People often come to my office for a session with me or buy my books when they feel they haven’t achieved enough success in their lives. They ask me to tell them what the traits of successful people are and how they can become successful in their career, achieve their creative ambitions, or just create and stick to healthy habits such as exercise and healthy eating.

I always say to my clients that belief without talent will take you further than talent without belief.

So much of success comes down to belief in yourself. I always tell my clients the quote above—and it’s so true. It’s why some people who have little talent but tons of ambition manage to get to the top of their fields. If you have talent and belief in yourself, you are quite literally unstoppable.

With that said, in all my time helping my clients become successful people, I have found that there are four traits successful people all share, and these form a crucial part of my Practitioner Marketing program. Remember that even if you don’t have these traits currently, all you have to do to attain them is create new habits. As well as taking the action, it can also be helpful to rewire your thinking with a hypnosis audio. Never forget that what you do quickly becomes who you are. First you make your habits and then your habits make you.  

The Four Traits of Successful People

1. They’re Willing To Do the Things They HATE To Get To Where They Want To Be

Often, the things we dislike—for example, exercising, studying, organizing, working on weekends, or dieting—are what stand between us and our goals. Successful people don’t shy away from these things, they learn to endure them by creating new habits and changing the way they talk about them. So instead of saying, “Ugh, I hate having to market my business,” they say, “I love the fact that marketing means I get to help more clients.” Or instead of .” Instead of saying, “I hate sales calls,’ they say, “Sales calls allow me to get close to my goals.” They say this over and over until, you guessed it, they begin to believe it.

2. They Never Take “No” for an Answer

It’s true that some successful people make it look easy, as if they’re always attracting the right people and opportunities into their life. But the truth is, success doesn’t come to people, people go to it. The people that have achieved things you admire have undoubtedly spent day after day refusing to accept anything but, “Yes.” If someone turns down their proposal, doesn’t sign up with them as a client, or tells them they’re unqualified, they simply take the criticism, improve what they can, and move on to the next opportunity. Absolutely nothing replaces persistence.

3. They Do the Things They Don’t Want To Do FIRST

This trait of successful people isn’t an easy task. When I first started out and wanted to be known for my work, I knew I had to reach out to journalists and I hated it. I decided I would call one journalist each day and I did it first thing every day, even at weekends. Before I did anything else, I got that task done. If you have an annoying task to do, schedule it for the first part of your day. Getting this type of task done sooner will also boost your sense of achievement which you’ll carry with you for the rest of your day.

4. They Take Action Every Day in Pursuit of Their Goals

This one’s quite simple, but so many people make excuses not to do it. If you want to be a writer, you must write every day—even if you don’t have a book contract; if you want to lose weight, you must make positive food and activity choices every day—even if you’re busy at work; if you want to be more organized, you must choose one area of your house to clear up every day—even if it’s just one drawer or table top. If you want your products to be known, you have to make marketing calls every day. It doesn’t have to be a huge accomplishment every day, but taking piece-meal steps daily will help you accrue a sense of accomplishment that will drive you toward your goals.

To complete all these steps and make them part of your life, you must erase the words “should,” “try,” and “maybe” from your mental script. Your mind is much like a classroom full of children—it knows exactly what to do, but it won’t do it until you explicitly command it to do so. Begin phrasing everything you say to yourself in the affirmative and take action toward your goals—you will be amazed at what you can achieve.

So get started by setting yourself some powerful goals and reprogram your mind to adopt the habits that successful people have to make those goals a reality.