Success lies in a masterful consistency around the fundamentals. – Robin Sharma.
Good Habits: The Foundation
Habits are actions and behavior patterns done consistently over and over again, repeating each day. The more you observe your habits, you will notice that each day of yours is structured in a similar manner. The time you usually wake up in the morning and the things you do after that are more or less constant. As the day progresses, you tend to repeat similar actions everyday. This could be like eating the same kind of breakfast or dressing up in a particular manner. Have a similar attitude towards practically every aspect of your life be it work, relationships or self development.What we are today is the result of our habits. As we live each day, so we live out our life and this we do often without realizing the consequences of our actions. To achieve success in life, we need to focus on every routine that we build our days upon, question every small and big actions we take, review our thinking patterns and constantly strive towards self improvement. Therefore, to begin with, first take some time to know yourself better to understand what success means to you.
Success: Your Yardstick To Life
To be successful in life means different things to different people. How do you equate success to your life? Do you value growth in career as the most important definition for success? Or do you seek fame? Is living a meaningful life and contributing to the society the biggest goals for you? No matter what your goals are and where you stand in life, having a clear vision for it is very important. The clearer you are regarding your goals, the easier it is for you to build good habits around these.13 Good Habits For Success
Check out these 13 good habits to help achieve success in your life:1. Step Out Of Your Comfort Zone:
One of the most valuable everyday habits for success is to step out of your comfort zone. Set goals that challenge you and make it difficult for you to achieve them easily. This not only tests your determination and resolve to up the game but also gives you opportunities for growth and learning. Learn to say ‘yes’ to opportunities coming your way and commit yourself fully to the cause. This could be your work related responsibilities or roles at a social level.
For instance, when you take up the responsibility of hosting a social event, it helps you develop several skills such as addressing a crowd, modulating your voice, giving a speech. In turn, it fine tunes your personality and boosts self confidence. The learning from this activity helps you in other areas of your life including your career as it teaches you to be a good speaker and communicator and enhances your charisma.
2. Invest In Your Mornings:
Utilize your mornings meaningfully. It is for a reason that successful people all over the world wake up very early everyday and they do it consistently. Getting your own morning space is a gift to yourself. It helps you stay ahead in the day and begin your daily routine in a positive manner. Whatever you choose to do with your mornings, its value is manifold. It could be writing in a journal, reading a book, or learning a new skill. Mornings are also the best time to exercise and connect with nature.
Mornings help to stay focused and grounded. It is also the best time to practice meditation and clear the mental clutter. Weave in your mornings around a few rituals like having warm water with lemon and honey or taking a quick shower. Say a gratitude prayer or a simple ‘thank you’ for one good thing in your life each morning and do include a healthy breakfast. To read more on ideas for your mornings, do check out 21 ways to create beautiful mornings here!
3. The Detox Diet – Digital:
Practice two types of mindfulness when it comes to your social media apps. Firstly, choose to respond or ignore the multitudes of posts and pictures and notifications that vie for your attention all the time. Snoozing off notifications for most apps on your phone can significantly reduce the distractions and increase your productivity. When your phone is constantly buzzing with incoming notifications, you will find it difficult to concentrate on the work at hand.
Try limiting endless scrolling through your social media accounts and instead check these only once or twice a day. Keep your early mornings free from social media feeds, news feeds and work emails, you can schedule these for a later part.
Secondly, remember to not compare your life with that of others. All that matters for you is your own journey and whether you are making any progress in achieving the goals of your life!
4. Keep Moving: Physically And Mentally:
Exercising for physical fitness and continuous learning for mental fitness is a must to stay ahead. Consider including exercise into your morning routine and also once in the later part of your day. Be it a brisk walk outdoors, a set of cardio exercises, or lifting weights, or yoga, any form of physical exercise will help you keep fit, minimize stress, and improve your productivity. As you work, take a break every 30 minutes to stand up and stretch for 3 minutes. These mini-breaks will help you resume your work more efficiently.
Common people look for entertainment in life whereas successful people look for education. Keep yourself upgraded in the latest industry developments, learn new subjects to broaden your knowledge and sharpen your skills. Consider investing in courses to add to your professional qualifications. Include reading fiction and non-fiction as a daily habit, reading not just improves your vocabulary but also let’s you learn from others’ experiences.
5. Garden Of Optimism:
Visualize your life as a garden of optimism. As with any garden, it needs nurturing and care, so does your life. Our closest associations can help us move forward and attain success in life or they can derail our dreams and aspirations by mocking and distracting us from our true goals. Without a happy, positive approach attaining success becomes a distant dream.
Therefore, become aware and prep your garden with people who share a positive outlook to life. Weed out the negative people from your life by limiting your availability to them. No matter how close is your relationship, negative people are an absolute drain on your energy and can prevent you from reaching your true potential. Negative people also impact on your beliefs, confidence, and outlook to life. They revel in obstructing your path to greatness as it makes themselves feel insecure and unhappy in life.
6. Organize Your Life:
The first steps towards success begins with organizing your life, which could be through organizing your home and workspace. Of these, the first and most important aspect is organizing your home. A well organized home reflects your personality and helps you feel happy and peaceful. The less the clutter, the more your life is in balance. You can enjoy the simple pleasures of life by focusing on the people and experiences instead of being stuck in materialistic things.
The next step is to de-clutter your workspace, it could be a corner of your home from where you work or a regular office space. A neat, de-cluttered workspace allows you to think and helps you focus on the tasks at hand. When you have too much of paper, random objects, files strewn around, you are constantly distracted which in turn reduces your productivity.
7. Know Your Finances:
To be successful, be responsible towards your finances. Inculcate habits of reviewing your expenditures on a monthly basis. Reduce bad expenditure patterns such as impulsive shopping. Focus on your savings and investments. Do compulsory savings each month. Also set up goal oriented savings such as for your child’s education or for your retirement. Plan ahead for your annual investments. Set goals for your saving and investment plans towards the beginning of the month when your pay check comes in. After your investments are done, plan out your expenses on the remaining part of your resources. This method ensures you do not go overboard in spending your hard earned money.
Diversify your finance plans to safeguard yourself from a rainy day. Successful people always plan for multiple sources of income. This provides financial stability and also gives freedom to choose an alternate lifestyle or take a break from work to pursue your goals in life.
8. Say ‘No’ When It Matters:
Time is a limited commodity in our hands and hence we need to choose wisely on how to spend it. Keep your vision clear about what you want to achieve and tune in your focus to those goals in particular. Learn to say ‘No’ to all the things which hamper your goals in life. We often find it difficult to say no to requests related to work or to social events in order to make others happy. However, doing this constantly can cause a burnout.
Successful people say ‘no’ to almost everything outside their immediate goals. This not only applies to work or things but to the people and environment as well. Saying ‘no’ to distractions, toxic relationships, and cluttered environments will help you stay motivated and on track towards success. The more you learn to say ‘no’, the more you get to say ‘yes’ to things that matter.
9. Be A Social Person:
Successful people invest in a network of friends and well wishers. They develop healthy relationships by taking the time out to be in touch over the phone or to meet up for social meetings such as having a coffee together, going out for lunches. Staying in touch with like minded people can benefit in terms of creating a support system to help you in various situations in life. Interacting with people gives you fresh ideas, makes you more open to having meaningful conversations, and can be a great stress buster. It helps improve your mood and teaches you to develop your communication skills.
A strong network at work makes you more involved with the people you work with and at the same time it increases your visibility among the crowd. It also presents you as a trusting and reliable co-worker who can be counted upon. People who have a strong social presence are likely to benefit from opportunities arising at work as they are viewed as good candidates for taking up newer responsibilities with ease.
10. Appreciate Happiness More Than Wealth:
To be successful, wealth is important but it is meaningless if your happiness suffers in the process. There is much more to life than just accumulating wealth. All that we do in our life should be oriented towards increasing the happiness quotient. If you are continuously stressed over work and achieving targets, it can have serious effects on your health and overall happiness. A successful mind seeks out balance in all aspects of life.
Focus on finding beauty and meaning to the experiences instead of validating on the wealth earned. Learn to unwind and relax to give yourself well deserved breaks from the daily pressures. Another way to increase your happiness quotient is to give back to the community. Happiness shared is happiness doubled. Engaging in charitable work, carving some time out to help others can give you immense satisfaction and motivate you to do even better.
11. Learn From Failures:
Every successful person has experienced failures at one or another point in their life. However, how they respond to their failures is different than ordinary people. When you work on your goals, try doing new things or create better habits, failures are bound to happen. Consider your failures as the stepping stones to success. Instead of getting disheartened, make a habit of analyzing your failures and use them as a learning opportunity.
Failures are like road blocks that test your resolve and determination and help build your strength of character. Question your goals and if needed redefine them. No matter how big your failure has been, do not give up. Try approaching your goals in a different manner. Keep pushing yourself each time you fail to accomplish what you value the most. We never really fail if we keep going.
12. Love Your Critics:
We all love a pat on our backs and receive praise about ourselves and our accomplishments. These are great motivators that make you feel good and boost your self confidence. In fact, the most popular social media platforms work around these ideas. As we constantly seek gratification and approval from our peers and from society, what we should remember is that growth happens with constructive criticism. How we respond to our critics ultimately help us reach our goals.
Never take criticism personally. Love your critics, all of them, the constructive and also the ones envious of your growth. When you receive negative feedback, switch to a third perspective. This is an important step as it allows you to view the things objectively as an outsider and gain a better understanding of the merits, if any, of the feedback received. As you analyse, you will find that criticism often highlights areas of improvement. Learn from the feedback to emerge as a more stronger and successful personality.
13. Be Accountable: No Excuses, No Blame Game:
When things do not work as we expect them to do, it is very easy to make excuses or point fingers towards others. It is like never taking responsibility for our failures and instead giving the power over to external factors to justify them. Successful people never waste time over excuses or blaming others as they recognize the importance of remaining focused towards their goals. They brainstorm ideas to find alternate means to progress.
So stop playing the victim card and start being accountable for all your actions, thoughts, and decisions. When you do so, it shifts your perspective towards problem solving for any setbacks or obstacles coming your way. ‘Where there is a will, there is a way’, is a famous English proverb which shows us the importance of determination and will power to achieve success. It highlights the importance of being persistent in our journey and create new pathways towards success.
Take a moment to consider which of these habits are easiest for you to implement and start out on your journey to becoming successful in life. Feel inspired for more food for your thoughts? Read on the 5 rituals that predict success by Robin Sharma.