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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