15 Impactful Traits of Ambitious People That Drive Their Success
Want to know the secret traits of ambitious people?
It is ridiculously easy to assume that successful people are born with some rare talent or trait that helps them stay motivated while working towards big goals. But the honest truth is, most ambitious people are normal, regular people who have the same 24 hours as the rest of us.
They don’t just work hard, they work smart too. This is something that I am always preaching to my clients who have the misguided belief that going through cycles of go-go-go and burnout is the only way to achieve success. It’s not and successful ambitious people know that which is why they set goals that align with their values, invest in themselves, build their network and stay optimistic while doing it.
If you want to know the not-so-secret traits of a successful person look no further.
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1. They are self-aware
Successful ambitious people have an awareness of and understand their motivations, strengths, weaknesses (internal self-awareness) and how they are perceived by other people (external self-awareness).
They use this introspection to help them identify their own patterns of behaviour and reflect on their previous successes and losses because when you know why you behaved a certain way it gives you the tools to replicate or choose a different path in a new situation.
For example, many highly driven people quickly learn that working overtime with no breaks and neglecting their self-care while in the pursuit of their goals, only leads to one destination, burnout so they find a way to utilise work-life flow techniques.
Surprisingly, or not surprisingly, “95% of people think they are self-aware” however, very few people actually are, only 10-15%. So true self-awareness is acknowledging that you probably aren’t that self-aware and that you have a lot of room for improvement.
Journal Prompt: Rate your self-awareness out of 10, with 1 being the lowest and 10 being super self-aware. Now do it again, realistically this time.
2. They know what their values are and are driven by them
When you know what your values are, you are much more likely to design a life around the things you truly want and not what you think others want for you (e.g. society, friends and family). This means you will be able to cut out all of the noise and focus on the goals that make the most sense for you.
Ambitious people know what their values are and so they know what they need to sacrifice in order to create the future they desire.
Their values dictate how they show up in their daily life, for example, choosing to be a diligent, kind, hardworking person so they can build a life that supports their family. It helps them set clear, authentic and intentional goals that naturally motivate them to stay focused even when things change around them. As a result, successful ambitious people are not necessarily jumping from goal to goal with no purpose because they see the bigger picture.
A Harvard Business Review article, highlighted the importance of values being weaved into everything CEOs do, from their decision-making and creating organisational processes up to setting company culture.
Journal Prompt: Do you even know what your values are? List your top 5 core values.
3. They are self-motivated
Ambitious people don’t wait for other people to motivate them to chase their goals. They motivate themselves and work towards their goals because they know that they are the creator of their lives.
Life doesn’t just happen to ambitious people.
A great definition of self-motivation comes from Tony Robbins “Self-motivation is encouraging yourself to continue making progress toward a goal even when it feels challenging. It’s turning your shoulds into musts”.
Journal Prompt: Do you rely on external things to motivate you or do you motivate yourself?
“In business, you’re going to hear the word “no’ a lot. The importance of trusting yourself and your own rear end is what’s going to keep you going. Recognize that failure or the word “no’ is not the end.” –Sara Blakely
4. They know when to delegate or drop tasks and projects
This is a trait that is often overlooked. Successful ambitious people know when they should delegate their projects/tasks to other people better equipped to deal with them (e.g. more time or higher skill).
In fact, a study showed that CEOs who were skilled at delegating generated 33% more revenue than CEOs who were not because they were able to focus on higher-level strategic tasks that drove the company forward rather than getting stuck in the details.
There are plenty of ambitious people who aren’t successful because they refuse to let go of tasks that would be better delegated to others due to their own perfectionism and fear of failure.
Journal Prompt: Are you holding on to tasks you should be delegating?
Related Post: 5 Delegation Mistakes Every Perfectionist Manager Needs to Avoid
5. They are highly passionate and optimistic, they see the glass half full
Life is hard, we all know it but there is no point dwelling on the things that hold us back when we could focus on the things that drive us forward.
Optimism is ‘the quality of being full of hope and emphasizing the good parts of a situation, or a belief that something good will happen’ according to the Cambridge Dictionary.
As Winston Churchill famously said “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty” and that is true for ambitious people.
Ambitious people, by default, have to be optimistic because they have big goals and motivate themselves to achieve them through positive self-talk and infectious enthusiasm. In fact, Psychology Today reported that ‘optimism bias may help us work toward big goals that might otherwise seem too daunting to even consider.’
“Ambition is not a dirty word. It’s just believing in yourself and your abilities and your worth.” –Reese Witherspoon
6. They have a growth mindset, not a fixed one
Having a growth mindset is a must for every aspiring ambitious person. Psychologist Carol Dweck coined the term ‘growth mindset’ in the 1970s and the idea is that if you believe your abilities and intelligence are fixed, you won’t take the initiative to grow and develop them.
A growth mindset is the direct opposite of a fixed mindset.
Ambitious people have a growth mindset because they are willing to learn, adapt and develop new skills when faced with a new challenge instead of giving up or complaining.
As Carol Dweck stated in her book Mindset “This is the mindset that allows people to thrive during some of the most challenging times in their lives.”
In her famous TED Talk, she asked the audience this powerful question: “Are you not smart enough to solve it …. or have you just not solved it yet.”
“We like to think of our champions and idols as superheroes who were born different from us. We don’t like to think of them as relatively ordinary people who made themselves extraordinary.” – Carol Dweck
7. They are curious and embrace creativity
Ambitious people are curious, creative and open-minded. They have a clear idea about their goals and values but are open to new and innovative ways to achieve them because they know that the world around them is changing all the time.
“The curious mind is constantly alert and exploring… seeking material for thought” was famously said by John Dewey in his 1910 book How We Think. Successful people love learning and dedicate time to understanding more about their desired topic/goal area. They very much have a ‘lifelong learning’ philosophy.
This is further backed up in a study by Benedikt Hell et al, who that found “Intellectual curiosity adds to the prediction of academic performance beyond intelligence and effort”.
Journal Prompt: How can you incorporate more curiosity into your life?
8. They are resilient and perseverant
It goes without saying but ambitious people are able to recover from their setbacks without losing focus of their overarching goals.
Day after day, week after week and year after year, they get up and work towards creating the life they want to live. Every single time they get knocked down, they learn something new about themselves and “become aware of unexpected abilities as they rise to each new challenge”.
They are like phoenixes.
As Nelson Mandela, famously said, “Do not judge me by my success, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again”. Truly ambitious people know that they are the only person standing in their way of achieving their goals so they strengthen their mindset.
A research study by Santoro et al stated “Resilient entrepreneurs… face challenges more effectively and maintain higher levels of success even under adverse conditions.” So let that be motivation for you to develop stronger resilience.
Journal Prompt: When obstacles are in your way, do you give up or get up?
“Ambition is the path to success. Persistence is the vehicle you arrive in.” – Bill Bradley
9. They are highly emotionally intelligent
Emotional intelligence is a natural step up from the foundational trait of self-awareness. Ambitious people have great internal and external self-awareness which enables them to quickly develop emotional intelligence (EQ).
Having good emotional intelligence means you are able to regulate your emotions, empathise with others and communicate effectively so that you can get buy-in from others.
Ambitious people don’t let their fear of failure, self-doubt and anxieties control them and they also refuse to ignore them, instead, they are very good at acknowledging their feelings, processing them and then intentionally responding to the situation that triggered those feelings (Psychology Today).
Journal Prompt: how do you manage your stress after a bad day?
10. They are disciplined and diligent in their work
To achieve any goal in life, you need to put in consistent and concerted effort into each and every step. As one of the greatest football strikers of all time, Thierry Henry said “What makes the difference between a great player and just a normal player is dedication, work, and commitment”
Find quotes from every successful person and you’ll see that their success is no accident. They put time and effort into everything they did. They were consistent in their training and ability to fill in their knowledge gaps.
Having routines, habits and time management skills will set you apart when achieving your goals because it forces you to be organised and actually show up and do the work.
Ambitious people don’t just talk about the things they are going to do, they just do it.
Journal Prompt: Do you have routines, habits and a work ethic that sets you up for success or failure?
Related Post: 8 Ways To Become A More Diligent Person (Daily Diligence Challenge)
11. They are resourceful
Ambitious people are incredibly resourceful. They are able to work with the resources they have and find ways to acquire new resources that will elevate them to the next level.
For example, Sarah Blakely, the founder of Spanx, bootstrapped her business by using $5,000 of her own savings in 2 years to research and develop her idea. She was rejected by numerous manufacturing companies who didn’t see her idea as worthwhile and despite this she pushed through, with Spanx, eventually becoming a global billion-dollar brand.
Ambitious people understand that in order to get to where they want to go they need to leverage anything and everything they already have. They use their skills, knowledge, network, tools, savings and whatever is available because they know their dreams are worth fighting for.
Journal Prompt: what tools, skills and connections in your network can you leverage to help you achieve your goals?
12. They are strategic thinkers
You have to think strategically if you want to be successful in life. The most well-crafted routine and time management system is instantly ineffective if it is not based on any strategy.
As the author of the book ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People’ Stephen Covey said, you need to ‘begin with the end in mind’. This ties right back to knowing what your values and goals are so that you can minimise distractions and prioritise working on the activities that truly matter.
Ambitious people think strategically by paying attention to future trends, competitors and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) so that they can make informed decisions that help them achieve their goals.
There are many different tools and theories that they use to aid their thinking e.g. PESTLE analysis, SWOT analysis, competitor analysis, market research etc…
Journal Prompt: What emerging trends might affect your ability to achieve your goals?
13. They are courageous and take risks
It’s not enough to spend all your days ‘strategic thinking or planning’, you need to be able to implement those actions and take risks in order to do so.
Ambitious people know that to make it further ahead in life than the average person, they need to do things the average person won’t do because it is ‘too risky’. Stepping outside of their comfort zone, ignoring the limiting belief that they are ‘not good enough’ and ploughing on anyway by taking a risk can be the difference between getting a job and not getting it, or a business succeeding or failing.
As Debbie Millman famously said ‘if you imagine less, less will be what you undoubtedly deserve’ and this is reinforced by Oprah Winfrey “You get in life what you have the courage to ask for”. Ambitious people know this.
Journal Prompt: Are you letting your fear of failure stop you from taking a calculated risk?
“Things that have never happened before happen all the time.” ― Morgan Housel
14. They are networking pros
I know you don’t want to hear this but if you want to be successful, you have to network and network well. Ambitious and successful people know that it is not enough to hide away in their rooms without sharing their ideas or asking for feedback. They need people.
We all know the saying ‘It’s not what you know, it’s who you know’. Networking is not something you should be okay with skipping, it is an absolute must. In fact, a LinkedIn survey found that ‘73% of respondents got jobs after being introduced by someone they knew’.
Moreover, a Harvard Business Review article highlighted the importance of having a positive mindset about networking. In a study of lawyers, they found that lawyers who actively engaged in networking (internally and externally) had more clients and made more money in comparison to lawyers who avoided it or had a negative mindset about networking.
Journal Prompt: Is your mindset around networking holding you back from achieving your goals?
“Keep away from those who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you believe that you too can become great.” – Mark Twain
15. They invest in themselves regularly and often
Ambitious people invest in themselves because they know there is always more to learn. Nearly every successful person references a mentor or a coach they have that helps them reach new levels. In fact, Dr Ruth Gotian, an expert in leadership development, said in Forbes, “Those who are mentored outperform and get promoted more often than those who don’t,” and “mentees are five times more likely to get promoted”.
Filing in knowledge gaps by reading books, attending CPD courses, and using online resources are other key ways ambitious people develop their skills.
They recognise that investing in their future is a priority because they see themselves as worthy of the time, effort and resources it takes to reach their full potential.
Journal Prompt: How can you invest in yourself this quarter?
Do you have any of these traits of an ambitious person?
I’m sure by now you’ve realised that ambitious people aren’t superheroes or freaks of nature that no ordinary person could ever dream to replicate.
Ambitious people are like you and me, they even could be you and me. At the end of the day, it’s their mindset that sets them apart. Ambitious people dare to think big, plan strategically and bounce back up after every setback because they know that their dreams are worth the time and effort.
Are your dreams worth the effort and if so, are you putting in the necessary time to make it a reality?
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Related Posts:
- The Truth About Recovery From Severe Burnout
- 31 Powerful Daily Affirmations For Ambition
- 13 Subtle Signs You’re A Perfectionist And Don’t Even Know It
- STOP Saying These 7 Toxic Perfectionist Phrases To Be Successful
- 5 Delegation Mistakes Every Perfectionist Manager Needs to Avoid
- Work-life flow is better than work-life balance for perfectionists
- 10 Delegation Quotes to Help You Achieve More by Doing Less
- 5 Hassle-Free Steps To Setting Values-Driven Goals (+Free Workbook)
- What Is The Difference Between Values And Goals – 7 Key Differences
