A few decades ago, success in life was a straightforward process. Find a great job once you’ve completed your studies, and work your way up in the company. However, that pathway no longer exists as a reliable strategy towards success. The changing economic climate coupled with the recent financial crises across the globe have left many capable workers and brilliant minds unsure of how to apply themselves so that they’re financially secure and achieving their goals. While there’s no certain route to success, there are a few basic habits that all successful people have in common. These habits can improve your ability to identify opportunities, rise to challenges, and make powerful decisions that move your life in the direction you choose.
1. Invest in your money-maker (that’s you)
If you were to invest some funding into someone else’s career, you would do a thorough investigation of that person first. You would check that they’re generally getting enough sleep, staying well-nourished (not just fed), and able to remain productive in their duties. You are your investment. If you’re depriving yourself of sleep or neglecting any other area of your health, you may feel as though you are still productive, but you’re not. In fact, poor sleep is proven to be linked to reduced decision-making abilities, productivity, and long term performance. It takes discipline to stick to a sleeping schedule, but this is one of the defining daily habits of successful people.
2. Build routines
Knowing that your brain is the motherboard of every other function in your body, including your ability to concentrate and be productive, it makes sense that you use any shortcuts you can to program your brain and enhance its abilities. Routines help your brain to understand what task you’re facing and give the appropriate “brainpower”. The more reliable and predictable your routine, the better your brain is able to respond. For example, on a workday, following the same morning routine alerts your brain that today is a workday, the self-discipline is then there. On a non-working day, following a similar routine alerts your brain that it’s a day off, and you’re automatically able to switch off better. Try to build a reliable and consistent order in which you perform your morning tasks. This is one of the most powerful ways to hack your productivity.
3. Get healthy
Your health equals your physical health, your mental health, and your emotional health. The better the vitals for each of these, the more productive you will be. Many successful entrepreneurs struggle with issues like insomnia, switching off at the end of the day and relaxing, concentrating at work, handling stress in a healthy way, and observing regular sleep cycles. Each person is unique, each person may benefit from a unique set of coping skills for these challenges. One remedy that many busy workers in the 21st century are finding helpful is CBD tincture. With many of these products launching at the moment, it is important that you find a CBD brand that you can trust, that is ideally naturally and organically grown and then created in FDA approved labs.
4. Eat the frog!
Mark Twain said: “eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.” The notion being that you should handle the most unpleasant tasks that lie ahead of you, first. A great deal of procrastination originates from delaying the unpleasant. It requires self-discipline and a true determination to achieve your goals for the day, but this is where you can build the kind of productivity that predicts success in life.
5. Schedule daily rest for yourself
Rest and relaxation are not breaks from productivity. They don’t count as time off. They’re essential elements that you need if you’re going to aim for consistent results. As much as refuelling a car is not a break from its tasks, your body also requires refuelling and distance between your brain and your tasks. There are many forms of rest and all of them matter: sleep, unproductive time (lying on the sofa doing nothing), recreational activities, bonding time with loved ones, and extra-curricular challenges that stimulate your thinking in a non-work way. You can’t fit all of these in daily, but you can ensure that you feel fulfilled in each, according to the schedule that works for you.