Being successful – and maintaining that success – does not have to involve expensive habits and toys. Instead, truly successful people base their lives on strong, beneficial, daily habits, developed and honed over a lifetime. However, successful people don’t run on autopilot, they adapt, adopt, update and innovate their habits to make them work. Read on to discover 12 habits of successful people.
The habits of successful people propel them towards pinpointing their main purpose in life. Tom Corley, author of Rich Man, Poor Man, says that knowing your main purpose of life is the most important key to success. The people who pursue their main purpose are, Corley says, the happiest and wealthiest people on the planet. Find the purpose and you’ll be happy working long hours driving forward to accomplish it. Though that may involve a lot of dedication and tireless effort, it won’t cost the earth to attain.
Here are 12 habits of successful people – habits that are easy to adopt and don’t cost the earth:
1. Go to sleep…go to sleep
Arianna Huffington – the founder of The Huffington Post, the founder and CEO of Thrive Global, and the author of 15 books, including, most recently, Thrive and The Sleep Revolution - is on a mission to prove that sleep is a good thing. Some leaders and business people boast about how much sleep they don’t need, but Huffington, once listed as one of the world’s 100 Most Influential People by Time Magazine, who once collapsed because of lack of sleep, believes sleep can make everyone more successful.
2. Out with self-doubt
Successful people do have self-doubt, of course they do, but they work hard at dealing with it better than most. Like many things that are bad for you (sugary drinks, drugs, or too many late nights), keep piling self-doubt on self-doubt, and eventually it will stick and lead to failure, often before a project even begins. Successful people address self-doubt and cast it out.
3. Ditch the tube
Groucho Marx said, “I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.” A successful person would probably agree with Marx and resist hours in front of the small screen, instead using that time for self-improvement, rest, exercise, day dreaming or inventing the “next big thing”.
4. Just take a break
It may seem like a badge of honour to keep working and working without a break until a job is done. However, productivity and successful business people all agree, to do something well it’s better to take a break – rejuvenate the eyes, stretch the legs, breathe, get the blood flowing to the mind, body and soul – than to keep ploughing through.
5. Make time to study
Education is a lifelong process that doesn’t finish with school or university. Successful people are always striving to learn more, understand more and reach out to broaden their horizons.
6. Diversify or die
A key to maintaining wealth is not having “all your eggs in one basket” – also known as diversification, a term often attributed to Harry D. Schultz who wrote How to Keep Your Money and Your Freedom (1964). The goal of diversification is to hold assets, residency, citizenship, banking, and business interests in different jurisdictions, so that if a natural or man-made disaster strikes recuperation is faster and less expensive. That’s quite a complex set of variables to manage and may require professional help.
7. No procrastination and no wishes
Successful people are in the habit of being accountable to themselves and to others. They don’t wish for things, but instead visualise goals and set deadlines for achieving them, according to Tom Corley of the Rich Habits Institute.
8. Home is home and work is work
When you stop work, stop work. Truly successful people aren’t just successful because they make a lot of money and manage it well – they’re also smart with their home time. They may be late home, but when they’re home, they’re home and not checking emails, texts, tweets and updates. That’s family time. Rest time.
9. Review and write to-do lists
A review of daily highs, lows and accomplishments is a stock-taking habit many successful people do as second nature. Once the day is reviewed, they prepare for the next with a credible to-do list so that they can hit the new dawn running…often, literally, as the sun comes up.
10. Emotional control
Most, but not all, successful people think first before saying something that could upset someone, damage a relationship or sink a business venture. Alongside that, successful people avoid “toxic” relationships that hold them back.
11. Exercise…daily
No matter if it’s 20 minutes or two hours a day, schedule in some quality exercise. If getting sweaty holds no attraction, try a swim, practice yoga or go for a walk; if motivation is a problem, hire a personal trainer; and if time isn’t available, take a hard look at your schedule – it’s there somewhere. You don’t have to launch forth on a Davina McCall-like ultra-triathlon, even six minutes a day can make a huge difference, says Craig Ballantyne fitness guru, businessman and editor at Early To Rise.
12. Wise money management
It may be nurture or it may be nature, but either way successful, wealthy people are usually smart money managers. They invest wisely, keep their ear to the ground for new opportunities and have a backup plan, should a venture fail. Successful wealthy individuals have a healthy habit of turning to professional wealth managers to help guide them through this fast-moving, multi-faceted and multi-currency world.
This article is sponsored by Nedbank Private Wealth
