If you talk to the most successful business owners, you’ll find that they have a few habits in common. We’ve listened to these people and have compiled a list of seven habits for success that are used by some of the top business men and women in the world.
Meditation
Meditation is no longer just used by yogis and monks. It’s one of the top tools CEOs and other successful people, use meditation to manage stress. The goal of meditation is to bring peace, joy and happiness to your life.
There are a lot of different types of meditation and there isn’t one right way to meditate. You need to do what works for you, even if that just means sitting quietly for a few minutes. As long as you find peace and aren’t thinking about how much you have to do, then you’re doing it right!
Here are a few types of meditation you can try:
- mindfulness meditation
- spiritual meditation
- focused meditation
- movement meditation
- mantra meditation
- transcendental meditation
As you’re cultivating your habit for success try using meditation. It’s a great way to clear your head and relax when you have a lot of pressure on your shoulders.
Schedule Your Day
Time management is one of the best habits for success! It’s a great tool for achieving business goals and still having a personal life.
Living by a schedule can help you stay focused and accomplish your to-do list, which is another habit successful people use. You don’t have to schedule out your day by the minute, but it’s good to have an idea of what you’re doing every hour. Time blocking is a great method for keeping a loose schedule that allows for flexibility when you need it. You can learn about time blocking, to-do lists and other helpful habits in our previous post, 5 Organizational Habits for Small Business owners.
Another way to really utilitize your time is to multi-task. A lot of successful people try to combine less important tasks. Mark Cuban, a businessman and owner of the Dallas Mavericks, reads his email while exercising.
Combining tasks like that is a great way to get the most done in a day. Just make sure you aren’t multi-tasking everything. Some tasks need your full attention in order to produce quality work.
Make Time for Fitness
Most business owners devote 80% of their time to their business and 20% to the family or social lives. Which means they don’t leave time for themselves.
As we discussed, practicing meditation is good for your mind and implementing that habit can help your mental health. However, you really should take time for your physical health as well.
Exercise is one of the habits for success that you can’t leave out.
You don’t have to become a body builder or a cross fit junkie in order to be fit. (Although, if you can do those, good for you!) Just spend 20-30 minutes a day exercising.
There are so many benefits of exercise, all of which can help you build your business. We’ll just list a few of these benefits.
- Increases endorphins
- Improves mood
- Lowers your risk of heart disease and diabetes
- Gives you more energy
- Teaches goal setting (and accomplishment)
- Improves memory
Pick a time during your day when you can fit in exercise and stick to it. Use the time blocking method that we talked about before so that you can dedicate a time to your fitness.
Meal Plan & Prep
Along with fitness, eating healthy is an important habit for success. It goes hand in hand with exercise, you really have to use both to be healthy.
There are a lot of benefits to eating healthy. As an entrepreneur these will benefit you directly:
- Increases productivity
- Keeps you alert
- Helps you sleep better
- Relieves stress
- Makes you smarter
- Boots your immune system
- Spikes energy levels
As a busy entrepreneur, you don’t have a lot of time to create healthy and delicious meals every day. It’s hard enough to grab fast food when you’re in the middle of work.
Meal planning and prepping can help you stay on track with your health. In order for meal planning and prepping to work you have to devote time each week to plan and prepare your meals. Experts recommend starting with the meal you have the most trouble with. For instance, if you’re always running out for lunch, start by planning a week’s worth of healthy lunches. On Sunday spend an hour putting them together so that throughout the week you can grab one out of the fridge and be ready to go. Once you’ve tackled one meal, move on to another one.
Read More
In the age of quick information, reading is becoming a lost art; however, successful people still cling to reading as one of the most important habits tor success.
Reading can give you a leg up in the business world. It doesn’t necessarily matter what you read, but you should cover the three main categories: read the news, read for pleasure and read to learn.
First, reading the newspaper is an excellent habit to get into. Staying up to date on current events has many benefits. First, you can keep track of the market and make smarter business decisions. Second, knowing what is going on in the world makes you more intelligent, which builds trust. Finally, you will be able to hold a conversation with anyone because you know what is going on and can form an opinion on it.
Reading for pleasure is important as well. It’s a great stress reliever. When you take the time to read something you want to read, reading becomes a form of self care. Which can improve your health. Reading for pleasure can even help you become a better analytical thinker!
Reading for knowledge is one of the habits for success that the best business leaders sear by. People such as Warren Buffet, Mark Cuban and Malcom X all attribute their success to reading and learning. They’ll all tell you that you need to keep educating yourself beyond your formal schooling.
Keep Learning
We alluded to this in the previous habit for success, but it’s so important that it deserves it’s own subject!
If you want to be successful in business and in life you can’t stop learning just because you have a diploma. Learning is critical to becoming a successful entrepreneur. Especially, where technology is constantly changing how businesses run.
There are a lot of ways that entrepreneurs can continue their informal educations. Like we said before, reading is the best way. Try to read as much as you can. If you want to learn about a specific topic, look for an online course. Podcasts are another great option for entrepreneurs. You can listen to tips from experts in your field and while doing other things.
Don’t forget that your experiences are great ways to continue learning. Anytime you have a new experience take time to analyze it and see what you can learn from the situation.
Be Thankful
Being thankful might seem like an odd habit for success, but it’s the most important one.
Being an entrepreneur doesn’t mean you’re going to be successful overnight. In most cases, it’s going to take a long time for you to reach your dreams.
It doesn’t matter what stage of success you’re in, remember to be thankful for what you have and to the people who have helped you along the way.
Do more than just think about what you’re thankful for. Show people how thankful you are for their support. This could mean donating to charity, or giving your supporters gifts.
You’ll find that your life is happier when you focus on the good and let the rest roll off your back.
