Schools are great for some things, but not so great for others. You can learn algebra, chemistry, and how to swing from a rope, but how often do you use those skills in your daily life as an adult?
The things that matter the most for success as an adult are never directly taught in school.
Unfortunately, you’re on your own. You’ll have to take control of your own success education.
Practice these skills for success to learn what school never taught you:
1. Persistence.
One of the hallmark attributes of successful people is persistence. Whenever you attempt to do something difficult, it’s unlikely that you’re going to be successful right out of the gate. Persistence is a necessary trait to possess if you’re going to be a highly successful person.
2. Consistency.
Do you maintain the same goals until they’re achieved, or do you keep changing your mind? Can you perform the same boring, but effective, tasks day after day? Can you maintain a positive attitude? How consistent are you with your behavior, beliefs, and goals?
3. Daily work.
Are you doing something every single day to become more successful? You can be amazingly successful with a relatively small amount of work performed each and every day. This can be more effective than doing massive amounts of work irregularly.
In school, it’s easy to wait until the last minute to study or write a paper. Intelligent people can get away with this in school. However, this strategy won’t work in the long term out in the real world no matter how intelligent you might be.
4. How to deal with discomfort.
Your ability to deal with discomfort is one of the best predictors of the level of success you will achieve in the future. Acting in spite of discomfort is what allows you to go to the gym when you don’t feel like it. It allows you to take action when you’d rather do nothing.
5. How to deal with failure.
6. How to make good decisions.
Life is full of failure. Successful people have an effective strategy for dealing with failure. They learn from failure, improve their approach, and try again. Overcoming failure requires persistence, consistency, and dealing with discomfort.
Few of us consistently make great choices. Most of us make choices based on emotion rather than reality. We rarely make the best choice. We simply make a choice that is psychologically comfortable. This goes back to being able to deal with discomfort effectively.
7. How to think long-term.
A long-term perspective is necessary for long-term success. Most of us are too focused on living day-to-day to have a long-term plan. If you spend your time putting out fires each day, you’re never working toward anything over the long haul.
You might have had some failure in school, but no one sat down and told you how to overcome it. You either figured it out yourself or you didn’t. You may have felt uncomfortable in school, but that doesn’t mean you learned how to deal with it effectively.
Surviving isn’t the same as thriving. Take on the responsibility of learning the things that matter in the pursuit of success. No one else is going to do it for you.