11 Habits of Highly Successful People

Aside from luck, it’s not a coincidence that many highly successful people share similar habits. They cultivate these habits through hard work and learning from others. By learning these habits and putting them into action, you too, can become a highly successful individual in whatever you are trying to accomplish. 

With that being said, here are 11 habits many highly successful people have in common.

1. Organization

“For every minute spent organizing, an hour is earned.” Benjamin Franklin

Successful people are organized. Period. This is one of the most mentioned habits of highly successful people for a reason. The whole idea of organization involves setting priorities and goals.

This allows you to prepare for the next day, week, month and so on. Being organized helps reduce stress and feeling overwhelmed because you will know what to do, when to do it, and where to begin. 

2. Taking action

Without action, you will not become successful. People who have succeeded act quickly and often. Not only that, they take action even when they don’t feel ready. Others suffer from over analysis paralysis, while successful people take that all-important first step – even if they aren’t prepared.

Taking action also gives you satisfaction, makes information real, and creates the habits for everything else on this list. Consistent action equals habit. Day in and day out, keep moving forward and never stop taking massive action.  

3.  Goal Setting

Most self-made millionaires have a plan to become wealthy and they make that happen through goals. Successful people are obsessed with pursuing goals and they write them down and review them on a regular basis. 

Zig Ziglar said, “If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time.” Goals give you focus. By writing down and visualizing your goals you won’t be wasting your time and energy on things that don’t get you closer to those goals. 

Goals allow you to measure progress, keep you from procrastinating, and give you the motivation to become successful. 

4. Wake Up Early

Results happen during the wee-morning hours. The more time you can devote to achieving your goals, the more likely you will find success. 

By waking up early, you can take an offensive stand to emails, calls, meetings, and other demands on your time. Research has shown that willpower is the highest in the morning, which leads to better decision making. 

However, waking up early, doesn’t mean getting less sleep either. A whopping 89% of self-made millionaires get seven to eight hours of sleep per night. Proper sleep is crucial to success, memory function, and creative thinking. 

5. They Read

The average CEO reads nearly 60 books a year. That’s over one book a week. Successful people read so much to gain insight and knowledge. This helps them make informative decisions and gives them the ability to grow as a person. 

Reading can also be for pleasure, not just knowledge and self-development. Research shows that reading novels for pleasure can help boost your career as well. It helps with focus, concentration, memory, communication, and language development – all important traits to develop and grow.

Warren Buffet stated that reading has been the most crucial habit he has ever developed for himself. Take it from him and not just me, reading is a very important habit of highly successful people. 

6. Personal Care

Successful people have high regards to personal care, and they make it a habit. This involves a proper diet, exercise, and hygiene. Working out regularly helps clear your head, keeps you motivated, and builds self-confidence. Even if you carve out only 30 minutes of exercise a day you will see significant improvements in your overall demeanor.

Exercising also improves your health for longevity (So you can enjoy your wealth longer), it can increase your energy levels, it can help with brain and memory health, and it can help with relaxation and sleep quality. 

Billionaire, Richard Branson, says by working out every morning, to play tennis or bike at 5 am, has doubled his productivity. 

7. Positive Attitude

Many successful people have cited that having a positive mental attitude is one of the root causes of their success. You are far more likely to become successful if you have a positive mental attitude. 

People that are positive tend to be healthier mentally and even physically. This helps lead to success and lowers your overall stress. Having a positive mental attitude has also been linked to increasing your energy and overall, living a happier, more fulfilled life. 

You must not only express a positive mental attitude but remind yourself why you are grateful in order to feel its full effects. 

8. Networking

The importance of a collaborative effort to achieve personal success is extremely valuable. Successful people know the value networking and teamwork brings to their personal efforts and that’s why they make it a habit. 

They surround themselves with other successful people and ultimately cut out people who bring them down or waste their time. By networking, successful people find new opportunities, they improve their creative intellect, grow their self-confidence, and build long-lasting relationships. 

9. Frugality

There is a reason why you don’t know most self-made millionaires are, in fact, millionaires. They didn’t get that way by wasting their money and spending lavishly. Frugality is a habit possessed by many successful people because they are thrifty and resourceful. Being frugal, means you are economical and that comes through avoiding waste; inevitably resulting in efficiency. 

Successful people make frugality a habit because it helps them identify true priorities, it reduces clutter (thus reducing stress), it equates to greater free time (more time for important things), and it encourages creativity. These result in financial success over time. 

10. Journal

Keeping a journal might sound childish, however, it is a common habit among successful people – and for good reason. Successful people journal to write down their ideas and think about new concepts. This helps boost creativity and remember important concepts. 

Journaling allows detailed planning and goal setting, which helps you clear your mind and find clarity. It also empowers successful people to take action and make their ideas a reality. Finally, journaling helps track habits, patterns, stimulates growth. 

11.  Relaxation

Relaxation is the practice of meditating and avoiding distractions – which is another common habit of successful people. 

By truly taking time to relax and getting away from the hustle and bustle, you can perform some of your best thinking. Billionaire, Bill Gates, has mastered this craft by creating “Think Week” for himself. He goes to his cabin out in the woods and simply thinks and reads the entire week with no distractions. This has helped Bill Gates produce some of his best ideas for Microsoft, including Internet Explorer. 

Finding time to relax and just think, will help create and clarify your strategic thinking. Like many other habits on this list, it will lower your stress, improve your mood, and ameliorate your emotional and mental wellbeing. 

Conclusion:

Most people will form habits – some positive and some negative. However, the difference between successful people and not, is they tend to focus and consciously create positive habits that contribute to their success. 

If you find yourself not practicing the habits above, the good news is, they can be developed with a little time and persistence. 

Take your time and develop each of these habits and ingrain them into your daily ritual. Some take conscious effort, while others take skill and practice. At the end of the day, it’s going to take hard work and persistence, but eventually they will lead you to success.

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