I recently came across a blog post by Heidi Grant Halvorson Ph.D, which was featured on the Harvard Business Review Website, which I thought would be of interest to our readers.  Heidi is a motivational psychologist, and author of the new book Succeed: How We Can Reach Our Goals (Hudson Street Press, 2011).

Heidi, highlights that the decades of research on achievement suggests that successful people reach their goals not simply because of who they are, but more often because of what they do. I concur with this, however there are always exceptions. Look at the children of famous people,  it could be argued they get more breaks because of who they are, or more importantly, who their parents are.

So the nine things successful people do differently:

1. Be specific.

Be very specific when goal setting.  I want to manage my own office and have the most successful sales team, is better than I want to do the best I can. Knowing exactly what you want to achieve keeps you motivated until you get there.  All the most successful people I have known and continue to meet have had and continue to have specific goals, goals they can measure where they are against at specified times. Think about the specific actions that need to be taken to reach your goal. Are you committed to these?

2. Seize the moment to act on your goals.

To seize the moment, get organised.  Decide when and where you will take each action you want to take, in advance.  Get a diary, stick to the plan.  Be as specific as possible. Studies show that this kind of planning will help your brain to detect and seize the opportunity when it arises, increasing your chances of success by roughly 300%.

3. Progress monitoring

Achieving any goal also requires honest and regular monitoring of your progress, if not by others, then by you yourself.  If you don't know how well you are doing, you can't adjust your behaviour or your strategies accordingly. Check your progress frequently — weekly, or even daily, depending on the goal.  I personally have mentors, a coach and my family and friends who help give me honest feedback as and when I require it.

4. Be a realistic optimist.

When you are setting a goal, by all means engage in lots of positive thinking about how likely you are to achieve it. Believing in your ability to succeed is enormously helpful for creating and sustaining your motivation. But whatever you do, don't underestimate how difficult it will be to reach your goal. Most goals worth achieving require time, planning, effort, and persistence.

5. Focus on getting better, rather than being good.

Believing you have the ability to reach your goals is paramount, but so is believing you can get the ability. Many of us believe that our intelligence, our personality, and our physical aptitudes are fixed — that no matter what we do, we won't improve. As a result, we focus on goals that are all about proving ourselves, rather than developing and acquiring new skills. Embrace the fact that you can change, improve and you will make better choices, and reach your fullest potential. People whose goals are about getting better, rather than being good, take difficulty in stride, and appreciate the journey as much as the destination.

6. Have grit.

Grit is a willingness to commit to long-term goals, and to persist in the face of difficulty. Studies show that gritty people obtain more education in their lifetime, and earn higher qualifications. The good news is, if you aren't particularly gritty now, there is something you can do about it. People who lack grit more often than not believe that they just don't have the innate abilities successful people have. If that describes your own thinking .... well, there's no way to put this nicely: you are wrong.  Effort, planning, persistence, and good strategies are what it really takes to succeed. Embracing this knowledge will not only help you see yourself and your goals more accurately, but also do wonders for your grit.

7. Build your willpower muscle.

Your self-control "muscle" is just like the other muscles in your body — when it doesn't get much exercise, it becomes weaker over time. But when you give it regular workouts by putting it to good use, it will grow stronger and stronger, and better able to help you successfully reach your goals. To build willpower, take on a challenge that requires you to do something you'd honestly rather not do. Give up high-fat snacks, do 100 sit-ups a day, stand up straight when you catch yourself slouching, call 10 new customers every day, try to learn a new skill. When you find yourself wanting to give in, give up, or just not bother — don't. Start with just one activity, and make a plan for how you will deal with troubles when they occur ("If I have a craving for a snack, I will eat one piece of fresh or three pieces of dried fruit.") It will be hard in the beginning, but it will get easier, and that's the whole point. As your strength grows, you can take on more challenges and step-up your self-control workout.

8. Don't tempt fate.

No matter how strong your willpower muscle becomes, it's important to always respect the fact that it is limited, and if you overtax it you will temporarily run out of steam. Don't try to take on two challenging tasks at once, if you can help it (like quitting smoking and dieting at the same time). And don't put yourself in harm's way.  Many people are overly confident in their ability to resist temptation, and as a result they put themselves in situations where temptations abound. Successful people know not to make reaching a goal harder than it already is.

9. Focus on what you will do, not what you won't do.

Do you want to successfully manage your own office, lose weight, quit smoking, or put a lid on your bad temper? Then plan how you will replace bad habits with good ones, rather than focusing only on the bad habits themselves. Research on thought suppression (e.g., "Don't think about white bears!") has shown that trying to avoid a thought makes it even more active in your mind. The same holds true when it comes to behavior, by trying not to engage in a bad habit, our habits get strengthened rather than broken. If you want change your ways, ask yourself, What will I do instead? For example, if you are trying to gain control of your temper and stop flying off the handle, you might make a plan like "If I am starting to feel angry, then I will take three deep breaths to calm down." By using deep breathing as a replacement for giving in to your anger, your bad habit will get worn away over time until it disappears completely.

I hope you have found this useful.  There is certainly a lot written on the subject, but it still never surprises me how so many people talk about wanting to be successful, but in reality are not willing to put every ounce of energy into achieving it.

Remember, you don't need to become a different person to become a more successful one. It's never what you are, but what you do.