What Are the Best Habits to Improve My Life?

I was recently asked this question and it got me thinking.

First, less is more. People think they need to adopt all of the success habits they see that high achievers use. The truth is that what works well for Tony Robbins might not work the same for you. The key is to know yourself and your strengths and weaknesses. You want to put habits in place that maximize your strengths and at the same time improve on your weakness.

For example, if one of your strengths is that once you start on something, you are very good at finishing, but a weakness for you is you procrastinate and have trouble starting in the first place; you will want to put a habit in place that allows you to maximize and overcome both. A good idea for this would be to force yourself each day to tackle your biggest challenge first before you can go to anything else. This will force you to overcome your procrastination and allow you to focus on getting your most important item completed.

Before implementing any habit you should make sure that you can leverage the habit to help you in multiple ways. That being said, over the years and through working with some of the top entrepreneurs in the world including several billionaires; I have noticed a few habits that are consistent across the most successful that can help anyone. These can be used for any area of your life.

Leave Nothing to Chance

Leaving nothing to chance is all about planning and strategizing for success. The most successful plan their day, week, month, and set goals for the year. They want control of their success in every form from their business to their wealth, health, and so on. You can do this too. Plan each day. Know exactly what you have to do to reach your goals and work that in daily, weekly, and monthly. This habit will make a huge difference in your life as it gives you purpose and causes you to be deliberate in going about your life and success. Here is a link to a great resource from a friend of mine and performance guru, Craig Ballantyne, to help you in this area. The Perfect Day Formula

Choosing Your State of Mind

Another habit that the most successful practice is control over their state of mind and emotions. Simply put, they choose their attitude and approach to their life each day. They don’t let themselves be controlled by emotional reactions or outside influences. They control the state of their mind and this power helps them to achieve more and think more clearly. How do they do this? There a lot of ways. It can be different for each person and this is where knowing yourself is important. What are you prone to have negative reactions to? What makes you “fly off the handle?” What types of situations derail you? Once you know what these are, you can start to recognize your reactions and stop them, redirect your focus to what you can control, and move forward. I have a few habits that I have found that work well for me. They may benefit you as well. Here is a short video and some resources on them.

Self-Education

Walk into any highly successful person’s office or home and I will bet you there is a personal library somewhere. High achievers are voracious self-developers. They know that they don’t know everything and that in order to grow, they will need to learn and challenge their assumptions. They are always on the lookout for new ideas and how they can use them to reach their goals faster. They truly understand that knowledge is power and use this fact to gain an edge in their pursuits. It is incredible what you can learn and the worlds that will open up to you by getting in the habit of reading just one book a month. In fact, after a few years, it’s amazing where you will be. Below is a picture of one of my bookshelves. I have multiple others like it. It is so nice to be able to pull a book off the shelf and read about a specific topic or when an idea hits, grab one that has expertise on the subject. I honestly don’t know how I managed to read all these over the years, but I am truly grateful for having done so and would not have accomplished half of what I have without this habit!

​As noted at the beginning, the habits that will work best for you will be personal to you and allow you to maximize your strengths and turn your weaknesses into strengths. Take time to self-reflect and decide what these are for you. Best in your success!