful lifestyle contributes to increased cortisol levels that further impair our ability to cope, thereby creating a vicious cycle. Of course, that is an overgeneralization, but the statistics about our health as a society are not encouraging. In a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine (2014), of 15,208 people age 25 and older, forty percent of men were overweight, and thirty-five percent of the men were obese. Of the women in the study, the estimate was thirty percent were overweight and thirty-seven percent were obese.² Those study results are very similar to results obtained by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).³ Other studies portray a far greater incidence of obesity and diabetes in Western societies.

The societal burdens of these disorders are enormous, from a diabetes epidemic and its attendant medical costs, to the costs to corporations and individuals in medical costs, insurance premiums and absenteeism. Factor in the emotional distress from the effects of overweight, the isolation, depression, continued binge eating and shame that afflict so many sufferers, and you have an almost overwhelming problem.

A bit later in this book, I shall attempt to put forth some possible solutions and an action plan to deal with your physical health. For now, let us delve into the second pillar.

So many of us associate success in monetary terms, and yet consider Steve Jobs, one of the most inventive people of our times. All his money, fame and prominence could not save him from his pancreatic cancer. He could afford the very best medical care, yet none of his accomplishments, celebrity and success could save him.

It is axiomatic that our health is in our hands. It is our job to stay healthy, and do everything within our power to preserve and enhance our own health. It is not your doctor’s job to keep you healthy! Of course, if you have an infection, your doctor must determine the pathogen in order to prescribe the correct medication. But your health is in your hands and under your control. Diabetes does not just “happen.” A heart attack rarely “happens” for no reason.

One of our most stubborn and malignant health problems is obesity, which itself leads to so many other maladies, including cancer, lung disease, depression, renal failure, heart disease, gastric upsets, and many, many more. One of the best ways to stay healthy is to keep one’s weight down. I wrote the book, Diet Proof Your Life, along with its companion Action Book, to encourage lifestyle changes in the face of such sabotaging concerns as food advertisements and the restaurant industry’s gigantic portions. If weight loss is needed, consider the following steps:

Steps To Take Now:

1) Get a baseline and establish a goal: Weigh yourself to see precisely where you are beginning. Only then can you decide how much weight you need to lose. If you are currently 200 pounds and should be 170 for better health, begin to take steps to reduce your weight by 30 pounds.

2) Make your goal realistic. Announcing to your friends that you will lose 10 pounds in a week is not only absurd, it is counterproductive. You will set yourself up for failure, and that failure will be discouraging. Make your goal realistic.

3) Your goal must be attainable. Just as in the next step, if you set your goal as 2 pounds per week, be sure you can accomplish it. Are 2 pounds per week feasible for you?

4) Your goal must be measurable. If you set your goal as 2 pounds per week, you must be able to measure that.

5) Make a plan for exercise. Again, your plan must be realistic. To state that you will go to the gym every night after work for 3 hours will only set you up for discouraging failure the night you have to work late, or are exhausted.

6) Include your plan into your lifestyle. It is not a one off plan that once completed, you return to your old eating habits. Make it part of your new lifestyle. Design your lifestyle. Be responsible for it.

7) This may sound contradictory: You must set a time table to accomplish your goal. Have you not had the experience of hearing a friend or relative sing the same refrain as they did fifteen years ago, I have to lose 15 pounds! They have wanted to lose 15 pounds for the past 15 years!

2. Emotional. As alluded to under the physical pillar above, if your health is not optimal at any point in your life, your focus is likely going to be on your ailment. That holds true for physical or emotional distress. Your emotional energy is like a cloud that hovers over your physical being, and can assumes a life of its own. Indeed, it is not really possible to distinguish the physical from the emotional – they are both part of who we are. Nothing is as deleterious to your overall health as excessive stress.

One of the most stubborn and difficult concepts to grasp is that if our emotions are not congruent with our desired goals and dreams, we suffer, our physical health and our emotional health suffer. There is psychic pain that permeates every aspect of our lives.

Have you ever broken up with a lover? Have you ever exchanged angry words with a parent or child? Have you ever been called on the carpet for an error made at work? The emotions that well up from such experiences serve only to deplete our energies, depress our vitality, and make us focus inward, frequently with embarrassment, anger, hostility, and any number of other negative emotions. Needless to say, creating a happy and serene emotional life goes a very long way toward ensuring our successful dealings in other areas of our lives.

Steps To Take Now:

1) Seek the help of a professional – a psychologist, teacher or member of the cloth.

2) Read books on self-help in the area of your distress.

3) If possible, reconcile with one who has done you wrong. I say if possible, because not all relationships can be salvaged, but when they can, make an effort.

4) On the other hand, if a relationship is damaged beyond repair, then get away and stay away. Do not be a martyr. It does you no good. The relationship itself will not improve, and your health will suffer.

5) Do not allow yourself to put up with noxious people. If one of your friends is obnoxious, reconsider the friendship.

6) Surround yourself with nature. Wherever you live, there are small islands of nature that recharge one’s soul. Seek them out, and spend time there, in peace and quiet.

7) A surprising item is orderliness in one’s home. Clean things up. Arrange things in their proper place. Hire help if you need to. And resolve to keep things in proper order.

3. Intellectual. What about the intellectual pillar? It would be foolhardy to believe that education does not matter to success, however you define it. Education is the backbone of any enterprise, be it coming to terms with the death of a loved one to being promoted on the corporate ladder. Education is vital for understanding one’s life situation, and knowing how one fits within one’s social circle. But education is not confined merely to schooling or academic work. Indeed, education encompasses every aspect of life, from the first steps taken by a child to the degrees of higher learning bestowed by an institution. Experience itself is education. In every culture from the beginning of time, elders told stories to educate the younger folk. Education is vital, and is as integral to success as any other aspect.

Steps To Take Now:

1) Go to the public library for books around your interests.

2) Apply to teach a course about something you are passionate about at the local college.

3) Join discussion groups.

4) Become a mentor to someone struggling in a field you are good at.

5) Go back to college, if feasible, and get an advanced degree. Do so for the love of learning!

6) T...

Table of contents

• Copyright
• Acknowledgments
• Prologue
• Foreword
• INTRODUCTION
• Paradigm Shift
• Continuum of an Elusive Concept
• The Seven Pillars of Success
• Essential Qualities of Success
• The Great Power of Tiny Changes
• Goals – Let’s Get Real
• The Great Leaders
• Concluding Remarks
• Epilogue – The Binding Force
• Bibliography