12 Habits of successful people

If you would like to become more successful it would make sense to know what habits "successful" people have and incorporate their habits into your way of life. In doing so you will soon find there is less room for the bad habits we don't think we have.

Habits of successful people include the following:

1. Know what they want
2. Do those things FIRST that bring them the most money
3. They don't spend ALL day lurking on facebook, Twitter or MySpace - in fact a lot of the uber successful have outsourced this function as well as other things (more on this in a minute). In reality they have set times to log on, check their interactions and emails and they close it down again. They don't have dozen windows / tabs open on their computers.  When they do post a message / link - it is always to add value to their readers / client base / followers - rarely do you hear / see them whinge, whine and carry on about how BAD things are.
4. They focus on one task at a time - and they focus on what they do best. Because they don't have dozens of windows open, throwing up pop ups they can focus on the tasks / jobs that bring them the most money for their time.
5. They get other people to do the mundane tasks and things they just don't have time to do or want to do - do the successful manage their own gardens, housekeeping, filing. admin, finances? Probably not - they hire the right kind of people who like doing these jobs.
6. They hire / retain mentors and coaches - across many different disciplines. They will have business coaches, voice coaches, fitness coaches etc
7. They read - a lot
8. They have multiple streams / sources of income. They've usually struck deals with a number of people that says - if I sell your products to my client base I would like a % cut of the sales, and if you do the same for me I will give you the same benefit - otherwise known as JV's (Joint Ventures) or Affiliate deals.
9. Depending on their businesses they may hire people who work on commission basis - how motivated would that person be if their income was determined by the number of sales they make in a day?
10. They don't neglect the important things - they eat well, they exercise, they make sure they get enough sleep - and before the cynical erupt and say - well it's ok for them - they don't have my kind of worries / bills / time constraints .... I would reply and tell you - once upon a time these people were exactly the same as you, just they made different decisions or are further along the path than you are. Today you can make some new decisions that would mean you too could free up some time so you could go to the gym 3-5 times a week to get fit and healthy, or start your own business, spend more time with your spouse / family.
11. They don't waste their money, or time on junk. Be that food or energy vampires. For me the biggest energy vampires are people who try and corner you into having a conversation you don't want, because THEY are bored. That could be the many chat rooms that lurk - hint - go offline, you can post your value added comments and leave without being interrupted - if you really don't have the time to network. Turn the phone to silent / use the answer machine to screen calls you don't need to take right now, or walk with purpose in the office, people are less likely to interrupt you if you are walking quickly - oh and don't have a spare chair in the office if you don't want random people stopping by for a chat. Interruptions costs us much more than time, they cost us our concentration too.
12. They unsubscribe from anything that does not give them value, in fact they probably haven't subscribed to them in the first place ....so get rid of the deals direct / e-bay / ezi-buy / deal of the week emails - you probably don't need any more STUFF and if you did you would source it at the time.

Instead of looking at successful business models, look at the habits of the people who created them.

So - today there is going to be a lot of homework.

I need you to analyze your patterns of behavior, it will take a little bit of doing, but is essential. You need to determine where you are now and how much change you need to make - AND then be willing to make those changes as a result of the analysis.

Starting with the time you woke up yesterday I need you to write down (as much as you can remember) what you did and how long it took you - and include everything until you went to bed. You can use the time log as a starting point.

Now looking at the habits of successful people - how many of your daily activities fell into those 12 categories?

How much time did you waste?

We have spoken about to-don't lists before and it is worth repeating here. Your to-don't list is far more important than your task / to-do list especially in the beginning when you are setting up new habits for your successful future.

• What habits do you have that you need to get rid of?
• What habits do you have you consider to be critical to your success?
• What habits do you need to cultivate?

Comments

[Hellen]

I had to think long and hard about your first point, then I slapped myself across the forehead when i realised what you meant was - they know what they want, they have clear thinking, they are not swayed by muddy thoughts. They practice thinking clearly and that has become a habit....
Thank you, thank you, thank you
Hellen

[Elle]

HI Hellen

Absolutely correct - yes.

Clear thinking can become a habit, just like anything can. And knowing what we want really is a result of clarity of thought. That's really what the 100 day challenge was all about - being able to focus on one or two things so you can move ahead with your dreams and goals. And if you can do it for 100 days then you can do it for 200 or a thousand. Can you imagine what you can do if you had the clear thinking habit for 1,000 days let alone 100?