9 Habits of Successful People

If you want to be successful, you should probably look at what other successful people are doing. 

I’ve created a list of nine things that successful people are doing and if you decide to follow these, in five years, there's a pretty good chance you're going to be where you want to be. 

1. Wake up earlier. 

If you look at some of the most successful people in the world, one of the things that you'll find among 95% of them is that they wake up early.

I decided to do some more research and found a few of them for you. 

Jack Dorsey, the guy who started Twitter and Square wakes up at 5:00 AM, meditates, and then goes for a six-mile run. 

Richard Branson who has a net worth of about $4.8 billion wakes up a 5:45 AM. 

Tim Cook, the CEO of apple wakes up at 4:30 AM to be at the gym by 5:00 AM. 

Howard Shultz, the founder of Starbucks wakes up at 4:30 AM so he can walk his dogs and do a workout. 

Steve Jobs woke up latest 6:00 AM and started his day with a workout. 

I just gave you 5 examples of billionaires who wake up early and it looks like they all start their day off with a workout. 

Wouldn’t it make sense to start your day earlier? You don’t have to be a morning person tomorrow but start getting into the habit of trying to wake up earlier and eventually, you will be! 

2. Write down your goals. 

Successful people write down their goals. There was a study done in the seventies at Harvard, where they surveyed everyone who was graduating with an MBA and ten years later followed up on it. 

During the survey, only 3% of them wrote down their goals which means 97% of them didn't, and when they followed up on them 10 years later, that 3% of people who wrote down their goals were 10 times more successful financially than the other 97% combined.

What does that show you? There's some sort of secret to writing your goals down. There's something different about taking your goals and putting them physically into the world. 

Instead of just thinking about your goals, put your goals down on a piece of paper and get very clear on exactly what it is that you want. 

3. Work ethic.

Work ethic is not something that somebody is born with. I can speak from that personally. 

I was an extremely lazy person up until the age of 19. Then at 19, I found a place where I wanted to start putting my efforts into. I started working for a sales company and each time I worked a little harder, I saw more results. 

I developed this hardcore work ethic that just stuck and I still have it. And so work ethic, isn't something that you're just born with. Work ethic is something that you build upon every single day.

Whatever success means to you, start working a little bit harder and what will happen is that your hard work will become habitualized. 

4. Daily Exercise. 

Your body is the most incredible piece of machinery in the entire universe.

If you can think of all of the crap that you've put in your face over your lifetime and the fact that your body still runs, let alone that it still runs really well, it’s quite amazing.

But you need the energy to keep that machinery running optimally. It starts to get more energy as you use more energy. 

When you exercise, you get more energy, when you have more energy, it's easier to work harder, it’s easier to develop a work ethic. So exercise every single day because humans are not built just sit down in front of a computer all day long. We're not built to just be stagnant.

5. Read More. 

This is a really interesting fact that I found. The average American reads about one to two books per year. The average CEO, which means that they're at the top of their company, read 60 books per year. 

Just take that in for a second. The average CEO, which is really busy, probably the busiest in their company finds time to read. They find time to grow consistently. They also clearly don’t think that they know everything if they're still reading. It’s not just that they’re reading novels, they’re reading content that is improving them and helping them get better.  

So can you start reading more? Can you do a book per month? Have you ever cranked out 12 books in a year?

6. They plan their week.

This is one of the things that I see that very successful people do while the average person doesn’t.

The average person tends to go into their day in reaction mode. They just hope that everything goes well, while it seems like the most successful people in the world go into their day with a plan ready to execute. 

I like to set a meeting with myself every Sunday which I call, look back, look forward. You look back on last week to assess what happened, what went well, what didn't go well, and you look ahead to this week and you go through something called stop, start, continue. By looking back at your week, you go through and figure out what you need to stop doing, start doing and continue doing. 

Take 20 to 30 minutes out of your Sunday each week.

7. Positive self-talk and gratitude.

Whatever you focus on magnifies. If you’re focusing on all the things that aren't going well and all the negativity in your life then you’re going to attract more of it. 

But if you could find things to be grateful for instead, if you could start your day with gratitude and positive self-talk then it’s going to carry on throughout the rest of your day. 

8. Mentors. 

The average mentor has had seven different mentors before they become a mentor. So the average millionaire has had seven different mentors by the time that they are a millionaire. 

How many mentors do you have?

Do you have people around you that have been thriving in some way? They don’t have to coach you specifically, but just being around them, having conversations with them, and meeting up with them once a month will have you holding yourself to a higher standard. 

When you hold yourself to a higher standard, your life starts to change. 

9. Proper nutrition and sleep. 

When you give your body fuel, you have the energy to continue to do what you need to do throughout the day. 

There’s a lot that I won’t eat throughout the day, just because I know it’ll steal my energy. Start to become more aware of what depletes your energy. 

The most energy-intensive thing that your body does is digestion and if you’re eating things that aren’t fueling your body it’s going to make you tired. When you’re tired you don’t have the energy to execute the life that you want. 

Most successful people sleep eight to nine hours a night. There are a few that can sleep three to four but that’s because their body doesn’t need it. Have you checked in with yourself to see what your optimal sleep time is? 

And there you have it. The nine habits of the most successful people. I’d love for you to devise a plan as to how you can incorporate this into your days so that you too can become successful and not just successful but thrive in every area of your life. 

Check out new episodes of The Mindset Mentor podcast every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. 

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