7 science-based secrets to make

progress in everyday life

Anyway, for the sake of simplicity, let’s assume that the higher you are
on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the better you are doing. If you don’t
remember the levels from Psych 101, basically, a person cannot be their
most ideal self (self-fulfillment) until lower-level needs are met first. At
the end of the day, if you need more food and cash to pay the bills, or
enough love and respect to feel better about your worth as a person,
you cannot be an optimal form of yourself.

Overall, how can you move yourself up the pyramid?

Check out the findings from a few studies that shed light on things you
can do to achieve more in everyday life.

1. Increase Your Confidence by Taking Action:

Katty Kay and Claire Shipman, authors of The Certainty Code,

wrote a great article for The Atlantic about this matter. Citing
numerous studies that found a wide certainty gap exists between
the sexes, they point out that success is also subject to certainty
over ability, for all intents and purposes. Their verdict? Low
certainty leads to inaction. “[Taking action] increases confidence
in one’s ability to succeed,” they write. “Certainty is therefore
 accumulated — through hard work, through progress, and,
surprisingly, through disappointment.”

2. Broaden Your Definition of Authenticity:

Genuineness is a much-desired initiative trait, with the general

idea being that the best leaders are people who discover
themselves, who are consistent with themselves, and who make
decisions based on their own merits. However, in a new Harvard
Business Survey article titled "The Legitimacy Mystery," INSEAD
professor Herminia Ibarra has done interesting research on the
matter and cites the useful example of a recently promoted senior
supervisor who confessed to subordinates that she felt
intimidated in her expanding job, and requested that they help
her succeed. "Her integrity was gone," Ibarra writes. "She lost
credibility with people who needed a certain leader to take
charge." So know this: Pretending to mimic the characteristics of
successful pioneers doesn't make you a fake. It only means you're
putting on a show.

3. Improve Your Social Skills:

The best money managers excel at both mental ability and

conversational abilities, which hasn't always been true, according
to research by financial expert Katherine Weinberger of the
College of California St. Barbara. She analyzed data linking
teenage skills to adult outcomes in 1972 and 1992, and found
that, as in 1980, having both skills was not associated with better
success, while today the combination is. "Individuals who are
 both talented and socially competent earn more in the current
workforce than similar lucky experts in 1980," she says.

4. Train Yourself to Delay Gratification:

The 1972 ideal marshmallow test involved placing a marshmallow

in front of a young child, and if the person stopped eating the soft
substance, they would be given a second marshmallow while an
expert left the room for 15 minutes. Follow-up studies over the
next 40 years found that children who had the choice to resist the
compulsion to eat the marshmallow grew up to be individuals
with better conversational skills, higher grades, and lower
incidences of substance abuse. They also became less obese and
were better able to handle stress. Yet, how about working on your
ability to avoid things like eating unhealthy foods when healthy
options aren't available or staying on the treadmill when you want
to stop?

5. Demonstrate Passion and Perseverance for Long-

Term Goals:

Therapist Angela Duckworth has worked for many years focusing

on children and adults and has found that one trademark is a
huge indicator of progress: persistence. "Perseverance means
being patient. Perseverance means sticking with your future,
every day of the week, not just for the week, for the month, but
for quite a long time, and striving to make that future a reality,"
she said in a TED Chat about the matter. "Perseverance is living
day-to-day life as if it were a long-distance run, not a sprint."
6. Embrace a “Growth Mindset”:

According to research conducted by Stanford psychologist Carol

Dweck, the way people view their personality has an impact on
their happiness and ability to succeed. People with a "fixed
mindset" believe that things like character, intelligence, and
creativity are unchangeable, and that avoiding failure is a way to
prove skill and smartness.

However, people with a "growth mindset" view failure as a way to

grow and therefore embrace challenges, persevere despite
setbacks, learn from criticism and reach higher levels of
achievement. "Do people with this mindset believe that anyone
can become anything, that with the proper motivation or
education anyone can become Einstein or Beethoven? No, but
they do believe that a person's true potential is unknown (and
unknowable); it is impossible to predict what can be achieved
with years of passion, hard work and training," she writes.

7. Invest in Your Relationships:

After decades of following the lives of 268 Harvard graduate

students from the classes of 1938 to 1940, psychiatrist George
Vaillant concluded something you probably already know: Love is
the key to happiness. Vaillant found that even if a person is
successful at work, accumulates a lot of money and experiences
good health, he or she cannot be happy without loving
relationships. The longitudinal study revealed that happiness
depends on two things: "One is love," he wrote. "The other is
finding a way to face life that does not drive love away."