Daily Habits for Success: 80% of millionaires are self-made. The majority of the world’s wealthiest individuals weren’t born into their wealth; they created it. And part of this is down to a culmination of the daily habits that they’ve done for years. After understanding what some of these tried and tested habits are and applying these habits to my own life, I’ve tripled my income, I’m more productive, and I’m no longer wasting my time or energy on the wrong things. So in this article, I thought it’d be interesting to share with you what these habits are and how you can apply them to your own life. Let’s get into it.
6 Daily Habits for Success
- Choose Your Circle Wisely
- Embrace Discomfort
- Resist FOMO
- Embrace the Pyramid Perspective
- Focus on Solutions, Not Problems
- Schedule Think Days
Habit 1: Choose Your Circle Wisely
Great minds show me your friends and I will show you your future. There are different variations of this quote, and I wanted to understand if there was evidence to back this up. I came across this study as I was reading about it, which shows that if a friend of yours becomes obese, you are 45% more likely to gain weight over the next two to four years. More surprisingly, however, is that if a friend of your friend becomes obese, your likelihood of gaining weight increases by about 20%. So even if you don’t know that friend of a friend, it will still have an impact on you, and that effect continues.
One more person out, the same in the study was found for smoking and for happiness. You are more likely to be happy if your friend is happy. While the researchers looked for a variety of explanations for this, the most likely one appeared to be norms. If your friend is obese or a friend of a friend is obese, that changes your perception of what is an acceptable body size, and your behavior changes accordingly. So your friends really are your future, and the implication is that you don’t just need to be deliberate about who you’re spending the most time with; you also need to be mindful of your entire network and its influence on your life.
Habit 2: Embrace Discomfort
Push out of your comfort zone regularly. I haven’t ever mentioned on this channel how it felt when my channel blew up over the last six months, and it wasn’t good. Starting a YouTube channel was one of the most challenging things I have put myself through, and I was absolutely petrified when I first posted my video. I had a million things running through my head, and it got worse before it got better. When my channel started to blow up in December, I was on 6,000 subscribers, and I was sent some screenshots from WhatsApp groups of people, and these are people that I know, laughing at my videos and pouring out negativity about my channel.
They don’t know that I’ve seen it, and they probably still don’t know, but it made it at the time that much harder to keep showing up and pressing upload week after week, knowing that there was more to come and I was opening myself up to more and more criticism. And I eventually got to a point where I said to myself, do I just stop here or do I ride it out? And I’ve learned that to get anywhere in life, you’ve got to embrace yourself for awkward situations, uncomfortable moments, and embarrassment. You’re going to be judged anyway, and had I stopped myself at that point, my life would be completely different today. [6 Daily Habits for Success]
If you stick to your comfort zone and don’t challenge yourself, even when you have every reason to stop, you won’t ever know what you’re capable of, and you’ll be letting go of what could potentially be waiting for you on the other side.
Habit 3: Resist FOMO
Next, we have “don’t buy into FOMO.” This is one that requires the most willpower and discipline, but if you apply it, it will pay off. We are constantly surrounded by images of our friends going out all the time, going on their next big holiday, buying a new car, living their best life, and the constant pressure of these messages will make you feel that if you’re not doing it, you’re missing out. But if you constantly let yourself cave into these temporary moments, you may be sacrificing on what you could potentially make from the rest of your life.
You’ll be sacrificing time that you can spend instead on working on yourself or working on your side hustle. There is a quote in the book “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill which states that the starting point of all achievements is desire. Weak desires bring weak results, just as a small fire makes a small amount of heat.
Through this, he suggests that the intensity of our desires directly correlates with the results we get. Weak desires, weak results, whereas strong burning desires can pave the way for stronger, bigger things in life. It’s fine to cave into living your best life every now and then, but what I find difficult to hear sometimes is when the no-hustle culture is heavily promoted by people who are at the top of their game. Now that they’ve made it big, they can afford a team and delegate their work, and they can achieve that so-called balance. [6 Daily Habits for Success]
But they once had that strong burning desire and made sacrifices during their climb that they don’t talk about as much. I’ve learned that the best way to not let FOMO get the best of you is to find a meaning in what you’re doing and know that it’s a part of a bigger picture that you’re creating for yourself. And now every time I feel like FOMO is taking over and getting the best of me, I remind myself why I’m doing what I’m doing and that the strong desire and all the small sacrifices that I make now will all be worth it in the end.
Also Read: Jeff Bezos Success Principles
Habit 4: Embrace the Pyramid Perspective
Next, we have the “millionaire pyramid.” Whenever I’m at a door that doesn’t seem to be opening up for me, I think about the pyramid perspective mindset. And it’s understanding that the journey’s difficulty is inversely proportional to the number of people who will reach the top. As you climb higher, the pyramid gets narrower. And when difficulties show up, it’s easy for the majority of people to give up. Effectively, the crowd will get thinner and thinner toward the next level. And the harder the journey, the higher up you get.
The harder the challenges you face, but the fewer people there are to compete with. And so the rewards are bigger. Hurdles are part of the journey to the top. Everyone who’s growing is going to fail at some point. And if you don’t fail, you’re not growing. But what you do after failing is what differentiates the successful people from the rest. So now I like to remind myself that when things get tough, it’s just a sign that I’m on the right path.
Habit 5: Focus on Solutions, Not Problems
Focus on Solutions, not problems. One habit that has been an absolute game-changer in my life is focusing on the solutions and not the problems. What I’ve observed, especially among successful individuals, is this unshakable belief that every puzzle or every problem that comes up has a solution, that everything, no matter how daunting it is, can be figured out. They ask themselves, “How can I make this work for me?” [6 Daily Habits for Success]
Whereas everyone else will focus on all the reasons why it won’t work out, every excuse they can think of will be standing in the way from them getting to that thing. Worries are like sheep; they seem to flock together. When you start thinking about a problem, it quickly compiles into another problem, and before you know it, you’re overwhelmed with the potential for problems. So instead of playing the “what if” game to think about all the additional problems that one problem can cause, play it to think about the solutions. However serious your worries or your problems may seem, and even if they do keep you up at night, if you really analyze them, you’ll find that every single problem has a solution.
Habit 6: Schedule Think Days
Have a “think day.” This is one that I’ve been doing very recently, and it’s helped me overcome any mental blocks that I have and makes me mindful and sure that I’m heading in the right direction. In the ’80s, Bill Gates, who founded Microsoft, began this “think week” annual tradition. He would seclude himself in a remote location and shut off all of his communication. He’d spend an entire week dedicated to reading, learning, and thinking.
This approach then became a key part of his life and his process. And he said, “Think week is a time when I’m can be creative and push my own thinking. It’s a time to step outside the day-to-day demands of my job and really focus on the big picture.” I haven’t been able to commit to a whole week, but I have started doing “think days” at least once a month. I just step away from all my work, everything, my phone, my laptop, and I’d secure myself mentally. [6 Daily Habits for Success]
I’ll spend an entire day reading, journaling, thinking, learning something new. And when you do this, you give yourself space to really zoom out and take a high-level view on your life and the bigger picture and the direction that you’re going in. Sometimes we’re so caught up in the grind and working hard that we never really take a step back and say, “Where am I going and how can I get there more efficiently?” So this is one that I would highly recommend if you’re able to.