The habits of successful people

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HAVE you ever wondered why successful people are successful?

Are they really doing things so differently from everyone else? Is there a secret recipe for success that they are not sharing?

Well, it turns out that many of the habits that successful people have are not reserved solely for them. Consider introducing some of these into your daily schedule and you might be surprised at the results.

1. Wake up early – Hitting the snooze button can be very tempting when the morning alarm goes off. What’s the harm in catching another 10 minutes sleep? Successful people love to start the day early – it allows them to get a head start, plan their day, and achieve more. Early risers are also more competitive, and kicking off the day early can push them ahead of the competition.

2. Exercise – Another benefit of waking up early is being able to exercise before you start your working day. Our health is the most important thing we have, so exercising regularly not only helps you keep fit, it also puts you in a positive frame of mind. Of course, exercising is not much use if you waste all that effort by adopting poor eating habits. So it’s equally important to watch what you eat. A bad diet can cause you to gain weight, which then makes you feel tired and lethargic, resulting in you lacking the energy that so many successful people have.

3. Read. A lot – While most of us enjoy reading for pleasure, successful people are always looking for ways to get better and learn, so they read a lot of non-fiction and self-improvement books. Reading also has the added benefit of stimulating the brain and improving memory.

4. Set goals. To achieve anything in life, you can’t just wait for things to happen. You need to have a plan, and within that plan you need to set yourself a goal. Successful people have clear goals and are able to maintain a strong focus on them. But as they implement a plan to achieve their goal, they constantly review their strategy to ensure they remain on target.

5. Discipline – One of the most important habits that successful people share is discipline. People who can maintain self-discipline achieve more. While successful people set goals, they also know that results take time, so they need to be patient. In a world where constant or instant gratification is the norm thanks to social media and the Internet, people who are disciplined are able to delay that gratification in order to achieve their goal.

6. Maintain a daily to-do list – As part of your plan to pursue a particular goal, consider maintaining a daily to-do list – a set of tasks you want to achieve each day. Think of it as setting yourself a series of mini-goals that you need to achieve before you can reach your final, bigger goal. But remember, it’s easy to make a list, but harder to tick off every task.

7. Never stop learning – Although you may now be part of the workforce, you don’t need to stop being a student. In fact, you should be a lifelong student, always looking for ways to learn and improve. By constantly finding ways to reinvent yourself, or learning how to apply your skills in other areas, or developing new skills, you become more valuable, more resourceful and more in demand.

This is a weekly column by SarawakYES! – an initiative driven by Faradale Media-M Sdn Bhd and supported by Angkatan Zaman Mansang (Azam) Sarawak – to provide advice and stories on the topics of education and careers to support Sarawakians seeking to achieve their dreams. Join us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.