30 Habits of the super successful
Habit (noun) Something that you do often and regularly, sometimes without knowing that you are doing it.
From Steve Jobs to Richard Branson, Oprah Winfrey to Sheryl Sandberg, and endless inspirational business brains aside, there isn’t an entrepreneur worth his or her salt who didn’t get where they are today without dedication to the cause and a shed load of daily habits that came to become a priority above all else. Because you don’t get to join the realm of the super-successful without putting in the work. Here are 30 habits of the super successful to get you started, some for mind, some for body and some for business. Which will you adopt this year?
IN BUSINESS
1 Do the toughest tasks on your to-do list first. Get that big daunting job ticked off and the rest will seem like a walk in the park with your favourite dog and a steaming Costa coffee to boot.
2 Limit how often you check emails. Follow in the footsteps of Tim Ferris, the uber-successful author and entrepreneur behind life-changing book ‘The 4-Hour Work Week’ and check your emails twice a day, three times tops.
3 Outsource the jobs that don’t make you money. Investing in a virtual PR will pay for itself times five times over by freeing you up to focus on more important tasks that affect your bottom line.
4 Keep your to-do list short and sweet. There’s nothing like a seemingly endless to-do list to overwhelm you even before that first coffee has kicked in. And don’t even think about putting things you’ve already done on there, just so you can tick them off. We’ve all played that game.
5 Plan your week on a Sunday. Make a brew, stick something that doesn’t need too much attention on the box and spend half an hour planning your week so you can hit the ground running on Monday morning.
6 Make no more than three big goals for the year and focus on not just smashing them but making them amazing.
7 Think before you speak. Take stock of all the facts, think it through and give the it time before you make a solid decision, whatever ‘it’ is.
8 Network like your life depends on it. You’ll never regret making another contact and you never know the effect they might have on the future of your business.
9 Educate yourself on your industry every day, whether that means reading a blog post, listening to a podcast or joining a Twitter conversation.
10 Say yes first, then work out how to do it.
IN BODY
11 Exercise first thing in a morning. The sense that you have achieved something before your work day has even begun will get you off to a cracking start.
12 Get some fresh air. Get away from your desk and go for a walk at lunch.
13 Eat well. While we’re always game for a McDonalds breakfast come Fat Friday, adopting the 80/20 rule to eating healthy will keep you in good shape both mentally and physically.
14 Find a hobby that doesn’t include a computer. Enrol in language lessons, dance classes, cookery classes, kickboxing, crochet; whatever it is, just makes sure it gets you away from the screen.
15 Don’t let your workspace creep into your living space. Keep them as separate as you would your rowdiest friends and your in-laws.
16 GET. MORE. SLEEP. We’re almost all missing out on getting our recommended 8 hours sleep. Read Matthew Walker’s ‘Why We Sleep’ on the importance of sleep and make the necessary changes to up your own shut eye.
17 Get outside your comfort zone. Always regretted not giving gymnastics a go? Ready your spandex because the time is now for doing the things that scare you.
18 Drink more water
19 Drink less coffee. We know caffeine is life when you run a busy business but the last thing you need is increased anxiety and jitters when you’re already handling the day-to-day stress of being the boss.
20 Make a morning routine and stick to it. Because entrepreneurs aren’t running out of the door at 8.55am, coat half on, coffee spilling all over the shop and a slice of burnt toast hung from their mouth.
IN MIND
21 Book a holiday. Nothing motivates you to push through the tough days like the thought of piña coladas in paradise on the not too distant horizon.
22 Practice daily gratitude. Once considered an exercise in New Age hippy sh-tuff, noting down the things you’re grateful for every morning or night has become routine for the world’s best business brains.
23 Meditate once a day. It doesn’t have to be all sun-saluting and chakra-aligning spirituality but sitting in silence for five or ten minutes each day will settle your breathing and quieten your mind.
24 Listen to the right music for the mood. Let the beat lift you up in a morning and have you ready to face the day, then switch to more chilled tracks to unwind on the way home.
25 Give yourself a break. Accept that things don’t always go to plan and you’ll be surprised how small-fry those problems suddenly seem.
26 Have a clear out. At your desk, at the office, at home; a tidy house is a tidy mind, as our mothers would have us believe.
27 Roll up your sleeves and get out in your local community. Whether it means mentoring teens, serving meals to the homeless or helping the elderly, volunteering will leave you feeling all warm inside.
28 Ban phones from the bedroom. The super successful might be always ‘on’ but when it comes to turning in for the night, their mobiles are off and their old school alarm clocks are set.
29 Read more, scroll less.
30 Wake up earlier. There’s no unspoken rule that entrepreneurs are morning people by nature, but they know that those two hours when most of the world is still asleep gives them a head start on the competition.
