What Successful People Don’t Tell Themselves

There are a number of things that all successful people tend to have in common. If you look at today’s most successful individuals, chances are you will see that they have similar traits such as a positive attitude, strong work ethic and a true sense of passion and perseverance. However, another thing that all successful people have in common is that they keep themselves motivated by encouraging themselves. If there is one thing that all successful people don’t do, is they don’t tell themselves negative statements. In fact, here are some of the most common phrases that people today tend to say to themselves, that you will never hear uttered from the lips of a truly successful individual.

“I’ll never be as good as everyone else.”

If you want to be successful, you need to stop comparing yourself to others. Comparing yourself to others while putting yourself down is not a way to motivate yourself to be better, it is a way to keep yourself down. Instead of saying “I’ll never be as good as everyone else” transform the message into “I can work hard to be as good [XYZ],” or “I can be better than everyone else by working hard.” Sure, you may not be as successful as some of your peers now, but it doesn’t mean that you do not have the tools and potential to work hard and become that successful. If you are constantly negative about your own potential when comparing yourself to others you will never overcome your own obstacles and never be as successful as others. If you want to be as successful as your peers the first step is believing that you can be.

“I can’t start something unless I know everything about it.”

The words “I can’t” should never be part of a successful individual’s vocabulary. Furthermore, stating that you can’t start something until you know everything about it is just a form of procrastination. Truly successful people are willing to take risks, jump into new endeavors and learn as they go. Chances are, no matter how much time you spend “preparing” or “learning” about something, there is no way to ever know everything there is about a certain topic. Remove this thought from your mind and be willing to take a risk, that is where the most successful ventures are born.

“I’m a failure if I don’t succeed this year.”

Successful people never refer to themselves as failures, no matter what the context. Do not give yourself a timeline on when you need to succeed. Success is a difficult journey, a long journey and one that is filled with ups and downs. Remove timelines and focus on the type of success you want to have instead of when you want to have it. Even when you do not meet your goals, it doesn’t mean that you are a failure, it just means that you have run into a roadblock. When this does happen, take the time to pause, re-evaluate and learn from your mistakes, and move forward, instead of focusing on calling yourself a failure.

If you are on your own personal journey towards success, and you feel you are tempted to say one of these messages to yourself, stop and take the time to rethink your sentiment. Truly successful people focus on positivity and on motivating themselves to be better. Keeping phrases like this out of your mind and out of your vocabulary is the first step towards being a more successful version of yourself.