If you read many of the books and manuals on success and by “successful” people, you’ll notice a few things that set the most successful people apart from the rest.
One of these is the cultivation of successful habits – activities that successful people do on a regular basis. The thing that some people don’t realise is that these habits don’t even have to be business-related.
There’s a few habits I’ve established recently which are contributing to make me a more productive, more inspired, more motivated and more energised form of “me” and these include:
- Getting back to regular exercise – a jog on the beach every morning is one of the most effective and energising ways to start my day…and this is from someone who is most definitely not a morning person.
- Cutting out coffee completely – I have never really been a coffee drinker (don’t like the taste) but in the past year or so I have developed a nasty little habit of drinking one moccha a day. Since cutting out coffee (or having one only once every few weeks), I’ve felt more energised and more focused.
- Completing one marketing action a day – good reminder to keep the marketing wheels ticking and makes it simple to action on an ongoing basis.
- Writing one thing a day – whether that’s a blog post for one of my blogs, an ezine or a blog post for one of my other blogging gigs, writing one thing daily keeps me on top of everything and means I’m always ahead of myself. It also keeps the communication skills sharp.
- Taking some downtime and slowing down – I’d hardly say our lives are the most hectic of lives but after my run each day I take time to slow down and do some active meditation. Not one for sitting totally still and silencing the mind, active meditation helps me re-focus, take time to appreciate our lives and is (I believe) a necessity in today’s fast-paced world.
It’s easy to fall into bad habits and negative patterns – convincing yourself that it doesn’t really make much of a difference. It’s when you re-establish the good habits that you realise quite how much of a positive difference they make.
Which habits have you let go that contribute to a more successful you?