Success does not happen by ACCIDENT.
Majority of the successful people did not become successful by sheer coincidence.
Those successful people are in that position for a reason.
It’s because of their habits.
Truly successful people know their purpose in life and are able to enjoy everyday life, due to their powerful habits. You can totally exhaust yourself at becoming successful if you do not develop a set of daily habits that can help you in your everyday living.
Building wealth, prosperity and reputation depends on certain lifestyle habits. Most well accomplished people have these habits. It’s like a standard which is programmed in their mind.
Their habits are called Success Habits. And these habits put them on different path.
Of course, getting ahead takes struggles but with the right habits, you’ll be ahead.
I am going to share 10 habits of successful people and I hope you can ingrain them in your lives.
1. They Do What They Love
Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it.
-Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs the co-founder of Apple Inc. had said these words to the students of Stanford during his commencement address in 2005. To put it in simple words, he has emphasized that life is short and we have to make the most out of it.
The world would not have known Steve Jobs if he didn’t do what he loved the most.
Finding out what you are passionate about can take some time for some of us. But if you want to find fulfillment in your life, you must commit to the challenge of discovering your passions.
Loving what you do and doing what you love are two different things, but they serve the same purpose. If you can’t love what you do then do what you love. Both ways will lead to fulfilment and success. The two philosophies complement each in my honest opinion.
If you look at the world around you will notice that those people who we call successful are the ones who chose to do what they loved. They followed their inner voice and dived deep into their fascinating world of passions. They were able to create a life, that most of us dream to live. They became the best the versions of themselves and world took note of it and gave them the tag of being successful.
It’s not that these successful people don’t go through problems. Steve Jobs was fired from Apple. But then he started all over again and started another company called NeXT and Pixar. Pixar created the world’s first computer animated feature film, Toy Story. According to Steve Jobs address at Stanford at 2005, Pixar is one of the most successful animation studios in the world.In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT and Steve Jobs returned back to Apple.
Steve Jobs loved what he did even after being fired from Apple, which is why he was able to start all over again and find success.
The greatest thing about doing what you love is that you find accomplishment, satisfaction and joy. You will still move forward, because your strength is fuelled by your passion.
When the odds get stacked against you, you will continue to strive.
You will achieve your goal, not because of your desire to achieve it but because you enjoyed the journey. Even if you don’t achieve your goal, you might achieve something better. So there’s nothing to lose.
It all melts down to one point- You, yourself have to figure out what is it that you want out of life. What is your calling in life? Once you know that answer, you will naturally find what you love and do that because you know your purpose.
2. They Practise Self-Discipline
Jim Ron an American entrepreneur, author and motivational speaker has said:
Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishments
Self-Discipline has it’s own importance in the steps leading to success. It is one of the most important skills to develop. Once you develop it, it’s like a superpower- always there reminding you to keep moving in the right direction. When you don’t develop self-discipline, it will cause a lot of problems such as procrastination and things piling up on you. Your lack of discipline will spill over into other areas of your life and you will feel defeated.
To overcome, this problem you need to develop an attitude of Doing What You Say You Are Going To Do.
Some of the ways in which successful people enhance their self-discipline is:
- Motivation- Have you ever taken note that when you have a compelling goal or when are super excited about something, you don’t need discipline? Getting yourself on your “On The Go” mode just becomes easier. This truly reflects the power of “Why”. When you know your purpose and understand the importance of your goals you just become motivated and do everything to realize that goal. You unknowingly ingrain discipline in yourself. It becomes easier for you to focus.
- Remove Distractions- Distractions kill the time meant to be utilized in productive work. Your environment plays an important role here. Create a conducive environment, which doesn’t have any distractions. Put your phone on silent, turn off the television or just work from a quiet room. The silence will help you to focus. I find this to be very true. I find that when I am alone and there’s silence, I am able to work much faster and quicker when compared to working in an environment, which is noisy.
- Start Small- breaking down your tasks into manageable, small sub-tasks will not overwhelm you. In this way, you can create the discipline of working on them patiently.
- Start Early- Successful people react as soon as possible to their goals. Starting as soon as possible is the best way to get things done on time. I seriously hate the feeling which I get when I put something off. I am sure you also must be getting this type of feeling when you procrastinate. One thing that gets me to start early is that- I, first of all, make up my mind and just start with whatever I need to do, and as I go along the way better methods and opportunities just pop-up to get things done. Procrastination only makes things worse.
- Make your Mind Peaceful- Just like how we clean our homes; we need to clean our minds in that way too. Sweep out all the jumbled-up thoughts, confusions, worries, and frustrations. Doing this enhances concentration and focus. A healthy mind creates positive energy that acts as fuel for self-discipline.
3. They are Health-Conscious
In the Netflix documentary film, Homecoming which gave insights into Beyoncé’s super-performance at Coachella, Beyoncé shares that her diet was restrictive in more ways than limiting meat and dairy. She has shared in the documentary- “In order to meet my goal, I’m limiting myself to no bread, no carbs, no dairy, no meat, no fish, no alcohol. And I’m hungry”. Refinery29 says that Beyoncé is a fan of plant-based meal planning and she went vegan in her lead up preparation to Coachella.
Now, now- I am not saying that you go vegan too or follow Beyoncé’s diet plan, but my point is that when successful people have a goal, they pay as much attention to their health as to other factors that will contribute to their success.
Your health ensures a healthy future. If you are not healthy, you won’t possibly be able to handle the pressure it requires to be successful. That’s why it is important to take care of yourself physically and mentally.
Just Think.
Being healthy makes you feel good about yourself and your life.
And that feeling is important to thrive in life.
Simple practices such as- eating a lot of fruits and vegetables, avoiding unhealthy stuff, exercising, drinking adequate water, getting enough sleep and taking less sugar, salt and fat can do a lot for our overall health. Again, the notion of self-discipline comes into play here.
Successful people don’t sit around whole day watching the TV and snacking or drinking alcohol not-stop or just lying around being lazy. These people realize that good health is important for good success.
If your current lifestyle isn’t at all healthy, then craft it to make it healthy. The benefits of doing this will surely be worthwhile in the long run.
4. They Commit to Self-Learning and Self-Mastery
They know enough who know how to learn.
-Henry Adams
Always persevering to become the best version of themselves, highly accomplished people spend a huge deal of time learning and mastering their selves and their life.
Since they have a passion for what they do, they become obsessed at improving themselves. It’s an Addiction To Perfection kinda thing.
They are strong-minded people. They commit to self-control and self-discipline.
“I will get my education – if it is in home, school, or anyplace” – are the words of Malala Yousafzai, the youngest-ever Nobel laureate. Malala was shot by a masked gunman on a public bus because she campaigned for girl’s education in Pakistan. Her efforts to raise awareness on the issue bought international recognition to her. In 2018, Malala began studying Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at the University of Oxford. And in 2020 she graduated from Oxford. Malala’s story is truly an inspirational story to all of us- it shows what a determined individual with a strong will is capable of doing. They fight for their rights as well as for other’s rights.
I’ve got more for you on the Addiction To Perfection story.
Michael Phelps, a former American competitive swimmer and the most decorated Olympian of all time, started swimming competitively at age 7. His coach Bob Bowman, said that Michael didn’t miss a single swimming morning practice from the age of 11 to 16. Whether it was Sunday, birthdays, or Christmas- he would practice. He would spend an average of 4 hours in the pool every day. Such was his practice. This would mean that Phelps had shattered the 10,000-hour rule by the time he competed at his first Olympics in Sydney in 2000. Phelps also holds the all-time records for Olympic gold medals, Olympic gold medals in individual events, and Olympic medals in individual events as per Wikipedia.
Successful people constantly try to better themselves at what they are already doing. This makes them an expert in their area.
5. They set Goals
Your Goals are the roadmaps that guide you and show you what is possible for your life
-Les Brown
If there’s one thing clear for them, it’s that successful people know what they work for.
They know what they want in life.
They are goal-oriented, results-driven and they are action oriented.
Successful people are Clear and Certain on what they want in life. They also know what they don’t want in life. Using this type of mind-set they are able to set their goals and work towards them effectively. Having this type of mind-set can highly beneficial for us as well.
Every highly accomplished person has a plan.
That plan can be written in a journal, written on a piece of paper or planned on a mind map. The main thing is that they know what they have to do.
In fact, at the age of 8 Michael Phelps listed his goals and target times for various strokes. At his coach’s instruction, he had pasted that list on his fridge to ensure that he would see that daily.
Albert Einstein has rightly said-
If you want to live a happy life, tie it to goals, not to people and things.
A life without goals is like playing football without a goalpost.
Just think for a moment-
Will a letter reach anywhere without an address?
No.
The same can be said for our lives. Your dream life is only possible through your goals.
Henry Ford the chairman of Ford Automobile, pressurized the engineers of his team to invent a V8 Engine. The engineers told him that it was next to impossible. However, Ford continued to pressurize the engineers. At last, the Ford engineers made a V8 engine which bought a ground-breaking change in the American Automobile Industry.
If Henry Ford didn’t have a vision to invent such an engine, some other automobile company would have invented it and would have eliminated competition from Ford. And Ford may have gotten out of business.
You have work to achieve your goals. Achieving your goals is synonymous with success.
6. They Value Time
I have a thoughtful quote for you on time, and it goes like this-
Time is free, but it’s priceless You can’t own it, but you can use it You can’t keep it, but you can spend it Once you’ve lost it, you can never get it back
-Harvey Mackay
If you learn to manage time properly, you don’t have to run after life. The high achievers always plan ahead. Managing time is all about getting what you want out of life.
No doubt, that time is a limited resource.
We all feel at times that we don’t have enough time (I won’t lie to you, even I fall in this category).
But the truth is that everyone has 24 hours available to them. How it is used depends on us.
Learning how to use it properly is an art.
Successful people have mastered that art.
They know what matters to them the most. As we have seen, successful people do what they love. Since they do what they love, their goals are properly aligned with their visions. Then they invest their time in achieving their goals. They devote enough time to things that matter to them the most.
The Art of Prioritising.
Sounds familiar. Isn’t it?
The less important tasks will fade in importance by prioritising. Successful people know how to manage their priorities, they have a system do that. That’s how they are in control of their life. They do not have time for useless endeavours.
Time is what life is made of. Realizing this fact completely changes your perspectives on life.
Most successful people get up early in the morning, usually between 4am to 6am. Doing this gives them ample time to plan for the day ahead.
Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple wakes up at 4 am in the morning. He has a strict morning routine to set him up for success. Mr.Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India wakes up at 4 am every day and does yoga and meditation. He says that it gets him through his busy day.
Steve Jobs has even said-
For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: ‘If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?’ And whenever the answer has been ‘No’ for too many days in a row, I know I have to change something.
With that being said, I know that managing time can be a hard thing. But you can spend your time like how you spend money. Have a time budget. This works as a strategic time management and successful people always do this. And this is how they are able to conquer their to-do-list.
7. They are Positive and Focused Thinkers
In order to carry a positive action we must develop here a positive vision.
-Dalai Lama
Successful people exactly do as Dalai Lama’s quotes has described.
Pessimism leads to weakness and optimism leads to success and victory.
But where do they get this positive energy that allows them to focus on their goals?
When you are enthusiastic about what you do, you will feel this positive energy. The high achievers do what they love, hence they get this positive energy.
Walt Disney, who is famously known as the creator of Mickey Mouse was fired from a newspaper for lacking imagination and having no original ideas. Well, he certainly proved those people wrong. Today his name is known throughout the world and he has won 22 Academy Awards. He believed himself, he was positive. That’s how his legacy was created. He has said-
It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.
The mind is the most powerful vehicle, which we are driving everyday. It can be constructive and destructive, depending on our mindset. Many of us do not understand the power of a positive mind. A positive mind will always think positive about everything. Just observe the activities of some positive people. How do they think, how do they react, how do they behave.
Positivity energises you, it inspires you, it motivates you and it helps you to grow.
It is this positivity that allows successful people to be focused. An alert, focused, razor-sharp mind can slice through any challenge. Successful people take some time off their schedule and analyze their situation. They critically think about what is happening around them and what should be their next plan of action. This allows them to take a strategic action backed by information and logic. When What’s App and Instagram were becoming popular in the social media market, the founder of Facebook- Mark Zuckerberg purchased both companies. In this way, he eliminated the competition Facebook would have faced from these two companies in the future.
To retain the positive energy, successful people stay with people who share a similar mindset as them. One is known by the company one keeps. So yes, the high achievers stay with people who inject positivity into them.
It’s no doubt that highly motivated individuals make you feel the same way about yourself.
8. They Face Failure
Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavour
-Truman Capote
You have to fail to get better, is one of the secrets to success that most people who are successful today are aware of.
Remember if a brick breaks down in the 5th stroke of hammer it doesn’t mean that first four were useless.
Failing is a sign that you are going after big goals in life. Big goals leads to big success. The high achievers such as Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and many others like them certainly put meaning to that statement.
Associating failure with defeat can be detrimental.
But if associated with success it will lead to victory. That’s the relationship that successful people have with failure. And that is what truly counts.
Successful people know how to get comfortable with failure. It’s what helps them to improve and re-invent themselves. No one becomes an expert or a professional without tasting failure. Just look at Thomas Edison’s life, in his 1000th attempt he was able to design a working lightbulb. He is a testimony that failure is a process leading to success.
“By every usual standard, I was the biggest failure I knew”
These are the words of J.K.Rowling- the creator of the Harry Potter series. She says that creating the Harry Potter series was not an easy task. It wasn’t a one or two-step process. She shares that she dealt with depression, a failed marriage and unemployment. After her marriage failed, she alone had to take care of her baby daughter. She had nothing. No job, no finished product and two mouths to feed. Raising a child on her own and living on meagre unemployment benefits was some of the challenges she had faced. She had hit rock bottom. She ended up in a reality that she feared the most and found out that it wasn’t that bad. She says
Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.
There was nothing left for her to fear now and she worked on finishing her book. After sending her manuscript to 12 publishers and being rejected by each one of them, Rowling began losing hope. Finally, Bloomsbury Publishing Company decided to publish her book after the editor’s 8-year old daughter loved the Harry Potter book written by J.K.Rowling. From a single jobless mother, J.K.Rowling became the one of the best-selling authors of all time after the publication of her book.
J.K.Rowling’s story is a testimony on how failure leads to success. It is a testimony that resolute determination, hope and tolerance works wonders. Rock bottom became the foundation on which she rebuilt her life and achieved massive success.
There are times when life throws one challenge after another, one disappointment after another and the pain of it seems too much to bear. When that happens remember how J.K.Rowling a unemployed single mother living solely living on government assistance overcame her hardships by doing the only thing that mattered to her and believing that one day life would get better for her.
Her story is a testament that failure isn’t fatal. She says
Failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged.
9. They Believe in Themselves
You don’t become what you want, you become what you believe.
― Oprah Winfrey
Believing in yourself is something you do all the time despite the odds.
Let’s learn how Oprah Winfrey did that.
Below are the words of Oprah Winfrey from one of her speeches:
Who I am was defined for me at a very early age. When I was 4 years old, I remember watching my grandmother boiling clothes. I was standing on the back porch, looking through the screen and my grandmother was hanging clothes on the line. She had an apron around her waist and inside the waist pocket were clothes-pins. We had no running water or electricity so, in order to wash your clothes, you had to wash them. And my grandmother did that in a big boiling pot. She would boil the clothes clean. And as she would hang the clothes on the line and take the clothes-pins out of her pocket and put a couple in her mouth to hold. She would turn to me and say: “Oprah Gail”, talking through the clothes-pins in her mouth. “Oprah Gail”, my middle name, “You’d better watch me now because one day you will have to learn how to do this for yourself.” And a voice inside me, a feeling. I think of it now as a voice because it was so strong. It said: “No, Grandmamma, I won’t!” And I felt in that moment, watching her that this will not be my life. My grandmother’s dream for me, as well as all of my relatives, who were my caretakers- Their dream for me was that I would be like them. My Grandmother was a maid, my mother was a maid and all of my aunts were maids. And so they thought that that’s what I would be.
Oprah Winfrey is a talk show host, an actress, an author, and a philanthropist today, because of her belief in herself. It was her belief in herself that made her who she is today. Everyone faces fear, vulnerability, and setbacks but if we trust in ourselves that if we move forward, then we will figure it out anyway. It’s the confidence that you have that makes the difference. Looking back at Oprah’s story, it was the simple belief that she had in herself that made all the difference in her life. She wanted to end her misery and the only thing she did that ultimately changed her life was her belief in herself.
She didn’t want to be a maid like most of her female family members. She had a wonderful vision for herself. She says- You get in life what you have the courage to ask for.
And if you look at all other successful people’s life you will find that all of them had this belief in themselves. If they didn’t- they wouldn’t be known today as successful and accomplished people today.
Oprah Winfrey’s life is a prove that if you believe in yourselves you can create the life you want.
And one thing is definitely clear:
If the objective is clear, then the path to achieve that goal also become clear.
10. They have Powerful Routines
You will never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret of your success in found in your daily routine.
– John C. Maxwell
Having a routine or system of managing your life is important so that you make the best use of your time and realize your full potential.
People who are successful care so much about their goal or their ultimate concern that it organises and gives meaning to everything they do in life. A powerful routine becomes like a road, which you walk on in order to reach success.
Successful people develop habits that help them in their progress. Sometimes depending on their requirements and needs, they change their existing routines or create new ones. The routines that successful people have, certainly contributes to the quality of life that they enjoy.
A good routine makes the most productive use of your time. Knowing what works best for you is crucial in designing a great routine for yourself. Consider Benjamin Franklin for example. He is well known for developing a scheme to employ his 24 hours most productively. Many people consider him a productivity master. And why shouldn’t they? He is best known as the founding father of America, a polymath, inventor, scientist (he led an investigation into electricity), printer politician, diplomat, and freemason. His well-crafted routine is most likely the reason why he was able to juggle these different roles and responsibilities.
Here is how his routine looks like:
5am – 7am: Rise, wash, and address Powerful Goodness! Contrive day’s business, and take the resolution of the day; prosecute the present study, and breakfast.
8am -11pm: Work.
12pm – 1pm: Read, or overlook my accounts, and dine.
2pm – 5pm: Work.
6pm – 9pm: Put things in their places. Supper. Music or diversion, or conversation. Examination of the day.
10pm – 4am: Sleep.
In the morning, he used to ask himself, “What good shall I do today?” And in the evening he used to ask himself, “What good have I done today?”
By following this routine, Benjamin Franklin found himself to be full of faults, but he had the satisfaction of seeing them diminish. The routine acted as his plan of self-examination. He believed,
Lost Time is never found again.
Having a daily routine as Benjamin Franklin, acts as a blueprint, which resolves the problem of, “what to do next?”
Well, I am not suggesting that you create a similar routine as Benjamin Franklin, but we can learn from him on how to organise our time to optimise productivity. You don’t need a fixed routine for everyday as this can become boring at times, but the theme behind discussing Benjamin Franklin’s routine is to learn on how manage time effectively.
A powerful, fun and creative routine decides what we are going to do with the time that is given to us.
Having a great routine is all about time management. Time is money. And successful people understand this philosophy very well.
Successful people are not successful because of who they are but because of what they do. They know how to adopt the right habits. They know how to do things differently.
And I have always believed that Different Is Good. It’s what sets us apart from the crowd who are just going with the flow. Successful people don’t go with the flow, which is why they are not average.
You might have read many articles on the habits of successful people. What I have done, is that I studied critically their lives and habits and came up with 10 best habits which we all can learn from. I hoped you have enjoyed it.
While writing this post I myself have learned a lot and felt inspired, motivated and enlightened.
I wish the same to you as well.
You can do what you love like Steve Jobs, set goals like Michael Phelps, be determined and bold like Malala Yousafzai to learn, manage time like Benjamin Franklin, believe in yourselves and face life like J.K Rowling, Walt Disney and Oprah Winfrey and live the life you want
OR
You can just do nothing at all and live a meaningless life.
The choice is all yours.
Remember every choice you make- makes you