The surprising habits that are making you tired

 

Source: www.ineedmotivation.com

• Most people have experienced feelings of tiredness despite a good sleep 
• Drinking alcohol and using our phones before bed can contribute to fatigue
• Changing a few small daily habits is an easy way to increase energy levels 

When energy levels take a mid-afternoon nosedive it can leave you feeling irritable and groggy. Understandable, maybe, if your day has been preceded by a very late night. But why is it we sometimes still feel tired even when we have enjoyed a nice, long sleep?

From chaotic desks to eating dinner too late, it turns out that losing sleep is not the only thing that can leave us feeling lethargic or fatigued.

1. DEHYDRATION 

It's important to keep an eye on water intake, especially in the summer months Even mild dehydration, defined as as little as 1.5% loss in normal water volume, can alter a person's mood, mental function, and indeed energy levels.

According to researchers at the Natural Hydration Council, dehydration can lower your blood volume and, as a result, the body has to work harder to supply the body with nutrients and oxygen, making you feel tired. The NHS recommends that women should drink about 1.6 litres of fluid a day, and men about 2 litres per day. TIP: Keep a bottle of water on you at all times and remind yourself to fill up throughout the day.

2. ALCOHOL

 

Many people think that having a glass of wine or a couple of beers at night will help them sleep, but contrary to popular belief, this can actual hinder a good night's rest.

While the initial effects of drinking can contribute to drowsiness, studies by Washington State University have proven that alcohol consumption will lead to a lighter, lower quality of sleep, interrupted by frequent awakenings. This leaves you waking up feeling just as tired as when you went to bed.

TIP: Ditch the nightcap and opt for a glass of milk instead.

3. MOBILE PHONES 

Many of us are guilty of getting into bed then checking our phones until we feel tired. But it turns out that this can be more disruptive for our sleep cycle than we think. Scrolling through a mobile phone has the tendency to mentally engage users when their brains should be winding down and preparing for rest. Furthermore, the blue light emitted from devices such as smart phones and televisions inhibits the hormone melatonin, which regulates sleep and waking cycles.

These factors make it more difficult to fall asleep in the first place, can lead to feelings of drowsiness the next day and, according to a study by Michigan State University, those that use their smart phones past 9pm will often pay for it the next day by feeling fatigued and restless. TIP: Set your alarm and turn over your phone after nine o'clock. 

4. NOT ENOUGH EXERCISE 

Nobody feels like exercising when they've finished a long day at work, but it turns out skipping a workout to conserve energy has exactly the opposite effect.

A study by the University of Georgia proved that adults who exercised three days a week for 20 minutes at a time reported feeling less fatigued and more energised over a period of six weeks.
The overall study showed that those who exercised lightly reduced fatigue symptoms by a huge 65 per cent.

TIP: Try and go for a gentle half-an-hour jog at least three times a week in order to gradually get those energy levels up.

5. OVERTRAINING

Surprisingly, an overly vigorous workout doesn't always lead to deeper sleep or a better nights rest. According to Dr. Richard A. Dicenso over-exercising can push the body's response system too far, causing it to send out stress hormones such as cortisol, which makes it hard to fall asleep and can even lead to long-term fatigue.

TIP: Opt for light exercise rather than burning yourself out with long periods of heavy training.

6. EATING DINNER TOO LATE 

Getting home after a late night will tempt many people turn to the fridge for some late night indulgence, but this could lead to you feeling exhausted the next day. Consuming a heavy meal too close to bedtime can be disruptive for digestive systems, causing indigestion and even heartburn, making you too uncomfortable to fall asleep.

TIP: Ensure your evening meal is consumed way before 8pm to avoid any digestive upset. 

7. LOW IRON LEVELS

If you're a woman and you're feeling more exhausted than usual it could be down to an iron deficiency. Iron helps transport oxygen around the body via the red blood cells. According to WebMD, without sufficient oxygen in the body, muscle use and even brain function can be depleted, leading to low levels of energy.

TIP: Up your intake by regularly including iron-rich foods in your diet, such as cereals, bread and brown rice, and also green leafy vegetables such has watercress and kale.

8. MEDICATION

Starting a new course of prescription medication can sometimes leave you feeling drowsy and lethargic. Beta-blockers, for instance, are drugs commonly used for high blood pressure and work by blocking hormones such as adrenaline to decrease the activity of the heart. According to the NHS this automatically leads to greater feelings of tiredness.

TIP: If you're concerned about the side effects of medication ask your doctor if any alternatives are available to counteract low energy levels. 

9. CAFFEINE

While many people opt for a cup of coffee to provide them with a pickup, it turns out that too much could be detrimental for energy levels.

Caffeine is a stimulant found in coffee, and according to Natural News, signals for the production of adrenalin, which keeps the brain alert and awake. When the adrenalin wears off later, especially after excessive coffee consumption, you can be left feeling fatigued, irritable and general drowsy.

TIP: Limit coffee intake to one a day, preferably in the morning, in order to allow the body to regulate the level of adrenalin by the time you're ready to hit the pillow.

10. CLUTTER 

As well as making it harder to find things, a cluttered desk can also lead to a mid-afternoon drop in energy. A study at the Neuroscience Institute at Princeton University has shown that 'multiple stimuli', ie chaotic clutter, can cause the brain to feel overwhelmed and restrict your ability to focus which can lead to you feeling frustrated and in turn, fatigued.

Sprucing up your working space, meanwhile, means that paperwork and everything you need is more accessible, and also removes any potential distractions.

TIP: Clear up a small portion of your desk and see if it makes any improvement in mood and productivity.

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6 Proven Ways To Make New Habits Stick

Source: functionallies.com

If you have been trying to cultivate new habits with little success, then you might find these very useful. These habits are not rocket science – they are easy to understand, apply and have worked tremendously for me.

Here they are:

1. Know the Real Reason Why Your Habit Didn’t Stick Previously

 

Address the root cause of the issue, not the effect. Desperately battling with yourself every morning to wake up at 5:30am is to address the effect. Understanding why you keep failing to wake up at 5:30am is to address the cause.

For example, I couldn’t wake up early for the longest time ever, and all I kept doing is to keep trying and failing the next day. This would continue on for several months until I finally realized it was just going nowhere. I began to start analyzing my situation to understand why I couldn’t wake up early, through a self-questioning process. I probed into the situation, and asked myself “why” this was happening to drill down to the root cause.

Below is an example of the drilling process:

• Why can’t I wake up early?
  • Because I’m tired.
• Why am I tired?
  • Because I didn’t have enough sleep.
• Why didn’t I have enough sleep?
  • Because I slept late.
• Why did I sleep late?
  • Because I had too many things to do.
• Why did I have so many things to do?
  • Because I can’t finish them.
• Why can’t I finish them?
  • Because I schedule more tasks than I can accomplish for the day.

Getting down to this root cause helped me realize two things (1) All our habits are tied to one another (sleeping time, waking time, timeliness) (2) I underestimate the time taken to finish the tasks (and subsequently overestimate how fast I can do those tasks). Many times, I would target to finish multiple projects in 1 day, which wasn’t possible at all.

This meant that to make my waking early habit stick, (1) I need to change habits that are related to waking early (see Tip #2) and (2) I have to be more realistic in my planning. Rather than stuff in so many tasks for a day and not finishing them, now I go for a challenging yet achievable schedule and complete my tasks accordingly.

Keep asking why to drill down to the root reason. Once you get to the real cause, you can immediately resolve the issue.

 

2. Pick Habits that Reinforce Each Other

 

Our habits are not standalone; they are interlinked. Some habits have a stronger linkage with each other than others. For example, sleeping early and waking early are obviously linked to each other, while sleeping early and reading a book a day might not be so closely related. If you want to cultivate a habit, identify the other habits that are tied with it and make a holistic change. These habits will reinforce each other to help make the change seamless.

For example, my new habits to: (a) Wake up early at 5am (b) Sleep before 12am (c) Be on time (d) Meditate (e) Have raw food diet are all interlinked.

• Waking up early means I more time to do my tasks, which helps me to sleep earlier in the night. This helps me to wake up early the next day.
• Being on time helps me to get my tasks completed on time, which helps me adhere to the day’s schedule. This means my sleeping time and subsequently my waking time does not get affected.
• Meditating clears out mental clutter and reduces the amount of sleep I need. Usually I sleep about pro6-10 hours, but on the nights I meditate, I require about 5-6 hours.
• Switching to a raw vegan diet has helped to increase my mental clarity, which meant I don’t need to sleep as much as before. I’m not saying that you need to go raw vegan just to cultivate a habit of sleeping/waking early, just that I noticed this particular benefit when I switched to this diet. You can sleep and wake up early perfectly fine by changing other habits.

 

3. Plan For Your Habits (Right down to the timings)

 

Having a schedule lets you know when you are on or off track for your habits. For the 1st day of my new lifestyle, I did a full-day planning and continued thereafter for all other days.
What I do is this:

1. On the night before, put together a list all the tasks I need to get done for the next day. This includes what’s on my calendar (I use Gcal).
2. Batch them into (a) Major projects, (b) Medium sized tasks and (c) Small, administrative activities
3. Slot them into my schedule for the day. Major projects would have most amount of time assigned. The principle I usually go by is 60-30-10 (% time spent) for a-b-c groups respectively.
4. Be aware of how much time each task requires. If it helps, most of the time we underestimate the time we need. Make it a realistic yet challenging time to work towards. Usually I assign a 5-10 minutes buffer time in between tasks to account for the transition from 1 task to the next.
5. Assign exact timings for when each task starts and ends. For example, 9am to 10:30am for Project A, 12:30-1:30pm for lunch, 6:30-7:30pm for commute.
6. If there are more tasks to be done than my schedule allows, I’ll deprioritize the unimportant ones and put them off to another day.

With all this planning done, when the next day comes all I have to do is to follow the schedule to a tee. I keep a close watch on the timing to ensure I’m on time. 5 minutes before it’s up, I do a wrap up and start transiting to the next task on the list.

The beauty of having a precise schedule is it helps me know exactly when I’m taking more time than desired, and this helps me work on being more efficient. There are some timings which absolutely have to be protected, such as my sleeping/waking times and appointment times, so in that sense the time allocated on my tasks are fixed. That means I have to work more efficiently.

It may seem like a hassle, but it really isn’t. It just takes me about 10 minutes to get each day’s schedule done. Not surprisingly, I have allocate time in my daily schedule to do my scheduling for the next day (11-11:10pm). All you have to do is create a template once, and then you can reapply this template for the other days. There will be similar items across all out days that can be reapplied, such as waking/breakfast/commuting/working/dinner/sleeping times, so it’s really very straight forward.

If you don’t plan for when exactly to get the habit done and instead just arbitrarily say that you want it to be done sometime today, then there’s a very high chance it might not get done. This is why most people’s habits don’t stick. Other things will invariably keep popping in and you’d engage them without realizing it and throw your schedule off track. From there, other things get pushed back and you never get to carry out your habit.

 

4. Stay Ahead of Your Schedule

 

I found it’s extremely motivating to stay ahead. Waking up early at 5am means I’m ahead of most people in the world (and myself too, if I were to stick to my old schedule), and that motivates me to work fast and stay ahead. What helps me continue this momentum is that I end my tasks earlier and start the next task before the scheduled timing. By ensuring I stay ahead of my schedule, I’m naturally motivated to work on all the things I have planned, including my habits. There’s no resistance to get them started at all.
If a task is taking more time than needed, then I make a choice. Either I:

1. Hurry up and get it done
2. Deprioritize the unnecessary or
3. Borrow time out for my later tasks to continue working on the current one. This also means I have to work faster for the remainder of the day.

This decision-making process is important, because otherwise you will end up playing catch-up for the rest of the day, which affects all your planned habits/activities. Subsequently, it also affects your will to maintain your habits. Stay ahead of your schedule and you will find it easier to stay motivated.

 

5. Track Your Habits

 

Tracking keeps you accountable to your habits. I have a whiteboard in my bedroom which I use to track my habits. On the whiteboard, I drew a large table, split by days (21 days to cultivate a new habit) and by habits. For the days where I do the habit, I will give it a check. For the days I don’t, I make a cross. It’s very satisfying to do the checks every time you finish a habit! You can also track your habits on paper or in your computer.
Here are some great habit trackers online:

• HabitForge – Tracks new habits through a 21-day period. If you miss the habit for 1 day, it’ll restart.
• Rootein – Unlike Habit Forge, this is an ongoing habit tracker. There is also a mobile version for you to track your habits on the go.
• Joe’s Goals – Same as Rootein. There’s an option to place multiple checks on the same goal for extra-productive days.

 

6. Engage People Around You

 

Engagement can occur on 2 levels – (a) Active engagement, where you inform your friends who might be interested in and cultivate the habit together with them or (b) Passive engagement, where you let others know about your plans and having them morally support you.

I had both forms of support in my habit change. 2 days before I started my lifestyle revamp program, I posted an article on my blog, The Personal Excellence Blog, on the new 21-day Lifestyle Revamp Program I was taking on. I wrote in detail about the rationale behind the program, the benefits, the habits I was taking on and how I was going to achieve my goals. I also invited them to join me too in cultivating new habits. Much to my pleasant surprise, many readers responded in enthusiasm on new habits they wanted to cultivate and joined me in the 21-days of change.

For my raw food diet, I told my mom that I’m just eating fruits and salads for the next 3 weeks, and she began to stock up the house with fruits like bananas, grapes and strawberries. In fact, I just finished a box of strawberries from typing this post. Yesterday, I went to watch How To Train A Dragon with my friend, and filled him in on my raw food diet. He then kept a look out for the restaurants we could dine in for that night. In the end I had warm baby spinach salad for dinner. My first time having it – can’t say I like it, but it’s nice for a change :D.

Don’t feel that you’re alone in your habit change because you aren’t. There are always people around you who are more than willing to support you.

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5 Shockingly Simple Habits of Successful People

Source: marcvaneynde.com

Success leaves clues and there are a lot of clues to be found in the habits of successful people.

Have you ever wondered why some people seem to have it all – success, happiness, money, love – and other people seem to lean into the struggle every single day?
It’s not just luck. There are 5 shockingly simple tactics used by successful people that you can apply to your own life and business.

Habits of Successful People

The 5 habits of successful people that I believe are fundamental to achieving success in life are shockingly simple. I don’t believe in reinventing the wheel so I look at what other successful people are doing for inspiration in my own life. I’ve seen these 5 habits repeatedly when observing successful people. The best part is, these 5 habits are free. Meaning you can borrow them and make them part of your daily practice right away if you so choose.

Habit #1 – Successful People Set Goals

They don’t just accept whatever is headed their way – they actively set and pursue specific goals. They have decided where they want to go in life and they align their actions with their goals in order to get there. Goals are constantly being set in all areas of their life – both personally and professionally. And, most importantly, they keep track of the progress they make toward achieving those goals. Their goals fuel their progress in life and help them to attract the success that they have.

Habit #2 – An Attitude of Gratitude

I write in a gratitude journal every single morning, but I didn’t always. Implementing this habit has changed my life!
I go looking for the good that has taken place in my life the day before. It’s one of the things that I do every single morning to start my day. Others fall asleep at night, ending their day in gratitude. Some people like to write before they go to bed, while others spend a few minutes thinking about things they’re grateful for before they fall asleep.
It doesn’t matter what your practice is – what matters is where you put your attention. If you put your attention on everything that went wrong during your day you’re going to get more of that. If you train your mind to look for the good in your day, you will attract more of that good – it will be far more visible to you because that is where you have put your attention.

Habit #3 – Celebrate Your Victories

Successful people are confident people and they don’t have any shame about saying, “I did this! I accomplished this! I achieved this!” They celebrate their wins every single day. They give themselves credit for the good stuff that they do in the world. Stop paying so much attention to your shortfalls and start looking at all the things that you do well in the world and you’ll be amazed at the difference it makes.
Sheryl Sandberg, author and Facebook COO, wrote a post leading into the New Year, which talked about a habit that she put in place after her husband passed away. On the advise of a friend, every night, she would write down 3 things that she did well in her journal. Not 3 things she was grateful for, or 3 thing that others did well, but 3 things that she did well each and every day. She attributes that practice to getting her through a very difficult time in her life. Some days the things she did well were as simple as, “Made a cup of tea.”
We all have at least 3 things that we did well every single day – some days those 3 things might bigger or smaller than other days, but they’ll still exist. Some days managing to answer your email might be one of the things you do well, other days it will be closing a big sale, or confidentially speaking to a huge audience – or maybe it will be taking the time to breath deeply and tell the people around you how important they are in your life. Learn to embrace the things that you are good at. It will build your self-confidence, your self-esteem and make you feel a lot better about yourself.

Habit #4 – Read, A Lot

A common theme among successful people is that they read – a lot. They read books, they read blogs, they read articles, and they read magazines.
Reading doesn’t have to cost money, you can get books for free at the library. You can read blogs and magazine articles online for free. If you type the name of a book and the word PDF into Google you’d be amazed at how many authors have made free copies of their books available on the Internet.
Make reading a practice every single day.
When you read you’re learning more things. The more you know the more capable you become and the more confident you become handling the day-to-day things that happen in life. Reading puts more tools in your toolbox and putting that information to work for you can make you more successful.

Habit #5 – Get Moving

The last thing that successful people do is, they exercise. They get out and they move their body. That doesn’t mean a fancy gym membership or a personal trainer. You can just get out and walk, that’s what I do. I try to walk for 30 minutes every single day and it makes a huge difference to how I feel. The amount of energy that I have and how my day gets started off is wonderful. When I exercise at the beginning of the day I set the tone for my achievements for the rest of my day because I’m accomplishing my personal goals to get moving every single day and to pay attention to my health. Can’t find a 30-minute block of time to walk every day? Split it up into three 10-minute power walks.
These are 5 simple habits of successful people that you can choose to apply to your own life – set goals, be grateful, pay attention to your wins, read more, and exercise more. These 5 things can be done by you starting today if you’d like to change your life by incorporating more happiness and more success. I encourage you to try these habits of successful people in your own life for the next 90 days.

Habit formation is not easy but the only way to do it is to simply start.

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CHANGE HABITS: Breaking Bad Behaviours

Love this, a really simple animated explanation of Habits

Busting the 21 days habit formation myth

Source: thelogicaloptimist.com

 Have you ever made a New Year’s resolution?

If so, you may have been assured – usually by a well-meaning supporter of your attempted transformation – that you only have to stick with your resolution for 21 days for it to become an ingrained habit. The magic number 21 creeps up in many articles about forming a new habit or making a change, but little is known about the origins of the ’21 days’ claim.

Psychologists from our department have devoted extensive time and effort to find out what it takes to form ‘habits’ (which psychologists define as learned actions that are triggered automatically when we encounter the situation in which we’ve repeatedly done those actions).

We know that habits are formed through a process called ‘context-dependent repetition’.  For example, imagine that, each time you get home each evening, you eat a snack. When you first eat the snack upon getting home, a mental link is formed between the context (getting home) and your response to that context (eating a snack). Each time you subsequently snack in response to getting home, this link strengthens, to the point that getting home comes to prompt you to eat a snack automatically, without giving it much prior thought; a habit has formed.

Habits are mentally efficient: the automation of frequent behaviours allows us to conserve the mental resources that we would otherwise use to monitor and control these behaviours, and deploy them on more difficult or novel tasks. Habits are likely to persist over time; because they are automatic and so do not rely on conscious thought, memory or willpower.  This is why there is growing interest, both within and outside of psychology, in the role of ‘habits’ in sustaining our good behaviours.
So where does the magic ’21 days’ figure come from?

We think we have tracked down the source. In the preface to his 1960 book ‘Psycho-cybernetics’, Dr Maxwell Maltz, a plastic surgeon turned psychologist wrote:

‘It usually requires a minimum of about 21 days to effect any perceptible change in a mental image. Following plastic surgery it takes about 21 days for the average patient to get used to his new face. When an arm or leg is amputated the “phantom limb” persists for about 21 days. People must live in a new house for about three weeks before it begins to “seem like home”. These, and many other commonly observed phenomena tend to show that it requires a minimum of about 21 days for an old mental image to dissolve and a new one to jell.’ (pp xiii-xiv)

How anecdotal evidence from plastic surgery patients came to be generalised so broadly is unclear.  One possibility is that the distinction between the term habituation (which refers to ‘getting used’ to something) and habit formation (which refers to the formation of a response elicited automatically by an associated situation) was lost in translation somewhere along the line. Alternatively, Maltz stated elsewhere that:

‘Our self-image and our habits tend to go together. Change one and you will automatically change the other.’ (p108)

Perhaps readers reasoned that, if self-image takes 21 days to change, and self-image changes necessarily lead to changes in habits, then habit formation must take 21 days. Although ‘21 days’ may perhaps apply to adjustment to plastic surgery, it is unfounded as a basis for habit formation. So, if not 21 days, then, how long does it really take to form a habit?

Researchers from our department have done a more rigorous and valid study of habit formation (Lally, van Jaarsveld, Potts, & Wardle, 2010). Participants performed a self-chosen health-promoting dietary or activity behaviour (e.g. drinking a glass of water) in response to a once-daily cue (e.g. after breakfast), and gave daily self-reports of how automatic (i.e. habitual) the behaviour felt. Participants were tracked for 84 days. Automaticity typically developed indistinct pattern: initial repetitions of the behaviour led to quite large increases in automaticity, but these increases then reduced in size the more often the behaviour was repeated, until automaticity plateaued. Assumed that the point, at which automaticity is highest, is also the point when the habit has formed, it took, on average, 66 days for the habit to form. (To clarify: that’s March 6^th for anyone attempting a New Year’s resolution.)

Interestingly, however, there were quite large differences between individuals in how quickly automaticity reached its peak, although everyone repeated their chosen behaviour daily: for one person it took just 18 days, and another did not get there in the 84 days, but was forecast to do so after as long as 254 days.

There was also variation in how strong the habit became: for some people habit strength peaked below the halfway point of the 42-point strength scale and for others it peaked at the very top. It may be that some behaviours are more suited to habit formation – habit strength for simple behaviours (such as drinking a glass of water) peaked quicker than for more complex behaviours (e.g. doing 50 sit-ups) – or that people differ in how quickly they can form habits, and how strong those habits can become.

The bottom line is: stay strong. 21 days is a myth; habit formation typically takes longer than that. The best estimate is 66 days, but it’s unwise to attempt to assign a number to this process. The duration of habit formation is likely to differ depending on who you are and what you are trying to do. As long as you continue doing your new healthy behaviour consistently in a given situation, a habit will form. But you will probably have to persevere beyond January 21^st.

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The Limits We Set Become The Prison We Live In

There is nothing worse that achieving goals that are too small and don't allow you to grow. Strive for those big goals and even if you miss them you've still have taken huge leaps forwards!

10 Morning Habits Successful People Swear By

Up and at ‘em! Morning people are successful people. Just ask any CEO, politician, professional athlete or inventor out there – they all start their day at the crack of dawn, gaining a leg up on the competition. Create a routine and stick with it. Studies prove that willpower is the strongest in the morning before exhaustion and other priorities get in your way. Adopt a morning ritual and you will start to see BIG results. So hold off hitting that snooze button and read up on some tips to guarantee a more productive future!

1. Get Up An Hour Early:

There is a 25^th hour in the day. You’ve just been sleeping through it. Getting up an hour earlier is going to take time to adjust to, but once you make it a habit, you will never look back. Research has shown, not only are early risers more optimistic and conscientious, they also anticipate problems and minimize them more efficiently.  Which of course is crucial to success in the business world.

2. Visualize!

Early hours foster reflection. Enjoy the quiet and take some time to map out your day. Think through your goals and to-dos. Take whatever notes you need to ensure your day will be calmer and more efficient. Research has shown that even two minutes of visualization and positive thinking can improve your mood and clarity for the entire day ahead.

3. Eat Breakfast:

Time is a luxury, enjoy it and feed yourself a wholesome breakfast. Sit down with your family and enjoy a hearty bowl of oatmeal. Fuel your body for the tasks that lay ahead of you. It will help you maintain a steady focus throughout the day.

4. Say Buh-Bye To THAT One Big Task:

Reprioritize your to-do list, placing the most dreaded task at the top of your list. Instead of letting it loom over you all day save yourself the agony and stress and get it done first thing. You will feel a sense of relief and be more ready and willing to tackle any trivial task that follows. Besides, the morning is the time when you typically have the most energy and feel the most rested. Sounds like a win-win to me!

5. Motivational Mantra:

Step One – Dig deep and find out what inspires you. Step Two – Create a mantra. Step Three – Repeat that same saying to yourself every morning. Step Four – Breathe and relax. You will feel more motivated and focused than ever before.

6. Get Moving:

Morning workouts not only give you a boost of energy, they pump you up, ensuring your senses are up and running. You’ll feel ready to tackle any problem that comes your way. Studies have shown that people are less likely to come up with excuses early in the morning. So with fewer interruptions, you now have no excuse not to set your alarm 15 minutes early and sneak in a quick jog or a 5 minute workout. There’s even an app, Hot5 Fitness, that features easy and effective full body workouts.

7. Pack Snacks!

Eating fuels your brain, improving focus, productivity and memory. Plan your snacks ahead of time and drop some bars into your bag. I opt for a protein-filled KIND Bar which is completely natural and prevents my blood sugar from dropping.  Smart snacking is critical for keeping your metabolism going and your brain working at full capacity through your busy day.

8. Toss It!

Learn to let go of the things that are cluttering your life. It’s one thing to try to clear your mind, but sometimes you have to physically toss something to feel lighter. So get rid of something – old magazines, junk mail, apps on your phone, old receipts or papers and watch how your attitude changes throughout the day. Our lives get cluttered so easily, but they can become uncluttered just as fast. Remember that.

9. Go To Bed Early:

If you want to watch one more episode on Netflix think again.  Getting the proper amount of sleep is critical to not only your mental health and creativity but to weight control. When your biorhythms are off it wreaks havoc on your entire system. Getting the proper sleep your body needs sets you up for success in everything else you want to achieve. So rest up, you have much to accomplish tomorrow!

10. Silence:

Waking up early offers you opportunities that few get to enjoy – watch the sun rise, hear the sound of birds chirping, and just be still. We are always on the move. Sit and enjoy the morning calm. It’s a brief time where you can be alone with your thoughts. Just breathe.

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Eliminating Those Limiting Beliefs

A real key to you path to success is to eliminate those Limiting Beliefs. Critical, or you're never going to be successful. Here's Darren Hardy on why...

Steve Jobs's Top 10 Rules For Success

What an inspirational guy. 10 Rules for success from a creative genius!

5 Simple Habits That Can Fuel Success In Life

Source: pccstem.org

When it comes to squeezing every ounce of your productivity in a day, it helps to go about things in a certain manner that will keep you on task and actually do something beneficial.
Below are five tips that you can use to seize each day in the most effective fashion and still be able to get a good night's rest. Not only can you use these to be more productive, but also increase your chances of becoming a huge success in your field of operations.

1. Win The Day Before It Starts

You should wake up every morning knowing exactly what you have ahead of you. This can be done by taking a piece of paper and writing down every one of the most important tasks that you want to complete in a given time period.
If you work for a company and have eight hours, give yourself some visual deadlines and a fair amount of time to complete them.
This will help to keep you on pace, and when paired with a healthy breakfast and enough sleep, you can be at the top of your game each morning without breaking too much of a sweat.
Make sure to incorporate this as a habit everyday so you conquer a huge chunk of your work.

2. Systems Being Put In Place For Tasks

All to often we have fallen victim to the attention deficit work routine. This is why now more than ever it is very important that you have a system in place for everything you do and it has to be effective in every way.
If you know exactly what it takes to get the job done then find ways to automate or industrialize the process. With a well thought out system you can start getting rid of a huge portion of your workload every day because you won't be dredging over things that can be taken care of in more efficient ways.
Send emails out in batches, hire an assistant to check up on clients, or get an intern to handle the small tasks. All very easy things that will create a system to get you on track and on to the higher caliber responsibilities.
If those are not viable options than think of other ways you could get many identical tasks spread out through the day, systematized.

3. Focus On The Goal and Why You Do It

This is a very important part of achieving success as an individual or business. Think of the real reason you do this everyday and what the end game will be.
Do you want to retire early? Travel the world and have a passive income?
Visualize your goal everyday and make sure it drives you to push harder than your competition. The more you can achieve now, the quicker you can reach your goal and start living your dreams.

4. Pick Up A Book Periodically And Expand Your Knowledge

If you are not currently involved and nose deep in a book every month that directly impacts your industry knowledge, or teaches you a skill to compliment your current set of talents then I suggest you start!
This is one of the most highly productive habits that the richest people in the world do continuously.
You will be able to unlock hidden potential within yourself and possibly gain a new perspective on something you would have never thought of. Just think about the impact that could have on your life.

5. Never Let Your Failures Win

We have all been there. You work so hard at something and it blows up in your face, hypothetically speaking of course. So now it's time to tuck your tail in between your legs and just quit right? Wrong!
You need to let a failure teach you something, learn from it and grow. It's not a good habit to let a failed project drag you down and leave you feeling sorry for yourself.
The only reason you fail is because you haven't figured out the right way to do it, take a step back and actually assess the situation. The quicker you bounce back and get back on the horse, the quicker you will succeed because you didn't quit.

Conclusion

There are so many things that you can do to get on the right track to success. Take these that I use personally and figure out how to make them work for you.
Remember you are your own worst enemy and with a few simple tweaks to your habits and routines, you can get anything you desire no matter your age, intelligence, or background. Never give up!

 

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Understanding Habit Formation

This is the definition from Psychology Today

Source: www.drclairejetha.co.uk

Habit formation is the process by which new behaviors become automatic. If you instinctively reach for a cigarette the moment you wake up in the morning, you have a habit. By the same token, if you feel inclined to lace up your running shoes and hit the streets as soon as you get home, you've acquired a habit. Old habits are hard to break and new habits are hard to form. That's because the behavioral patterns we repeat most often are literally etched into our neural pathways. The good news is that, through repetition, it's possible to form new habits (and maintain them as well).

Ten ways to do nothing better

Mindfulness is a great habit that many successful people practice daily. Here are Ten ways to do nothing better from Surryacitta

The Great Search Engine

Awesome #StarWars #DarrenDaily with @DARRENHARDY http://tiny.cc/searchengine - "Your Focus Determines Your Reality"

Daily Habits of Successful People: It's All About Routine

We're creatures of Habits. As so nicely put by the great Brian Tracy, it's all about Routine.

12 Weekend Habits of Highly Successful People

Source: dot429.com

I’ve read countless articles about what successful people do on their weekends. Do you want to know the secret? It’s the same thing that they do every other day. As Aristotle said, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”
Here are 12 weekend habits of highly successful people:

1. Robert Iger: Get up early

This Disney CEO is not the only executive claiming to rise at 4:30 every morning. Successful people do not stay in bed until 2 p.m. on a Sunday. Or even 11 a.m. Research shows that our brains are sharpest two and a half to four hours after waking. Get up early on a weekend and you’ve got a head start on the rest of the world.

2. Benjamin Franklin: Have a plan

Apparently, this founding father asked himself every morning, “What good shall I do today?” Successful people know the importance of even daily goals — the weekends are no exception. Sure, they can be a time for (planned and purposeful) rejuvenation, but you don’t have to be President to know that general slacking off is not an option.

3. Timothy Ferris: Don’t multi-task

Multi-tasking is so 2005. It may be tempting to maximize your weekend productivity by running on the treadmill while calling your mother and trolling your newsfeed, but successful people know that this just reduces efficiency and effectiveness. Instead, be present for each single activity. Ferris recommends a maximum of two goals or tasks per day to ensure productivity and accomplishments align.

4. Anna Wintour: Stay active

Vogue’s editor-in-chief commits to playing tennis for one hour every day. And she’s not the only big-shot making time for exercise. Richard Branson stays active with kite surfing and India’s fourth-richest billionaire is a serial marathon runner. Successful people know the importance of an active body for an active mind — weekends included. If nothing else, it will also counteract that glass of wine and cheese platter from Saturday night.

5. Steve Jobs: Prioritize what’s important

“Things don’t have to change the world to be important.” Weekends are the time to remind yourself of the forgotten little things — to keep your work-life harmony (the new ‘balance’) in check and reset if needed. Spending time with your friends, children or partner might not directly increase profits that day or propel you into the limelight, but that doesn’t make it any less important. Even the current US President famously makes time to sit down for dinner with his family.

6. Warren Buffet: Make time for hobbies

He may be considered the most successful investor of the 20th century, but in his “spare” time Buffett likes to play the ukulele. Successful people are often interesting people — and their hobbies have a lot to do with that. Sure, golfing on Saturdays can be a great way to network and source business opportunities. But, even solo hobbies — knitting like Meryl Streep or oil painting like George W. Bush — can aid success through fostering creativity and relieving stress.

7. Oprah: Practice stillness

Forbes’ most powerful celebrity of 2013 still finds time to sit in stillness for 20 minutes — twice a day! This once-best-kept secret of the yogis is now common knowledge. Even the corporate world is acknowledging the benefits of meditation and mindfulness for reducing stress, improving productivity, facilitating creativity and maintaining general well-being. The weekends can often be busier than week days with attempting to cram in chores, exercise, family commitments, social engagements and more into a 48-hour period. The most successful people take daily time out for stillness, weekends included. They don’t call it a meditation “practice” for nothing.

8. Randi Zuckerberg: Forget FOMO, Embrace JOMO

We’ve all done it — posted a tastefully filtered snap of our weekend antics or checked in on social media to elicit “likes” and envy from our friends/followers (#bragging). Enter, the era of FOMO (fear of missing out). On weekends, we’re even more prone to FOMO. But the founder and CEO of Zuckerberg Media (and, you guessed it, the sister to Facebook’s creator) says people should be focusing on JOMO (the joy of missing out) — the mantra that “there is nowhere I’d rather be than exactly where I am.” Successful people are often competitive, high achievers by nature — practicing an attitude of gratitude and resisting social-media-induced FOMO is key for a happy weekend. And isn’t happiness the real marker of success?

9. Bill Gates: Take time to reflect

The founder of Microsoft famously said, “It’s fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.” Reflection should be a daily practice but the weekends are a perfect opportunity to step back and reflect on the lessons of the previous week and to make improvements for the next. Author of “The Happiness Project,” Gretchen Rubin, suggests starting a “one sentence journal” to encourage daily reflection. Make Saturday or Sunday your day to flick back through the week’s entries!

10. Richard Branson: Give back

This billionaire entrepreneur says that “it is amazing how focusing your mind on issues like health, poverty, conservation and climate change can help to re-energize your thinking in other areas.” Successful people agree with Anne Frank: “No one has ever become poor from giving.” Tom Corley studied the rich for five years before writing his book “Wealthy Habits: The Daily Success Habits of Wealthy Individuals.” He found that 73% of wealthy people volunteer for five or more hours per month. Nothing helps put things in perspective and reduce stress more than helping those less fortunate. Weekends are a great time to get involved in local and community volunteer events.

11. Jack Dorsey: Get ready for the rest of the week

The Twitter and Square co-founder is notorious for 16-hour work days from Monday to Friday but says, “Saturday I take off. I hike. And then Sunday is reflections, feedback, strategy and getting ready for the rest of the week.” Forget Sunday blues, let’s call it “Sort-Your-Life-Out Sunday.” Laura Vanderkam, author of “What the Most Successful People Do on the Weekend,” says successful people know that weekends are actually the secret weapon in professional success: “You need to hit Monday ready to go.”

12. Jay Z: Keep up the momentum

He’s made an empire as a highly successful rap artist and entrepreneur, and the secret is right there in his lyrics: “You can want success all you want, but to get it, you can’t falter. You can’t slip. You can’t sleep. One eye open, for real, and forever.” (Decoded) Jay Z didn’t become worth $520 million by only wanting it five out of seven days of the week. If you want to eventually spend your weekends on a luxury yacht in the Caribbean with Beyoncé, unrelenting grit and persistence might just get you there. Well, we can always dream, right?
It’s settled then. Success is a 24/7 lifestyle choice — weekends included!

Source

Compounding your way to success

5 Healthy Habits for a Better You ♡

Success Habits stretch across all aspects of your life, here are 5 healthy habits
to get your body in the right place each day.

A healthy body is a healthy mind!!

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey - Animated BOOK Review

An interesting animated book review and somewhat condensed version of the 7 Habits. The original habits book.

If you haven't already read it, buy it on Amazon here:

11 Daily Habits of Exceptionally Successful People

Source

What's the day-to-day routine of successful individuals? Do these people set their alarms earlier than average people? Do they consume a special type of breakfast prior to working?

What's the day-to-day routine of successful individuals? Do these people set their alarms earlier than average people? Do they consume a special type of breakfast prior to working? What is it about exceptionally successful individuals that makes them accomplish incredible feats? Everyone wants to figure it out and I bet you aren't any different. Do you want to figure out the day-to-day routine of successful individuals? Then read on!

The early bird will catch the worm

Successful people absolutely wake up early. Because the earlier they begin the day, the more time they'll have to get things accomplished. They'll face the day ready for whatever comes their way because they've established plans the evening before.
As compared with an individual who rises out of bed 5 minutes before she/he must be at work and possesses no true direction, who do you think is going to have the ability to deal with his/her responsibilities better?
It follows, of course, that early birds will also get a good night's sleep. If you have a desire to follow the day-to-day regimen of successful individuals, you may want to begin to wake up early.

Regularly exercise

Exercise certainly is a portion of the day-to-day regimen of successful individuals. It'll make you feel good about yourself, and keep the body healthy, will make the mind alert and teach you discipline. As a matter of fact, a report revealed that 70 percent of successful business individuals discover a way to exercise each day.

If you cannot exercise in the morning, get it in around lunch time or in the early evening. If you are on the ground floor and you are traveling to the fifth floor, take the stairs rather than the elevator--but do not overexert yourself because it may set you back.

Have a balanced life

Successful individuals do not have work on their agenda all of the time. They set apart time for their family and themselves. Consider it a way of recharging your batteries.
If you are always buried in a pile of work, you are missing out on life. Personal time is critical because it's the time you're able to review your life and where it is headed; that is the time that you reflect and develop new strategies for your success journey.
The day-to-day regimen of successful people is not that hard to master. Anybody may do it, though not everybody has the proper mindset to really see it through.

Take life within the limitations of your control

Let go of what you cannot control then invest your time and efforts into what you can influence/control.

You must let go of your past

Learning lessons from past failures will restrict your openness to think about future opportunities.

Plan your day ahead

Objectives aren't as crucial as getting the work done. Not attaining goals may lead to lack of self-worth and depression; however, doing day-to-day tasks which propel you toward the person you wish to become will benefit you a positive way; that is, motion will beget greater motion.

Complete your tasks

Whatever the activity is, successful people start and finish the work to the best of their ability.

Invest in yourself

Network, educate yourself, invest in relationships, spiritually reflect, and take care of your physical and mental health.

Ask questions

The ones who control conversations include those who ask questions. Also, they're liked more by other people, who are given the chance to be heard.

Successful individuals share their success tips with other people

As the proverb goes, blessed are the ones who share their food offerings with those less fortunate.

See time as finite/limited

It'll motivate effectiveness and efficiency as it applies to time and allow you to achieve results. It's best accomplished through delegation and leverage.
Like the path from white belt to black belt, success includes a journey that is taken one lesson at a time. Improved and refined, successful people move onward and forward in facing their next challenge and life lesson.


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8 traits of successful people - Richard St. John

What an inspirational guy. Richard St. John on Success Habits. What do
you think? He claims not to be a motivational speak, it's certainly
helps me to get motivated this morning!!

7 Gratification-Delaying Daily Habits for Becoming a Millionaire

Source: katielendel.com

Many people dreaming of becoming millionaires don’t know where to start. The key to changing your finances and becoming successful starts with changing your approach to life and your daily habits. If you want to live like successful people do and start earning money like successful people do, then you need to start acting like a successful person each and every day. This doesn’t mean spending like a millionaire, it means adopting positive daily habits that millionaires have in order to get an edge in your market. Here are seven of the most effective daily habits that millionaires have.

1. Wake up early.

If you want to reach your full financial potential, then you have to start getting up earlier. It doesn’t matter if you are not a morning person, you need to start doing this. Get up and review the news, check your emails and get those menial tasks done first, before everyone else. Spend just 30 minutes researching a topic that interests you to hone your skills. This will put you a step ahead the rest of the day and have a dramatic impact on your productivity.
Related: 6 Ways to Make Getting Up Early Work for You

2. Quit taking the weekend off.

To be a millionaire you need to start using the weekends differently. This is no longer a time to party like there’s no tomorrow. You can go out and catch up with friends a little, but remember your goals. I get some of my best work done after hours when others are succumbing to peer pressure. Use this bonus time to learn about finances, your industry and to not only get wiser, but also to get and stay ahead of the crowd.

3. Learn about finance and the stock market.

If the stock market is still a confusing concept to you, then you need to drop what you are doing and start learning about finances. Yes, it is boring, but it is very important if you want to have financial independence. Start learning about the market and honing your skills so you can make real money from your investments. Open up a small brokerage account or even paper trade if you have no money, but get comfortable with moving stock prices and different types of financial instruments.

4. Think long term beginning when you're young.

There is no age limit to preparation. The younger you can start planning for your future, the better. It is never too early to start planning and you are never too young to think about the future. Most people don’t start until after high school or college, and some don’t start until their late 20’s. By then, you’ll have fallen behind others who have a decade head start. Even if certain goals seem way too far in the future, it is always a good idea to start planning young.
Related: Have You Set Your Retirement Goals Yet?

5. Educate yourself online.

The Internet is one of the best tools that you have at your disposal, and chances are you aren’t even using it to its full potential. There are so many free videos on YouTube and great educational websites where you can learn market skills and glean financial tips to you grow your portfolio. If you don't see the Internet as a library, you aren’t looking at it in the right way.

6. Focus on goals first.

Goals don’t have to just be monetary. Focus on achieving your own personal and professional goals. You need to create good products, build a strong brand and meet your other non-monetary goals before you start focusing just on money. Put the time and effort into creating quality and you will find that money follows. Don’t just focus on making money above everything else, or you will never reach your full potential, or your financial goals.

7. Use social media to build your brand.

Your social media efforts should be more about building your brand and your business around a brand. See my Instagram for example; even though I teach how to trade stocks, I also show the life I am fortunate to have as a result of my studies. I visually inspire my students to study harder and now I have nearly 500,000 followers on Instagram, more than 3x the size of any of my other social networks despite for example my YouTube channel having over 500+ free videos. Recognize that social media isn’t just for showing your expertise; most people use it when they’re bored, so if you can find a way to entertain or inspire people, you will find success.

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Developing Transformational Habits

I have spent the last 5 years of my life dedicating myself to the study of the habits that successful people use in their lives to achieve wealth, financial freedom and the lifestyle of their dreams.

This blog has been put together to share everything I have learned with anyone interested. Here you will find articles, stories, case studies and news on everything related to understanding and developing the ideal success habits for you to take you on your journey to achieve everything your desire from life.

I'd be grateful if you could sign up for the receive updates and also share any content if you find it useful.

My wish to you is that you acheive all of your desires, become successful and share it with the world!