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Spencer Hastings is the Pretty Little Liars girls’ sarcastic and academically ambitious brain. Let’s discover her rules of success.
I love approaching fiction as entertainment and as a chance to learn something.
Whether conscious or not, the creators of fiction often include many valuable nuggets of wisdom in their creation, and it would be an utter shame to not take advantage of that.
That’s why I have this whole series where I collect tips for success from movies, series, and books. If you like Spencer Hastings’s Rules of Success, you should definitely check out the following:
Read also: 11 Rules Of Success From The Devil Wears Prada
Read also: 11 Rules Of Success From Shadowhunters
But now, let’s get into it!
1. Research, Research, and do some more research
The information you need is out there, girl. Go get it!
Spencer spends tons of time hunched over her laptop researching for school or something A-related.
She is a master at finding and extracting facts.
And in times like these, when we seemingly drown in the amount of information we get from every direction, this is a crucial skill for success.
Stop taking the first information about a topic you’ve received as the ultimate truth. Do your own research first!
It’s baffling to me how many people nowadays honestly believe all the information they see on social media within the blink of an eye. This always becomes very apparent during times of election all around the world.
There are always at least two sides to a coin. And if you believe you have seen them all, you are probably one of the people least informed.
Unfortunately, this rule of doing extensive research also applies to health issues.
In general, you should never ever blindly trust doctor google. However, you should also be careful to blindly trust doctors with a medical degree.
They want to help you to the best of their abilities; that’s without question. However, they can’t always do their best if they haven’t been taught the best methods during their medical studies.
There are so many unique medical concerns that are so extensive that rarely one person can overlook them all.
That’s why people manage to build a whole business around managing migraines or getting rid of acne and PCOS.
They spend every day on that topic, so obviously, they will have more significant expertise in this than a general doctor.
So if your doctor tells you that for 100 years, science knows that acne can’t be cured naturally and that you should take some medicine for years, that is potentially liver and kidney damaging (true story – luckily, I knew better already than taking that advice), don’t just take this as the ultimate truth.
Please broaden your opinion and sources of information through extensive research, as Spencer Hasting would do.
And I mean extensive! Don’t just click on the first three google links; read through them for 20 min, and call it a day.
Do it like somebody is holding a gun to your head, telling you to find all information on this topic.
Once you have those, you are well-informed to decide on any further course of action.
2. Know Your Skills
Spencer is very aware of her strengths and weaknesses. She knows she is a fantastic strategist, can keep a cool head, intimidate people, find information, and stubbornly stick to a project until she succeeds.
Knowing her skills not only served her very well during her school time. She also turned them into her career as a lobbyist and later lawyer.
Knowing your skills makes it easier for you to choose the tasks you’re best at.
It also clarifies which skills you should acquire if they’re not in your toolset yet.
Know your skills. You’ll set more realistic goals for yourself, delegate and outsource smarter, and feel more confident in your decision to take on a task.
3. Avoid Lies Because Of Their Long Tail
Alright, I know what you’re thinking. Doesn’t Spencer Hastings lie at least once every episode?
Well, yes. However, I think she’s often learned that lies have long tails and can cause staggeringly bigger problems than you’d ever expect.
So, I think it is fair to say that a lesson for Spencer Hastings’ success would be to avoid lies if possible.
4. Know who you can trust
Spencer Hastings and the rest of the Pretty Little Liars clique have learned what happens if you trust the wrong person.
Now, I hope no one out there is blackmailing or trying to hurt you.
However, knowing who to trust is still essential in daily life.
For example, you should know who you can afford to tell about your new goal. It needs to be someone who uplifts you and doesn’t infuse you with their doubts.
Telling people about your outrageous goals and having them criticize you for it can turn into your most significant obstacle, if not downfall.
Read also: 11 Easy Ways To Honor Your Privacy
5. People can change
Spencer Hastings and her friends could have had endless reasons to mistrust Mona for the rest of their lives.
And they did heavily mistrust her for quite a while after they learned more about her.
However, they did give her a chance in the end and benefitted greatly from having a mastermind like her on their side.
Being resentful keeps you from being truly happy and possibly destroys beautiful opportunities for success for you.
I’m not saying to forgive and forget within the blink of an eye. You should always remember.
But you need to be able to forgive and grant a second chance to people that prove themselves worthy of it through their actions.
6. Don’t be a mindless follower
Save to say, Allison did quite the number on her friends during their pre-series friendship.
She was a master at balancing carrots and sticks and kept them wrapped around her little finger, ready to do her bidding.
I imagine Spencer and her friends didn’t even notice slipping into that fellowship initially.
However, over its course, multiple moments of realization left each feeling uneasy in this friendship.
Instead of continuing to be a mindless follower because it was comfortable and calculatable enough, Spencer Hastings should have stood up for her values.
She should have done something much sooner because the long-term effects of Allison’s manipulations have haunted her for years to come.
7. Be the leader if you can’t follow a good one
Spencer Hastings knows how to step up and be a leader if the situation demands it.
In many situations, she has been the leader of her friend group. She’s done what others weren’t willing to do, and she’s constructed the plans that moved them forward or onto safe ground.
Few people dare to take the lead nowadays.
I remember many group assignments in school in which nobody wanted to be the first to propose an idea or the one to do the presentation.
Instead, everyone silently sat there, hoping for one of the others to speak up.
The same can be seen during all kinds of projects in the economy.
Many poorly managed companies struggle with a lack of willing people to lead and take responsibility.
You might have experienced one of those phone calls where the guy at the service hotline connects you to his colleague who is supposedly responsible for your query. Only this second guy connects you to another colleague, and after a few reconnections, you end up with guy no. 1 but none the wiser.
Spencer Hastings hates a reluctance to take responsibility.
She’d much rather do what’s uncomfortable herself and take responsibility so that the group as a whole can move forward more quickly.
That’s what makes out a great leader!
Read also: 13 Crucial Dos And Don’ts To Become A Great Leader
8. Brush up your networking skills
I get it. Networking sounds fake, bothersome, and, overall, as much fun as having your teeth pulled out. Especially if you are an introvert like me.
The thing is, connections really do make an immense difference in life.
If you are not blessed by being born into strong nepotism, you must create those life-changing connections yourself.
Spencer makes good use of her connections, whether securing a place in a college or getting the information she desperately needs.
She is neither afraid to make new acquaintances nor put them to fair use later.
I don’t recommend squeezing your connections for all their worth. That can hardly be called networking.
Instead, try to approach every new acquaintance of yours with one question in mind: How can I provide value for them first? What do they want, and what do they need?
If you can provide value for others even before you have asked anything of them, you earn not only a long-term connection but also one who will jump at the opportunity to give back to you.
9. Don’t try to be as perfect as others; simply do your best
Spencer has been fighting to be as “perfect” as her sister for a very long time.
Spencer Hastings is brilliant in her own right, but it was never enough for her unless she beat her older sister.
Her obsessive competitiveness runs her into the ground.
Especially considering the more challenging circumstances, her sister didn’t have to go through.
Furthermore, Spencer discovers that neither her sister nor her parents are as perfect as she had once believed them to be.
If you look out for it, you will realize that this is generally a recurring theme in life.
Nothing is quite as perfect as it seems.
That course your university offers with the excellent degree advertised a lot throughout your lectures isn’t as prestigious once you’re in it. It’s okay, but not outstanding.
And that person you’ve idolized surely has bad habits and problematic opinions that you don’t vibe with.
Nobody and nothing is entirely perfect. So don’t force that unrealistic standard upon yourself. Simply do your very best.
10. Do the dirty work
Spencer does not shy back from doing the dirty work. If nobody wants to do it, she ends up doing it. Be it breaking in somewhere, spying on someone, stealing something, or climbing over freakin’ high balconies.
Granted, she does it as Team Sparia sometimes, so it’s not like she’s always doing it alone.
Anyway, the point being she gets the job done.
Staggeringly many people have all those dreams and goals and complain about never reaching them when, in all actuality, they are simply not willing to do the uncomfortable work to get there.
I still can’t believe how many people fall for quick fixes like ‘lose half your weight overnight with this magic shake’ or ‘become a billionaire within two weeks by copy and pasting this process.’
I mean, really? Come on, people …
You will never be able to win big by putting on your fuzzy slippers, making yourself a warm tea, and cuddling up with your blanket on your bed while staring at your vision board.
You have to actually go out there and do … you know, THE WORK.
It is often a surefire sign that something will make a massive difference if it forces you to step outside your comfort zone.
So do it!
11. Be true to yourself
And lastly, Spencer teaches us to be true to ourselves.
Throughout PLL, many people criticize Spencer for who she is, most noticeably her family and Allison.
And while she does experience many stumbles on the journey and sometimes has to learn how to control her more destructive habits, in the end, she stays true to herself.
She’s still the slightly scary, overambitious, caring, and loyal Spencer she was all along.
Actually, even more so now, after she learned not to let others force her into being someone, she clearly isn’t.
She will not bully someone or let them win at tennis just to achieve success and fame.
She knows she can do so on pure talent and hard work, which she sticks to.
Alright, that’s it. How did you like it, lovely Felicity Seekers?
Are there any other things you’ve learned about success from Spencer while being annoyed with the girls’ stupid choices at times?
I’d love to hear your thoughts on it!
Also, have you watched Pretty Little Liars from beginning to end (write 1), or are you stuck somewhere in between (write 2)?
Before watching the second half of the last season, I wanted to rewatch the whole series, and now I’m kind of stuck in season 3 ^^’.
Let’s hope I can finally finish it this year before Netflix might take it out of the program.
Have a lovely day, Felicity Seekers, and I’m thrilled to bring you the next part of this rules of success series soon!
