Paul Brian
Becoming a highly successful person is about what you do.
Building high-impact daily habits will help you hit your goals and achieve long-term success.
Here’s a look at the key daily habits you need to try out if you want to be successful.
1) Sleep well
We spend one third of our lives asleep.
For the average person that amounts to 26 years unconscious and 7 years of trying to become unconscious (aka get to sleep!)
That’s a sizeable chunk of time.
The key to sleeping well isn’t to sleep more, it’s to sleep better.
This means spending more time in deep sleep, sleeping in a healthy position, and learning to sleep less but be more well-rested.
Sleep is the key to so much else in life. If you can change and improve your sleep you can change and improve your life.
This video is a great starting point!
2) Wake up early
Get up early.
You’ll be amazed at how great you feel if you make a habit of rising with the sun.
There’s nothing like getting started on your day while many others are still snoring away.
This will also assist in getting to sleep earlier at night and having a more restful sleep.
Wake up early and have a routine of hygiene, showering, stretching and taking a few breaths of fresh air.
While you’re at it…
3) Get motivated
Find motivational speeches, podcasts, and videos to play during the first hours of your day.
They could be fitness coaches, life coaches, philosophers, poets, or celebrities you look up to.
This could be spiritual or religious material as well. This is about anything that lifts you up and puts fire in your belly.
Get motivated. Get your day started with the right mentality.
4) Eat moderately and healthily
Start your day off with a healthy breakfast and have healthy meals throughout your day.
If you decide to do a diet, all the power to you.
If not, I don’t blame you either.
The key is to keep portion size moderate (not tiny or massive) and to eat what you like that is also good for you.
The great thing about eating healthily is not only the nutritional value, weight control and healthy vitality you will feel.
It’s also the growing self-discipline and responsible ownership you are taking in your own life.
Big win!
5) Follow a daily schedule
Following a daily schedule is a key part of being successful.
I personally advocate reverse engineering.
Have one main goal for the year or even the next five years. Break it down into yearly goals, monthly goals, weekly goals, and daily goals.
Your goals for today may just be to work out, prepare dinner and go to work. Your goals for tomorrow may involve something slightly different or an additional task.
Stick to the schedule as you make progress toward your longer-term goals!
6) Prioritize your daily tasks
When it comes to those daily tasks on your schedule, try your best to prioritize them.
Even in a single day, having too many things jumbled together doesn’t work out well.
Break your schedule into hourly or at least general slots such as afternoon, morning, and so forth.
Make sure you get your priorities done first and don’t let yourself procrastinate.
Be self-disciplined: it will pay off big time!
7) Take regular breaks and stretch
Throughout your work day, take regular breaks and stretch!
If you work on a computer, take time away from the screen and practice looking into the distance and doing eye exercises.
Nobody needs to have a headache after a long day, and the strain of looking at a screen all day can lead to real issues.
Practice a few moments of deep breathing on breaks as well, as it can be incredibly reinvigorating and refreshing as well.
8) Practice networking and reaching out
Every day do your best to reach out to at least one person and say hi.
It could be an old friend, a business colleague, or even just a person you see every day buying lunch or in line at the bank.
Say hi and ask how they’re doing. If it turns into a conversation great, if not, no problem!
The key is just to get comfy saying hi to people and initiating an opening for conversation both online and in the real world.
Eventually, this will lead to networking and all sorts of new opportunities springing up.
Many of the most successful people I’ve read about were simply master networkers.
They were people who understood that every single person you see potentially has untapped potential, connections, and uniqueness that can help you in ways you don’t expect.
9) Expand your knowledge in your field
Whichever work you do, there’s always more to learn.
Keep looking into new developments in your field and keep your eyes open when it comes to alerts and news.
This is a way to stay up to date on changes and also to proactively get ahead of new trends and developments.
“Whether you choose to set up a Google alert for particular keywords, subscribe to a handful of your favorite newsletters, or turn to your favorite blog, it’s important to stay in the know.”
10) Recap the day with a short journal entry
At the end of the day grab a pen and write it down.
What was the highlight of your day? What frustrated you?
Write it down with no censorship. This is just going to be you reading the journal, so feel free to let it flow.
Keep it short and sweet, just write down a few things that stood out or what you want to do different tomorrow.
It’s a great day to be alive
I talked earlier in this article about starting your day with the right mentality.
The right mentality is this:
It’s a great day to be alive, and I’m going to try my best on this day to give more than I take.
I’m going to take action on this day and be effective, disciplined, and look back on this day with satisfaction.
This day may not be good, it might be sh*t.
But I won’t be the cause of that sh*t if I can help it, and I’ll give it my all to fix it if I am.
I’m going to approach this day the best I can until I lay down to sleep at night!
That’s the mentality you should be having every day if you want to be successful.
