We are born with different characteristics and personalities as well as looks. There are things we cannot change in this world because those are purely given by God. We can’t choose who our parents are. We can’t choose our skin colour. We can’t choose our ethnicity. However, we can choose what we are going to say and how we behave and this, ladies and gentlemen, is what determines our success. Our mind has a funny way to do exactly what we think we want to do. When you think you are tired, your body is also tired even though actually, you are not that tired. As someone who works on content marketing strategy every day, the success of our content is determined by our decisions to act, behave and speak. For that reason, many smart business people that take the right actions and enhance themselves with positive outlooks like positive sayings and phrase that are very helpful for them in the future. What are they? Keep reading to find out!

“No one else is going to do that, so that’s what I will do.”

Sometimes people are not courageous and not willing to give things a try because they simply don’t have that confidence to do something different. That’s understandable. However, if you want to succeed, sometimes there are several things you must do first. One of them is doing something you never do before that people are reluctant to do. Do that one thing other people won’t do. It can be simple. It can be small. It doesn’t matter. Whatever it is; do it. You’ll instantly be a little different from the rest of the pack.

“I don’t need to complain. I have to fix it.”

A lot of us complain about things that don’t work well. When we use our mobile phone and an error occurs, we don’t expect to wait for customer service to fix it no matter how many times we send them endless complaints. We have to take action on this. It is either we buy a new one, or we try to fix it.

“I can’t do everything today, but I will take one small step.”

I think I have seen many people doing things all at once, including my friends. I have this one friend who wanted to open a business. I told him to plan carefully and prepare for everything first before flat out starting it without any plan. However, being a stubborn person he was, he immediately opened a culinary business and even made a booth in a culinary event without tasting and branding. That ended up becoming a disaster and he didn’t continue the business as he instead started another business in a different industry. While the ability of multitasking is superb and amazing, if it is done without careful planning and step by step method, it could be bad for business. You are basically lucky if you do everything at once without problems. A smart person will take one small step first and patiently take opportunity to grow.

 “I won’t care what other people may think.”

I have a few friends that are not really close with me who would constantly meddle with my business by telling me what they think of it…in a negative way (and even without being asked to). While they said it was constructive criticism, I found their comments quite demotivating me more than constructively criticising me. When I realised that they were demotivating me as if they knew me well (but they didn’t), I stopped caring about what they thought about my plans and my ideas for my future. I was like, “Oh, okay,” and that’s it. There is no point of arguing with people like that – it would only make you stupid. There are reasons why they stay the way they are, no more questions asked. Don’t let mediocre comments told by mediocre people destroy your will of winning this life. If you have an amazing idea and extraordinary planning, just do it as long as it doesn’t hurt other people. If you have become successful because of that, thank me later.

 “I don’t listen to people, I watch what they do.”

Let me share a sad story of mine a long time ago before I became a writer. When I was a university student, I set my goals clearly even before graduation. My original plan after graduation was to continue my study to a higher level so that I could become a lecturer since to become a lecturer in my country requires me to have a master’s degree in my field of study. However, four months before graduation, one of my (sadly) closest people in my house asked me about my plan after graduation. When I told her about my dream, she demotivated me by saying, “Are you sure about that? You know, if you don’t have any experience in a work field, you won’t be accepted anywhere. Taking a graduate or a post-graduate program will take so much time and by the time you have earned your master’s degree, your age will no longer be suitable for work. At most, a company will only hire people below 25 years old.” I’m going to be honest with you, that ‘advice’ got me. I started to have panic-attacks because I didn’t have any other plan. You know what happened after that? I spent 3 years only wasting my time becoming a freelancer and a door-to-door English teacher that didn’t even get me much money because I found it hard to find a job even with my age below 23 years old. And you know what happened with the person who said that to me? She is only a housewife who doesn’t even do any housework because she has maids to do that for her and she is proudly wasting her husband’s money without doing anything useful. After all, she got married right after she graduated from university, without applying for any job.

After 3 years of feeling humiliated because I didn’t get any proper job, I finally got a job in another city and when I got the flow with my job here, I started wondering to myself. I was like, “What the hell was I thinking, listening to that woman? I could have earned my master’s degree and I could have become a lecturer by now if I haven’t listened to her. Look at her, she said those things to me but she didn’t even work.” From that moment on, I realised that in order to succeed, watch what successful people do and learn from them. It is okay to listen to people’s advice sometimes but be aware of the difference between those who really gave you a caring advice and those who just demotivate you. Be different and be daring – that’s what separates you from those mediocre people.