The document outlines 7 scientifically proven ways to achieve better success in life. These include increasing confidence through taking action, broadening the definition of authenticity, improving social skills, training oneself to delay gratification, demonstrating passion and perseverance for long-term goals, embracing a growth mindset, and investing in relationships. Taking these steps can help people meet more of their needs and advance to higher levels of personal fulfillment and achievement according to Maslow's hierarchy.

1. 7 Scientifically Proven Ways to
Achieve Better Success in Life
Success is a subjective notion, if there ever was one. But for simplicity's sake,
let's assume the higher you are on Maslow's hierarchy of needs, the better
you're doing. In case you don't remember the levels from Psych 101,
essentially, people can't be their best possible selves (self-actualization) until
lower-level needs are met first. In other words, you can't be an ideal version of
yourself if you don't have enough food and money to pay the bills, or enough
love and esteem and feel good about your value as a human being. So, what
can you do to move yourself up the pyramid?
Check out the findings from several studies, which shine a light on what it
takes to achieve more in life.
Increase your confidence by taking action.
Katty Kay and Claire Shipman, authors of The Confidence Code, wrote a
stellar article for The Atlantic on this subject. Highlighting scads of studies that
have found that a wide confidence gap exists between the sexes, they point
out that success is just as dependent on confidence as it is on competence.
Their conclusion? Low confidence results in inaction. "[T]aking action bolsters
one's belief in one's ability to succeed," they write. "So confidence
accumulates--through hard work, through success, and even through failure."
Broaden your definition of authenticity.
Authenticity is a much sought-after leadership trait, with the prevailing idea
being that the best leaders are those who self-disclose, are true to
themselves, and who make decisions based on their values. Yet in a
recent Harvard Business Review article titled "The Authenticity Paradox,"
Insead professor Herminia Ibarra discusses interesting research on the
subject and tells the cautionary tale of a newly promoted general manager
who admitted to subordinates that she felt scared in her expanded role, asking
them to help her succeed. "Her candor backfired," Ibarra writes. "She lost
credibility with people who wanted and needed a confident leader to take

2. charge." So know this: Play-acting to emulate the qualities of successful
leaders doesn't make you a fake. It merely means you're a work in progress.
Improve your social skills.
According to research conducted by University of California Santa Barbara
economist Catherine Weinberger, the most successful business people excel
in both cognitive ability and social skills, something that hasn't always been
true. She crunched data linking adolescent skills in 1972 and 1992 with adult
outcomes, and found that in 1980, having both skills didn't correlate with
better success, whereas today the combination does. "The people who are
both smart and socially adept earn more in today's work force than similarly
endowed workers in 1980," she says.
Train yourself to delay gratification.
The classic Marshmallow Experiment of 1972 involved placing a marshmallow
in front of a young child, with the promise of a second marshmallow if he or
she could refrain from eating the squishy blob while a researcher stepped out
of the room for 15 minutes. Follow-up studies over the next 40 years found
that the children who were able to resist the temptation to eat the
marshmallow grew up to be people with better social skills, higher test scores,
and lower incidence of substance abuse. They also turned out to be less
obese and better able to deal with stress. But how to improve your ability to
delay things like eating junk food when healthy alternatives aren't available, or
to remain on the treadmill when you'd rather just stop?
Writer James Clear suggests starting small, choosing one thing to improve
incrementally every day, and committing to not pushing off things that take
less than two minutes to do, such as washing the dishes after a meal or eating
a piece of fruit to work toward the goal of eating healthier. Committing to doing
something every single day works too. "Top performers in every field--
athletes, musicians, CEOs, artists--they are all more consistent than their
peers," he writes. "They show up and deliver day after day while everyone
else gets bogged down with the urgencies of daily life and fights a constant
battle between procrastination and motivation."
Demonstrate passion and perseverance for long-term goals.

3. Psychologist Angela Duckworth has spent years studying kids and adults, and
found that one characteristic is a significant predictor of success: grit. "Grit is
having stamina. Grit is sticking with your future, day in, day out, not just for the
week, not just for the month, but for years, and working really hard to make
that future a reality," she said in a TED talk on the subject. "Grit is living life
like it's a marathon, not a sprint."
Embrace a "growth mindset."
According to research conducted by Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck, how
people view their personality affects their capacity for happiness and success.
Those with a "fixed mindset" believe things like character, intelligence, and
creativity are unchangeable, and avoiding failure is a way of proving skill and
smarts. People with a "growth mindset," however, see failure as a way to grow
and therefore embrace challenges, persevere against setbacks, learn from
criticism, and reach higher levels of achievement. "Do people with this
mindset believe that anyone can be anything, that anyone with proper
motivation or education can become Einstein or Beethoven? No, but they
believe that a person's true potential is unknown (and unknowable); that it's
impossible to foresee what can be accomplished with years of passion, toil,
and training," she writes.
Invest in your relationships.
After following the lives of 268 Harvard undergraduate males from the classes
of 1938 to 1940 for decades, psychiatrist George Vaillant concluded
something you probably already know: Love is the key to happiness. Even if a
man succeeded in work, amassed piles of money, and experienced good
health, without loving relationships he wouldn't be happy, Vaillant found. The
longitudinal study showed happiness depends on two things: "One is love," he
wrote. "The other is finding a way of coping with life that does not push love
away."