The success does come upon people are not by mean of luck or any other miracle, those people are successful person by their own mean. Warren Buffett is successful in investing and building long-term businesses. Bill Gates is successful in creating a software empire that has changed the way we use computers. Steve Jobs was successful in creating Apple.

      Successful people have a few common characteristics that make them great. Not every successful person can be a master of all these but awareness of them can help in increasing these qualities in ourselves.

        The Inspiring Life finds that there are some common characteristics that makes a person a successful and keeps them ahead of others in life and profession. Following are the 10 common characteristics exhibited by successful people that have been observed across various fields including sports, business, and arts.

10 traits of every successful person.

1. Always Learning.

While most people think that when they graduate college, they are finished being a student, successful people remain students. They are constantly learning new things and have new experiences. They aren’t afraid to try new activities and to fail at them. It’s important to realize that you don’t know much in this life. The more you’ll learn, the more you understand that our knowledge is limited. By staying a student, and constantly learning from every situation will provide us with an edge.

2. Set real goals.

The Successful people have the characteristics of making their plan way ahead , while unsuccessful people are scrambling to figure out what they need to do next. Their goals are very focused, big yet obtainable and are aligned to their strengths. They know what they are capable of and will invest all of their efforts in it, avoiding their weaknesses.  

Successful people knows  how to find causes they’re passionate about. They also know how to break down their dreams and create reachable short-term goals.

 Constantly reaching daily objectives provides further motivation to continue working on your big project. It is a sound strategy to keep reaching your potential.

3. Positive Attitude and Perseverance

Successful people have realistic optimism. Realistic because they take action and optimistic because no matter what the result may be, they believe their success is inevitable. They believe that like a child learning to walk, they need to take action first and then modify the action according to the feedback that they get. This positive attitude allows them to persevere and be resilient when things don’t go their way.

4. Masters of Time 

Successful people are successful because they get a lot done. The only way to do that is by making the most out of the allotted 24 hours we all get. Extraordinary people value their time and see the direct connection between how they spend their time and their energy. They are usually always on time and “train” those that deal with them to respect their schedule by implementing strict start and end times for meetings.

5. Excellent Communicators.

If you walk up to a successful person and ask them what they do, they will able to tell you everything in a concise manner. They know who they are, what they do and can make you believe in them. They have strong posture and are very persuasive and confident.

        People who can communicate effectively excel in life. Strong communicators understand that just because people speak English (or the dominant language in your country), it does not mean they understand each other. What makes them effective is that they are clear about and sensitive to the outcome they want to get from their communication and are flexible in their method of communication to achieve their outcome. They are experts at building rapport and separate what is being said from the meaning they put into what is being said.

6. Good Listener.

Successful Person understand that you can change and learn if you listen carefully. They don’t express their opinions as much as they listen to others.

        By listening to others your capacity to understand will increase. Also, the most interesting times I ever had were when I listened to others. If you can make others feel like you really want to know what they’re saying, they will tend to tell you much more than you bargained for.

7. Flexiblity.

     There is a misconception that ordinary people have about persevering is staying the course no matter what. This is true only if the reason for pursuing your goal is still valid. Most successful people achieved success doing something different from what they initially intended to do (Example: Steve Jobs started with computers, went into the animation, and really made his comeback with the iPod).

This makes sense because the world is always changing and they know a lot more now than when they started. Successful people know that if their reasons for doing what they are doing changes, there is no point to continue.

8. Prioritization.

      Being in charge of your dreams takes the skill to recognize what’s important and what’s not. Your top priority tasks should get attention first. Eat the elephant in the room first. Don’t check the meaningless things first from your to-do list.

       Everyone has a list of tasks to be completed. Sometimes we don’t have enough time to get through everything. The way to overcome that is the key to success. We need to prioritize the relevant from the irrelevant. From a list of items pick the item which has the biggest impact from your stakeholder, business sponsor and your immediate boss.        

  Successful person work on the worst first and get it out of the way. Handle the big rocks first and the pebbles can be taken care later. Make peace with the fact that there will be always things left undone and it is also imperative to learn to say no to time wasters and activities which are not aligned with your goals. We should also learn to say no when needed so that we are not over committed and this gives better control over our time.

9. Risk Taking.

All successful person have taken calculated risks to reach where they are. Risks need not be things like bungee jumping or sky diving; in fact it need not even be physical in nature. It goes with your intuition. It may require taking up an assignment which everyone has refused. This then helps you stand apart and has potential to propel your career. There is no guarantee in life so before taking a risk analyze the risk and see if you are already prepared for it to fail, then it is worth taking that risk. While taking risks it is important to remember that we don’t put our families into distress. 

10. Have Positive Mental Attitude.

It is impossible to imagine a really well rounded successful person who is negative and complaining all the time. All successful people generally have a positive attitude. They don’t complain when things don’t go their way as they know that in the long run most of the things take care of themselves. We should look at the sunny side of life. Being grateful for what we have while striving for more is actually a great way to stay positive.

When you are positive about the day you just get on with the accomplishment of your tasks with even more vigour. Finally, a positive mental attitude eventually helps performance at work and home. Nothing is more important than your inner peace and overall happiness.