Success is that elusive destination, situation, or position that everybody seeks but only a few have found. But why is that? Why is success one of the hardest achievements that we may ever make in our lifetime?
The reason is that we are always looking to reach a point that is far higher than we have thought we go to. We aim to break boundaries and create a big impact. We do not want to settle for less. To a lot of people in the world, success is a status or a situation that far exceeds their current position. It is a challenge that we must overcome. In fact, simply making the decision to achieve what we want is challenging enough. And that’s why we should look into the 51 habits of highly successful people.
Here’s the reality: we typically aim for a position that is bigger and grander than anything we have ever achieved. Otherwise, there is no point in showing whether we have made progress or not. If you want to be a rally driver, for instance, you are keeping your eyes on the top spot, and that means going against the best. And the business that you started? You want it to rake in millions of dollars and get you that beachfront villa that you have been dreaming about. If it doesn’t happen, you may not feel like you have done anything worthwhile.
People want to reach a situation or position that is much different from what they have or where they are at present. The farther they get, the bigger the success is, and the more distance these individuals can put between themselves and their current status. However, it also entails that the more effort they might have to place into their work, the more challenges there may be to face.
What most people don’t realize is that success is the end result. There’s the beginning, as well as the parts that can prepare you for success.
If you were to head down to the gym right now, for example, then you know that the workout sessions are just included in the equation to make you fit. The other part is about living right and preparing for the workouts. This means that you need a good diet and proper sleep, the right warm-up exercises before working out, and of course, the determination to keep on hitting the gym despite the odds.
The same idea applies to success. You need to prepare yourself for success if you want to achieve it.
That means becoming a person who attracts success.
That means having the right habits.
And so, let us find out about…
51 Habits of Highly Successful People
Habit #1: Have Concrete Beliefs
As humans, we can easily get distracted by everything that happens around us. We get caught up in the everyday chaos of life that we sometimes lose sight of what we want.
The trick is to keep our focus on the things that we want to achieve. This helps us face as many challenges as possible to get to our destination.
You need to ask yourself, “Why am I facing all these challenges?” If you can answer the question with a strong belief in your dream, then you can push through any situation, no matter how weighty they might get. If you find yourself wavering, though, you may have a tough time facing even a minor issue.
Habit #2: Remember That Problems Are Good
There is probably nothing in this world that comes to you easily. There are so many hoops, boulders, bridges, swings, trenches, pits, caves, burrows, and other challenges in life that you have to face. And they don’t stop just because you do. When things are going really smoothly, therefore, you should be worried.
Make sure that you keep your mindset trained on the fact that a problem can appear anytime. You will be less surprised that way and probably more prepared as well
But why are problems good, you may ask? Well, they let you know one or all of the ideas below.
- You are on the right path.
- You need to improve on some things.
- You are probably not putting in enough effort.
- You have been binge-watching Netflix a little more than usual.
- Your dream does not matter to you anymore. (Hopefully, that’s not the case).
Habit #3: Solutions Are Better
Having problems shows you a lot of things, but your next step is to solve them. You see, successful people are focused on doing the same thing. They realize that they need to clear those issues because:
- They may keep on adding up until things become too overwhelming; or
- They can be much worse than before.
Habit #4: The Journey Is As Important As The Destination
While achieving your goal is important, you need to focus on what you learn along the way.
Let’s think back to the gym example that we used earlier. Once you start working out, you realize that fried chicken is not good for you. You decide to put such foods at the back of your mind in order to get those six-pack abs that you want. Your eating habits then automatically change. Well-cooked meals, greens, eggs, and grilled foods become part of your diet. Eventually, your life changes to accommodate a new version of yourself.
Finally, the D-day arrives. You already have six-pack abs. Right now, your abdomen area looks like it can deflect arrows. At this point, would you drop your anti-fried chicken diet and finally head over to KFC to order that family-sized bucket with a jumbo bottle of soda on the side?
You probably wouldn’t. There is an important lesson learned during the journey towards achieving your six-pack goal: a good diet helps you and your body. That’s something that you should probably follow for the rest of your life.
It’s the same with your dreams. Make sure you focus on the journey to avoid missing out on vital lessons, opportunities, or even moments to remember your struggle when you finally accomplish your dream.
Habit #5: Feel The Fear
Don’t ignore your fear.
If you are not afraid of doing something, chances are, you may not value that dream much.
The people who follow their dreams often find themselves scared of an activity. This is because they do not want to lose their goals. They do not want to destroy everything they have built so far.
The same folks fear the unknown, even though the road to success lies ahead.
Habit #6: Go Beyond The Fear
Facing your fear is all good, but you have to start taking action.
Remember, on the path towards your success, your actions matter more than your ideas or emotions. So, if you are not taking any action, there is no progress made.
Have you faced your fears? Good. Now, go out there and take the next step. Don’t stop taking action until you have reached your goals.
Habit #7: Question Everything
Don’t take anything as a fact. If you feel doubtful or need more clarifications, be bold enough to pose a question.
Sometimes, you might receive an answer. Other times, you might have to find it yourself. Either way, do not accept all the information you get as true.
Habit #8: Complaining Is A Waste Of Energy
Some people love to complain about the economy going to the gutter. They say that there are no more opportunities or talented salespeople left in the market. The ideas are not fresh, there is not enough funding, etc.
The harsh reality is that no matter what you do, you may always deal with shortages, hindrances, or problems. There will never be enough funds, people, opportunities, or other factors that can drive you towards success.
If it makes you feel terrible, you should take a moment to vent out all those negative emotions. Then, get back in the game and find a way out of your issues.
Habit # 9: Improve Your Strengths
Do you think that successful people are automatically the masters of a plethora of talents? Hardly.
They simply focus on what they are good at and run with it. These achievers hire people to take care of everything else for them or outsource the work to someone else. If they have to do something on their own, though, they learn the ropes and figure things out.
Habit #10: Work The Body And The Mind
No matter where you look, you may often be advised to exercise.
Do you want a healthy life? Exercise. Want to improve your sleep? Exercise. Want to become the best graphic designer in the world? There is probably a fitness routine involved in that goal somewhere, too.
There is a reason why taking care of your body is important. When you stay healthy, after all, you avoid health problems or other complications that only serve to slow your progress or add another set of issues on your already tall pile.
At the same time, when you keep your body fit, it reflects on your mental state as well. You lower stress, keep psychological problems at bay and send all good chemicals into your brain.
Habit #11: Be A Magnet For Success
Start surrounding yourself with successful people.
This is not merely for the sake of motivating yourself. When it comes to gaining useful tips, opportunities, guidance, and assistance, you are more likely to find them from achievers. They have the resources, experience, and connections that you are looking for.
Habit #12: Unplug Without Plugging In
Seriously, every time someone thinks of relaxing, they open Facebook or YouTube and dive in.
When you are on the path to success, you do not need such distractions. You should find ways to unplug without resorting to the virtual platform. Why don’t you make use of your real space instead?
Go ahead and explore your neighborhood. Travel somewhere. Read a book outside. Pick up a hobby. Explore your creativity (even if you are bad at it).
Habit #13: Pride Comes Before A Crippling Fall
You may have to make sacrifices and more often realize that you are incapable of knowing everything. Admit that you are wrong. Don’t be stubborn about holding on to a failing position. Let go.
You need to understand that the most important thing is to make progress and corrections whenever you can.
Habit #14: Organize Yourself
You won’t have time to focus on everything. So, why not streamline certain aspects of your day?
Let us assume that you find yourself spending quite a bit of time in front of your wardrobe. Make it easier for yourself by taking a day out to organize your clothes. What colors do you wear for work? Arrange them in one section. How often do you need to wash your clothes? Set a specific time based on the frequency of washes.
The same goes for other factors in your life. If you feel like you are in a constant need of stationery items, make sure that you have pencils and various tools at your workplace and home. This allows you to easily find them when you need them. Make sure that you develop a habit of returning the items to their original locations so that they are always available.
Habit #15: The Best Time To Act Is Now
When people think that they want to wait for the right moment to act, they are probably procrastinating. Remember that there is no time like the present. There is no guarantee whether you are going to get the same opportunity on another day, so do what you must now.
Habit #16: It Is In The Details
You might notice things that you would otherwise miss out on. Also, the answers may already be right in front of you. Make sure that you are paying attention to the details.
Habit #17: The More You Learn, The More You Earn
Don’t stop learning in your field of expertise. Become the master of what you do. You can achieve that by learning as much as you can about what you are good at.
Habit #18: Be Positive
It does not matter how challenging things get if you stay positive. Through positivity, you see that there are still chances to do something better or correct your mistakes. You might do the opposite and give up if you are full of negativity.
Habit #19: There Are No Bad Days
If you were an employee, then you might complain about the bad days. In fact, you might still receive your paycheck at the end of the month despite your complaints.
When you are a leader who chases success, though, you have to face the bad days. That’s one way for you to become stronger and find out how to deal with challenges.
Habit #20: Risks Are Needed
The higher the risks are, the greater the reward can be.
That is one of life’s biggest mottos. When it comes to success, you cannot hope to make it big if you always stay within your safe zone.
Habit #21: Catch The Bull By Its Horns
When confronted by a challenge, successful people know that turning their backs on it will only cause it to grow bigger. So, when you spot a problem, face it head-on.
Habit #22: Luck Is What You Make Of It
When you take no actions, then your luck remains stuck at whatever position it was last in. From there, it either becomes stagnant or worsens.
Don’t wait for luck to come to you because you might be idle for a long time. Go out there and make your own luck.
Habit #23: Proactivity Against Reactivity
Being reactive only allows you to take small steps. Many times, you might be in damage control. When you are proactive, you are thinking of the next two or three steps (or more). You are ready for whatever happens so that you can progress faster.
Habit #24: Manage Your Emotions
Don’t let your emotions guide you. Decisions made under various feelings are usually not the right ones. Whenever you can, try to be analytical, careful, informed, and thoughtful.
Habit #25: Master The Art Of Communication
Let’s face it; most of what you do may involve people. For that reason, you need to make sure to improve your communication skills.
Here’s the best part: it does not matter whether you are an introvert or an extrovert to communicate. What matters is how well you can get your point across, persuade people, motivate someone, or reason when you have to. All of the aforementioned skills can be learned.
Habit #26: Plan Your Life
When you are so focused on your goals, you may forget about what’s important: your life. Make sure to have a set of plans, alternatives, and options available. It will not only set the course for your life but also help you when things take a turn for the worse. Speaking of worse things happening…
Habit #27: Plan For The Best. Expect The Worst.
Aim your plans towards the best possible outcome. But at the same time, expect the worst to occur at any point in your journey. Do not shy away from considering what would happen if things don’t go according to plan. This way, you are always prepared, should the worst come to pass.
Habit #28: Do Not Look For Too Many Opportunities
If something does not work in your favor, do not spend too much time on it. Learn to move on instead.
Habit #29: Adapt
Do not stay in the past. Remember that the opportunities you seek lie in the present. If you have to adapt to certain changes and situations, do not be afraid to do so.
Habit #30: Start With Wins
Sometimes, the lack of progress might be disheartening. Thus, you should start your day with something small that you can work with. This will get you a win, which might eventually dictate how you face the rest of the day.
Habit #31: Plan Out Your Week
Try to allocate a certain time during the week or weekend to plan out the next. You don’t have to have a detailed plan since you may not be able to expect all factors beforehand. However, you can make a general outline that may help you approach each week confidently.
Habit #32: Money Should Not Be Everything
Successful people know that money is simply a byproduct of what they have achieved. When you work towards your success, your goal should not revolve around money. Instead, it should be about making improvements and achieving milestones. Focus on your growth.
Habit #33: Meditate
Meditation allows you to organize your thoughts. Often, your mind might become home to a lot of chaotic thoughts. One way you can feel inner peace is by meditating whenever possible.
Habit #34: Discipline Yourself
Being eager for something is good. However, don’t get carried away and too excited. Always manage your expectations and keep yourself under a certain code of discipline.
Habit #35: Success Does Not Equal Self-Worth
Successful people are content with who they are rather than what they own. This is what separates them from those who are not. Avoid tying your success to materialistic things because, at the end of the day, you have a goal to reach.
Habit #36: Laziness Begets Losses
This is rather self-explanatory but is an important factor to mention. At some point, people realize that they have amassed a few successes on their path to achieving their goals. They become complacent, thinking that a little slacking won’t really hurt now.
In truth, it is okay to take a little break, as we had seen earlier. However, becoming lazy can be addictive. If anything, laziness is a persistent condition. Once you decide to become lazy, you might start getting used to it.
Habit #37: Do Not Shy Away From Feedback
Do not be afraid to welcome feedback and criticisms. They help you improve your game, point out your flaws, and even iron out your skills. If there is an opportunity to learn and improve, take it.
Habit #38: Focus On What You Can Control
Some things may always be beyond our control. You cannot do anything about them, so stop trying hard to make a change in such areas. Focus on what you can control and put all your efforts there.
Habit #39: Don’t Please Everyone
People may or may not dislike it, and that’s okay. You don’t have to please everyone — that is not your job. You should always try to do your best in everything instead. If the majority of the people appreciate what you do or what you offer, then you have done your part.
Habit #40: Others’ Opinions Are Not Your Own
Following up on the previous point, don’t assume that what a lot of people say is true. Think of the Mandela effect in which a large group of individuals who seemingly have no connection to each other believed that President Mandela passed away in the 1980s. He did not — he lived until 2013.
Make sure that whatever judgment or conclusion you come to, it is done so through proper research and data gathering.
Habit #41: You Need Time For Yourself
You might constantly find yourself dealing with people when you traverse the road to success. Still, remember to take some time out for yourself. You need it to focus on your goals, analyze your current situation, or unplug yourself using some of the ways we have discussed earlier.
Habit #42: Set A Standard For Yourself
Make sure to set high standards for yourself. This will allow you to develop into a better individual in society.
Successful people, to be specific, are not easily affected by peer pressure. They choose to become better people and role models because they can and want to.
Habit #43: Failure Is Not Constant
Although failure is demotivating, it is not the end. It will not happen every time (unless you keep on repeating what your mistakes). Think of ways to get past the failure to be able to find the road to success.
Habit #44: Your Job Does Not Define You
When successful people achieve things, they do not simply define themselves by what they do. Such individuals know that they might eventually take on a lot of roles. They cannot merely be known as the “salesperson” or the “marketing lead.” They are going to have to deal with a lot of things. Hence, their milestones define them.
Habit #45: Money Is Not The Root Of All Evil
This is a common misconception about money. If someone were to donate money for a charitable reason, others wouldn’t call it evil. It’s the same with successful people. They don’t think that money is a nefarious entity on its own. Rather, they know that it is a means to get something or accomplish a task. When people change their perspective about money, they understand that it is merely a value for the transaction.
Habit #46: There Are Not Shortcuts
Most people try to look for the easiest way out. While being smart and finding unique ways to shorten the time it takes to complete a task can be commendable, cutting corners should be avoided.
Here’s a simple example. If you are a car manufacturer, you will likely invest in the best assembly line arrangement to smoothen the manufacturing process. However, thinking that you are going to use subpar engines just to save a little money means that you are taking shortcuts. That’s not an excellent habit to have.
Habit #47: Don’t Make Promises You Cannot Keep
If you are unsure of something, it is better to say that or find another way to understand it. When you make promises, you create expectations, after all. If they are not met, you may disappoint yourself and others.
Habit #48: Use All Your Opportunities
Never think that a particular choice is a failure unless you have exhausted all options available. This prevents you from worrying about what you could have done better previously.
Habit #49: Worry Less About What-Ifs
If you have committed an action, then there is no turning back. Follow through with your decision and work on it. Regrets are a waste of time, and they don’t serve anything.
If you believe that you have made a wrong decision, think of ways to correct it rather than wonder what would have happened if you had done something else.
Habit #50: Get Some Sleep
There are times when you might find yourself losing sleep over certain tasks or projects.
However, make sure to get some good sleep when you can. Otherwise, you might suffer from the physical and mental consequences of sleep deprivation.
Habit #51: Don’t Just Talk The Talk
Words mean nothing as actions speak the language of success. Don’t talk about what you are going to accomplish. Rather, think about all the strategies you can use to get there and implement them. Focus on how to achieve your goals instead of verbalizing it.
Being successful is not just about the results. It is about the mindset and the habits that you form. This is because, on the journey towards success, certain habits help you get there faster with more confidence and capability and less fear and apprehension.
Related Questions
But why exactly are habits important?
Success is not just a situation. It is a character trait. It is about how you live your life while achieving your goals or completing your tasks. These traits are formed when you have the right habits with you. As such, you can guide your actions, thoughts, and behavior to gain success in life.
Is it easy to keep new habits?
Absolutely not. It takes time to cultivate a habit, much less stick to it. But then again, nothing is easy when you want to succeed in anything. Despite that, if you can conquer your mind and adopt some or all of the amazing habits mentioned above, then you invariably prepare your mental resilience to face any challenge that comes your way.
It is time for you to cultivate the same habits that successful people have.