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.

Source

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.

Source

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.

Source

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!

 

Source:

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