Finding your own success is undoubtedly a learning experience, and being able to take an aerial view of your life to see what works and what doesn’t is key. Happy and successful people actually have a lot more in common than you might think, and their most defining feature isn’t just good luck. Learning what they do is important but even more helpful is understanding what they DON’T do.

1. Rely on willpower.

Willpower is a finite resource and eventually it wears out. In order to change habits in your life you need to change your daily rituals. If you can’t drink moderately, don’t go out to bars. If you eat too much when you’re making dinner at home, have meals prepared beforehand so you don’t dig in when you’re famished. If you consistently blow off your morning workout, enlist a friend to hold you accountable. But don’t just depend on your willpower to guide you because it won’t.

2. Make drastic changes.

All of the successful changes I’ve made in my life are the result of gradual change. From giving up meat, to going organic, to losing weight, and adding in daily yoga, all the changes I’ve successfully accomplished have come over years of slight transition. Real change cannot come over night.

3. Refuse to look within.

Self examination is one of the key tenets to being a successful person. Learn what you’re doing that works and what doesn’t work. Whether it be meditation, counseling, or seeking out a life coach, find a means of taking a closer look within and understanding what makes you tick.

4. Act stubborn.

Refusing to acknowledge your flaws or when you’re wrong isn’t getting you anywhere. It comes back to learning to look within even when you don’t like what you see.

5. Feel sorry for themselves.

Feeling sorry for yourself isn’t an option in the realm of happy and successful people. It’s a paralyzing waste of time. The world doesn’t owe you a thing. If there’s something that you want in this life, then you have to set your sights and work hard to get it. Feeling sorry for yourself also causes you to dwell in the past instead of focusing in on the present moment. The present moment is the only thing that you can actually impact and happy and successful people don’t ever waste energy on things they can’t control.

Related on EcoSalon:
7 Reasons Why Women Lack Confidence and What To Do About It
Motivational Qutoes on Success
5 Successful Women with Undeniable Leadership Skills

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We rounded up some of our favorite quotes to inspire you to live in the present moment.

1. Tomorrow is tomorrow.
Future cares have future cures,
And we must mind today.
-Sophocles

2. The beauty of this day doesn’t depend on its lasting forever.
-Marty Rubin

3. Rejoice in the things that are present; all else is beyond thee.
-Montaigne

4. Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.
-Buddha

5. Yesterday is ashes.
Tomorrow is green wood.
Only today does the fire burn brightly.
-Eskimo Saying

6. Pick the day. Enjoy it – to the hilt. The day as it comes. People as they come… The past, I think, has helped me appreciate the present – and I don’t want to spoil any of it by fretting about the future.
-Audrey Hepburn

7. Look not mournfully into the past, it comes not back again. Wisely improve the present, it is thine. Go forth to meet the shadowy future without fear and with a manly heart.
-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

8. I never think of the future. It comes soon enough.
-Albert Einstein

9. It is a mistake to look too far ahead. The chain of destiny can only be grasped one link at a time.
-Sir Winston Churchill

10. The past, the present and the future are really one: they are today.
-Harriet Beecher Stowe

11. Life is a succession of moments. To live each one is to succeed.
-Coreta Kent

12. The heart surrenders everything to the moment. The mind judges and holds back.
-Ram Dass

13. You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land, there is no other life but this.
–Henry David Thoreau

14. If you were conscious, that is to say totally present in the Now,
all negativity would dissolve almost instantly.
It could not survive in your presence.
-Eckhart Tolle

15. In rivers, the water that you touch is the last of what has passed and the first of that which comes; so with present time.
-Leonardo da Vinci

16. Remember then: there is only one time that is important– Now! It is the most important time because it is the only time when we have any power. The most necessary man is he with whom you are, for no man knows whether he will ever have dealings with any one else: and the most important affair is, to do him good, because for that purpose alone was man sent into this life!
-Leo Tolstoy

17. Write down the thoughts of the moment. Those that come unsought for are commonly the most valuable.
-Francis Bacon

18. Living in the moment means letting go of the past and not waiting for the future. It means living your life consciously, aware that each moment you breathe is a gift.
-Oprah Winfrey

19. Life lived for tomorrow will always be just a day away from being realized.
-Leo Buscaglia

20. Forever is composed of nows.
-Emily Dickinson

21. History is a relentless master. It has no present, only the past rushing into the future. To try to hold fast is to be swept aside.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy

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