I often ponder about the idea that all you need to do to be successful in your life whether it be your personal or professional one, is to be passionate. Is that enough though?
As the years have gone by, I have come to realize that while being passionate about your career, your home life, your family, etc., one must have other core values to drive towards success. To get the most out of everything you seek out to do..
Consistency is something that most people regard to be of little importance, but in reality, it’s fundamental in everyday life and the reason why people choose to do business with you or look to you in time of need. For example, if you shopped at Walmart and bought your favorite ice cream for years and all of the sudden it was no longer available, you would shop elsewhere. You want what you want and will take your business elsewhere to get it. People like knowing what to expect! Consistency is gravitating!
Communication is not something everyone can master, but it’s a necessary staple in life required to conduct business, have meaningful relationships with loved ones and overall required to interact with society day to day. I feel that the differentiator though of being a good communicator is knowing when to follow up, when the right time to communicate is and when it’s not, and how you communicate the message. Our mood for the day often drives these characteristics and being able to be actively conscious of that, is important too.
Learning from your mistakes is also essential. Nobody is perfect! We all make mistakes both in our professional lives and personal ones. We can choose to repeat them or not, but if something you are doing is driving negative results, then its most likely time to learn from it and change the underlying behavior. Doing so, will inject positive results into our lives.
Having integrity is a must in all aspects of your life! People want to trust you. It’s in our DNA to do so until we get burned! A relationship can quickly be severed if integrity becomes an issue and if it’s not, can result in a long uphill battle to overcome and gain trust back.
Accountability is something that many people lack in my opinion and is probably one of the biggest pet peeves of mine. If you make a mistake, don’t point to your peers and put blame on them. Own up to it. Accountability will always drive respect from your peers especially if you communicate a plan to ensure that your mistake will be avoided next time.
Being a team player is crucial! We can all work in a silo and try to take credit all by ourselves, but in reality, much of what we want to accomplish in life requires a team. Five brains working towards a common goal will always be better than one and can drive to completion of that goal much faster.  Any major sport that we watch today is living proof of this concept.
Last but not least, be humble. As you move up the corporate ladder or are successful within your personal life, being humble is important.  We all started somewhere and we most likely had someone help us along the way in life. I feel very strongly that there is always a team, whether it be co-workers, your wife, your husband, your children, etc. that directly contribute to your success. Pulling resources, getting support, encouragement, or maybe even just a pat on the back from time to time can help drive us to succeed. Always be humble!
In my opinion, while passion may drive success, there are core traits that must follow in order to be successful in life. I work on them daily and will never be master of all of them, but putting focus on them is a start! What do you think drives success?