“Practice isn’t the thing you do once you’re good. It’s the thing you do that makes you good.”
– Malcolm Gladwell
Why are habits important to success? No matter what success looks like for you, the one key thing that’ll ensure you achieve it is consistent directed action. Read about any successful person, whether in history or now, and you’ll find that the common thread in all their stories is consistent action.
Habits for success will ensure that you keep on taking meaningful action even when feeling unmotivated or uninspired. They give you the freedom to enjoy life while working on your goals and growing every step of the way. As Zig Ziglar very rightly said, ” What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.”
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What are the best habits for success
Our habits reflect our approach to life. They can be one of the most powerful life-enhancing tools to simplify & speed up your journey to life goals.
Here are some common habits of successful persons that didn’t only help them become who they are but would hopefully also inspire you to make the changes needed to get the most out of your life.
1. Finding opportunities to grow:
Whether it’s being open to constructive feedback, lessons to be learned from failures, or owning up mistakes, one of the best habits you can develop for success in life is being open to improvement & new ideas.
When we learn to shift our focus from showing what we know & proving we are smart to taking on challenges & improving on what we know, our journey to success speeds up exponentially. You become a better listener improving your image & relationship with others, stop playing the blame game, and most importantly start finding creative solutions instead of staying stuck complaining.
A regular on the list of most important artists of the twentieth century, Cindy Sherman failed her first photography course but reached her stature of excellence because of a passion for learning. The uncoordinated graceless child Ben Hogan grew to become one of the best golfers in history.
There are scores of examples showing the qualities you admire can be developed. You just need to be open to learning.
2. Staying in-tune with inner self:
Whether in personal or professional life, only that kind of success really brings life satisfaction which is in tune with what you really want from life. Success looks different for everyone because we all have different visions of a perfect life.
The oldest gymnast recorded by Guinness Book of Records, Johanna Quaas didn’t give up on her childhood dream of becoming a professional gymnast through un-negotiable family duties. She started her successful career as a professional gymnast at the age of 56.
Develop a habit of setting time aside for introspection and realigning your strategies, plan of actions & goals with your changing expectations from life. It will stop you wasting time on results that you no longer really care about & strengthen your conviction about the ones that speak to your heart.
Stay in tune with your inner self by journaling regularly your thoughts & visions. Analyze them from time to time and understand how to improve on today. It will help clear mental clutter, get a good grab on self-concept, & help you stay motivated becoming aware of all the good things in your life.
3. Saying no:
Create & maintain healthy boundaries by saying no to choices that aren’t aligned with life goals or take the focus away. It will help you stay trustworthy, productive, calm, goal-oriented, and stop you from getting distracted with comparison or every new shiny thing.
As one of the most successful investors in the world, philanthropist Warren Buffett said, “The difference between successful people and very successful people is that very successful people say ‘no’ to almost everything.”
It helps you get all the benefits of being goal-oriented from simplifying life, staying focused, & enjoying every step of your life journey.
4. Discipline using time:
Habits of success like staying organized, setting goals, prioritizing tasks, & following to-do lists help you make the best of whatever time you’ve available. Stay disciplined with your time management by avoiding time wasters & waking up early to get clear about the structure & priorities for your day.
Celebrity fitness trainer & author Tracy Anderson says, “I do a lot of little notes and ideas, and then I figure out which ones I’m going to keep, which ones I’m going to save for later, and how I’m going to craft the bigger piece out of many of them.”
So does Mary Erdoes, CEO of JPMorgan. She told CNBC “Calendar management is the single most important thing, especially as you get busy and have more responsibilities.”
5. Taking action:
Prepare yourself to take action whether it means stepping out of your comfort zone, overcoming the limiting beliefs holding your step back or handling the fear of failure. Taking consistent action should be a non-negotiable in your list of habits for success to develop.
Keep taking imperfect action. It’ll take you farther than waiting for the perfect plan, perfect time, or perfect opportunity. Take the roadblocks, side swerves, & missed attempts as challenges & gifts that will help improve how well you achieve your goals.
One of the most inspirational journeys of successful people I can think of is JK Rowling who channeled her hardships into one of the most successful non-fiction series of our time. In her words,
“We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better.”
6. Habits for success – Choosing positivity:
Practice every day consciously to focus on the positives in life without ignoring the full picture. Your self-talk is super important when it comes to how you experience life. Keep it positive & encouraging as you would speak to your best friend who needs encouragement.
A positive attitude & desire to look for a solution instead of feeling victimized will amplify your emotional resilience. You become adept at handling daily stress & bouncing back from setbacks.
Did you know, the legendary musician Beethoven chose to find positivity despite depression, thoughts of self-harm and musical disaster on stage because of his increasing deafness? He even found an ingenious way to listen to what he created because he had become nearly deaf. And that technique is still in its exclusive phase of general use headphone development today.
That’s how powerful emotional resilience & a habit of looking for the positives can be.
7. Caring for your mind:
Take caring for your mind seriously. Develop a habit of spending time alone with your thoughts. Take an introspective walk in the park, practice mindfulness in a simple way, or meditate. But the idea is to create a sense of calm & enhanced awareness.
It will help you focus better, analyze situations from different perspectives, & keep you attuned with your real self.
Scientific studies (Department of Biological and Clinical Psychology at Friedrich Schiller University, Germany) have shown that our brain reacts with a strong stress response when we are exposed to toxic behavior from people.
Stress takes the brain’s focus away from everything else & makes it essentially unable to find solutions, be creative, or consider other options available. Simply speaking, it does everything opposite to what achieving life satisfaction requires from us.
Surround yourself with positivity, motivation, & inspiration. Connect with motivated people who are ready to act & improve. And avoid negative or toxic people as much as you can.
“An insincere and evil friend is more to be feared than a wild beast; a wild beast may wound your body, but an evil friend will wound your mind.”
– Buddha
8. Caring for your body:
Habits for success require a strong healthy body to carry them through. Take good care of the outside & inside of your body, whether it’s through maintaining good hygiene, exercising, or simply making a point to maintain good posture & not staying stuck at your desk all day.
The idea is to move your body as much as your energy level can support & the way you like it. If you like dancing, learn figure 8 dancing routine. Don’t think jogging is for you? Do brisk walking. If nothing else, get into a routine of simple stretching & breathing exercises. Then pick up intensity as you go along.
Anna Wintour plays an hour of tennis every day, Bill Gates uses the treadmill for an hour daily, & Jack Dorsey of Twitter does yoga as well as goes to the gym routinely.
Modulated physical activity will help keep your spirits up with better happy hormone production & also stay focused longer.
9. Caring for your soul:
Taking care to unwind & relax every day is as important as taking action consistently. A rejuvenated soul will keep you motivated, geared towards productivity, & more resilient to stress.
Take unwinding seriously. Make daily self-care & stress relief a habit. Balance work & play. Prioritize sleep. Take a walk in the park or make a lunch date with your best friend. Do whatever helps to change your pace & unwind.
Ariana Huffington, founder of The Huffington Post is an avid supporter of short relaxing breaks as they boost productivity & decrease stress. She says, “It just makes a difference to how the rest of your day goes.”
10. Reading daily – an important habit for success:
Set aside time every day to read. Read to stay inspired, improve, & widen understanding of the intricate world we live in. It will help make sense of seemingly unrelated things by widening your world view.
For Bill Gates who reads about 50 books a year, it’s still one of the primary ways to learn new things & test his understanding. Mark Cuban reads for confidence in business. Warren Buffet says about the key to success, “Read 500 pages every day. That’s how knowledge works. It builds up, like compound interest.”
What are the benefits of habits
There are countless benefits of putting on autopilot positive actions that help us grow, be better, & perform better every day. When you develop habits for success whether in personal or professional life, it improves how you experience life.
Habits help you grow into the person who is able to achieve what you dream your perfect life to be. It gives you the freedom to enjoy life even while taking action to reach your goals every day.
1. Freedom:
Have you ever said, “Oh my gosh, I’ll have to brush my teeth today…that’s such a chore!”? We might have said it as kids but brushing our teeth is now an effortless part of our daily routine because it became a habit. It’s as normal as breathing, rating when you are hungry or having a drink when thirsty.
Routines and the discipline in following them create habits. Habits put our action on autopilot and give our brain the freedom to focus on other things. It gives us freedom from the need for motivation to be productive.
2. Ease:
Habits put actions on autopilot. When you develop habits for success & health, important things like taking goal-oriented actions every day or exercising daily become effortless. It becomes possible to show up every day without any extra effort.
Habits make sticking to plans and strategies for your personal, professional, and life goals easier.
3. Habits for success ensure consistency:
Taking consistent action is one of the most crucial ingredients for success in personal as well as professional life. One of the major benefits of developing habits for success is it will help you keep moving forward every day no matter what.
You’ll be able to show up through failure, tough times, uncertainties and all. It will help you make every day meaningful.
“It’s not what we do once in a while that shapes our lives, but what we do consistently.”
– Tony Robbins
Habits for success – how habits are formed
Simply speaking, when we repeat a routine day in and day out, it becomes a habit. Strategies and discipline in following them turn them into effortless actions. And so habits give our brain a break from having to make conscious decisions.
Normally, it takes 21 days to form a habit. Persistence is the key that will turn habits into an effortless part of your personality in a few months.
Breaking bad habits:
It is easier to create new habits to replace old ones than to completely break away from an old habit. So, you’ll find it easier to replace than to break bad habits. The trick is to use the trigger point of the habit you want to break and follow it with an action that you prefer. End the routine with a treat just like when creating good habits.
Creating good habits for success:
Here’s how you can consciously develop good personal habits using 3 steps I call the ACT method.
(A) Action:
Decide on a specific action as your habit, not something general. For example, it should be something like ’10 minutes of mindful breathing exercise before breakfast every morning’.
(C) Connect:
To trigger this action, connect it to something you do every day. And make it easy to follow. Like, keep a floor cushion on your chair at the breakfast table. Removing the cushion to sit will remind you of doing your 10 minutes of mindful breathing sitting on the floor cushion.
(T) Treat:
Follow your successful completion of the task with a treat. Our brain likes to repeat any action that is followed by a reward. Say, after finishing your 10 minutes breathing exercise, treat yourself with a cup of blueberry yogurt or any small treat you like.
Quotes to inspire habits for success
1. “Success is the sum of small efforts repeated day in and day out”. -Robert Collier
2. “Habit will sustain you whether you’re inspired or not.” – Octavia Butler
“Discipline is choosing between what you want now and what you want most.”
– Abraham Lincoln
4. “You’ll never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret of your success is found in your daily routine.” -John C. Maxwell
5. “Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.” – Jim Rohn
Roman philosopher Seneca said, “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” Developing habits for success will keep you prepared to notice & take up those opportunities in life.
The daily habits of successful people are geared towards making them better at what they do, make most of the time available to them, and keeping their attitude, mind, & body in perfect shape to be ready for any challenge along the way.
The road to achieving your life goals doesn’t need to be uphill all the way. A bit of planning & discipline can make it meaningful & fun. Use these top ten habits for success as guiding signs & create routines that help you grow and set you free.
Let us know in the comments below what you think of developing a habit of saying no for the right reasons. Do you feel it’s worth the effort?
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