4 Must-Have Personal Characteristics to Succeed in Business and Health

There’s a nexus between succeeding in business and health. The same core principles that you implement to build a successful business can also be implemented to achieve your best health.

But far too often, many people get ahead of themselves and start to let minute details slow them down.

Just as worrying about the icing and toppings on the cake is useless if the foundation isn’t set forth — your health and business follow the same philosophy.

There are many tactics to help you succeed in both arenas. But at the beginning, you need to focus on your foundation (i.e. the cake) and worry about the minutiae (i.e. the icing and toppings) later down the road.

Here are the four must-have personal characteristics that will help you succeed in business and health.

1. Have clarity on your why.

At the beginning, there isn’t a huge audience showering us with praise nor is there a huge cash flow validating our ideas. We don’t have the body that we envision. At the beginning, all that you have is a why — your most valuable asset.

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Since the beginning of time, every superhero, innovator, entrepreneur and transcendent leader started with a why before anything else.

Bruce Wayne doesn’t just become Batman for a side-hobby, he had a mission to clean up Gotham City. Richard Branson didn’t just out of randomness, he started it because he was fed up with airlines that didn’t properly care about their passengers (and a pretty woman waiting for him).

A why allows you to stay committed to the mission at hand. A why will inform everything that you do. Why do you want to start this business? Why are you seeking optimum health? How does succeeding in business and health impact your life?

Go beyond the typical surface level answers of making a lot of money and having a six-pack because both of those aren’t instantaneous.

Instead, shift your focus to serving others with your business and improving the quality of your day-to-day life with your health.

2. Have a growth mindset.

Just as a car won’t take you far without a proper working engine, you won’t come close to building your desired business nor achieving your desired level of health without a properly equipped mindset.

Dr. Carol Dweck in her book,  describes our mindset of either being one of growth or one that is fixed.

A growth mindset sees the world in abundance and believes the skills needed to succeed in business and health can be developed. A person with a fixed mindset has a scarcity mentality and finds excuses for their health and business shortcomings — it’s never their fault.

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Maybe you aren’t where you thought you’d be right now, but don’t allow yourself to fall into the “you either have it or not” mentality — anything worthwhile requires time to achieve.

3. Have a long-term point of view.

Short-term pleasures and gratifications may make you feel better in the present moment, but will lead to long-term agony down the road. 

Risking your company’s long-term reputation and aligning with brands that don’t fit with your company’s image isn’t worth a few short-term sales.

Choosing less-than-ideal methods for short-term weight loss will cause frustration in the long run.

Having a long-term point of view is one of your best assets when it comes to succeeding in business and health. Being patient and having the ability to see the big picture leads to better decision making.

If you’re hyper-focused on the short-term and impatient, your decision making is hampered due to you acting more on emotion rather than logic.

Make decisions that will help your business and health be around for the long haul, not just for a season or two. 

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4. Have a bias for imperfect action.

Sophia Amoruso states in her book that “fortune favors those who take action.”

In business and in fitness, the successful people don’t achieve their goals because they had all the answers initially. They achieved success because they were okay with taking imperfect action.

Many people will dream about starting a business, pursuing a dream job, and getting in shape. Unfortunately, only a small percentage of those dreamers will take action. 

Often times, those dreamers let the idea of perfection stop them. Perfection only exists in our heads. There isn’t a perfect fitness plan nor business strategy.

It’s great to have dreams, but those dreams aren’t going to happen by themselves. As you pursue your health and business goals, think more imperfect action and less planning and procrastinating.