By
Simon Somlai
“Successful people are simply those with successful habits” – Brian Tracy
We often run through life, envious of all the people who “made it”. Not being able to recognize exactly
why
they are where they are in life. We’re confused as to what trickery or
black magic these people have applied in their life that has enabled
them to rise to the top of their industry. Unfortunately we’re never
able to distill this “special ingredient” or “secret” that has kept us
in doubts for so long. Eventually it can even drive us to the brink of
insanity But I’d say we’re searching for the wrong things..
How so?
- What’s the one thing that made him so much money?
- What’s the one thing that allowed him to have so many friends?
- What’s the single source of his great health?
- …
We’re primarily focused on certain
events whilst almost every (if not all) successful aspects we recognize in a person is the sum of different
processes.
These processes are basically different habits that have been built up
over time which have compounded in the results they’re experiencing in
their life. I call this
habit-stacking Habit-what? ——————————————————————————–
What Is Habit Stacking?
Habit stacking is the process of incrementally (meaning gradually)
implementing new, empowering habits in your day-to-day life. These
daily, high-leverage tasks will “stack up” over time which will in turn
improve what I call your “success-level” For illustrative purposes,
here’s fancy infographic I made;
The quantity and quality of every success habit performed, will
define the altitude of your success-level. I’ve seen this pattern
recurring in many different successful people I’ve observed the past
years. People like Warren Buffet,
Anthony Robbins,
Elon Musk, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Owen Cook and many more. The people
who obviously “have their stuff together” The stacking of these habits
creates an immense amount of control over their life and therefore
yields the compounding results they have acquired.
By analyzing and defining their different habits, I’ve compiled a list of what I believe are
the 10 most potent habits to implement in your life.
Ten Essential Success Habits
(Speed) Learning
I’ve seen this habit recurring time and time again. The wealthiest
people of the world are avid learners. In an interview , Warren Buffet
and Bill Gates were asked if they could have one superpower in the
world, what would it be? They both argued that
being the worlds fastest reader would be HUGE
Why is it so effective?
Reading allows us to skip (
partially) the process of trial
and error by simulating the future in our mind, based on the knowledge
we’ve acquired from other peoples’ mistakes. Why make your own when you
can learn so much from others?
It allows us to “stand on the shoulders of giants” by acquiring information that enables us to avoid many failures.
How to start? Start by reading 15 pages every day (
non-fiction)
Visualization
Often in life we harbor dis-empowering thoughts in our head;
- I’m not good enough
- I’m not good with women
- I don’t deserve to be rich
- I’m not able to lose any weight
- …
These are all
perfect examples of limiting beliefs
that become self-fulfilling prophecies and basically rob ourselves of
everything we want out of life. People are not limited to these
perceptions and are actually able to change these for the better (
however, not many realize they can do this) How you perceive yourself and your surroundings
literally sets
the boundaries of your individual accomplishment. It basically defines
what you can and cannot do. This is a social theorem defined by W.I
Thomas and D.S. Thomas;
“People react not only to the situations they are in, but
also, and often primarily, to the way they perceive the situations and
to the meaning they assign to these perceptions. Therefore, their
behavior is determined in part by their perception and the meaning they
ascribe to the situations they are in, rather than by the situations
themselves. Once people convince themselves that a situation really has a
certain meaning, regardless of whether it actually does, they will take
very real actions in consequence.”
So what should I do? Improve your self-image and
your image of the world and likewise will your accomplishments grow to
greater heights. The way I do this is by
writing down how I want to perceive myself
and visualize in detail how I will act in certain situations.
Repetition is key! Eventually it will become real. This might sound like
the black magic I referred to earlier, but it goes much deeper than
that. You could argue that this is yet another pseudo-scientific trick
to justify positive thinking but I personally believe (
from several experiences and observations) that this “trick” works.
How to start? Read books like “Psycho-Cybernetics”
by Maxwell Maltz, “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill and “As A Man
Thinketh” by James Allen (
FREE DOWNLOAD)
Exercise & Diet
Our body is probably the single most important investment we can make
in our life. And the only one we’re 100% convinced off that we’re
always going to need it. Yet I see so many people gulping down
fast-food, copious amounts of alcohol and neglecting any form of
exercise. Everything you operate needs maintenance from time to time.
You can compare your body to driving a car. If you don’t take care of
your car, guess what’s going to happen? Buy a new one? Nope, game over
buddy!
How to start? Make sure you get the
recommended physical activity
every day (if you can do more, do so!). Do this first thing in the
morning and just get it over with. The consequences are far more
detrimental.
Goal Setting (In Writing)
Writing down your goals has been proven time and time again that they
can make a huge impact on your life altogether! A study about goal
setting at Harvard University in the book
“What They Don’t Teach You in the Harvard Business School” by Mark McCormack discovered the following truth about goal-setting and performance;
“Only three percent of the graduates had written goals
and plans; 13 percent had goals, but they were not in writing; and a
whopping 84 percent had no specific goals at all. Ten years later, the
members of the class were interviewed again, and the findings, while
somewhat predictable, were nonetheless astonishing. The 13 percent of
the class who had goals were earning, on average, twice as much as the
84 percent who had no goals at all. And what about the three percent who
had clear, written goals? They were earning, on average, ten times as much as the other 97 percent put together.”
The truth is simply this; without goals you don’t have any direction
in life and nothing really tangible to work towards. Result? You get
nowhere. Pretty obvious stuff, right?
How to start? Set some goals!
Here’s how I do it.
Planning & Prioritization
Do the most important things first. This is
such
a simple concept talked about by many high-achievers. I’ve read about
this in “The One Thing” by Gary Keller, “The 7 Habits Of Highly
Effective People” by Stephen Covey and “Think And Grow Rich” by Napoleon
Hill What they all basically say is that you should find your one, most
important focus for every single day (aligned with the goals you’ve set
out for yourself) and consequently annihilate that goal in the morning
until it is finished – everything else is a distraction. Simple, yet not
easy.
How to start? Find your one, most important task for
the day and execute accordingly. Also set a time limit on these goals,
so you don’t get stuck in saying things like; “I’m done at x hour” or
“my work gets done when it’s done.” Limitations create urgency. Urgency
gets things done.
Money Management
Another big pillar in success is shifting from the
consumer mentality into the
investor mentality.
See your little dollars as seeds. By spending your hard-earned money in
a smart way you’ll be able to grow your investments into bigger
pay-offs over time
- Don’t buy ridiculously overpriced smartphones
- Don’t amass great amounts of debt
- Don’t live above your means
- …
Basic stuff like that makes a huge difference over time.
How to start? Read some great books on financial beliefs and money management like
“Rich Dad, Poor Dad” By Robert T. Kiyosaki, “The Millionaire Fastlane” by MJ Demarco and “The Intelligent Investor” by Benjamin Graham.
Waking Up Early
Our time on earth is limited. With our average life expectancy of 78.6 years (as of 2014) we spent
25 years of that sleeping!
Tai Lopez (who became a self-made millionaire in his 20’s)
says that we only have 50 000 valuable hours to really dedicate to
doing our greatest work. The rest of the time is spend in disability,
sickness, sleeping, old age, young age and so-forth.
Imagine that I give you a check of $50 000 in the beginning of your life, how scarcely would you spend those dollars?
How to start? Start waking-up an hour earlier everyday! That’s 365 hours extra a year which equals
more than two weeks! What are you waiting for? Tick-tock.
Build On Strength
We’re all born with our unique sets of strengths and talents yet we
rarely develop those to our natural capacities. We fall into the trap of
believing the “you can be anything you want” fairy-tale that has been
fed to us by our surroundings. The truth (IMO) is this: We can only
perform
optimally from strength.
Talent and investment serve as amplifiers for your achievement level. TALENT X INVESTMENT = STRENGTH Investment can be self-generated whilst raw talent is incredibly difficult to add.
While it may be possible, with a considerable amount of
work, to add talent where little exists, our research suggests that this
may not be the best use of your time – Strengthsfinder 2.0 by Tom Rath
My take on strengths is the following; Build your life on what you’re
good at, but improve your weaknesses to the degree that they don’t hold
you back.
How to start? A great way to get started and gain some priceless self-knowledge is by taking the personality test at
16Personalities.com.
I found the results disturbingly accurate yet amazingly insightful.
Networking & Social Skills
Many successful people are not where they are solely because of their
many skills and talents (which they have) but because they made
themselves known to others. Ever heard the statement; It’s not about
what you know, it’s about who you know? In terms of success this
certainly rings true. Mostly it’s not you that rises trough the ranks by
your own effort. People rise to success by others
lifting them up.
Additionally, by surrounding yourself with these “high-achievers”
your own performance level will be increased. This is because the people
we see regularly set the standard for what is appropriate and therefore
we’ll adjust to that environment.
How to start? Read some books on basic social skills
like “How To Win Friends And Influence People” by Dale Carnegie and get
some great resources on networking! One website I’d definitely
recommend is SmartBusinessRevolution.com by John Concoran (
he has a GREAT free ebook).
Character
And last but certainly not least important: Character! By setting for
ourselves a certain standard for acceptable behavior, we’re able to
connect with other people on a genuine level. Things like; being honest,
keeping secrets, having integrity, not cheating, not stealing and
so-forth. People automatically want to connect with the ones who don’t
have hidden agendas and are pure of heart. Immorality breaks
relationships.
How to start? Write down for
yourself a certain set of rules (a code of conduct) you will live by
that will lead to a successful life (whatever that means to you). Be
sure to include the essentials like integrity, honesty, responsibility
and so-forth. Read these values when you get out of bed and
live accordingly.
Essence
I know this can be a lot to take in and therefore I highly recommend
building up each habit until it has become a natural part of your
day-to-day routine. (
don’t take on more than one at a time – two at max) New research shows that the formation of a new habit can take anywhere from 18 to 254 days (
66 on average).
So consistency is key here. Start with small steps and slowly build
them up. Notice also that almost all the habits I’ve mentioned above are
short-term sacrifices that will result in long-term benefits.
By
overcoming forms of instant gratification like
cheating, watching tv, splurging money, binge-eating and whatnot we set
ourselves up for a great future. Delayed gratification is your ticket to
success! (
Which doesn’t mean you’re not allowed to enjoy life – within reason 
)
Anyway, that’s all I have to say on success habits for today. I hope
I’ve been able to spike your curiosity to try out a new habit (
or improve the quality/quantity of an old one) So, that leaves me with just one more question;
