I used to feel why my life is hard, why I’m not growing like the rest of the people, and start comparing my 1–2 years experience with highly successful people.
If you think like that, it’s time to take a deep breath and remind yourself everything will be okay — maybe not this minute or the next, or even today, but soon.
The challenges you face aren’t meant to harm you, and they are intended to support you to grow and take failure as a life lesson and don’t repeat the same mistake. Everyone is unique in this world, and everyone possesses a talent. You just need to introspect to find that talent.
Here are the top 10 habits I stole from highly successful in getting out in this harsh world, giving your 100%, and experiencing your best.
10- Trying to be liked by everyone
One of the prominent features of highly successful individuals I learned is that they are rarely people pleasers. They believe that some people will always hate them no matter what they achieve in life; therefore, they are not even thinking about haters. Their genuine fear is not to live the way they did if they stopped earning.
They believe that to please everyone is like a preventable disease. The only cure is to have the courage to say no.
9- Don’t do anything if it doesn’t have long-term value
Highly successful people recognize that they can only grow what they spend their actions towards. They concentrate on their main obstacles if they want to grow.
They are also very long-term thinkers; as a result, highly successful people do not worry about things that they do not consider valuable, even if society tells them they should.
Outliers and individualists are free thinkers. They do not let what the rest of the world is dealing with influence their lives.
8- Be uncomfortable
Many people have great ideas; research shows that an average human has 6200 thoughts in a single day. But only the highly successful people embrace change. They are not worried if the new idea is not going to work out as long as they give their 100%.
But not everyone dares to execute the thoughts. Only the successful one loves to bring change by thinking about long-term growth and being uncomfortable.
7- Early mornings
Since I decided to convert from a night owl to an early bird, early mornings have significantly affected my productivity.
My peak hours used to be from 12 am to 3 am, and I used to get excellent work done with the laser-like focus around 12 am.
After a couple of years, I discovered that getting adequate sleep on a regular basis is critical to achieving peak performance and productivity and a higher quality of life.
Every successful individual prioritize sleep; therefore, they can have a prosperous and more productive life.
I wrote a detailed article on sleep science and how quality sleep boosts our productivity. Here is the link.
6- Stretching
You already know that sitting for lengthy periods of time and looking at the screen is terrible for your posture, mental wellness, and physical health.
According to research, your metabolism decreases by 90% after only 30 minutes of sitting in one place and slowing down the enzymes that transport harmful fat from your arteries to your muscles.
The study also shows that sitting in one place for a longer time is more dangerous than smoking and kills more people than HIV positive each year.
Successful people work in time blocks to boost their productivity and make sure to stretch their legs or at least stand-up.
5- Know when you are most productive
This is one of the critical lessons I learned the hard way. Everyone’s brain works differently; I cannot function focus differently if there is traffic noise. But I learned to start working in 15 minutes intervals while traveling from the work perspective. Now my time distraction-free time span is 50+ minutes.
Only you can find out what is your most productive time. Then try to work on your hardest changes in that time frame.
I don’t schedule meetings in the morning. I’m most productive in the morning and after 6 pm, so I try and reserve that time for critical thinking and creative work.
— Ryan Lessard
4- Take action
I mentioned briefly that highly successful individuals are constantly innovating new ideas. There is only one way to create a new thing by executing or taking action. I think it is like a ripple effect or inertia; the first step is always difficult. You have to be bold enough to initiate.
Take action! Wanting is not enough; Ac upon your goals! If somebody was watching your day-to-day behavior, would they be able to see what you’re working towards; what your goals are? If the answer is no, fit it! — Dr. Steve Maraboli
3- Don’t use do-list
Instead of keeping a to-do list, put everything on your calendar. Research shows that just 41% of tasks on to-do lists are completed. Because of the Zeigarnik effect, which states that unfinished chores will linger on your mind until you accomplish them, all those unfinished objects induce tension and sleeplessness.
Highly productive people schedule everything and then work and live according to that schedule.
2- Take control
Nobody can do our thinking; you’re the supervisor of your attitude. Complaining about the issues you have no control over like weather conditions or the traffic situations never leads anywhere you want to go. That’s the mindset of happiness; they take control of their actions.
You are growing in life with each thought, thinking process, and how you are taking control. Don’t be the one who looks back on life years from now and regret.
1- Read Voraciously
Reading for long hours is not a cup of tea for everyone. Everything great thing takes time especially reading, if you never developed a habit as a kid. My parents never allowed me to read any book except the textbook.
In my whole life, I have known no wise people (over a broad subject matter area) who didn’t read all the time — none. Zero.
— Charlie Munger, Self-made billionaire
I developed a voracious reading habit when I moved to a university dorm. The best decision of my life was when I read about successful people adopting some great practices to grow my life.
Reading is my top habit of learning and growing into a successful person.
Based on my observation, I wrote my first article on Medium to build sustainable reading habits. These reading habits might help you to make yours. Here is the link.
I insist on a lot of time being spent, almost every day, to just sit and think. That is very uncommon in American business. I read and think. So I do more reading and thinking, and make less impulse decisions than most people in business. I do it because I like this kind of life.
— Warren Buffett
Key takeaways
- stop pleasing everyone, it’s not your job to make everyone happy, and even if you try, you cannot win.
- Always think long-term goals
- Love to embrace the change. Transformation brings growth.
- Try to set your sleeping pattern; therefore, you can rise early in the mornings
- Incorporate stretching into your daily exercise regime
- Find out your optimum productive hours
- Ditch the to-do-list, instead plug in everything in your calendar
- If you have an idea after doing some research, always try to execute
- Take control of your life; no one is coming to help you
- Develop a reading habit, I don’t know any successful person who is not a voracious reader
Thank you for reading, and let me know some of the great habits you adopted from highly individuals in the comments.
