There are too many unhappy, miserable people who take large paychecks to validate any assumption that money brings lasting happiness. Successful, wealthy, happy individuals know the key to happiness lies in being consistent students of life who are humble and inspired by self-development.

1. Self-reflective.

Those living the Total-Life Package are people dedicated to the pursuit of self-awareness. These individuals can accurately observe their own emotions and understand their tendencies across situations.

They know to genuinely understand their emotions they must spend significant time thinking about them to figure out where they come from and why they are there. This kind of self-reflection makes these people remarkably clear on knowing what they do well, what motivates and satisfies them and which people and situations push their buttons.

Being self-reflective makes these people far more likely to pursue the right opportunities, to put their strengths to work and, perhaps most importantly, they are able to keep their emotions from holding them back.

2. Self-control.

The truly successful possess strong skills in self-management. They have the ability to use the awareness they have of their emotions to actively choose what they say and what they do in any given situation, no matter how heated the situation may be.

They know to have self-control they must be patient. The successful know patience is a hard earned wisdom because the space of waiting is always challenging and difficult to live out. These individuals understand fear always pushes them want to act too soon and that patience, as hard as it is, helps them to outlast their assumptions.

When the truly successful hit times of uncertainty in life or business, as hard as it is, they wait. They do not make emotional decisions. In waiting they are able to make rational decisions, thereby increasing their potential for success, as they live with very little regret or mess to clean up.

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