Success is not an accident, but a chained of events that were consciously planned. Successful people don’t achieve spectacular results in life just because they want it in their heads.
They are absolutely committed, and they do something different than most people on a daily basis, and that’s what makes them successful.
Extraordinary people don’t just become great out of nothing, it is what they do every day, their habits, that differentiate them from the rest.
The good news is that we all can develop success habits to change our lives. The bad news is that it is not going to be easy.
I do believe that anyone can be successful if they wanted to.
If you are willing to do the hard things, put your mind to it, willing to learn, improve, and build the right habits, characters, and mindset, you too can become successful.
So, what are the things that successful people do every day that make them successful?
Here are 7 small success habits that you should pick up if you want to create outstanding results in life…
1. Read and learn about your industry
First, make it a habit to read and learn about your industry. I’m not saying that you should read a lot of books like me, but you must commit to improving and updating yourself on your industry.
What industry are you in? Are you a blogger and an internet marketer? Are you into the stock market? Or you invest in real estate?
No matter what industry you’re in, you must commit to constant learning and never-ending improvement.
You need to constantly inject yourself with updated information about your industry every day.
Warren Buffett reads newspapers for a couple of hours every day. He does so to constantly keep himself updated with the market. He knows the market trend and so he can predict which industry is going to perform.
And you should do the same.
Read and update yourself about your industry news every day. I read other people’s blogs to keep track of the blogging world each day.
Besides, I also read personal development books to understand my industry better. What about you? Have you picked up this habit of constant and never-ending improvement?
2. Exercise to maintain a healthy body and a strong mind
Besides reading and learning, you must also exercise to build a strong body and a sharp mind.
Do you know that physical health is important to your overall wellbeing and performance?
In her famous book, What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast, Laura Vanderkam shared that one of the most common habits of extraordinary people is that they exercise before they get to work.
I suggest you read the book and you will agree with Vanderkam, that successful people are busy, and the fact that they spend time to exercise no matter how busy they are shows that exercise is important.
Exercise doesn’t just make you physically healthy, it also helps you keep a sharp and creative mind.
When you work out in the gym, you are tired and sweating. And the moment you choose to push through your limits, you are building a stronger mental muscle.
You grow and build stronger willpower, which will help you in your journey of pursuing your goals and success you want.
3. Spend time with inspiring people
Another common small habit that successful people owned is they spend time with people who inspire them every day.
Regardless of whether these people are their colleagues, partners, friends, or mentors, they spend time with inspiring people as much as possible.
Successful people seem to know that energy is contagious, and you will become who you spend the most time with.
When you spend time with mediocre people, you will end up becoming one of them.
Just think about it, what do mediocre people talk about most of the time? They talk about other people, they make excuses and they blame other things most of the time.
Hence, when you join mediocre people, you will talk about the same things too. You will be influenced by the conversation and start to think like them.
This is why successful people don’t spend time with mediocre people. They know that if they spend time with these people, they will end up becoming a loser like them.
Therefore, spend time with people who inspire you. Make friends with positive and successful people who encourage you to do better in life.
Once you have adopted this small success habit, your life will start to change for the better.
Remember this quote:
“You can’t litter negativity everywhere and then wonder why you’ve got such a trashy life.”
4. Focus and work on the most important task
Another small but impactful success habit you must develop is your ability to focus on the most important task.
Unsuccessful people do whatever things that come to them, successful people focus on getting the most result-yielding task done.
You can be extremely hard working, but if you work on the menial and not important tasks, you will never produce as much success as you want.
Success is about doing the right things.
If your goal is to build a successful blog, reading books about how to organize your workstation is not going to help.
You need to be actively doing the right things that give you the right result in order to achieve the success you want.
You can’t live a reactive life and just wait for things to happen or wait for people to tell you what to do.
Successful people are proactive people. They know what they want, they go out and do it. They focus on doing the work that gives them the result.
You have to be the same. Make it a habit to work on the important task first.
Apply the 90-90-1 Rule to help you quickly build your success to the next level.
5. Plan and schedule your day
The next small success habit you should develop is the habit of planning.
I know you know about planning, but are you doing it? Do you plan and schedule your day? How often do you do it?
Successful people plan their day every day. They know what they need to do and they don’t leave things up to chances.
As I mentioned, successful people are proactive people. They don’t wait for things to happen. They are the ones who go and make things happen.
And thus, they plan and schedule their day. They know what they need to do to get to their goals.
What about you? Do you write down your to-do list? Do you know what are the tasks you need to complete today? Do you know what are the milestones and targets you must achieve by next month?
Successful people understand the importance of planning.
You can’t leave things up to chances. You must plan for it.
At the beginning of this article, I said that success is not an accident, it is a chain of events that are carefully planned.
Think about it, it is impossible you will end up becoming the CEO of a big company without having the desire, the plan, and the determination to get there.
You don’t wake up the next morning and automatically become the CEO of a company. Success isn’t going to fall from the sky.
You need to work for it. More importantly, you must plan for it.
Your plan may not work, but that’s not the point. The key is to have a plan so that you can consciously work yourself there.
Read this article to help you plan a better life:
==> How to Create a Life Vision Plan that Drives You to Success
6. Daydream and envision the success you want
Another small habit that successful people have is they daydream and envision the success they want on a consistent basis.
You become what you think about most of the time. And if you constantly worry about having not enough money, guess what, that’s what you will get – lack of money.
You don’t worry about having not enough oxygen, right?
When you worry about something, you are holding yourself back with that self-imagined fear. You worried what if you fail, what if you can’t make it, or how others look at you.
Instead of thinking about all the negative things that can possibly happen, successful people think about the positive things that can happen.
They don’t focus on what if they fail. They focus on what if they succeed.
They spend time daydreaming and envision the perfect life they want. And this is also a good way they remind themselves of what they want in life.
Read: Like Daydreaming? Here’s Why You Need to Daydream More
Ask yourself honestly, what do you think about most of the time? Do you think about your dreams and goals or do you worry about things?
Change your thinking. When you change the way you think, you will change your emotions. And when your emotions changed, you will decide and act differently.
That’s when your life will change. And that’s how you can live a more successful life – start with making it a habit to envision and daydream the success you want.
7. Put in more effort and work harder than others
Lastly, if you are serious about living a successful life, you must make it a habit to work harder than most people.
You can’t just rely on luck or waiting for the perfect opportunity, you must work for it.
Successful people spend more time and put in more effort than most ordinary people, and that is why they are successful.
Like what Jim Carrey said:
“I would visualize things coming to me. It would just make me feel better. Visualization works if you work hard. That’s the thing. You can’t just visualize and go eat a sandwich.”
So, stop looking for shortcuts and start to think long-term.
Once you have decided on your goals and know exactly what kind of future you want to create, work for it relentlessly.
It takes a lot of hard work to produce amazing results in life. Here’s a good picture that represents success:
What most people see are the things above the water. They don’t see things behind-the-scenes, the hard work and the effort that successful people have put in.
Hence, don’t expect things to happen automatically without any effort. If you want something, you have got to work for it.
So, develop the habit of working hard for the success you want.
Every day, make it a habit to take 3 little action steps that will get you to your goals.
Conclusion
Everyone wants to be successful, but not everyone is. You must develop the right success habits to get you the results you want. And the above 7 small habits are a great starting point.
Commit to develop these small habits and work on your goals daily. And if you want to improve your skills in setting and achieving your goals, go through my course, Goal Setting Formula.
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”