In fact, when I studied people who achieved more in their life, they tended to experience a lot more positive states that got them to consistently take action. The majority of people on the other hand, seem to be always held back by lousy states.

If our states are so powerful in driving our actions and results, then what determines what states we get in? Most people feel that their states are not within their control; that the states we go in and out of is caused by what happens to us in our environment. In other words, something happens and we react by getting to a certain state.

Most people feel that something or someone cause them to feel a certain way and that they are out of control. So, when we close ten sales appointments in a row, we feel more confident and motivated, driving us to do more and achieve more. However, when we lose ten sales appointments in a row, we feel disappointed, frustration and confidence drops.

Let us say that you get praised and encouraged, or you hit your goals, what is likely to happen? Chances are you get to a positive state, like happiness, confidence and enthusiasm that gets you to go and do even more. However, when we get a negative feed back, or we fail and encounter problems or frustrations, what happens? They tend to trigger us into lousy states like anger, depression, hopelessness and unhappiness, and even the sense of stupidity. And, of course, we sometimes get into a state without any apparent reason at all.

There are certain days when you just woke up and you felt lousy, you felt drained, you felt lethargic. When you hardly get anything done at the end of the day, we feel really lousy about it. So, very often again, people feel that their environment causes them to feel a certain way.

Does this mean that top achievers who experience more positive states experience different environments? Do they have fewer problems? Do they have people encourage them all the time? Do they achieve their goals all the time and never fails? We all know that these are not true right?

They may experience the same lousy events in their environments.

The difference between achievers and average performers is that they are able to maintain very powerful states like motivation and confidence that continuously drives them to take even more action to conquer all obstacles until they get their desired result.