One of the most effective behaviors is developing habits practiced by happy and successful people.
Now’s a great time to reflect on what’s working in your life and what isn’t. Fixing the dysfunctional aspects of your life isn’t easy. If it were our world would be populated entirely by perfectly adjusted people. What causes most people to fail to change their habits is inertia. Add lack of consistency, and lack of focus. Let’s take a look at those factors.
The first factor that sabotages the creation of good habits is inertia. Humans tend to gravitate toward doing what’s easy and what they’ve always done rather than what’s best for them and others. Recognizing those tendencies and desiring to change are the first steps toward success.
It’s Not Enough to Just Want to Change
It’s not enough to just want to change: we must be consistent about practicing a new habit. Consistency is key. If you consistently practice your new habit for 30 days, it will become your regular behavior.
Many people decide to change too many aspects of their lives at one time. They become so overwhelmed that they fail to follow through with any of their new habits. It’s best to pick one habit at a time, work on it for 30 days, and then work on developing a second new habit while you maintain the first.
The new-habit-every-30-days approach may be too much for you, especially for a habit that fundamentally changes the way you live your life. If it feels like you’re rushing things, slow down. But whatever you do, get started!
Although it can be difficult to establish new habits, the rewards are well worth it. Being consistent in at least one or two of these small habits tends to spill over—in a good way—into other areas of your life.
Most happy, successful people adopt common physical, mental, and emotional habits. Determine which habits resonate with you, and which ones you think will improve your life. Take action, stay consistent, and adopt one habit at a time!
Without further ado, here are some physical, mental and emotional habits that many happy, successful people swear by:
Physical
Get some sleep. To start with, take a cue from highly successful people like Jeff Bezos, who makes good sleep a priority. Without quality sleep, you cannot be as alert or productive, so you’re effectively spinning your wheels. Shut off the devices and come up with a sleep ritual to plan for 7-8 hours. According to Dan Buettner, who wrote the Blue Zones of Happiness after researching the happiest populations around the world, “people who sleep 6 hours a night are 30% less happy than people who sleep more.”
Wake up early. Thankfully, when you get enough sleep, you’re alert and ready to tackle your morning. CEOs like Tim Cook of Apple wake up as early as 3:45am to start their days exercising and tackling email before the distractions of the day detract from your focus. Some use the time to catch up on markets that have previously opened, while others use it to prepare for the day ahead. Even if you don’t consider yourself a morning person, give this one a try. There’s a lot to like about maximizing your time while the rest of the world is snoozing.
Get moving. Happy and successful people prioritize their health. After all, what good are your achievements if you’re not around to enjoy them? According to Fortune Magazine, most of the Fortune 500 CEOs interviewed make time for some form of exercise each day. According to an interview in Tim Ferris’s “The 4-Hour Body,” Richard Branson, of Virgin fame, swears that exercise provides him with up to four extra hours of productivity. Besides, exercise is a great way to boost those feel-good endorphins. A final bonus is that the discipline and investment into your health are the backbone of the mind-body connection that you hear so much about.
Mental
Before you get going, schedule some time to consciously frame your day and clear your mind. Oprah does it—and if it’s good enough for Oprah, it’s worth looking into! Oprah believes in meditation so strongly that she offers meditation instruction to all her employees. She credits meditation throughout her team with “improved relationships with spouses, children, coworkers,” benefits family and friends through a better, more defined sense of self and mental clarity.Meditation gives you a chance to focus, center, and ground your thoughts. The discipline of meditation also allows for enhanced creativity, problem-solving capability and stress relief. To get yourself going, try the Calm or Headspace apps for guided meditations.
Learn something new every day. Bill Gates reads constantly before bed and attributes much of his success to a curious approach to life. Gates says, “Every book teaches me something new or helps me see things differently… Reading fuels a sense of curiosity about the world, which I think helped drive me forward in my career and in the work that I do now with my foundation.” He also credits learning with keeping him young. Again, if this habit works for one of the world’s wealthiest men, don’t you think it’s worth looking into?
Emotional
Take stock. Happy, flourishing people constantly engage in self-reflection. Consistent journal writing habits can help you process your reactions to situations. Knowing yourself and the way that you operate is vital to how you approach future obstacles and learn from past mistakes. Putting these thoughts into a daily journal provides a way for you to process and evaluate decisions and optimize how to move forward. If you live through your experiences but don’t reflect on them, you’re missing out on valuable lessons, and you may unwittingly condemn yourself to repeat your errors. When you write things down, you notice patterns that can help you in your future endeavors.
Invest in people and relationships. Truly happy people often engage in random acts of kindness, volunteerism, or other selfless activities. Investing in personal relationships leads to a greater sense of community and connection with friends and relatives—all of which are vital to living a long and fulfilled life. Longevity expert Dan Buettner, who has extensively studied long-lived populations, finds that these populations are the happiest. Buettner offers this secret to happiness: “Make a new happy friend—that’s one of the best things you can do. Your happiness will go up. People who find meaningful ways to give back are happier.”
Takeaways
The happiest and most successful people constantly invest in themselves and others. Fundamentally, you only invest in things of value, and the only way to show any marked improvement year over year is to practice consistency. So pick something small to start with—find a way to improve yourself or give back that works with your schedule and makes you feel good. If it’s something worthwhile that you enjoy, carve out time for it and craft a plan to stick with it. At the end of the first month, you will probably be so pleased with your progress you’ll choose to add on another habit.
These habits are widely practiced by the best and brightest because they’re fundamental to leading a balanced and well-rounded existence. Through each of these habits, there is a decided benefit to taking the time to understand yourself and what works for you. Couple that with the desire to keep improving, action, and discipline, and you’ll be unstoppable!
