Organizational psychologist and New York Times best-selling author Adam Grant says the right mental habits can make you successful.
Inc. shares four mental habits Grant says successful people practice daily.
- Seeking discomfort. Stepping outside your comfort zone is difficult to do but can make a big difference. Grant says: “Aim to feel uncomfortable. Pursuing discomfort sets you on a faster path to growth.”
- Planning to make mistakes. Successful people may not choose to do the wrong thing deliberately, but they fully expect they sometimes will make mistakes, and it will be OK. Grant recommends creating a “mistake budget,” which is a set number of mistakes you expect to make during a certain time period; there should be a minimum number of mistakes you want to make. Grant says: “When you expect to stumble, you ruminate about it less—and improve more.”
- Asking for advice, not feedback. When people offer advice, they tell you what they think you should do in the future; when people offer feedback, they tell you what you have done right or wrong in the past. Grant says asking for feedback leads people to either criticize what you have done or cheer for you, and asking for advice invites them to coach you.
- Being a mental time traveler. Grant says: “When you're struggling to appreciate your progress, consider how your past self would view your current achievements. If you knew five years ago what you'd accomplish now, how proud would you have been?” It also is useful to mentally travel to the future, envisioning where you want to be in five years and what you need to do to get there.
