Successful people are all around us. You don’t even need to be clued into know that the likes of Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, or Warren Buffet are household names.
In today’s post I wanted to speak about the five habits that I’ve found that all really successful people have. If you’ve read any of Tony Robbins’ books, you know that he’s a big proponent of emulating the habits of people who’ve already found success.
There’s actually no better role model than those people I’ve mentioned before that have already achieved success. Everything that we’ve dreamed and wanted, someone else has already figured out how to achieve that. It’s really amazing if you think about it.
1. Successful people take care of their mental and physical well-being
The first habit of really successful people is that they take care of themselves. This may actually come as a surprise to many of you. You may think the highest habit of successful people is their work ethic, or maybe their intelligence or connections.
However, those don’t really mean much if you don’t have the physical and mental fortitude to be able to think and work effectively. If we want to achieve success in all areas of our lives, then we have to first start with our health.
Our health is our wealth, as the famous saying goes. If you’re running a million-dollar company, do you think you’d be effective if you couldn’t get through the day without collapsing into a puddle of nothingness?
Successful people take care of themselves and are in tip-top shape. One that I admire in terms of his ability to remain fit, is Sir Richard Branson – any photo you see of him he’s in great shape and looks amazing for his age. He’s actually credited a lot of his success with looking after himself.
Image: Sir Richard Branson
2. Daily exercise
Looking after yourself doesn’t have to be difficult. In fact, sometimes setting up a routine is the best way to beat procrastination and lock in your commitment. I’ve recently done a video about how to use routines to supercharge your effectiveness and lock in your success.
When you set up a routine, you take the guess work out of what to do each day and you can instead focus your energies on high-value tasks and problem solving.
I suggest you start your day with a walk or run. I’ve been doing this for the last 11 months, and it’s been life changing for me. I’m more alert during the day, I make better decisions and I’m in a much better mood because by the time most people are waking up, I’ve already accomplished one of the most difficult tasks of that day.
Image: Running can have compounding positive impacts on your life.
The most successful people generally have the least of amount of time for exercise, it’s a miracle then that they allocate the time to take care of themselves. If they can do it, why can’t you? They know the importance of physical and mental well-being and that’s why they prioritise it.
Image: Mark Zuckerberg running.
3. Successful people are on a lifelong journey of education
Successful people constantly educate themselves. While formal education is important, learning doesn’t stop once you leave university or school. You’ve got to keep sups killing and investing in yourself to be effective. Regardless of whether you have a formal education or not, learnings is a lifelong journey.
I’ve been doing a lot of reading lately. While I’ve always been an avid reader, I’ve never consciously focused on consuming written content in books for purposes of intense learning. This year, I set the goal of reading at least 10 books – a low bar, but an achievable one I think.
Here are some of the books I’ve read this year.
Tony Robbins – Awaken the Giant Within
Donald Trump – Think Like a Billionaire
Tim Ferriss – The Four Hour Work Week
George Clayson – The Richest Man in Babylon
Napoleon Hill – Think and Grow Rich
Tony Robbins – Unlimited Power
Robert Greene – The 48 Laws of Power
Tim Ferriss – Tools of Titans
Alex Ferguson – Leading
Victor Frankl – Man’s Search for Meaning
As you can see it’s a pretty eclectic and interesting mix of literature, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed reading every one of these books.
You can also check out my review of Man’s Search for Meaning here. It’s probably one of the most profound books I’ve read in a while – have a read of it and let me know what you think in the comments.
Check out this video I made on the importance of self-development, developing your expertise and skillset. It’s worthwhile watching for anyone interested in improving themselves every day.
4. Podcasts – an alternative to books
If you’re not an avid reader, that’s ok. The most successful people consume content in many different forms. IN addition to books, I use podcasts as a means to consume educational content when I’m unable to read. Here are some of my favourites:
- The Tim Ferriss Show
- The Joe Rogan Podcast
- Project Life Mastery
- Bulldog Mindset
- The Tony Robbins Podcast
- Career Tools (this one’s really great value and brimming with amazing tools for your career and strategies)
- Equity Mates Investing
- The Graham Stephan Show
- The Dave Ramsey Show
- Jocko Podcast
- Manager Tools
- Motley Fool Money
- Planet Money
- The Property Couch
- The Smart Passive Income Online Business and Blogging Podcast
- The Strategy Skills Podcast
- The Tropical MBA Podcast
I tend to listen to an episode at a time and podcasts are a great way to absorb content while you’re away from your desk (or even while you’re at your desk!).
Consuming content will also give you better insights to problems and also the perspective needed to make better decisions.
Successful people continually learn from others – about what works, and what doesn’t. They also have a very inquisitive mind and question everything, if you think about it they’re actually quite academic.
5. Network, network and network!
Successful people know how to network and build relationships. By connecting with others, they learn from both successes and failures. By growing their network, they grow their influence.
As the old saying goes, ‘your network is your net worth’ – and successful people leverage this truism to their benefit. Success breeds success and if you surround yourself with like-minded people who strive to achieve success, you are bound to eventually ‘stumble into it’ too.
When you surround yourself with other like-mining people you’ll find that your values start to shift and align, and when this happens their success and thought patterns start to become your own. You cultivate a growth mindset and set yourself up to think and act the same way.
You can achieve anything in your life, right now – if you had the right people around you. If you want mediocrity, surround yourself with mediocre people. If you want to reach much loftier heights, surround yourself with people who want to make a difference in the world.
Networks don’t have to be formal however, some of the best ones are built out of a genuine curiosity about other people. You could have met them at a party, a dinner or a conference. Sometimes, you never know who you’ll bump into and it’s important to remain open to the possibility of expanding your network every day of the year.
You’ll still want to keep a formal network – that goes without saying. This is especially true if you’re a professional.
6. Find a mentor
Finally, all successful people have a mentor. Even the most successful like Mark Zuckerberg, Mark Curban or Kevin O’Leary. Whatever you hope to achieve, chances are someone’s already achieved it before. It makes sense to follow in their footsteps.
A mentor was invaluable in the early years of my career. I had multiple in fact. I just couldn’t get enough of them! I attended every self-development and career seminar that I could.
While this paid massive dividends, I don’t count the payback in monetary terms – even though I’ve been able to triple my income since my first professional job. Mentors have given me the insight into what I must do to live a balanced life – professionally and personally.
Their sage guidance has meant that I didn’t sweat the small stuff, didn’t worry about making that extra $1,000 a year instead of getting more valuable experience which would allow me to 5x that in a matter of years.
Getting a mentor is also great for overcoming your limiting beliefs (see my video on this very topic below).
Wrapping up
That’s it for this blog post. If you’ve enjoyed the read, then I would love to hear what you thought about it in the comments section below.
Until next time,
Peace
Craig
