Success Impulse: What are you talking about?
If you study the subject of success (which I have for years now), you know that there are big differences in what the successful talk about compared to more average people.
Successful people talk to a large extent about fundamentally different topics than less successful people. The question now is: what is cause, what is effect?
Are the successful more successful because they talk about other topics, or do they talk about other topics because they are more successful? The latter assumption is certainly true because, of course, with sustained success, you simply have other topics surrounding you.
But the first assumption (topic selection as a cause) is also demonstrably correct: Your choice of topics determines how successful you are.
What do successful people talk about?
Thus, the successful ones usually talk about the Decisions the present and about the Targets the future. Average people, on the other hand, focus on the Situation and problems the present and on the past ("it used to be better").
Successful people often talk about visions and goals, while mediocre people tend to talk about other people and events.
Successful people see the opportunities and control the risks. The less successful see the risks and avoid the opportunities.
Become more successful by choosing the right topics
This isn't black and white, of course, but you see the pattern, I hope. Here are three things to look for in yourself and your colleagues in your next conversation or meeting to become incrementally more successful just by your choice of topics:
- Future. What opportunities and possibilities do you see that you can seize from today's situation? How can you learn from mistakes? Where can you grow? (Instead of: "What was better in the past, and where are the problems today?")
- Destination. What do you want to achieve with the respective discussion? Where is the journey going? In many discussions, I have the impression that people are frantically trying to change the past. That is a waste of energy.
- Decision. What decision do you make with the help of the discussion? Successful people decide more consistently than the average. Discussions without consistency are mostly useless, except for entertainment.
And last but not least: You can continue as before - or you can change something. That, too, is a decision for more success or against it.
To the author:
Volkmar Völzke is a success maximizer. Book author. Consultant. Coach. Speaker. www.volkmarvoelzke.ch
