A psychologist explains how successful people do more in a day than others do in a week
Dear friends around the world,
This is nice reading and very encouraging. Please take 10 minutes out to read and understand. I have always felt within myself if you want to be successful with something, you have to commit to it. Committing for life, a decade or whatever is not the point. Commitment is not about time frame but going all the way with it to make it work. To make it work and successful is the commitment.
Tsem Rinpoche
Suzanne Gelb, The Daily Muse
Jun. 25, 2015, 11:30 AM
“You have the same number of hours in the day as Beyoncé.”
Everyone knows someone who works full time, volunteers, runs a successful blog, and somehow still finds time to go grocery shopping, cook organic Instagram-worthy meals, foster a loving relationship, walk his or her adorable Boston Terrier, and, oh — train for a half marathon.
These kinds of “super-achievers” have the same number of hours in the day as the rest of us, but somehow, they always seem to get more done. How do they do it?
As a psychologist and life coach who has spent thousands of hours working with clients over the past 28 years — including hundreds of hours with clients who meet this super-achiever character profile — here’s what I’ve noticed about people who consistently succeed. Plus: How you can tweak your mindset to become a high achiever, too.
Fully Commit
Whatever you’re doing right now? Be fully in it. Commit.
When you see an Olympic hurdler leaping over barricades with superhuman agility, does she look distracted? Nope. She is 100% invested in the task at hand. And as you can see from her success, commitment leads to greatness.
So what do you do when you feel your mind wandering away from the present moment? Josh Pais, creator of Committed Impulse, high-performance training for actors, public speakers, and entrepreneurs, recommends saying “I’m back!” out loud whenever you feel yourself drifting away. You might get a few odd looks from bystanders, but it works!
Avoid Multitasking
Your email inbox, Instagram, Facebook, that hilarious viral cat video, and an ad proclaiming a big sale at your favorite website — these are probably just a few of the tabs you have open, commanding your attention while you simultaneously try to finish a project a work. It’s not out of the ordinary; multitasking has become the norm.
But the human mind is not designed for multitasking. In fact, research has proven that we’re pretty terrible at it. When you try to multitask, you lose focus, you’re more likely to make errors, and projects tend to take longer.
To make sure you can focus completely, strive to shut off all distractions — even if that means locking your cell phone in a drawer while you work. Extreme? Maybe. But it’s worth a try!
Ban “Friendly Interruptions” at All Costs
You’re working on a project. You’re totally in the zone, making lightning-speed progress.
Then, a co-worker swings by. “Just wanted your two cents on this,” he says, handing you a report outline. You look it over and give him your thoughts. It doesn’t take more than 60 seconds for you to chime in. No biggie, right?
Unfortunately, that minor interruption just majorly derailed your focus. It will take an average of 23 minutes for you to get back into the zone of whatever you were doing.
Super-achievers know that interruptions are productivity-killers, so they avoid them at all costs. (There’s a reason why most CEOs have private offices — with doors!)
If you don’t have a door to close, try finding a quiet space where you won’t be nudged, turn off your incoming email notifications for a few hours, or talk to your boss about instituting company-wide “do not disturb” hours a few times a week.
Hang With Fellow Super-Achievers
You’ve probably heard the expression, “If you are the smartest person in the room, then you are in the wrong room.” Same goes for achievement and productivity.
There’s a reason why Beyoncé rolls with people like Oprah, the Obamas, and her mogul husband, Jay-Z. When you surround yourself with high-energy, like-minded people, you tend to rise to their level—while inspiring them, too.
Try to weed your professional life of people, colleagues, and even friends who don’t energize you. This doesn’t mean you should never see these people again or that you have to coldly cut them out of your life completely. But be mindful about who you choose to spend the majority of your time with. Try to surround yourself with super-achievers as often as possible.
Don’t know where to meet them? Join a challenging club or group (10K training, anyone?), or write an email to someone you admire. Or maybe there’s someone you already know in real life, but have been too shy to talk to. Drop him or her a note to say, “I’d love to treat you to lunch at your favorite spot.” You never know where one simple invitation may lead.
Prevent Emotions From Building
When you allow negative emotions—like frustration, anger, disappointment, or self-loathing—to build up inside of you like water about to boil in a tea kettle, you can easily head down a destructive path.
Sooner or later, all those bottled-up feelings are going to compel you to act out — whether that means binge-eating potato chips at midnight, watching 14 hours straight of Gilmore Girls instead of dealing with urgent deadlines, or engaging in some other behavior that leaves you feeling more frustrated (not to mention tired, hungover, or nauseous) than ever. Which is not great for productivity.
Super-achievers know how to manage their emotions effectively to prevent the tea-kettle effect. Most super-achievers I know have some kind of emotion-management practice that they rely on: meditating, journaling, a weekly check-in with a life coach, or a good old-fashioned punching-bag session at the gym.
Find a strategy that works for you. You’ll know it’s working when you feel a deep sense of release and relief—as if a ton of bricks have been lifted from your shoulders, leaving you feeling light, unburdened, no longer upset, and ready to get back to being awesome!
Last, but not least, remember that those incredible super-achievers you admire — and aspire to be like — are just ordinary people with flaws and fears, too.
As Beyoncé herself once said, “I know I’m stronger in the songs than I really am.”
We’re all just human beings trying to work, live, and navigate the world using all the tools and skills we have. Rather than aiming for flawless perfection, aim for your personal best — and you’ll always be a success.
Source: https://www.themuse.com/advice/how-successful-people-do-more-in-24-hours-than-the-rest-of-us-do-in-a-week
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Really a very nice article I ever read which inspired me. It also proves real meaning of commitment and motivation. Commitment is the decision to act on what motivates you.Motivation is the drive that fuels the commitment.Commitment makes it happen, but motivation can make it a lot more fun! Passion in our commitment also guides and leads us to right path and most importantly not giving up until the success.
Motivation is what gets us started and commitment leads to action and take full responsibility in our action. Without commitment we cannot have depth in anything we do, nothing will happen. Stay committed to our decision nor matter what happen and avoid multitasking. Be mindful about who we choose to spend the majority of our time with. When we stays around with positive people with positive mind , we learn and get inspired by them. We remember that those incredible super-achievers we admire and learn from them and aspire to be like one. Of course commitments and determination goes hand in hand.
Thank you Rinpoche for this inspiring post.
Passion is essential to be successful in many activities that we are doing.
Passion is energy that last longer & fill with positive energy, compared to survival.
Some people can’t stay with their passion, some people can stay with their passion all the way until they become successful.
When we stay, work with ours passion & do not give up, we will able to be successful ultimately with no regret.
This is so true. People who do not cultivate qualities above very hard to be successful. This apply to everything in life. This does not come over night but we can practice day by day with consistency and determination. Multitasking habits and emotional building are definitely one of the most distracting things because it suck away the limited time we have in a day. Hence we need to train ourselves to get rid of them. Thanks for the very useful tips above.
Having a spiritual Guru in life is very very important. A true guru will love you and care about you so much that he will get to know you, give you training to get rid of your bad habits, open up your heart so that you relearn what is truly important in life with the shortest time you left. When this is done, you will find your true self which so powerful and limitless.
We all have our fall back time, give up time, many many times in life but never forget what we first set for this journey at the starting point. Quickly back on the track, do not let our mind lose for too long before karma catch up and take over.
Although commitment is the key to success but i still think that the motivation is most important. The motivation of a person is often the product of his/her commitment towards their job , career and task. It is the same in our spiritual path, it is important to check our motivation. If the motivation is just to benefit ourselves, job or task is not benefit us, we will not so committed on it. If we have a strong motivation to benefit others, whatever task given which can benefit others we will commit all the way. My thought.
I think the majority of us are not fully committed even in small tasks thus making broken promises to ourselves and to others. This compounded and we find that when it comes to bigger tasks and our goals, we find them daunting and give up easily. It affects us and when it comes to our spiritual practice, we lose the belief of it and lose faith in our spiritual teacher. When this happens, we find that we are not happy and stray away from the spiritual path that is really the most important thing in our life.
Commitment and focus is something we really if we need to success in anything. There’s a saying in sales job, “doing sales is like cycling, once we slack on it and slow down a little bit, we will need to start again to catch the momentum.” that indicates the focus and commitment we must have in doing sales. In fact, not just in doing sales, but even doing anything in our live. Like, in our daily work, our task, study, even practicing Dharma, even slack a little or detour a bit, we will have to start from zero again.
Commitments comes with responsibilities. If someone who is not respomsible for what he or she is doing, then he or she would not be committed to the particular work or task. Yes, it is good to be surrounded by achievers but I guess not with the mundane world thinking achievers. I think it is best to surround ourselves who also achievers but in a more Dharmic way or lifestyle so that at least we don’t waste unnecessary time on things that will never bring benefit to our future rebirths.
There once a mutual friend told me that, if one person wanted success in life need to obtained important 3 qualities. They are compassion, determination and confidence. With these 3 qualities will form a very firm foundation on every sector we are work. Besides, perseverance, patience, enthusiasm need to put in. Hence, I feel being into dharma will nurture these qualities.
Commitment is something i felt everyone has, it’s just that which activities/work you are more committed to. It comes from interest and which subject brings more meaning to oneself. Generally people are more successful in the line they are interested in doing and that is when the commitment matters. But then it is of course comes with the wit to be able to strategise and work more efficiently rather than just be the most committed person in the world.
As most will advise, stay away from negativities and fill yourself with positivities wherever you go. Those negative people suck the life force out of you! Learn from people who achieved and be motivated. One step at a time and commit to whatever you’ve set to do. Train our mindset and not stray from it. May not be easy in the beginning but we’ve got to start somewhere. And never let our emotions take control of our judgement. Always take a step back and think again before making cloudy judgements.
A good reminder for me. Thanks Rinpoche for the wonderful article with not only words but include with quotes as well. It reminds me that whatever we do be committed and avoid multitasking as well as be focus on whatever we do. I love the phrase of, ‘aim for personal best’.
Dear Rinpoche ,
Thank you for sharing this article with us. I believe sometimes many people find themselves spending a lot of time on one task but the result that came out is not being productive. Being fully committed onto one task at a time can increase our productivity and reduce distractions to our mind. Fully commit onto one task and go all the way is a better way to produce results according to this article. I will try it out because I like to have several things on going in my mind because I get bored of one thing very fast. Now I release this tends to slow my progress down.
Fully commit, I do dig that, being fully committing we are giving ourselves no chance to take an alternative route, this is the way we are going full steam ahead.
Avoid Multitasking – what we think saves us time actually makes us lose more time in fact.
Hang With Fellow Super-Achievers – I suppose one can really learn being in a group like that, and seeing the success of other will spur us onwards.
Prevent Emotions From Building – There is really no need to feel negative and think negative thoughts, it gets you nowhere, so better to think positive ones.
Great advice and very logical as well.
I used to think that unhappy people are unproductive, but that is really not the case, because successful and productive people can also be unhappy, the difference is just the attitude. Some people have the attitude of doing things only when they’re forced to or when they feel like it.
But successful people on the other hand, takes the things they do seriously with a firm determination and goal, so even on days where they’re feeling down, it wouldn’t stop them from getting up and brave the bad day… because they know this bad day will pass, but the time lost from sulking will be lost forever.
Thank you for this insightful and inspiring post, Rinpoche.
A word like commitment, we often hear it, read about it, known of it, but find it so hard to put into practice. Having real commitment takes one above the rest because it’s something most don’t fully put into practice.
When we decide to do something, a project, a task, build, whatever it is, we can’t dip a feet in, then out again, then in and out again. One must fully immerse themselves into the water because in doing that, you will only find all ways to succeed, overcome the currents, and rise above the waters. Easier said than done.
Being around successful people, constantly keeps you engaged. You don’t waste time just hanging out, the conversations are always filled with ideas, progress, and creation..and then the commitment and dedication kicks in.
I guess reading this is easy but putting it into practice is the key and that will be what I’ll keep in mind to push myself.
Dear Rinpoche,
Dear Rinpoche,
This is such an insightful post. I particularly like this last bit –
iLast, but not least, remember that those incredible super-achievers you admire — and aspire to be like — are just ordinary people with flaws and fears, too.
As Beyoncé herself once said, “I know I’m stronger in the songs than I really am.”
We’re all just human beings trying to work, live, and navigate the world using all the tools and skills we have. Rather than aiming for flawless perfection, aim for your personal best — and you’ll always be a success.
Makes a lot to sense to me as I used to equate perfection with success. Thank you with folded hands for another post to help us transform our minds. Love how something seemingly secular is so applicable to our spiritual practice as well.
We are have the same amount of hours every day. Some of us just do more with those hours. Doing more however does not always mean better results. Success requires hard work, that’s for sure but hard work does not always equate to success, it is just the foundation.
Commitment and motivation is a strong energy. I know people who can party all night long, who can play games non-stop, etc. So it’s not a matter of focus and concentration. It’s a matter of interest. What drives us.
We often create all kind of distraction when working on something in order to keep us “awake”, example music and movie playing in the background when studying or working on assignments. Checking our mobile phone notification constantly. We think it’s normal, some of us even think this is what we need to focus and work but we do not realize how much these distractions are affecting our efficiency.
We all heard of the saying “birds of feather flock together”. If you want to succeed in life, hang around successful people. It’s common sense.
Last but not least, deal with that emotion. A lot of time is wasted dealing with emotions specially negative ones. It can be time and energy wasted with ourselves dwelling in our emotions or it can be time and energy wasted talking about it with friends. Some people waste almost their entire life trying to get back at someone or something because they didn’t deal with their emotions. The same time and energy spent if channeled towards a different goal could have lead to something successful.
Commitment is important for any endeavour, (whether secular or spiritual), to be successful. It is a pledge to do something and go all the way until the task is completed or the goal has been achieved. Unfortunately, it is easy to be distracted and we lose focus. So, to be successful, we have to be mindful and stay committed to our pledge.
Dear Rinpoche, this is a good article. Thanks for sharing. It makes me examine what are doing that make me less effective and fail in some aspects of life; at the same provides valuable and workable advice to be more effective and successful. However, apply the tips will be the first important step to do in order to achieve what we want to achieve.
Rinpoche post is always interesting. U don’t only just talk about Dharma but anything under the sun and these are great advise too.
I am always a firm believer on being with the right crowd because they will indirectly help u in ur success… through getting to know their circles of friends and also getting ideas from them.
Fully commit
Avoid multitasking
Hang out with super achievers
Prevent emotions from building
I will remember these keys by hard and work on them.
I guess that’s the reason why Rinpoche always remind us whenever we want to a task. Commit to it and be sure we do them… and not just say we will do it but promise that will do it.
Thank you Rinpoche and the teams for sharing this article.
It always recall me after i read all the blogs….
Even we human easy to forgot… but we should practice it..
Attitude plays a important part…
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this article.
Below are the points I learned from this article:
1) Be fully focus and committed on the task given. Many times, when we face challenges or even distraction, we will be drifted away. Sometimes it is very hard for us to really come back and focus to continue. We have to remind ourselve to return once our mind is drifted.
2) Concentrate in a project and do not multitask. I guess most of us do multitasking in many ways. Well , it is a good reminder that we should be 100% focus in at any one task in order to produce good result.
3) Mingle and hang-out with super achievers. I totally agree with this. Having such family, friends and colleagues really give me a lot of positive energy and guidance. it’s just keep us going.
4) Do not let our emotion drive away our focus. Just continue to work on it and we will see result.
Like what JP said, it is surprising that high achieving is focus on specifics and do not multi task. I have always thought that high achievers have the ability to multi task and make many good decisions on many things at one time or at that one moment.
Thinking about this notion, really makes sense as being committed and doing our best for anything is 100% concentration so multi tasking is a division to such needed concentration.
Commitment at 100% is the basis of success and control of our emotions also contributes as that is about being neutral and JUST DO IT.
This article makes a lot of sense. In a summary, this article advises us to fully commit, avoid multitasking, hang out with fellow super achievers and prevent emotions from building.
To fully commit is a state of mind that we should have so that we will persevere and put our entire focus on the goal. Any form of distractions will not derail us from achieving our goal.
Avoid multitasking is a surprise to me because I always thought that successful people are great with multitasking. After reading the explanation, it makes sense to dedicate our time to completing a task and doing a good job with it instead being all over the place and not doing a good job in any of our tasks. At the end of the day, we waste more time redoing the tasks to make them better.
Hanging out with fellow super achievers does help great deal. Not that the committed person needs uplifting from others, but new ideas and opportunities arise when we are with achievers. Everyone is focused on realising their goals and looking for opportunities. They don’t spend time talking about their feelings and about others, but more on what else they can do to realize their goals.
Last but not least, in order to have a clear mind, preventing emotions from building would be highly advisable because situations can be stressful. When we are clouded by emotions, we will make decisions that are not logical and may cause more problems towards achieving our goals.
With the above traits and ways of handling ourselves, we will definitely succeed in many of our endeavors, big or small.
Thank you so much Rinpoche for opening my eyes. It is really really inspiring and I take it as the instructions humbly. The methods can really be used in our dharma practices. _()_
I am very grateful for all the wisdom Rinpoche imparted to all of us. May we all become like Kung Fu Panda learn from the best Rinpoche’s kungfu and help all those surrounding us by spreading his wisdom to all. We will continue to post and share the real and good teachings to our friends for a better life. Let’s do our best today!
I am really thankful to Rinpoche and His team. I always learn something from this blog, even though I might have read it before. Whether in secular world or pursuing spirituality, success doesn’t mean that we must have achieved something but more towards being present in each processes. It’s more like what we do and decide at this moment that matters. We always see the success of others but little do we know/experience what they have gone through previously. It’s during adversity that perseverance, patience, skills, practice, understanding and etc being put to test. It’s when you have jumped out of the box, then only and most likely we will willingly share our stories with others. Hence, each success is an inspiration.
It is true that every single one of us has the same numbers of hour each day, every single day from the moment we were born till we die. Yet, some manage to do more, much more, than the rest of us. I think the steps provided by Suzanne Gelb has captured the gist of the success formulae. For me, the first step to move away from the underachiever conundrum is to stop feeding the emotions; essentially stop wallowing in self-pity and taking every single comment or feedback personally or as a competition. Negative emotions literally open the door to hell (or the 3 poisons; ignorance, attachment and aversion). Which relates very closely with the second step: staying away from underachiever. While it is more dharmic to look within and change ourselves instead of others, but, if we are constantly surrounded by underachievers, there is no inspiration to grow. I find it comforting to observe that in most situation we can take the initiative to “hang out” with the super achievers. In situation where we cannot, I believe we will notice the slow down in growth (or no grow at all); hence a signal for us to do something about it.
Thank you very much Rinpoche for sharing this practical article with us.
Humbly, bowing down,
Stella Cheang
This is a very interesting article. I think many people already know alot of this or at least the message it brings across. However like many things we may want to achieve in life and have not started to create the cause for doing so, they remain close but far.
A world where everybody reached their full potential in the things they do would be so much different.
As the article highlights, the super-achiever is more like a state of mind. What makes them super-achievers isn’t the things they do are better but that they do things better or more effectively. I typically find that super-achievers work harder but don’t really find it hard to work. On the other hand it’s much more difficult to get someone who doesn’t work hard to do any work at all, even if it is “easy” work.
What I mean to say is that I think the challenge of overcoming an attitude of “It’s too hard” or “I can’t do” is more difficult than actually doing it. Well at least for many cases people tend to create for themselves. Everybody has their own potential to become their own super-achieving self but it requires a change of attitude in order to achieve that self.
FullMoonNow: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JrpewVQMi0 Lee Iaccoca FORD MUSTANG(first&last1)#inspiration.