All of us dream of being successful, at least if you understand success in the way we do at Moonshot Pirates: As reaching your goals. Maybe it is in professional terms, maybe in personal terms, and maybe something in between. Regardless of what kind of success you strive for, actually achieving it often seems rather impossible. We look at highly successful people and ask: How the hell did they do that? How did they get to do all of those crazy things?
Matthias Hombauer, rockstar photographer and dadpreneur, knows four topics, which he advises you to consider if you wish to be successful: 1) Passion, 2) Mindset, 3) Habits, and 4) Productivity. With these board your ship, you can sail anywhere.
Passion
Any kind of success in any kind of area always requires passion. So consider what you are passionate about, and if you don’t know that yet, ask yourself: What are you curious about and what interests you? Often it is through our curiosity that we find our passion, and subsequently through our passion that we find our purpose – our inner WHY. So identify your passion. It is a must-have for any kind of success.
Mindset
On every journey towards success, challenges, hardships and failures await, so in order for you to be successful anyway, you have to learn how to deal with those situations. One way is to move from a fixed to a growth mindset. With a fixed mindset, you think you are born with a fixed set of skills, you do anything to avoid failures and challenges, and you prefer to stay with what you know. With a growth mindset on the other hand, you think you can develop your skills throughout your life, you seek out challenges, make the most of failures and are happy to explore the unknown. Success requires a growth mindset – you need to pick yourself up and learn from your experiences, otherwise you’ll have a hard time going anywhere.
Habits
It’s not enough to have the vision and the values in place though, you must also take action, and not just once, but every single day. So form habits that help you achieve your goals. The habits that many successful people have in common are:
- meditation
- reading non-fiction 30 minutes a day
- exercise
But it can be anything. Forming habits takes a lot of discipline and it also helps develop your discipline. You can even start small, for example by creating a habit of making your bed every morning. It might be a small stupid thing, but from there you can work your way up to more challenging and relevant habits.
Productivity
Having built up discipline through your habits, the next thing is using it to be productive and getting your tasks done. The more distracted you are, the less you will get done, so each day try to focus on the 3 most important tasks and work on them already in the mornings. This is when you have the most energy and focus. Postponing and procrastination are killers of productivity and success, and they tend to get stronger throughout the day. So schedule time early for your most important work and you will get much more done.
In addition to these 4 pillars of success, Matthias also has two recommendations for you:
- Find a mentor who inspires you, motivations you and supports you. As children our parents guided our development, but from a certain age you need someone else, who will share his/her experiences with you and ask you big questions.
- Form a mastermind group with peers who have similar interests, passions and goals and help each other stay on track, for example by discussing your progress and the challenges you are facing. It will help keep you committed and motivated.
Luckily at Moonshot Pirates, we are currently working on a mentoring program that combines these two initiatives. Maybe you would like to join once it officially launches 😉
Until then, watch Matthias’ webinar below. And remember:
Your ‘I can’ is much more important than your IQ
don’t wait – #doepicshit
About Matthias
Matthias Hombauer has a Ph.D. in molecular biology but decided to follow his passion to become a self-taught Rockstar Photographer. He was working with the most famous Rockbands on this planet and after his two kids were born, he decided to become a stay at home dad and built the biggest online community of concert photographers around the world from his bedroom. With an Instagram hashtag #htbarp with 463 000+ photos, 100 Podcast episodes, and a lot of failures on the way he focuses now on helping others to start living their passion too.
