What differentiates successful people from the rest of us?
While it’s true that some of the world’s wealthiest, and most fortunate individuals have benefitted from access to many opportunities, and their share of luck, it takes more than random blessings for most people to achieve their goals.
Speak to some of the most successful people in the world, from Richard Branson to Elon Musk, and they’ll tell you the secret to their accomplishments lies in the habits they’ve cultivated. The daily habits of successful people, from waking up early to plan the day, to surrounding themselves with like-minded individuals, help them to nurture and leverage new opportunities.
Learning from these habits is an excellent way for employees in any industry to boost their chances of achieving their own goals, both at work and in their personal lives.
Plus, business leaders can instill successful habits in their employees, by encouraging certain styles of working, communication and collaboration.
So, which habits really have an impact on success?
1. Making the Most of Mornings
While the morning habits of successful people often vary, many high-level entrepreneurs and executives agree that getting up early and making the most out of the hours in each day is crucial. Nearly 50% of the self-made millionaires in а book by Tom Corley said that they woke up at least 3 hours before their workday began to organize their schedule.
Getting into the habit of waking up early can be challenging to begin with, however it means that you have more time in your day to figure out your plan for the hours ahead, tackle personal projects and even make time for exercise. Waking up at 5am instead of 8am for your 9-to-5 job gives you three whole hours of extra time to dedicate to anything you might need to do.
2. Investing in Self Care
Many people make the mistake of thinking that achieving success, particularly in the business world, means prioritizing your work over anything else. While it’s important to be dedicated to your to-do list to a certain degree, it’s also worth remembering that no-one can accomplish much if they feel exhausted, overwhelmed and generally unwell.
Self-care is an important part of sustainable, ongoing success. The more you look after your physical and mental health, the more resiliency you’ll have when tackling challenges at work. One of the main habits successful people champion is getting a good night’s sleep and resting for the day ahead. In fact, Albert Einstein liked to get at least 10 hours of sleep each night.
Alongside plenty of sleep, it’s also worth investing in other aspects of your health, by eating the right diet, staying hydrated and getting regular care when necessary. Your brain can only function at its best when your body and mind are in peak condition.
3. Protecting Their Health
Highly successful people don’t just take steps to protect their mental health and minimize their stress levels with self-care. They also look for ways to improve their overall wellbeing on a regular basis. Exercise is one of the most common habits virtually every successful entrepreneur swears by.
Many of the world’s most lucrative business owners agree that their morning routine includes some time dedicated to exercise. For instance, Richard Branson says waking up early to cycle or play tennis in the morning before work has doubled his productivity.
Exercise can help to protect your physical health, improving your immune system and making you less likely to fall victim to chronic ailments that might lead to time spent away from work. At the same time, it helps to reduce stress, improve focus and boost cognition.
4. Developing Excellent Organizational Skills
Being able to effectively organize your life and work schedule might sound like more of a skill than a habit. But if you commit the right amount of time and effort to arranging your to-do list, you’ll find things like prioritizing tasks and managing deadlines become second nature.
Some experts in the business world spend their days off figuring out exactly how they’re going to tackle each challenge on their to-do list in the week ahead. Others dedicate a few minutes at the end of each workday to plan what will be on their agenda next. Taking the time out to plan in advance means you can dive straight into tasks when you’re feeling your most productive.
Practicing organizing your to-do list also means you’ll be able to figure out what you should be prioritizing based on urgency, and importance. You can use productivity tools like a matrix to arrange tasks based on which activities will help you progress faster towards your goals.
5. Committing to Constant Learning
Many of the daily habits of successful people revolve around expanding their knowledge, discovering new skills, and achieving new levels of enlightenment. In fact, if you look at the reading habits of successful people, you’ll notice many dedicate a decent amount of time each week to reading.
You don’t necessarily need to read the latest novels. Catching up on articles written for your industry, reading blogs from thought leaders, and more can all help to expand your knowledge and improve your communication, leadership, and creative skills. Science even shows simply reading for pleasure can boost your career.
Reading isn’t the only way to commit to constant learning either. Successful people frequently attend courses and webinars to learn more about their industry. They pay attention to the input of the people around them and learn from their network of connections, collecting new insights and perspectives on crucial topics. If you commit to lifelong learning, you also commit to consistent growth, which means you’re more likely to be successful.
6. Connecting with People
Speaking of connecting with others, regular communication and collaboration is one of the habits most successful people have in common. Communicating with others and working as part of a team gives us a chance to learn from new perspectives and insights. It helps us to look at problems from a range of different angles, so we’re capable of solving issues more creatively.
Many successful people also spend a lot of time developing their network, focusing on connecting with people who can inspire and enlighten them. There’s a reason why some of the world’s biggest entrepreneurs still attend trade events and shows to connect with people in person. Some business leaders even specifically set aside time to share ideas with groups.
As a business leader, you can invest in helping your employees to develop their communication and collaboration skills by building a company culture that revolves around teamwork. If you’re an employee in a business environment, constantly look for ways to expand your network and learn from the people around you.
7. Valuing Their Time
Successful people know that time is money. Every minute in the day is crucial, and it should be dedicated to the right tasks and processes. Part of valuing your time means knowing how to organize your schedule, but it also means understanding how you can pinpoint time wasters and remove them from your daily list of activities.
Successful people don’t waste their time on complicated apps and tools that don’t benefit them, they search for solutions that actively make them more productive and efficient. They also don’t waste crucial moments in meetings that discuss ideas which could have easily been shared in a message or email. Leaders in any business environment can learn from this concept.
People are more successful when they’re not distracted by the wrong forms of communication. Team members should only have to attend meetings when they’re relevant to them, and every meeting should be carefully planned to ensure it delivers the most value.
8. Using the Right Tools
As mentioned above, successful people believe in the value of using the right tools to accomplish goals. They might use checklists or productivity apps to help them keep track of their workflows, or experiment with a time management matrix to ensure they can pinpoint their most crucial tasks.
Leveraging the right tools and resources ensures individuals in any business environment can use their time more productively. For instance, communication and collaboration platforms like Brosix can help successful people quickly access their team’s insights and work together on projects to solve problems faster, using video, audio and messaging tools.
Just as employees in the business world can accomplish more with access to the right tools and resources, business leaders can help their organizations thrive by providing access to the best solutions. It’s worth regularly evaluating your workflows to find issues that harm your team’s productivity and efficiency, so you can search for potential solutions in the technology space.
9. Taking Risks and Committing to Action
Finally, successful people have a habit of consistently acting when it matters most. They’re not afraid of failure, but instead see errors and mistakes as opportunities to learn. In other words, they adopt a “growth mindset”, which allows them to dive into action and make difficult decisions faster.
Successful people can envision their goals and generate the confidence required to reach for their targets. They don’t always make the right decision the first time around, but they know that taking risks is sometimes crucial to success.
Business leaders can encourage this activity among their own team members, by rewarding those who come up with creative ideas, suggest solutions to problems and take initiative. Empowering employees to take action, even if it means they occasionally make mistakes, gives them more scope to evolve, grow and learn.
Learning from the Habits of Successful People
Each individual is different. There are countless entrepreneurs out there who all attribute their success to various things, from regular exercise to a good night’s sleep. However, if we analyze the patterns, we can see some habits are more likely to appear among successful individuals.
Cultivating the habits outlined above could help you to reach your professional goals. Similarly, nurturing these habits in your employees as a business leader could mean that you can make your entire company more successful.
Remember, the right tools and technology can make a huge difference to your success.
