As they say, “The past determines the future”. What you have sowed, you will reap. It’s never too late to achieve what you set your sights on. Even if it’s not your ultimate goal, you will still harvest along the way.
Successful people have an air of nobility about them and it’s not just money that enlighten them.
The list is not exhaustive but they have at least three good habits that are enablers. And we are not talking about persistence here.
1 Simplicity
2 Humility
3 Kindness
1 ‘Simplicity is the ultimate Sophistication’— Leonardo da Vinci.
It is not simple per se nor does it mean you do away with many things and be spartan.
It is a concept where you achieve a high level of complex and perfect result through refining and simplifying.
For eg, a sophisticated design is achieved through repeated deliberation, experimentation, and optimization. If a product requires one step instead of three steps to reach its goal, that is a simple product that is sophisticated.
It is very commonly applied to lifestyle these days—pursue a simple life through elimination of unnecessary material and information and you emerge simple and sophisticated.
This leaves room for clarity in vision and more creative thinking.
2 Humility is an underestimated virtue. The tendency for a person who has attained success is that he becomes proud and elated on his pedestal of success. He who lets success gets to his head never progress further. His cup has runneth over.
A humble person is open to more ideas and learning, understanding that there are far more capable people than oneself.
He sees the strength in others and one’s own shortcomings. Correction of one’s deficiencies results in more success.
Humility draws people to you from whom you can learn more as everyone has his or own unique talent.
A good example is Jack Ma.
He is the humble billionaire who never fail to share his many failures and he overcame them with persistence and strategy.
He suggested a big heart and a small ego.
He is humble enough to surround himself with people better than him hence building a strong team.
3 Kindness is the willingness to help others without expecting anything in return.
We see acts of kindness from renowned figures in history but we also see ordinary people in our daily lives that manifest kindness.
A call to a friend who is down, a helping hand to lift somebody out of his gloom, and giving money and goods to a charitable organisation.
An act to lessen somebody’s stress or trouble.
Kindness heals the person being helped but it also brings mental and physical benefits to the giver including self satisfaction and more social connections in society.
Being kind does not mean that we take over the problems of another. If we can first give a good listening ear to someone who is troubled or dejected, we can help them view issues from another perspective This will encourage or bring about a solution to the troubled person.
Life has a way of rewarding a kind person and it could mean an inner happiness that money can’t buy.
Let us imbue these three traits into our daily lives — simplicity, humility and kindness. Life can be as smooth as you have never imagined.
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. That’s how Einstein reduced his complex theory of general relativity into a simple equation of E=mc2