According To Science, These 5 Traits Make You More Successful Than 99% Of People

It is not talent or intelligence, but these traits that most reliably predict career success.

Everyone wants to be successful.

However, not many are as successful as they would like to be. They tell themselves that they are not talented or smart enough. But according to science, it’s other characteristics that predict success.

Read on to learn how you can achieve your big goals.

1. Believing You Are In Control Of Your Own Life

You are in control of your own life.

If you think otherwise, you are unlikely to succeed.

This is what Roy F. Baumeister, a professor of psychology at Florida State University found out. According to his research, a strong belief in free will is associated with better career success and a higher likelihood to overcome addiction.

People who don’t think they are in control of their lives and believe in fate, on the other hand, are more likely to act aggressively, cheat on their partners, and be mean to others.

2. Reading

Imagine being able to consume the knowledge that one of the smartest and most successful humans has accumulated over the last decades in a few hours.

Wouldn’t that be an incredible shortcut to priceless wisdom?

Reading makes it possible.

Reading has also been proven to make us smarter by improving our brain connectivity and function.

“In my whole life, I have known no wise people — over a broad subject matter area — who didn’t read all the time — none, zero.” Charlie Munger

3. Grit

Talent is overrated.

Grit, or perseverance, on the other hand, is underrated.

Mental strength and the ability to keep going can get you very far.

This is why the Swedish psychologist Dr. K. Anders Ericsson concluded from his studies:

The differences between expert performers and normal adults are not immutable, that is, due to genetically prescribed talent. Instead, these differences reflect a life-long period of deliberate effort to improve performance.

4. The Ability To Delay Gratification

The things that will take us forward in the long term are mostly uncomfortable at the moment. What feels good at the moment, on the other hand, rarely moves us forward.

This is why the ability to delay gratification is one of the most reliable predictors of success.

The famous Marshmallow Experiment showed this clearly. Stanford professor Walter Mischel published a study in 1972 in which he gave children a marshmallow. If they waited until he came back after he left the room, they would get a second one.

Children who managed to wait, that is, to delay gratification, did better in many areas of their lives over the next years:

• They got higher SAT scores and other academic achievements
• They showed lower levels of substance abuse.
• Less of them were obese compared to those who did not manage to delay gratification.
• They had better social skills.

5. Conscientiousness

People who have this quality usually do their job well because they are very organized and hardworking.

According to studies, this is a great prerequisite for success.

These behaviors have “staggeringly” high correlation rates with success. Studies have shown that conscientiousness impacts everything from a person’s salary to their job satisfaction, as well as their ability to find work and keep it, among other things. — Forbes

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