15 Signs that You’re Going to Live A Long Happy Life

Life can be a challenge, yet we try to make the best of it. Trying to be happy is one thing. But what about living a long life because of that. Who doesn’t want a long and happy life? Are you living your life to the fullest? Here are 15 amazing signs that you are living a long and happy life!

1. You exercise

Regular exercise is good to keep up your health. Running and other exercises can improve your life span and your health. What exercise you do depends on your age and other personal factors.

2. You get plenty of rest

Surely we all like to sleep. Studies show that sleep is important for good health. For adults it is encouraged to sleep about 8 hours a night.

3. You eat healthy

Food is important for a good life. What you eat, influences the way your body looks on the outside and feels on the inside. Some foods are proven to help you live a happy and long life.

4. You eat in moderation

Overeating is a big problem for many people. Portion sizes have gotten bigger and people eat until all the food is finished. Eating too much is bad for your body and has been linked to obesity. If you eat until you feel reasonably full, your body will thank you. And if you like to drink, also do it in moderation to have a long life.

5. You manage stress well

Life is busy and stress is not avoidable. Low self-esteem can cause stress and it can make you more vulnerable for disease. Having a clear list or schedule can help you oversee things and manage stress. Less stress, happier you.

6. You take time to relax

Rest and relaxation can make you feel calm and happy. You can take a nap, read a book, take a bath, or meditate. Meditating helps with anxiety, depression, pain and stress. Feeling calm lengthens your life and happiness.

7. You laugh

Laughing is an expression of happiness, but it also has a lot of health benefits. It can help prevent depression, heart disease and releases endorphins which makes you deal with pain better. Also, laughter can help you heal quicker, or help medicine work better. Laughter has short and long term benefits, like stress relief. So if you laugh a lot, it will help you live longer, and of course, happier.

8. You have close relationships

Having a happy marriage can help you live longer and healthier. Having sex with your partner can also add years to your life, according to this study. If you are not married, being part of a social group can help you recover quicker. Any kind of close relationship can help you live a long and healthy life.

9. You have a good attitude

It may not seem important, but being positive in your daily life is essential to live a long life. Studies show that feelings such asgratitude and forgiveness can make you live longer and happier. Also, if you get older, having a positive attitude can add up to 7 years!

10. You take care of your personal hygiene

There are many ways to take care of yourself. Simply washing your hands, brushing and flossing your teeth, and taking a shower regularly. By doing so, you reduce the risk of spreading diseases.

11. You have children

When you have kids, you usually would think you get old quicker. The opposite is true! Studies have shown that people with children live longer. And the more children, the more years are added!

12. You help others

Being selfless by helping out people who need it, is a great way to live a long and happy life. Volunteering is shown to be a great way to live longer.

13. You have a reason to wake up every day

People who wake up motivated, knowing why they are alive, are more likely to live long. Having a purpose in life contributes to a long, happy life.

14. You drink tea and/or coffee

Tea and coffee are, after water, the most consumed drinks in the United States. They are a source of caffeine and antioxidants. A study has found that moderate consumption of these drinks can lengthen your life. Especially green tea is shown to be great for your health.

15. You own a dog

In a study about pet owning and longevity, Dr. Thomas Lee stated that ‘people with dogs have better health’. Dogs make sure you exercise more, because you need to walk them every day. Also, dogs can reduce stress and loneliness.

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10 Books You Should Read To Get Rich

The journey to get rich requires certain tools. Although many seem to ignore this, books can help you build your mind, zeal and knowledge to become successful and rich. Therefore I have taken the effort to look through some amazing books that can do a lot to get your financial journey oriented in the right direction.

1. The Millionaire Next Door

This classic which was first published in 1996 and written by Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko offers in-depth knowledge from the findings of the authors of how America’s millionaires became rich in seven key steps. One of the high points discussed was the simple and strategic method of spending less than you earn. By doing this, you could avoid impulse buying and diversify your investments.

2. Rich Dad, Poor Dad

Robert T. Kiyosaki’s book remains a stunner any day and anytime. It is a must read if you want to start crafting a path to wealth while you are young. In this book, Kiyosaki was able to bring the distinguishing factor or habits of his father, who was a highly educated man yet poor, and his other father who was a dropout but became a self-made multimillionaire. The focus follows what are termed the different “quadrants” of the different classes of people in society and how you can elevate yourself to the Investor quadrant which will make you super rich.

3. How Rich People Think

Steve Siebold author of “How Rich People Think” has spent 30 years interviewing 1, 000 millionaires and billionaires to figure out what distinguished them from the average person. In the book, Siebold offers concrete action steps to follow as an ambitious person to building your own wealth.

4. Think and Grow Rich

Written in an era of Great Depression, author and former adviser to President Franklin Roosevelt interviewed over 500 successful people to discover the keys to good fortune. A classic and bestselling book, it discusses how you should start planning by setting your aim and desire of how much you really want to earn. It all starts from the power of your thoughts and then action.

5. ‘You’re So Money: Live Rich, Even When You’re Not’ 

Directed towards the middle class earners who are making entry level pay, author Farnoosh Torabi talks about how you can save money in certain areas of your life. The book is a great read and offers wonderful advice to young people. It has a witty, funny and concise approach to explaining to people how they can handle their finances appropriately on the road to becoming rich.

6. The Richest Man in Babylon

Written by George S. Clason, this book unearths principles and secrets that will lead you to personal wealth. As one of the most inspirational works on the subject of thrift, financial planning and personal wealth, “The Richest Man in Babylon” identifies the solution to financial problems that will guide you to wealth. Such secrets such as keeping your money, making more by investing and always finding a way to add value makes this book a celebrated bestseller.

7.  TheScience of Getting Rich (A Thrifty Book) 

Wallace Wattle provides the intellectual framework of building personal wealth through positive thinking. The book talks about how you can create wealth through equipping your thoughts to attract wealth. For example, if you believe that money is evil, then you won’t be wealthy.

8. The Automatic Millionaire

The Automatic Millionaire written by David Bach explains that you do not need to get rich through a budget but with a well laid out plan. The Automatic Millionaire offers timeless principles including phone numbers, websites and every element that will get you started on your road to wealth within an hour.

9. Screw It, Let’s Do It: Lessons in Life

Written by seasoned entrepreneur and billionaire, Richard Branson offers practical steps of how he became successful and how you can too. His book is based on his personal experiences and important lessons which have influenced him and will certainly influence you too if you want to become rich.

10. The Millionaire Fast Lane

The Millionaire Fast Lane helps you see the difference between what you cannot do and what you can. There is the Slowlane Road and the Fast Lane road, which involves ignoring popular advice and settling for the unconventional path to attaining wealth and financial security.

So there you have it, ten books that can define your path to being rich.

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Learn These 10 Easy Skills Now And You Can Save A Lot of Money

Saving money is a skill all on its own. Since the recession hit, people have come up with some creative ways to save money and have even developed skills to help to do. Here are some easy skills you can use to save you more money.

1. Learn the art of couponing

Couponing is the act of searching and seizing coupons to save you money on groceries. It seems like you’d just pick up the daily newspaper and find some good deals. The truth is you can find coupons everywhere. Inside of stores, in newspapers, and even on the internet you can find coupons and great deals on every day items. If you want to learn how to do extreme couponing, here is a great website to get your started!

2. Learn the art of cooking

Cooking is a great way to save money. When you go out to a fast food restaurant you spend anywhere from $5 to $8 on a meal per person. Using that same money you can create multiple meals. For $8 you can get a half a pound of your favorite protein, sauce, and noodles and make spaghetti which you can then enjoy over the course of three or so meals as leftovers. Eating in means saving money. If you need some help learning how to cook, YouTube has thousands of videos that will teach you how to cook practically anything. Check the video above for a really good introduction to basic cooking.

3. Learn how to sew

Just because your favorite shirt has a hole doesn’t mean you have to throw it away and buy another one. You could always grab some thread and sew it up. It seems a little frugal but most holes are in the armpits of shirts or the crotch area of pants. These are areas that people often do not see or look at so practically no one will know there is a hole there that’s been sewn up. Sewing kits are cheap but the skill can be hard to master. The video above is a great tutorial on learning to sew by hand. If you use a sewing machine, here’s a great video for beginners.

4. Do some of your own housework

Contractors can be expensive and there are a lot of household tasks that may not require one. If you learn how to unclog your drains then you can save hundreds of dollars on a plumber. You can also do things like patch holes in drywall, reseal windows, mow your own lawn, and other small things around the house. If you pay someone $20 every two weeks to mow your lawn, you end up saving around $200 per year. That’s enough to buy a lawn mower and gas to run it. The YouTube channel expertvillage has a host of DIY home improvement videos that’ll teach all sorts of amazing skills.

5. Learn how to write

Proper writing techniques won’t save you money but it may help you make money. Writing is still a major form of communication and the people who can write the best have an advantage. You may even be able to land a blogging job with an awesome advice blog and make a couple of extra bucks teaching people skills they can learn to save themselves money. You can also do things like creating your own resume or write your own cover letter without paying someone else to do the job for you. Here is an amazing website that puts writing into perspective and will help you write better content.

6. Learn how to haggle and negotiate

A lot of people poke fun at those who haggle or negotiate prices but they don’t tell you is that those people get nicer things for less money and have more money left over. This skill can come in handy when you go to garage sales or flea markets. It can also come in handy when you buy things on eBay or Craigslist. You may be getting a seriously good deal on that couch for $50 at the garage sale but you could walk away with the couch and some smaller items for the same price. New York Magazine has a great article to help you learn how to haggle with class.

7. Learn how to budget

This is one of the hardest skills for adults to learn but it’s also one of the most valuable. A lot of people operate on the premise that they get a paycheck and thus always have money to spend. That isn’t true at all. Many people underestimate how much their bills, gas, and food will cost. Then that $25 lunch you went to is the last $25 you had in your account. You can save a lot of money by budgeting because it teaches you self control and you won’t spend so much on stuff you don’t need. Here is a great guide to basic budgeting.

8. Learn how to sell

Learning how to market your own items and yourself can make you money. For instance, I have a wood and glass coffee table to my immediate right. Right now I could get $20 out of it. With a little elbow grease I can clean it up and easily sell it for $40 when it’s all cleaned up. That’s extra bucks. You will spend your life selling things. Whether it’s in garage sales or selling yourself to your future job with your resume and cover letter, you should learn how to sell. Here is an article from Business Insider that help teaches you the basics of selling.

9. Learn to fix your broken things

This one is absolutely essential because this is where the biggest expenditures come from. Getting your oil changed doesn’t cost much but you can still do it cheaper yourself. If your hard drive dies in your laptop, you can replace it for the cost of a new hard drive instead of buying a brand new computer. I once took apart an Xbox 360 and dusted the inside of it to fix an overheating problem that was caused by clogged fan vents. Repair services and replacement can cost you thousands of dollars depending on the item. Proper maintenance and doing simple repairs can save you a boat load of money. This is a harder one to link up because there is no universal tutorial for fixing everything. Your best best is to search YouTube and Google for how to fix the broken item.

10. Streamline your entertainment

This is an amazing skill to learn. By streamlining your entertainment costs you can cut down immensely on your entertainment bills. Look for cheaper cable deals from other providers or begin looking into cutting the cable. At my last apartment, our cable and internet ran us about $120 per month. Now we have faster internet for $70 along with Netflix and Hulu for about $15 per month. It’s not huge savings but every penny counts. Books are always free at your local library. You can get a newspaper subscription for very cheap these days. You can also go for walks, visit nearby parks, or get a board game. It sounds a little lame but board games have a nearly infinite return on investment as long as you take care of all the pieces. It’s a hard skill to quantify or learn but it’s a valuable one.

There is no one method that will save you hundreds of dollars per month. You may see some places claim that it’s possible but it really isn’t. With skills such as these, you can save yourself quite a bit of money every month. It essentially boils down to depending on others less, depend on yourself more, and keep an eye out for good deals. Best of luck!

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10 Signs You’re In The Wrong Company

It is not as if the companies we work for are bad or are not functional, yet sometimes we start understanding that we are not suitable for this company. At a time there was the honeymoon blues hovering that you are in an ideal company and you wanted to belong there. But now you don’t just have that feeling anymore. According to a Gallup survey it was found that 70% of workers are either not engaged or they are disengaged from their current job. Here is how to know you are in the wrong company.

1. You dread getting to work on Monday mornings

How much you dread Mondays and how many times you would look at the clock and wish it hits 5 o’clock, determines how comfortable you are with your job. If your excitement is stirred when you have to leave the office and close for the day rather than when you have to resume on a Monday morning, you might be in the wrong company.

2. You feel trapped

A job with the right company should offer you the opportunity to express yourself and know that you belong there. If your company is a right match doors and windows are opened for you to succeed and unleash yourself. But if it isn’t a good match, you feel trapped.

3. You are unclear about what you are there for

Every job comes with a job description, yet with this company you are distorted on how to function or where to function. It is as if you are a needle in a haystack just waiting for your paycheck to come. There is no clarity as to why you are there and where you are headed.

4. You don’t feel appreciated

With your work there is no excitement. You don’t feel as if you are valued by the company. Even when you try to do more, it is as if it is not good enough. A job promotion with the company or a raise is not satisfactory but leaves you empty and bewildered.

5. You make a big deal about everything

Everything stirs question within you. You are constantly finding a reason to explain why your job is wrong and it doesn’t fit. And yes, a little thing like the high-pitched tone of the office admin is becoming a serious disturbance in your ability to function at your job and enjoy it properly. So instead of becoming positive about your prospects with the company you become negative about it.

6. You don’t brag about your job title

When people ask you what you do, you have little or no desire to tell them about it. Typically in life we like to brag about our accomplishments at things we enjoy doing. Sometimes we even tend to exaggerate the truth. But with you, the opposite is the case as you prefer to downplay the accomplishments on your resume.

7. You daydream a lot about working somewhere else

You are bored with your job and you want to be somewhere else. Perhaps you are an IT specialist and your desire is to be a publicist, your face lights up only when discussions related to companies in such field are made.

8. You no longer believe in the company’s objectives

Somewhere along the line you lost interest in the direction of the company and where it is headed. Most of the details about expansion, meeting deadlines and all of this don’t interest you. The goals of the company don’t align with your goals and you really want to make a job shift.

9. You are feeling like a different person at work

Every day you are at work, you feel like you are not “you” and that you are somebody else. Somehow you are not comfortable with your job and you feel like you have lost your identity. You would really desire to be engaged and find your “heartbeat” once again.

10. You have stopped learning

With every job comes some learning. But with your company this has stagnated. Learning new skills or pursuing new interests with the company is something that shouldn’t be taken lightly in a digital age. Somehow you have to rediscover yourself and start to find a direction in a more exciting job with a different company.

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9 Harmful Money Beliefs You Should Avoid To Get Richer

Whether we know it or not, sometimes we hold onto beliefs that can actually inhibit our ability to make money. I’ve been guilty of some of the thought patterns explored below, and once I learned to face and negate them, greater income sources opened up to me.

See if you, too, harbor any of these bad money beliefs.

1. “Only certain people get rich.”

Maybe you grew up in a family that experienced a serious lack of funds and deep down believe it’ll always be that way, as if you somehow inherited “poorness” like a disease. Well, I’m here to tell you that it’s faulty to think that only people such as Oprah or Bill Gates were intended to be blessed with large sums of money. Even Ms. Winfrey was poor once, and if richness can happen to her, it can happen to just about anyone. Why not create a $1 million business this weekend?

2. “There are no jobs out there.”

Buying into doom and gloom job reports give some people an excuse to give up their search for employment. As author James Altucher notes, however, millionaires learn to look for hidden opportunities and make their own entrepreneurial moves. Get inspired by this guy who left Google to sell brain pills.

3. “Giving income away will make me lose cash.”

It seems logical that if you have $500 and give away $100 to help a family in need, you’d only have $400 left over. Conversely, if you choose to keep that $500 and skip helping the people whose light may have pricked your heart, common math would tell you that you’d still have $500 for yourself. But life doesn’t work in logical ways; it works mysteriously and circuitously, whereby you may find that opening the door to being charitable comes back to you in fabulous ways.

4. “It’s a zero-sum game – to win, somebody has to lose.”

Simply because one person gains $1 million doesn’t mean that another person has lost out. Instead of viewing money as a big pie whereby those with larger slices are cheating those with slivers, Bill Gates once spoke of a concept called “the creation of wealth,” whereby companies like Microsoft generated funding that wouldn’t have been there otherwise. I view it almost as money being printed out of thin air instead of funds being stolen via some “the rich get richer and poor get poorer” idea.

5. “Impoverished people are holier, less selfish, etc.”

Yes, we’ve had great examples of folks who’ve walked this Earth that intentionally lived in poverty and focused more on non-material attributes. But that doesn’t mean doing so makes us saints. You can be just as effective by having money and using it in altruistic ways to help others, instead of taking a vow of poverty if your life isn’t meant to duplicate that direction.

6. “Wealthy people are jerks.”

Some rich people are full of themselves. Some rich people are kind and caring. Certain disadvantaged members of the public are lovely, whilst others are cruel. Money in and of itself is merely a tool. Having a lot of it only magnifies a person’s true character. Great wealth doesn’t create character.

7. “I’ll hit the lottery one day.”

Out of all the major lessons I remember from the popular book titled The Millionaire Next Door, the one that sticks out is that millionaires don’t always look like the flashy Rolls Royce driving folks we see in the movies. That’s because some of them plod away at doing all the non-glamorous things it can take to get rich: driving older cars, living beneath our means, etc.

As long as we’re solely waiting for some sweet Powerball-winning day to make us rich, it kind of takes the onus off of getting there the hard way. Like one stockbroker told me, “Continue on with your get-rich-quick plan, and in the meantime, save money as well.”

8. “I’d better lower my prices/salary in order to gain sales/clients.”

If you’re trying to get rich through your business, there could be times when you’re tempted to cut your hourly rate or the prices of your products or services in order to make ends meet. This could be a great business move – after all, the marketing term “loss leader” wasn’t invented for nothing.

However, if you’re constantly undercutting your own value just because you’re afraid of losing clients or due to fears that what you bring to the table is not good enough to compete with others, it could be more symptomatic of deeper issues.

A graphic artist who provides high-quality image editing might decide that her level of expertise and skills are worth $50 per hour. If clients looking for a cheap deal try to talk her down to $10 per  hour and she accepts, the artist may discover that she’s effectively lowered her annual salary below the poverty level. Instead of kowtowing to cheap clients out of anxiety, it would be better to politely decline and move on to others that are more than willing to pay higher rates for quality work.

9. “My business has to be shady to make money.”

The talk of the Internet recently was about a New York-area hotel that had the gall to charge people $500 for any negative reviews posted about them on sites like Yelp. Setting aside the fact that the practice might actually be illegal, most readers agreed that instead of threatening guests with fines for negative reviews, the hotel should actually do their best to provide positive customer experiences and gain great reviews naturally.

Amazon is king when it comes to “the customer is always right” theory. They even allow consumers to return Kindle books within seven days if they don’t like them – one of the many ways the online retailing giant has won the trust of goo-gobs of people that love to fork over their credit and debit card numbers to “The Everything Store,” as goes their motto.

Businesses and leaders who adopt the same thought-process – that is, harboring quality customer relationship management training, honesty and good ethics – are the ones that stand a greater chance of making their owners and employees rich. Those firms and folks that believe they must adhere to shady, confusing practices that rely on trickery to make a lot of money are the ones that will burn out like a shooting star streaking across the night sky.

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10 Easy Ways To Make Money Using Social Media at Home

1. Coach someone remotely

You can help other people achieve their dreams without even leaving home. Whether you’re a physical therapist or a life coach or a financial advisor, you can do a lot of what you’d normally do in-person over social media. Whatever your expertise, you can coach people over email and Skype. To attract customers, first promote yourself on social media. Once you’ve impressed your followers with your knowledge, start a coaching service. This could turn into a sizable income if you already have a semi-lucrative professional, since it typically requires less of a time commitment than in-person coaching. One field that’s proven especially popular is personal training, with companies like FitOrbit offering a number of jobs that probably pay pretty well.

2. Become an Amazon affiliate

You can buy almost anything on Amazon, which means you can earn a commission off of almost any product if you’re an Amazon Affiliate. After signing up for the affiliate program you can give readers of your blog, Twitter feed, etc. special links to Amazon products. If they click on the link and buy that product or anything else on the site during that visit, you receive a small commission that can really add up over time.Pickmyshaver.com, which reviews shaving devices with links to the Amazon listings, is a prime example of a successful affiliate website. It sold for over $60,000 to Flippa just eight months after it debuted. Your chances of reaping similar rewards are reasonably good if your reviews attract a lot of attention, so write them well and and convincingly so they’ll read the review and then buy the product.

3. Monetize your YouTube channel

Are you a popular vlogger? Do you post a lot of funny animal videos that go viral? You might be able to make some income by joining the YouTube Partner Program, in which you allow Google to place ads at the beginning of your videos. You then share in that ad revenue. Grace Helbig is a prominent example of someone who’s made a living off of creating fun YouTube videos and promoting herself on other social media outlets. Admittedly, your chances of becoming a YouTube star and getting rich off it are low, but if you’ve got an engaging personality, sense of humor or a unique perspective than the YouTube Partner Program may be an avenue worth exploring.

4. Sell stock photos

Use a service like Flickr to get people acquainted with your work, offering photos they can use on their website for free under the Creative Commons license. Once you’ve built up a following, join another stock photography site like Shutterstock or iStockphoto where users will pay for the opportunity to use your pictures on their blogs. You can make up to $120 off of one paid download of your photo. Even if you get compensated at a lower level, the money can really add up if you take a lot of quality photographs.

5. Sell an e-book

Once you’ve built up a following and proven yourself to be knowledgeable about a certain subject, write and publish an e-book that your consistent social media presence will have persuaded your fans to buy. You can release it simply as a PDF or through services like Amazon’s Kindle program. Carol Tice demonstrated her expertise in the topics of freelance writing on social media, which she translated into major e-book sales. Some people make up to $100,000 a month off of the Kindle program alone, but that’s an example of extreme success. The average e-book brings in about $423 per year. But if your book is better written, better designed and better marketed than 90% of your competitors’, you will probably make more than that.

6. Sell handcrafted items on Instagram

With inSelly you can quickly turn simple photos on Instagram into images of products you have for sale. Read this how-to about setting up an online shop with one of the biggest social media outlets out there. Some of the most popular things to sell are things that are made by hand, so if you’re crafty consider putting your artistic skills to good (and profitable) use. Chances of making a huge sum of money off this aren’t high, but it’s not uncommon for someone to make a living off the combined totals of Instagram and similar services like Etsy.

7. Tantalize users with your product on Pinterest

Pinterest is a perfect platform for selling products. As a virtual pin-board, the social media service is commonly used by potential customers to “pin” items of interest that they might buy later. If you created a product or are in charge of marketing one, throw some photos of it on Pinterest to shine a spotlight on it. Look at great examples of companies that utilize Pinterest to its fullest potential like TODAY, Whole Foods Market and the Travel Channel here. If you can land a freelance job doing something similar you can hit it pretty big, but you probably need the right experience to be in the running. However, small businesses also want to promote on Pinterest, and they’re more likely to hire based on enthusiasm and a go-getter attitude, so maybe start making some cold calls and emails.

8. Sponsor products and services

This is probably the most direct way to make money off social media. You utilize your (hopefully sizable) list of followers by selling to companies the rights to promote their products or services as a post on your social media account. Check out this site to learn more. The chances of making a lot of money this way is high if your number of followers is in the six figures, but rather low if you have less than a thousand followers.

9. Manage social media

Managing social media isn’t a particularly lucrative profession yet, but it does serve a growing need for a lot of businesses. If you keep an eye out for job postings you might be able to nab a job promoting a company or brand on various social media services. A lot of those jobs are independent contractor positions, many of which you can work remotely. If you’ve got a lot of experience with social media beyond just being a user, though, you may be able to get hired to develop social media strategy. Telling businesses how specifically to approach their social media presence would very likely net you a nice income.

10. Use social media to network

You can increase your income simply by using social media to take your current career to the next level. Obviously LinkedIn is a place to network and find job opportunities, but other social networks can achieve similar results. If a business is more casual, try friending your dream employer on Facebook. If you’re an expert on some topic, create a Twitter account to expound on that topic. There really isn’t a career that wouldn’t benefit at least a little from a social media presence.

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10 Signs You Will be Highly Successful and You Simply Don’t Realize It

We look up to powerful and successful people, but the ones that get the most respect are the rags to riches stories or those who started out like ordinary people and relied on their own wits to attain success. Some of these people didn’t even realize how much potential they had, and they didn’t really care – they just worked hard, and kept working hard day in and day out.

So, how do we know if we have some of the traits that can make us highly successful in life? You might be showing some of these positive signs of potential future success but simply aren’t aware of them yet.

1. You are punctual and dependable

It is difficult to find a person that keeps his or word every time and is never late to a meeting. Such people are held in high regard, both in the business world and among their friends.

If you are the kind of person who others find dependable, and are able to run a realistic schedule that allows you to be very punctual, then you have the potential to reach great heights.

2. You aren’t afraid to express yourself

Many people don’t feel comfortable showing their feelings to the world – revealing their true self to the world just makes them feel too vulnerable.

However, if we look at some of the most successful and widely recognized modern artists, we see that they aren’t afraid to follow their vision, and they keep creatively expressing their inner self through their work. Film directors like Wes Anderson are considered auteurs because of their unique artistic style. In the same vein, the billionaire entrepreneurs of today have always been outspoken about their vision, even if it went against the grain.

3. You don’t expect others to do things for you

There are men and women out there who simply can’t get their act together, so they sit around waiting for the world to sort out their problems. They will call on their friends, family and even coworkers for support way too often, and they always complain about the myriad of trivial problems that keep them from reaching their goals.

On the other hand, truly successful people like to take things into their own hands, and they take responsibility for their own actions or inaction.

4. You keep your things well organized

Whenever you hear someone with any level of success talk about how they thrive in chaos, they most likely just have a very unique way of organizing their files. There are those who work best when sitting in the middle of large stacks of paper or looking back and forth from their phone to their laptop screen, with over a dozen tabs open. However, if you look closer there is a method to their madness.

It doesn’t matter whether you are really anal and systematic about your work and like everything to be in the right place, or you like to let your thoughts fly freely and have your work spread out across the room – if you can easily find what you need and work efficiently, then you can consider yourself organized.

5. You have a desire to improve

Not everyone has a lot of ambition. They might be held back by fears that they can’t effectively deal with; they might not be creative enough or they might be lazy and used to settling for less if it means they don’t have to work too hard.

Then there are those that have a burning desire to constantly improve, learn new things, pick up new skills and sacrifice some fun and enjoyment now, so that they can be happier in the future.

The latter group is the one that keeps improving year after year, getting things done one step at a time.

6. You don’t feel awkward about asking for advice

There is a funny cliché about men being too proud to ask for directions. It might be my free-spirited European upbringing talking here, but anyone who is lost and clueless, yet thinks that asking for help is a sign of weakness, is a complete moron.

I understand that there are some fairly frail egos, but those who aren’t afraid to ask for help and advice will overcome obstacles much quicker, gain plenty of useful insight, and will be able to apply what they have learned in the future. A false sense of pride will ensure that you never make any serious progress.

7. You are assertive and confident

You may not think much about your generally positive attitude towards life, or the fact that you are fairly pleased with yourself and your current situation, but believe me, confidence is a real game changer.

All it takes to stay motivated and focus on your goals is to believe in yourself. If you don’t downplay your capabilities, don’t let others push you around and aren’t afraid to speak up or pounce when a good opportunity presents itself, then you have what it takes to become fairly successful.

8. You see failure as a teaching tool and source of motivation

The problem most people fall into is that they allow themselves to be easily defeated. Of course, we all screw up from time to time, and even fail miserably when attempting new things, but that’s no reason to start shouting obscenities while waving your fist at the sky and then give up all hope.

Those who use failure to fuel their desire to become better, and manage to learn from all the mistakes they make along the way, these are the people who go on to achieve greatness.

9. You can stay calm and logical during stressful situations

Have you ever felt that others have a tendency to get a little too heated up about small things? Do you have trouble understanding how some people can allow themselves to go red in the face and start taking everything personally? Well, then you are one of the few people who can manage to keep their emotions in check during serious discussions, emergencies and other stressful situations.

10. You look out for your people

The traits that often get associated with alpha personalities, i.e. natural leaders, are confidence and fearlessness, but people often forget about the most important alpha character trait – empathy.

Yes, you heard that right. If someone is to be a good leader they need to be able to provide for the group, to make sure that everyone gets what they need to feel safe and contempt.

It requires compromise, communications skills, quick thinking and some tough decisions, but a leader always tries to keep his people reasonably happy. If you only look out for yourself, you won’t get too far, or you’ll fall as quickly as you have risen.

If you are showing some of these signs, you might very well have a few dormant talents that will allow you to reach some of your biggest goals, if you can learn to harness their power. It will still take plenty of time and work, probably even some luck, but you definitely have an upper hand if you are already exhibiting some positive traits.

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