It doesn’t matter your age, how much money you have in your bank account, your marital status or what you do for a living, we all want to be more successful in our lives. Of course, defining success is different for each us, but here are 16 proven ways that can make you more productive, happy and successful in life. 1. Be committed. No matter what goals you have set for yourself in life, you have to be committed. It’s through commitment that you’ll continue to make the improvements needed to better yourself. Whether it’s taking a chance on launching a startup, getting a gym membership to improve your physical well being, or taking a cooking class because you want to become a chef, commitment is what drives us all to become more successful. 2. People care about you, not your success. Let’s be honest. People don’t care about the expensive clothes you wear, how big is the house you own or the car your drive. That’s not to say that they don’t respect your achievements or possessions. Instead, they care you as an individual and they’ll support you no matter what -- because they love you. Believe it! Related: Embrace True Transparency, and You'll Experience More Success 3. Be grateful everyday. According to researchers Martin Seligman, Robert Emmons, and Michael McCullough, being grateful can result in feeling better about your life, more enthusiastism and more willingness to help others. Being grateful may even reduce coronary artery disease. Take the time to write down what you're grateful each and every day. 4. Take action. In an article in The Atlantic, authors Katty Kay and Claire Shipman share studies on the confidence gap between men and women.  The researchers discovered that confidence is just as important as competence. It was concluded in the article that "[T]aking action bolsters one's belief in one's ability to succeed." 5. Money can’t buy happiness. As The Beatles famously proclaimed, (money), "can’t buy me love." You know what else money can’t buy? Happiness. Just because you're earning six figures doesn’t mean that you’re necessarily content. Sure, money is obviously needed, and it makes some things easier. But, you should be focusing on your passion and not how much your paycheck is. 6. Don’t take rejection personally. At some point we all face rejection. Instead of taking it personally, use it as a learning experience. Why did a VC reject your proposal? Maybe there wasn’t a market for your product. Perhaps you didn’t have a convincing pitch. Maybe the VC's partner just called and said he'd spent their extra cash. Accepting and learning from rejection is one way to guide you to success. With my online invoicing startup I get rejected daily, literally. I talked to 100+ VC's before I got one that believed in my product. Learn from rejection and use it as motivation to make things bettter! 7. Have a backup plan. You never know when the unexpected is going to happen, but when it does happen, you’re surrounded by chaos. Being prepared for the worst case scenario can at least make things a whole lot less chaotic. When my last business crashed, had I not had some cash set aside (that my wife kept away from me), we would have been in financial ruin. Having a three-to-six month nest egg will make the difference. I've found that having 12-24 months of cash to pay all bills just sitting there has significantly helped my marriage be more positive as well! 8. Improve your social skill. After analyzing data from between 1972 and 1992, University of California, Santa Barbara, economist Catherine Weinberger found that “The people who are both smart and socially adept earn more in today’s workforce than similarly endowed workers in 1980.” Related: Developing People Skills Is a Brilliant Career Move 9. Travel. As Yii-Huei Phang states on The Huffington Post, traveling is a great way to “develop a person’s character” and become more open-minded. Additionally, while traveli