Successful people often have certain characteristics, such as resilience, confidence and discipline. Many have also learned to develop a growth mindset and adopted routines that help to cultivate success. These include a range of practices, including waking up early, setting intentions and prioritizing learning and growth. Anyone can develop the habits of successful people to achieve more.
When we see successful people, it’s easy to attribute their achievements to luck—without acknowledging the hard work and consistent habits that got them there. The truth is that most high achievers share certain habits and traits that allow them to identify and act on opportunities.
In this article, we’ll identify the characteristics and habits of successful people that set them apart. You can increase your chances of success by adopting these habits for yourself.
What Makes People Successful?
Success is relative to individual goals—what one person considers success may be completely undesirable to another. The rewards of success look different for everyone. It might be financial abundance, a vibrant social life, frequent travel or peak physical health. Yet successful people consistently crush their goals, overcome obstacles and push forward in purpose.
Many people struggle to reach their goals and end up feeling stuck and discouraged. Yet by adopting a few key habits of successful people and developing the right tools, anyone can work their way towards individual success.
Key Traits and Characteristics of Successful People
Successful people often share certain tendencies that set them apart. However, everyone can practice developing these characteristics for themselves. Here are six common traits of successful people that help them to achieve and push forward with their goals.
1. Growth Mindset
A major factor that sets successful people apart is a growth mindset. According to Carol Dweck’s mindset theory, this is the belief that abilities and intelligence can be gained through hard work and dedication. A fixed mindset is thought to be limiting and is sure to hinder your success.
A growth mindset is strongly linked to an affinity and desire for learning. High achievers, therefore, are always looking for new opportunities. They are curious about everything in their field and how they can improve. Successful people know that growth takes consistency and discipline, but they’re willing to do the work to succeed. They also know that sometimes growth means innovations, taking risks and pushing boundaries.
2. Resilience
Success doesn’t happen overnight; it often takes consistent work and many attempts. Even the most ambitious people face rejection and failure. The difference tends to be the way they handle it. Resilience, or the ability to quickly bounce back and keep going, is a core trait of successful individuals.
Successful people tend to be very determined, which plays off of resilience and helps them work through obstacles and challenges. If they have a goal, they’ll do what it takes to complete it, even if it doesn’t work the first time.
Optimism plays a part in resilience, too. Staying realistic but fostering a positive attitude can help get you through challenging periods.
Quick Tip: Practicing daily gratitude can help you keep a positive mindset, even through challenging times, which is essential for building resilience.
3. Confidence
To be successful, you must have trust in yourself, know your worth and believe that you can overcome any challenge that comes your way. Confidence ebbs and flows, but successful people are always building it. Confidence also means not being afraid to ask questions or to seek help from peers and mentors, which is key to progression and self-growth.
4. Discipline and Organization
Coming up with a plan and sticking to it is key to reaching goals—and achieving goals can lead to success. This requires discipline and organizational skills.
Discipline can help people accomplish tasks even if they don’t enjoy them. It can also help with completing tedious tasks and be able to laser focus on getting things done.
5. Creativity
Creativity goes hand-in-hand with resilience, since overcoming roadblocks and challenges often means coming up with creative solutions. Creativity helps people think outside the box and take unconventional paths around obstacles.
Additionally, high achievers tend to creatively envision their future success. Being able to visualize success and new opportunities is a key motivator that sets successful people apart. This can ultimately lead to success.
6. Leadership
Successful people tend to have strong leadership qualities, such as confidence, creativity, organizational skills and a desire to work hard. They help others to the top, knowing it doesn’t diminish their success, but reinforces it. They recognize that uplifting each others is beneficial for everyone.
High achievers understand the necessity of surrounding themselves with a circle of other like-minded people. They often attend workshops and seek out mentors to help them develop key leadership skills.
Daily Habits of Successful People
One of the best ways to cultivate characteristics conducive to success is to do as successful people do. We’ve established that consistency is key, so adopting daily habits that high-achieving people have is a great place to start.
1. Wake Up Early
While success is an individual pursuit, waking up early can give you more time to work on your goals. High achievers tend to wake up early to get a good start and positive momentum for their day. Having a consistent morning routine can set you up for success throughout the day.
Quick Tip: Just as important is consistently getting enough. For adults, this tends to be between seven and 10 hours. Lack of sleep can lead to a foggy mind and negative health effects, so getting adequate rest can be key to crushing your goals.
2. Prioritize Learning and Self-Growth
The most successful people know that learning is never done and consistently make time for continuing education.
They also seek out mentors, which is one of the most powerful ways to advance quickly in your field or career. If you can’t connect with a mentor in real life, you can listen to podcasts, read non-fiction or blogs of professionals that you admire and want to learn from. The key is to never stop seeking out knowledge.
3. Set Daily Intentions
A great habit to add to an early morning routine is journaling and setting your intentions for the day. Setting intentions can help you shift into a growth-mindset that allows you to focus and identify opportunities around you. It’s a powerful habit that can help you practice mindfulness and stay present in your life. Many successful people make this a practice.
Or, they review their daily schedule each morning to prime their minds to stay on top of their day.
Come up with a journaling technique that works best for you with help from our free goal-setting e-book, and learn how to stay present with our free mindfulness e-book.
4. Practice Self-care
Another habit of accomplished individuals is to practice self-care. After all, it’s critical to be at your best mentally and physically to give the efforts needed to excel in a project or career.
Prioritize daily exercise, healthy eating and stress reduction. Personalize your self-care practices so they’re specific to the things you enjoy. Incorporate activities like nature walks, yoga, meditation, massages or simple grounding techniques. Consider seeking guidance from a mental health professional or life coach when you feel like you need support.
5. Make Connections
Many successful people rely on connections with other professionals to propel their careers and find new opportunities. Attending conferences, interacting on social media or getting involved in a mentorship program are all ways that you can make important networking connections.
People who move the needle know the value in learning from and collaborating with their peers. In addition, making connections can also be a way to give back to others and help nurture future leaders through mentorship and knowledge-sharing.
Things Successful People Do Differently
When it comes to success, people aren’t necessarily born with the right traits and habits. They often build them over time, yet these differences are noticeable. Here are some things successful people do differently.
- Set daily goals. They know the importance of going into each day with an actionable plan designed to reach their goals. They set intentions to put them in a growth mindset and never miss opportunities.
- Take action & risks. They don’t just plan for success, they work for it. Achieving success takes hard work and sometimes thinking outside of the box. It means going places where no one else has gone before.
- Stay consistent. They realize that the only way to grow is to keep going. They strive to consistently hit their goals day after day. Movers and shakers know that success doesn’t happen overnight but is built brick by brick, day after day.
Success Can Be Built Through Smart Habits
One of the most powerful aspects that any successful person has is a positive and growth-oriented mindset. This is essential to build the characteristics and habits that most successful people share. It can help develop habits to overcome obstacles, prioritize learning, cultivate growth, and move forward in whatever success looks like for you.
Building lasting success takes creativity, dedication and resilience. Not everyone is willing to work tirelessly to develop these traits and follow successful habits. Yet when they are, that’s where the real magic happens.
If you’re ready to do the work, download our free goal-setting e-book and our free mindfulness e-book to get started on your self-transformation. Plus, discover more timeless wisdom on achievement and discipline at JimRohn.com.
This article was updated October 2025. Photo courtesy of Inside Creative House/Shutterstock
