1. Choices successful people make 
   
   1. Choose to take charge of your life 
      
   2. Choose to be courageous 
      
   3. Choose to be unembarrassable 
      
   4. Choose to think independently 
      
2. Boost your happiness quotient 
   
   1. Choose to be happy now 
      
   2. Savour pleasant experiences 
      
   3. Make gratitude a way of life 
      
   4. Separate your self-esteem and your goals 
      
   5. Invest in healthy relationships 
      
3. Build successful relationships 
   
   1. Contribute to the reservoir of goodwill 
      
   2. Start conversations 
      
   3. Take the long-term view 
      
   4. Forgive 
      
   5. Build your relationships with those you lead 
      
4. Tools for your persuasion toolkit 
   
   1. First: establish your credibility 
      
   2. Shoot down those objections – in advance 
      
   3. Use the Likeability principle 
      
   4. Put your audience in others’ shoes 
      
   5. Use the power of questions 
      
   6. Use the consistency principle 
      
   7. Use the power of the negative argument 
      
   8. Inoculate your audience 
      
   9. Change behaviours with examples 
      
5. Achieve your goals 
   
   1. Make sure the goals are your goals 
      
   2. Plan your goals 
      
   3. Take care with the size of your goals 
      
   4. Use this powerful idea to keep you on track, healthy and happy 
      
   5. Don’t miss out on eudaimonia 
      
   6. Make a plan to handle the obstacles and setbacks 
      
   7. Ease up on the optimism 
      
   8. Follow the advice of someone who’s been to the top 
      
   9. Monitor your progress 
      
   10. Avoid being obsessed with your goal 
       
   11. Take care with your determination 
       
   12. Monitor your behaviours 
       
6. Manage your stress 
   
   1. Turn medical advice into action 
      
7. Develop your resilience 
   
   1. Be wary of stress tests 
      
   2. Forget ‘My glass is always half-full’ 
      
   3. Consider reframing 
      
   4. Help the ‘everyday magic’ do its job 
      
   5. Make healthy comparisons 
      
   6. Use the Three Cs of Resilience 
      
   7. Don’t let a fixed mindset hold you back 
      
   8. Choose a growth mindset 
      
   9. Celebrate success the right way 
      
   10. Accept the ‘down days’ 
       
   11. Be kind to yourself 
       
8. Develop your leadership skills 
   
   1. Make the three universal motivators your focus 
      
   2. Put the three universal motivators into action 
      
   3. Avoid using self-esteem as a motivator 
      
   4. Keep the team and your accountants happy 
      
   5. Develop a mission for you and the team 
      
   6. Give feedback that really works 
      
   7. Be a gossip 
      
   8. Think carefully about your different generations 
      
   9. Choosing staff to work remotely? Think carefully 
      
9. Be a leader in customer service 
   
   1. Consult to engage your team 
      
   2. Develop a customer service charter 
      
   3. Develop customer service projects 
      
   4. Handle complaints effectively 
      
10. Enhance your professional reputation 
    
    1. Maintain ‘the professional you’ 
       
11. Develop your writing skills 
    
    1. Writing: Don’t think your topic is too serious for plain language 
       
    2. Add humans to your writing 
       
    3. Write paragraphs the easy way 
       
    4. Ignore the misleading advice 
       
12. Work on your new habits 
    
    1. Accept that new habits take time 
       
    2. Focus on what works 
       
    3. Cure procrastination 
       
    4. Link a new habit with an old habit or inevitable event 
       
    5. Forgive the lapses 
       

This book will help you be more motivated, productive and resilient at work. Almost all the ideas come from peer-reviewed research. The rest are from the authors 25 years of experience leading a company and training adults in four countries. Some of the ideas will surprise you.

Discover what the most successful people do. Learn about choices they make, how they build relationships, manage stress and build their resilience. Learn about ways they lead and achieve their goals, how they communicate in writing and change to more productive habits. 

This book comes in bite-sized chunks. Choose what’s most useful for you today. You’ll want to return to it again and again.

About the author

Ralph speaks to conferences and leads workshops throughout New Zealand and in Asia and Australia. He specialises in the psychology of success.

His series ‘What successful people really do’ and ‘The village that could’ are in Bookboon’s Premium collection. He has written three other books, academic papers on psychology and more than a hundred blogs and articles.

Ralph has a background in psychology, business and journalism. (His career includes more than 12 years as a journalist for Television New Zealand and on secondment to the BBC.)

In 2011, Professional Speakers Australia awarded him the CSP – the highest international accreditation for professional speakers.

Ralph founded what is now Skillset New Zealand more than 30 years ago and remains its managing director. Skillset’s clients are amongst New Zealand’s largest organisations.