When you observe successful people, it's easy to notice one thing: they never, or rarely, second-guessed themselves.
At no point in their journey to success did they ever question themselves along the way.
There was no dwelling on insecurities or wondering if they deserved to be there — they just got on with it.
Many people suffer from things like imposter syndrome. They wonder if their skills and abilities are good enough and if they have what it takes to make it.
These thoughts rarely occur with successful people. It’s this blissful ignorance that has allowed them to persevere and not look back.
Push Away Any Self-Doubt
Someone who has achieved success doesn't feel as if they aren't good enough or worthy of success.
Many of us ask, “Who are we to deserve success?” Successful people think, “Who am I not to have success?”
Call it blind optimism, but many successful people get that way because they seem to be immune from all distracting thoughts.
Successful people also don't let any negative thoughts or self-doubt creep in. This seems to be a common trait with successful people: they don’t dwell on things.
They especially don’t dwell on the small things. They have an intense focus on a goal that doesn’t allow for any distractions.
Many people question the moves they make, second-guess themselves, and experience self-doubt. This just doesn't seem to happen with successful people.
To them, why would you take time to put thought and energy into something that distracts from your goals?
Make a Decision and Move On
Successful people don't have time to dwell on things or pander to people. They make a decision and move on.
If they took forever to agonize over every single detail, nothing would get done, and they wouldn’t be where they are today.
This is a skill that has to build up over time, but the ability to make quick decisions is critical for success.
Using your experiences, knowledge, and trusting your gut will get you to where you can quickly commit to a decision and not look back.
That’s one of the most obvious traits of successful people compared to those that are too indecisive.
Successful People Don't Dwell on Failure
It’s not that successful people don’t question themselves or second guess some decisions — they just don’t dwell on it.
Successful people often made bad choices. Terrible ones, actually. The big difference is they didn’t focus on them but kept moving forward.
Whereas a poor decision can often cause many people to self-destruct and have a meltdown — successful people just move on.
It’s not that they weren’t upset or mad at themselves, it's more that they found out what didn’t work and learned from it. It's like the Thomas Edison quote:
“I have not failed, I’ve just found 10,000 ways that it won’t work.”
Successful people take the same approach in their businesses. Since they rarely second-guess themselves, they also never questioned their judgment — even if it was wrong.
To them, a wrong decision was just something that got them a step closer to the right one.
Final Thoughts
It’s easy to tell someone not to dwell on something — but that really is the key takeaway. Successful people are good at pushing out those feelings of self-doubt.
They have learned not to spend unnecessary time on things that don’t matter — especially negative thoughts.
They also never question themselves as to if they’re good enough and deserve to be where they are. Why would they? That doesn’t get you anywhere.
Thoughts like this never even occur to them. Maybe you have to be wired that way, but maybe this is about the importance of a goal, focus, and desire.
Overthinking just prevents you from reaching your goals. They also accept that failure happens, but it’s not the end of the world.
We often get so afraid of failure that it can prevent us from making certain decisions. For successful people, it’s just part of the territory.
It’s tough not to feel discouraged when something fails, but moving on is a necessity. The successful person is the one who sees failure as a learning opportunity instead of a setback.
Successful people welcome those challenges that can cause failure because they’re going to learn — one way or the other — what the right move will be.