Imagine two children born into the same family, with the same high IQ and opportunities.  Both come from hard working parents who raise them in a caring and orderly home.  Sounds like the perfect ingredients to rear successful adults!  So, why are there so many genius children from ideal situations who grow up to be unsuccessful adults?

Intelligence alone is not a guarantee of success.  IQ just measures your capacity to learn.  Much like a CPU, your brain might have faster components than other models.  What you do with your brain power is up to you.  There are many factors which contribute to a person’s success.  Success isn’t something that happens due to birthright or winning the lottery. (Not for most people at least…) The majority of us need to work hard to achieve what we set out to do.  And many of us started off with limited education or a low economic status.  These factors can be overcome with time and the right ingredients, that you add yourself.  So, regardless of your IQ, you can achieve great things if you embody the following values.

Dedication

Drive is important.  To be successful takes determination and commitment to persevere through any storm.  Without this, you stop paddling and drift aimlessly.  During the hunt for success, you may run into many pitfalls.  Take the opportunity to learn from them and keep going.  Never give up.

Desire to Learn

Not everything comes easily, and sometimes you need to crack the books and learn as much as possible.   Knowledge itself is almost never wasted.  If nothing else, learning something, helps you learn how you best learn for the next thing.  Build your knowledge base and become an expert in what drives you. You may need to learn the foundations that build up to what you want to do later in life.  The more information you gain, the more you have in your arsenal when it matters most.  Inquisitive people with a growth mindset have a desire to learn and tend to be more successful.  They ask, “Why?” and “why not?” instead of sticking with the status quo.  Those who stick with the status quo and have a fixed mindset tend to be unsuccessful.

from https://classteaching.wordpress.com/2013/09/17/growth-mindset-attributes/

Focus:  Cut out Distractions

Are you content to sit on the couch and watch TV or play video games?  Do these activities amount to a whole lot of “nothing?”  While you may be enjoying your time watching that reality show, just remember, none of the people on TV know who you are, care about you, pay your bills, or will help you become successful while they jet set around the world.  Once you adopt this thought, it’s easy to turn the TV OFF.  There’s no point in watching people enjoy themselves when you could be motivating yourself to do MORE.  Humans lose hours, days, weeks, on their phones, watching TV and playing video games.  Ask yourself, “could I be doing something better with my time?”

Discipline:  Develop Good Work Habits

Once the distractions are gone, set up a schedule to work on your self-improvement activities.  If you have many interests, alternate them during your free time.  Maybe, you set aside 2 hours to read every other night on how to operate and create your own business plan.  Perhaps, you set aside time to learn SQL or other coding languages.  Or maybe you’re learning how to cook, operate machinery, or paint.  Setting a schedule to pursue new skills and knowledge is a step toward your goal.  Don’t forget to schedule some time for your loved ones, too.

Motivation

Motivation is the pushing drive to do what you set out to do.  There are many motivational reasons, but they all are one of two types; intrinsic or extrinsic.  Most would-be entrepreneurs never initiate a plan due to lack of motivation.

There were probably some grumbles when I said to turn off your TV earlier.  But seriously, what motivates you to watch TV or play video games for hours at a time?  Imagine if you harnessed the motivation and passion you have for your favorite TV show or sports team and channeled it elsewhere?  Unfortunately, we can’t transfer motivation that simply.  If you find you lack motivation, you may want to start thinking about what drives you and what you want in life.  Once you locate that key ingredient, remind yourself of it daily and use it as fuel to propel yourself into action.  If your goal is to move your family to a nicer place, and the high crime rates in your neighborhood are a motivating factor to find safety, what steps can you take to make it a reality?  Can you find out what it takes to get promoted at your current job?  Do you need a new career?  Maybe, your finances are in order but you just need to research the area, find a better location, and then hunt for a new home.

Motivation is tricky, because many people like relaxing and being lazy.  But the world doesn’t relax.  It keeps moving.  You either get up or join the race or people will pass you by while you stay stagnant, or worse, you fall behind.

Okay to Fail

Do you find yourself caught in cautionary tape and afraid to make leaps of faith in fear you will suffer disappointment or failure?  Successful people fail multiple times before achieving their goal.  It’s OK to fail.  Once you have achieved your goal, no one will throw your failures in your face.  They will be too happy celebrating with you.  Have patience and give yourself a break and the permission to break some eggs.

Success can be obtained by anyone from anywhere with enough dedication and focus.  Develop yourself with the right skills and knowledge by setting good work habits.  Harness your motivation by discovering what truly is important to you and set goals.  Success doesn’t happen overnight.  You can’t be successful if you are both a genius and lazy.  This combination is haphazard and unrealistic.  Even a genius needs to have some level of motivation, dedication, and discipline.  Nothing worthwhile ever comes easy.  Sometimes you have to roll up your sleeves and shovel yourself out of the dirt first.

Wen Di