This is Optimal Living Daily, Episode 797. 12 Things Successful People Do Differently Part 2 by Mark Chernoff of markandangel.com and I'm Justin Molick, your very own personal narrator. Welcome to Optimal Living Daily, or OLD for short, where I narrate the best blogs I can get permission from, and you can listen whenever and wherever you like, all for free. So today's post is a continuation from yesterday, Part 2 of 3.
So if you're new here, I'd highly recommend listening to yesterday's episode first, but if you're all caught up, let's get right to Part 2 and continue optimizing your life. 12 Things Successful People Do Differently Part 2 by Mark Chernoff of markandangel.com. Number 4, they make logical, informed decisions. Sometimes we do things that are permanently foolish simply because we are temporarily upset or excited.
Although emotional gut instincts are effective in certain fleeting situations, when it comes to generating long-term sustained growth in any area of life, emotional decisions often lead a person astray. Decisions driven by heavy emotion typically contain minimal amounts of conscious thought and are primarily based on momentary feelings instead of mindful awareness. The best advice here is simple. Don't let your emotions trump your intelligence.
Slow down and think things through before you make any life-changing decisions. Number 5, they avoid the trap of trying to make things perfect. Many of us are perfectionists in our own right. I know I am at times.
We set high bars for ourselves and put our best foot forward. We dedicate copious amounts of time and attention to our work to maintain our high personal standards. Our passion for excellence drives us to run the extra mile, never stopping, never relenting. And this dedication towards perfection undoubtedly helps us achieve results so long as we don't get carried away.
But what happens when we do get carried away with perfectionism? We become disgruntled and discouraged when we fail to meet the impossibly high standards we set for ourselves, making us reluctant to take on new challenges or even finished tasks we've already started. Our insistence on dotting every eye and crossing every tea breeds inefficiency, causing major delays, stress overload, and sub-bar results. True perfectionists have a hard time starting things and an even harder time finishing them, always.
I have a friend who has wanted to start a graphic design business for several years, but she hasn't yet. Why? When you stick through her extensive list of excuses, it comes down to one simple problem. She's a perfectionist, which means she doesn't and never will think she's good enough at graphic design to own and operate her own graphic design business.
Remember, the real world doesn't reward perfectionists. It rewards people who get things done. And the only way to get things done is to be imperfect 99% of the time. Only by waiting through years of practice and imperfection can we begin to achieve momentary glimpses of the perfection.
So make a decision, take action, learn from the outcome, and repeat this method over and over again in all walks of life. Also check out Too Perfect. It's an excellent read on conquering perfectionism. Number six, they work outside of their comfort zone.
The number one thing I persistently see holding smart people back is their own reluctance to accept an opportunity, simply because they don't think they're ready. In other words, they feel uncomfortable and believe they require additional knowledge, skill, experience, et cetera, before they can happily partake in the opportunity. Sadly, this is the kind of thinking that stifles personal growth and success. The truth is nobody ever feels 100% ready when an opportunity arises, because most great opportunities in life force us to grow emotionally and intellectually.
They force us to stretch ourselves and our comfort zones, which means we don't feel totally comfortable at first. And when we don't feel comfortable, we don't feel ready. Significant moments of opportunity for personal growth and success will come and go throughout your lifetime. If you're looking to make positive changes and new breakthroughs in your life, you'll need to embrace these moments of opportunity, even though you'll never feel 100% ready for them.
Number seven, they keep things simple. Leonardo da Vinci once said simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. Nothing could be closer to the truth. Here in the 21st century, where information moves at the speed of light and opportunities for innovation seem endless, we have an abundant array of choices when it comes to designing our lives and careers.
But sadly, an abundance of choice often leads to complication, confusion, and inaction. Several business and marketing studies have shown that the more product choice is a consumer is faced with, the less products they typically buy. After all narrowing down the best product from a pool of three choices is certainly a lot easier than narrowing down the best product from a pool of 300 choices. If the purchasing decision is tough to make, most people will just give up.
Likewise, if you complicate your life by inundating yourself with too many choices, your subconscious mind will give up. The solution is to simplify. If you're selling a product line, keep it simple. And if you're trying to make a decision about something in your life, don't waste all your time evaluating every last detail of every possible option.
Choose something that you think will work and give it a shot. If it doesn't work out, learn what you can from the experience. Choose something else and keep pressing forward. Number eight, they focus on making small continuous improvements.
Henry Ford once said, nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small pieces. The same concept can figure out the question, how do you eat an elephant? Answer, one bite at a time. This philosophy holds true for achieving your biggest goals, making small positive changes, eating a little healthier, exercising a little, creating some small productive habits, for example, is an amazing way to get excited about life and slowly reach the level of success you aspire to.
And if you start small, you don't need a lot of motivation to get started either. The simple act of getting started and doing something will give you the momentum you need. And soon you'll find yourself in a positive spiral of changes, one building on the other. When I started doing this in my life, I was so excited, I had to start this blog to share it with the world.
Start with just one activity and make a plan for how you will deal with troubles when they arise. For instance, if you're trying to lose weight, come up with a list of healthy snacks you can eat when you get the craving for snacks. It'll be hard in the beginning, but it will get easier. And that's the whole point.
As your strength grows, you can take on bigger challenges. Number nine, hear that in tomorrow's episode. You just listened to part two of the post titled 12 Things Successful People Do Differently by Mark Chernoff of markandangel.com. I'm constantly thinking about how to optimize my health, what supplements to take, hours of sleep, what my diet should focus on.
Superpower finally takes the guessing out of it. One simple lab test covers over 100 biomarkers and our app gives you a complete picture of your heart, liver, hormones, metabolism, even environmental toxins. Plus it used to cost $499 right now, it's just $199. And head to superpower.com and use code old at checkout for an additional $20 off your membership.
Thank you for being here and sticking around until the end. Have a great rest of your day and I'll see you tomorrow where we'll finish up this post and where you're optimal life. Oh, wait.