1. Wake Up Early
Being a night owl, waking up early was a harder habit for me to accept and implement into my life. However, I found that my most productive days were the ones where I started my day EARLY. One of those days would look like: Waking up at 5:30AM, cooking a healthy breakfast, brewing some coffee, read my current book, prepared my to do list for the day, and arrive early to work. I felt great – being able to do the little things for yourself in the morning helps you start your day more relaxed and optimistic.
2. Gratitude
Take some time to be thankful for the things you have in life. This is a humbling experience and keeps you grounded. I like to do this in the beginning of my day because it helps make little nuances/annoyances seem like pebbles in the road. I feel thankful and my heart feels full.
3. Read Daily
Whether it’s learning a new skills or catching up on your current book, read for at least 30 minutes. This will expose you to new material on a daily basis and help you generate new ideas, opinions, and/or outlook. I use my time in the morning to catch up on my favorite blogs and my current book.
4. Continuously Learning
Never stop feeding your passion for learning! Whether its learning how to knit, playing the guitar, or how to use Photoshop, this habit is incredibly important to ensure your skills stay sharp. Not only will it help you excel in your career, job, or hobby but it will help you become more marketable – there is
always someone out there working 2x harder than you.
Also – knowing all different types of information or a ton of a specific subject is a great thing for conversations during dinner parties or company events!
5. Discuss Ideas
Surround yourself with company you admire and can learn from. Allowing your mind to stay “fresh” with brand new point of views will help you think outside the box and appreciate different perspectives! The birth of new ideas very often come from brainstorming with like minded individuals.
6. Goal Oriented
Write down your short and long term goals with sub items that will help you achieve them. For example, if losing weight is one of your goals, your subtask may include: Eating healthier foods, going to the gym 3 times a week, and drinking more water. Writing the goals and then dividing them into sub items will help make the goal more realistic.
Also – writing things down forces you to digest the information you’re receiving and then helps you summarize the information (specific brain process) in a way where you can remember key things.
7. Embrace Change
When change happens, embrace it! Change is inevitable and learning how to live with uncertainty will help you loosen up your expectations on how life “should” be and ultimately, allow for happiness. Simply changing your mindset will have you better deal with changes in life and improve your adaptability!
8. Preparation
Being prepared reduces stress in a myriad of situations. Preparation will allow you to feel confident which is a KEY ingredient in success. You won’t fear retirement if you’ve been putting away money in your retirement account for years or you won’t dread the huge exam (unless you don’t do well in test settings) if you’ve studied and learned the material.
9. Healthy Lifestyle
Maintaining a healthy lifestyle is essential in becoming a successful individual. Meditation, fitness, and eating healthy should become part of your lifestyle. Being healthy will enhance your body (aka your tool) to be working at its optimal level. Meditation will help clear the clutter in your mind and ease your soul.
10. Financially Savvy
Understand the basics of budgeting, credit cards, interest rates, taxes, etc. to allow yourself to make educated decisions on your money. Money is a GREAT thing when you make it work for you and allow it to create opportunities for yourself and others. I don’t suggest understand every detail of your taxes or knowing how to generate an amortization schedule – you should rely on professionals for that – but understanding the basics will help you make the best decision from the information provided by them.
To manage your finances, you need templates that will track all of your expenses, manage your bills, track your emotional triggers, calculate your net worth, keep track of your debt, and take control of your money. You can check out The Money Blueprint – managing your finances all in one place!
11. Have a To-Do List
Staying organized and managing your time is crucial to enjoying and make the most of your time. I love to start my day by making a to do list, though sometimes it feels incredibly overwhelming because there are so many things on there, it helps me remain focused. Seeing the entire list also helps me decide which things to do first that make more sense and are more time efficient. Crossing of items on your list is
extremely gratifying and will motivate you to get more things done !
