11 Habits That Will Make you a Success...

11 Habits That Will Make you a Success...
 
 
1. Read before you write or work.
Reading a good book will get the creative juices flowing, the brain learning, and your knowledge base growing. Try reading for 30 minutes to start your day.  If you don't like to read, try listening to audio books instead. 
 
2. Always finish your to do list.
Obviously, first you must have a "to do list", which means writing things down.  This may sound overly simple but writing out your "to do list" will help you be a lot more productive every day.  Get in the habit of never leaving anything that you wanted to finish at the beginning of the day, incomplete at the end. If you simply do what you set out to do, it will be hard for success to elude you.
 
3. Keep your to do list small and scaled.
Have 1 or 2 things that are important to finish, and make sure you finish them first. The rest of your tasks should be tended to only after your most important ones have been completed. I like to rank my tasks for the day from most important to least important and I also factor in what I can get done very quickly vs. what is going to take a long time to complete. 
 
4. Wake up early.
You probably do this one already anyway so this should be easy for you.  The list of successful people who wake up before the rest of the world is far too long to list. This isn't a coincidence. Get up before 6 am, 7 days a week and get a head start on your day and your dream.
 
5. Work harder than your competition.
If you work harder than everyone else, success can't hide from you. You will find it. And you will enjoy it.  I know for a fact that there are a lot of people out there that are smarter than me, come from families with lots of money and seemingly have every other advantage in the world but they won't outwork me.  They will quit before I quit and I will beat them by outlasting them.  Hard work, persistence and resiliency are the great equalizers in life.
 
6. Use a big white dry erase board.
Use a big white board to keep your goals visible and close.  You may tell your clients to keep their fitness goals hanging up somewhere where they will see them often so this can motivate them to stay focused.  Your white board is essentially the same thing but from a business perspective rather than a fitness perspective.  This is actually one of my favorites and I would highly encourage you to do this if you want greater success.
 
7. Share your dream.
Get in the habit of talking to others who have a similar dream, even if the similarity is the enormity of your goals, and the audaciousness of your plans. Napoleon Hill coined this relationship "a mastermind", and it's one of the most important factors in your eventual success.
 
8. Only surround yourself around successful people.  
That is, don't have "suckers" in your life - people who will tear you away from your work, and destroy your dream. If you have friends that do this, stop hanging out with them. Are they worth you living a mediocre life when greatness can be in your future? 
 
9. Spend your money only on things that will propel your dream.
Cars and "things" are only good for boosting your image in an effort to impress people who you really don't want to impress. Spend money, instead, on your own development and your business to fuel your growth.  Also, be mindful not to justify purchases of things that you "want" to buy thinking that you "need" them.  No client is going to hire you because of your brand new shoes, your manicure or your flashy workout attire. 
 
10. Make a sacrifice.
Get in the habit of sacrificing things that you may like in your life, for things that will help you become a success. The road to greatness isn't one of excess spending and easy living. Hustle. Focus. Sacrifice. Succeed.  I gave up a social life for the better part of 2 years when I started this business.  Creating my success was worth more to me than going out partying with my buddy's on the weekends.
 
11. Write down 3 things you're thankful for every day.
What you'll find is that success is often in your grasp if you look at it from the right perspective. Study after study has shown that happy people achieve far greater things than pessimistic, unhappy individuals. This habit, combined with hard work, is as simple a recipe for success as you can create.  It's also an effective one.