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:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. Completing one marketing action a day – good reminder to keep the marketing wheels ticking and makes it simple to action on an ongoing basis.
4. 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.
5. 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?

Just ask!

Nobody ever got anywhere without asking and if my experience in the past few weeks is anything to go by, if you don’t ask, you don’t get! It’s how I’ve managed to get some of the “A list” bloggers to read, review and post about my new book.

Too many times, you build things up to be a “big thing”. Or you create a pedestal upon which to put someone which prevents you from connecting with them.

There’s only one caveat to this advice…the person you’re asking is probably going to be thinking “What’s in it for me?”. If there’s nothing in it for them, then don’t ask, at least not until you’ve thought of something that’s “in it” for them.

There’s also another train of thought which is this…

If there’s one big thing you want to achieve in your life – perhaps it’s writing your own book, perhaps it’s growing your business, it could be losing weight, or reading the entire works of Shakespeare – how close to completion would you be this time in 1, 5 or even 10 years time, if you put just 30 minutes of effort towards this goal every single day?

Just think….30 minutes spent writing or reading or building or exercising – can you manage that daily? Over 5 years that’s almost 1,000 hours.

If you’d started this 5 years ago, what would you have achieved by now? Is there something you’ve been putting off, that you could start today, put 30 minutes of effort in every day and in 5 years time have created something phenomenal?

“What would you say to your younger self?” or another take on the same theme is this “What are the top life lessons you’ve learned so far?”

Here are my answers…

• (Surplus) Money isn’t the be all and end all – as long as you earn enough so you can do what you really, really want.
• Taking some time to think about what you really, really want is one of the best gifts you can give to yourself. Ever.
• You don’t have to follow the path that everyone else is on nor the one that is set for you by school, university, parents, friends or training.
• Not knowing what you want is not an excuse to just follow the set path that others are on.
• Be yourself – it really doesn’t matter what others think of you, only what you think of yourself.
• Working hard at a good school does pay off in the end and it’s not just about getting good grades to get you into a good university. It’s about life & the possibilities beyond that.
• Even if your worst nightmare comes true, you will survive and even thrive from it.
• Nearly everyone who gives you their advice/opinion has their own motive which is usually more about them than you.
• Whatever it is you’re looking for, you’ll find…so make sure you’re looking for the ‘right’ thing.

What would you say to your younger self?

• Personal development is not just for the fluffy, tree-hugging, batik-wearing loonies – we can all learn something from it.
• Don’t knock anything until you’ve tried it…really & truly tried it.