How a realistic mindset is vital for success and happiness

Success and self discipline are heavily dependent on having a realistic mindset and attitude to make the most of the opportunities that come your way. It would be easy to believe that the people who enjoy success always enjoy success. And, it would be just as easy to believe that those who struggle to succeed must always struggle. Nothing could be further from the truth. Everybody experiences both good times and bad times. A realistic mindset allows you to accept this and, rather than get carried away by either good times or bad; you remain focused on your objectives and the tasks you need to perform to achieve them. A realistic mindset enables you to see that every day is a new opportunity. If things have not gone your way today, tomorrow provides a new opportunity to start afresh and get back on track. Accept that today went wrong, let it go and, determine the correct course of action for tomorrow. Just as importantly, if you had a successful day today, it does not automatically mean that tomorrow will be great for you. Tomorrow is a new opportunity and you have to work just as hard for that as you had to work for today. A realistic mindset is not about getting high on success or low on failure, it is about staying grounded. Whether you are delaying making a start on essential self change or you are being lazy on the back of success; you are allowing a lack of discipline the chance to spread like wildfire. That's the last thing you should want. It's definitely the last thing you need. That’s why you need to adopt a realistic mindset, stay grounded and remain focused on your objectives.

Essential elements of a realistic mindset

A realistic mindset is critical to success. There are a number of key elements to a realistic mindset. The following attitudes are absolutely essential. If you do not have them, you are going to struggle to achieve your objectives.

1. Doing trumps reading and talking

Knowledge is awesome. I am an obsessed reader and writer. I love to learn new things and reading and researching are key elements in learning. This doesn't change the fact that it's a poor substitute for action.

You can read all the books in the world about lifting weights. If you never lift a weight you will remain out of shape and weak. Too many people forget that while reading and discussion are a key part of success, so too is taking action. When you take action, you are applying what you learn. When you take action you get precious feedback on what you have learned, allowing you to identify any adjustments you need to make.

If you don't take action on what you've learned don't expect any improvement in the quality of your results. Without action, talking and reading are just time wasters and wishful thinking. When you add action to knowledge that's when great things have a chance to happen.

2. Decisive action removes fear

There's nothing wrong with being scared about change. Change is a step into the unknown and, with uncertainty comes fear. It's a natural reaction to going on a path that will transform your life.

Taking action is the best remedy for fear. Experiencing fear is natural but being controlled by fear is not part of a realistic mindset. Fear is based on what may or may not happen so, rather than being paralysed by fear; you can take action, see what happens and then deal with it.

Most of the time, you will quickly see your fears were unfounded. Even if your fears are realised, it's much better and easier to work out real problems than ones that exist only in your mind.

3. Enthusiasm carries a lot of weight

If you approach your activities with enthusiasm, more opportunities will not only open, but being motivated to grab them will be much less of a problem too. You may think that enthusiasm is something that you either have or do not have but this is not true. You can increase your enthusiasm with a little effort.

How do you embrace enthusiasm when you just don't feel like it? Easy. You take a moment to think about all of the benefits that you will experience when you have achieved your objective and, you make a record of them. You then break your objective into the smallest actions, thus avoiding a sense of overwhelm. Then, any time that you feel like you are lacking in enthusiasm, you can close your eyes and picture yourself experiencing all of the benefits of achieving your objective. You will then know that, by completing a small task, you will be a step closer to experiencing those benefits for real.

When you have a realistic mindset, you know that you cannot sit back and wait to feel enthusiastic; you must make the effort to make yourself enthusiastic. In addition to reminding yourself of the benefits, you can act as if you are full of enthusiasm. You can force yourself to smile and ACT enthusiastically. In a short while, you will find that you become enthusiastic and no further acting is required.

It's a mind secret that the world's greatest self-help gurus like Anthony Robbins and Brian Tracy have used to become successful, both in terms of happiness and success. You can follow their example.

Every day is a new opportunity and that includes today. Develop a realistic mindset and you will no longer be overcome by setbacks or, carried away with your successes. You will know the benefits of maintaining self-discipline and staying focused on the bigger picture. When you learn something new, get up, take decisive action and start applying what you've learned! Be enthusiastic about everything that you do and, in a few months your entire life could change for the better.