100 Things Successful People Do

Little Exercises for Successful Living: 100 Self Help Rules for Life

Nigel Cumberland

• Publisher: John Murray
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN:
  9781529355932
• eBook ISBN:
  9781473635067
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Careers

YOUR GUIDE TO CREATING A SUCCESSFUL LIFE
100 Things Successful People Do is your guide to successful living. Mixing simple instructions with activities to get you started, whether you are looking to succeed in your family life, at work, in sports, at school or in retirement, you will find mindsets, habits, and techniques here that will help you get the results you want. 'Inspiring and practical ' Marshall Goldsmith, bestselling author of TRIGGERS 100 Things Successful People Do is packed with great ideas for working smart and living well, all carefully chosen to help you achieve any kind of success you can imagine. You will discover the habits that are common to successful people and find out how to use them in your own life. Every chapter features a new idea that will help you get closer to your goals. Mixing simple descriptions with activities and exercises, you will learn the optimal mindset and habits you need to succeed in work and life.

FOLLOW YOUR DREAMS

‘You will live a much better life if you pursue your passions. People who work on the things that they love usually enjoy life more than everyone else does simply because they are chasing their dreams.’

Richard Branson

Dreams are the fuel for your success. Without them there can never be any meaningful and lasting success in your life. Like a car engine without high-quality fuel you risk living a life that never quite gets started.

Behind every successful person there is a dream fulfilled. I have coached dozens of successful people and all have come to their success through achieving at least one of their dreams. It may have been a dream from their childhood or a dream that appeared later in their life, but there is always at least one dream linked to their achievements – something that motivated, drove, excited and captivated them. This dream becomes the goal that pushes you to believe in the impossible, to make unexpected life changes, to step out of your comfort zone and to take unimagined risks.

As adults we often choose to ignore or forget what we really love. We let ourselves be driven by other people’s guidance and expectations. I can speak from painful experience: at school I loved Geography but followed others’ advice and studied Economics at university. I became an accountant rather than following my own career dreams. Have you made a similar choice in your life? Sometimes it is only with hindsight that you realize you were not following your own path.

Successful people never forget what they love to do and are passionate about. They quickly learn to follow their own path and to make the right choices, no matter how crazy or unpopular they might appear to others. Just look at Steve Jobs, founder of Apple, who quit studying at a prestigious university to pursue his dreams.

Behind every successful person there is a dream fulfilled.

Put it into action

Know your own dreams

What is your dream? What do you really want to achieve? What dreams should you be chasing?

Make a list using a mixture of words, doodles and pictures. This can help you see connections between your ideas and discover long-forgotten goals and desires. The following questions will help you:

•  As a child what did you love to do and want to become?

•  If money was not an issue, what kind of life and work would you choose to have?

•  What parts of your life today do you really love and want more of?

•  What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?

•  Which aspects of your friends’ or colleagues’ lives do you look upon with a little envy?

Optimistically believe in your dreams

Think about how you will achieve your dreams and observe if your mind starts being fearful and negative. Perhaps your mind says ‘I am too old and it is too late to do this’, ‘Now I am married with a mortgage I cannot make any big changes to my life’ or ‘My parents will never support my ideas.’ Successful people will tell you that there will always be reasons not to do something. You simply have to find the strength and courage to step forward and start.

Create solutions to achieving your dreams

Knowing how you will achieve your dreams can seem daunting and scary. The remaining 99 chapters in this book will provide you with the tools and solutions you need to remove the fear. The key is to recognize where you are now, where you want to be and explore how to close any gap. It is not easy and I encourage you to enlist the help of those closest to you, ideally aligning your dreams with theirs so that together you can aim to achieve some common dreams.

ASK FOR HELP

‘Anyone who takes himself too seriously always runs the risk of looking ridiculous; anyone who can consistently laugh at himself does not.’

Vaćlav Havel

Saying ‘I don’t know’ takes guts but it’s an immensely positive reaction and a clear sign that you don’t take yourself too seriously. Knowing when you don’t know the answer and being honest about it is one of the greatest skills you can have. If you aim to be perfect, you’ll only end up disappointed. When you admit your blind spots, people will flock to support you.

Too many people act is if they know what to do in situations where they’re desperately out of their depth. Too many people try to project confidence in what they’re doing or saying, when what they really need is help. There’s immense pressure, both at home and at work, to act as if you have all the answers.

The secret is to know when to say: ‘Wait a minute – I have absolutely no idea.’

When events challenge you it’s tempting to fight back and hold firm to what you once said or believed, leaving you blind to other people’s opinions and suggestions. Successful people are happy to admit that they were wrong or that they just don’t know.

Life is unpredictable and uncertain. You can never be right all the time. Sometimes the best thing to do is to chill, step back, admit you could do with some help and stop taking yourself so seriously.

If you aim to be perfect, you’ll only end up disappointed.

Put it into action

Find your blind spots

Think about the following question:

Have you ever stubbornly held on to a view or opinion, refusing to explore if you might actually have been wrong?

What were you blind to and why was that so? Can you see a pattern emerging of how you act? Do you always like to win arguments with your partner? Do you never take into consideration what younger people say to you? Have you always hated losing and live with a ‘win at all costs’ mindset?

Be willing to change behaviours and become more open-minded. Over the course of a typical day making decisions, forming opinions, giving answers, practise asking yourself ‘Am I missing anything? Is there a side to this that I am not seeing?’

You need a jester

Uncovering blind spots can be difficult. Enlist the help of family, friends or colleagues to be your jesters. Just as in a medieval king’s court, they can tell you when you are being too stubborn, making a fool of yourself or taking yourself too seriously. Which would you prefer: to be told by a jester that you have made a mistake or to be laughed at by others?

Learn to laugh at yourself

Successful people are normally very good at making light of themselves, their mistakes and incorrect thinking. Be ready to happily eat humble pie and always laugh at yourself.

CREATE YOUR FUTURE

‘The future is not something we enter. The future is something we create.’

Leonard I. Sweet

Successful people never rely upon chance or fate. You might look at someone successful and think they got lucky – a case of being in the right place at the right time perhaps? The truth is, every piece of good fortune is the result of hours, or even years, of hard work and preparation.

It is not enough simply to h...

Table of contents

• Cover 
• Title
• Dedication
• Contents 
• Foreword
• About the author
• Introduction
• 1 Follow your dreams
• 2 Ask for help
• 3 Create your future
• 4 Be emotionally intelligent
• 5 Do the opposite
• 6 Turn work into play
• 7 Start each day well
• 8 Make friends with your past
• 9 Take breaks
• 10 Be a student of life
• 11 Trust your gut
• 12 Banish your stress
• 13 Be likeable
• 14 Say ‘yes’
• 15 Say ‘no’
• 16 Volunteer your time
• 17 Focus on things you can control
• 18 Live within your means
• 19 Live in the ‘real world’
• 20 Stay focused
• 21 Love more
• 22 Reinvent yourself
• 23 Stay healthy
• 24 Forgive others
• 25 Be part of a tribe
• 26 Exude confidence
• 27 Give credit where it’s due
• 28 Reduce attachments to possessions
• 29 Build rapport
• 30 Live mindfully
• 31 Accept compromises
• 32 Be more than your 9–5
• 33 Know yourself
• 34 Embrace the journey of getting older
• 35 Be both an extrovert and an introvert
• 36 Live with an open mind
• 37 Be the best parent
• 38 Walk away from pollution
• 39 Leave your comfort zone
• 40 Appreciate those closest to you
• 41 Seek wisdom and use it
• 42 Model the best
• 43 Have the courage to fail
• 44 Accept yourself
• 45 Watch and manage your thoughts
• 46 Remember people
• 47 Discover what drives you
• 48 Appreciate what you’ve got
• 49 Make peace with your parents
• 50 Laugh more
• 51 Stay unique
• 52 Sleep well
• 53 Go your own way
• 54 Seek simplicity
• 55 Do it today
• 56 Seek experiences over things
• 57 Have clearly written goals
• 58 Give reading your full attention
• 59 Get a thick skin
• 60 Be generous
• 61 Eat and drink well
• 62 Seek and create harmony
• 63 Get home on time
• 64 Work for as long as you can
• 65 Have great body language
• 66 Choose and keep your friends wisely
• 67 Be curious
• 68 Do what you say
• 69 Pause before you press ‘Send’
• 70 Make friends with fear
• 71 Tell the truth
• 72 Become an expert at something
• 73 Apologize when you are wrong
• 74 Stay in touch with old friends
• 75 Keep the bigger picture in mind
• 76 Embrace technology
• 77 Persist and don’t give up
• 78 Watch out for addictions
• 79 Spend more time outside in nature
• 80 Use your intelligence wisely
• 81 Focus on character not popularity
• 82 Say goodbye to toxic people
• 83 Learn from your grandparents (before it is too late)
• 84 Have a true character that makes you proud
• 85 Practise gratitude
• 86 Focus on good news
• 87 Genuine success cannot be faked
• 88 Grow old disgracefully
• 89 Breathe well
• 90 Travel far
• 91 Keep a journal
• 92 Get lost … and find yourself again
• 93 Plan ahead
• 94 Tick off your bucket list
• 95 Help to sustain the planet
• 96 Connect with something bigger than yourself
• 97 Unlearn everything
• 98 Mentor others to success
• 99 Leave a legacy
• 100 Regret nothing
• Afterword
• Always be ready to make sacrifices
• No matter what happens, life goes on
• And finally…
• Copyright