5 Popular Daily Habits of Successful People

It is the dream of each person to be successful in life. Success can be due to different reasons for growth, happiness, recognition, and advancement which motivates people’s ambitions. The success of individuals is associated with people doing fundamental and routine habits. Strict adherence to the habits gives the individuals an upper hand to be successful in things they partake. After many failures along the road, I sum up five important habits which lead to people being successful. They are medication, workout, good sleep, refueling with energy-boost food and giving and helping others. These habits have shown to make people productive and successful in many books, magazines, and web articles. This is a short summary about each of the five daily habits of successful people.

1. Meditation 

Meditation is a practice where people focus their minds on a specific object, thought or activity in a bit to clear their mental and emotional state. Meditation is the greatest secret for high achievement. High achievers and world-renowned celebrities regularly include meditation in their schedules no matter how busy they are.

According to MotivationGrid, there are five main reasons why meditation makes people successful. Meditation makes someone successful by releasing stress and anxiety which hinders the ability to concentrate on work, communicate to workmates and managing workload. Meditation brings deep relaxation, tranquility, and serenity. Meditation enhances the focus of a person.

Meditation also brings us happiness, prevents and alleviates fear and worry of failure. Happiness in itself highly links with success as it is the foundation and propellant to high achievement. Learning happiness is the first step to being successful.

Meditation also improves creativity, especially when done on daily basis. “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.”, Steve Jobs said. Mindfulness-meditation enhances creative thinking in terms of flexibility, fluency, and originality has been reported in the studies of Psychology. Applying mindfulness can balance the brain networks and optimize the performance in each stage of the creative process. The effective way to train and practice mindfulness is Meditation.

2. Exercise and Workout 

Exercise and workout decrease stress, shaping and sharpening a body and mind. Most successful people do exercise every day or regularly as routine, according to Enterpreneur.com. Physical activities like running, lifting or yoga give an individual up to four extra hours of productivity each day. According to The Independent, a study published by The University of Sydney suggests resistance training improve brain health and performance.

Working out also helps people to benefit from schedules and goals, as it is a great way to build good habits and break bad habits. After a day’s work, exercise puts your mind in contact with your body. This allows an individual to collect his or her thoughts and instill a sense of direction. Although a study shows that no conclusive benefits of physical exercise on creativity thinking of individuals, another study suggests physical exercise enhances the self-esteem of an individual by making him or her healthier inside and out. At the same time, it teaches people that they can excel beyond the limits they have set for themselves. This allows people better to believe in themselves and don’t give a chance of doubting themselves. Daily exercise and workout, in the end, help you to work smarter and not harder, increase your strength and productivity.

3. Rest and Sleep 

Rest and sleep are paramount to becoming successful. Sleep doesn’t waste time as many people believe. Sleep will propel an individual to greater heights of success according to modern science. Forbes reported a research on the sleep habits of highly successful people. It showed that interrupted sleep produces multiple adverse effects on the next day. REM deep sleep enhances people’s creativity in solving problems. Inadequate sleep reduces the attention and motivation making it difficult to acquire new information. Sleep enhances the receptiveness of learning which links to personal growth. Closing eyes to sleep helps you to perform better and achieve your goals.

Getting enough sleep has shown to reduces the likelihood of making errors, because the memory, reaction time, and decision-making capabilities are always on point with no impairment. The suggested sleeping hours are not less than 8 hours in a day. Getting plenty of sleep boosts the immune system and prevent illness. It also avoids sleep debt and long-term sleep disorders.

4. Refueling with Energy-Boost Foods 

We have meals every day but it doesn’t mean we intake the right foods. Eating the right foods, at the right time will significantly improve the overall performance of individuals by up to 20 percent, according to the World Health Organization. The diet is the cornerstone of success. Diets will influence everything from the memory and emotions to the job performance and productivity. Fueling properly is essential if we want to be successful. Foods will fuel most vital organs for our success.

Basically you the need to refuel with energy foods during breakfast, lunchtime, and supper. This can also be done after workouts to ensure the body has energy all the times. This energy is crucial as it will help in increasing productivity. But inappropriate diets not only cause weight gain but also damage your brains according to the best-seller “Grain Brain” by David Perlmutter, MD. While carbohydrate is the primary source of the energy of our body, we have to acquire a collection of nutrients. You can try these 10 productivity-boosting superfoods, Salmon, Berries, Green Tea, Dark Chocolate, Nuts, Avocados, Water, Bananas, Eggs, Brown Rice, suggested from an Inc. Magazine’s article.

Try having a glass of lemon water is helpful for you to refresh from tiredness. According to BBC Good Food, the nutritionist explained that lemons contain high citric acid, vitamin C content as well as protective antioxidants called flavanoids. Many sports drinks contain lemon juice content because evidence shows that the citric acid reduces physiological stress and relieves physical fatigue. Vitamin C (or ascorbic acid) is an essential nutrient for tissue repairing, collagen synthesis and also acts as an antioxidant. Studies found that the vitamin C plays a vital role in brains as a neuromodulator of several neurotransmitters and aids mood control. While the lemon flavanoids give high refreshing flavor in lemon drinks, rat experiments have been shown the effect on reducing oxidative stress in diabetics. Those facts suggest lemon water is a low-calorie and health drink for watering your body.

5. Giving and Helping Others 5. Giving and Helping Others 

“It is not true that nice guys finish last.”, said Joshua Becker, the founder and editor of Becoming Minimalist. He also said, “Our greatest successes in life are often found in helping others succeed.”. In helping others, the receiver will reach a greater potential than he or she could have on his or her own, the world becomes bettered and the giver is remembered. The key to any success is making someone else successful. So always look for ways of helping other people succeed and you will be successful.

Prof. Adam Grant, a famous organizational psychologist, gave an impressive TED talk entitled “Are you a giver or a taker?” in January 2017. His talk summarized the key messages from his best-seller “Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success”. You might find the TED Talks video below. Prof. Adam Grant has concluded who is the most successful in our society among three types of people, namely, Givers, Matchers, and Takers. His finding says the winner is the Giver. Good leaders who can lead organizations and teams to produce great service and value are the Givers. They are glad to share knowledge to guide others toward success.

Giving back has an effect on your body. Studies show when you donate or help others, you become more successful. A good example is people involved in charity work. Their mesolimbic system which is the portion of the brain responsible for feelings of reward is triggered when they give and help others. By giving and helping others, the brain releases feel-good chemicals and in the process, you perform more kind acts. This boosts their performance in their daily activities. Their success increases daily because of the happiness associated with giving back.

So have you made these 5 activities be your habits? If not, I would suggest you choose one of them and start training them one-by-one with a solid plan. You might try out our STEP+ Planner. It will help you organize what baby steps will you take to achieve your success.