Table of Contents
Good daily habits are the foundation of success. Successful people differ from unsuccessful people in their daily habits. Successful people have many good and few bad daily habits. Unsuccessful people have many bad and few good daily habits. Most successful people are not even aware that they possess such habits. This is why defining success has always been difficult.
Identify Strength & Weakness
No person will ever be successful until they can identify their strengths and weaknesses. Self-assessment requires brutal honesty. But how does one define a given strength or weakness? This is not an easy task. Our egos interfere and we are left with uncertainty about the accuracy of our own analysis. It is much easier for a third party to assess us than for us to assess ourselves.
A simple and fool-proof approach to assessing ourselves is to look at our daily patterns of living, our daily habits. By recognizing our daily habits we gain keener insights into our individual strengths and weaknesses. Understanding that our own bad daily habits are preventing us from becoming successful represents the first and most significant step on the path toward financial success.
Replace Bad with Good
On a piece of paper, form two columns. List your Bad Daily Habits under column one. Invert each one of your Bad Daily Habits and list their opposites under column two, which we’ll refer to as your new Good Daily Habits
| Bad Daily Habits | Good Daily Habits |
| I watch too much television. | I limit myself to one hour of TV per day. |
| I don’t exercise regularly. | I exercise for thirty minutes each day. |
| I don’t watch what I eat. | I eat no more than XXXX calories per day. |
| I don’t do my work-related reading. | I read thirty minutes each day. |
| I procrastinate. | I complete items on my to-do list every day. |
| I waste too much time on the Internet. | I limit my daily recreational Internet use. |
| I smoke. | I will not smoke today. |
| I don’t return phone calls right away. | I will return every phone call today. |
| I don’t remember names. | I write down names and remember them. |
| I forget important dates. | I acknowledge dates that are important to others. |
| I don’t spend time with my family | I spend one hour with family per day |
For thirty days just follow your new Good Daily Habits. Review them once in the morning, once at noon, and once at bedtime. In this way, each and every day, hold yourself accountable for following them. The objective is to complete at least eighty percent of your Good Daily Habits each day.
Good Daily Habits Checklist
- I read industry-related material for a half-hour today.
- I ran 30 minutes today.
- I completed 80% of my to-do list today.
- I called at least one prospect today.
- I did not waste time on the Internet today.
- I said “DO IT NOW” when I did not want to do something today.
- I stopped myself from saying something sarcastic today.
- I stopped myself from saying something inappropriate today.
- I stopped myself from talking today when I realized I was talking too much.
- I ate no more than 2,000 calories today.
- I limited myself to two beers today.
- I left the office after 6 p.m. today.
- I called one person today, just to say hello.
- I called someone today to wish him or her a happy birthday.
Self-improvement
Successful people engage in the process of self-improvement every day. They read for self-improvement. They are perpetual students. Each day they devote time to study content related to their field, which enables them to perform better. For them, time is too valuable to be wasted on matters with no tangible value. This may involve obtaining an additional license, a degree, or developing a new niche for their business. They are continuously engaged in some constructive projects to increase their skill sets, promote their business or careers, keep their minds sharp, or expand their business prospects.
Unsuccessful people are not students of their industry, profession, or trade. They do not routinely follow their industry. They do not regularly read industry periodicals. They would rather spend hours each day watching television or engaged in “junk” reading. They use rationalization to justify their negligence in improving themselves.
Way Ahead
Choose a time when there are fewer distractions and you can set aside a block of time. Sometimes this is possible in the early morning hours, prior to beginning your normal workday. At a minimum, set aside thirty minutes each day for these activities. Thirty minutes per day may not seem like much, but over time, it adds up to a significant amount of self-improvement activity. No matter what time of the day works best for you, engage in daily self-improvement activities without interruptions.
I am personally following my morning routine from my college days. Earlier it was mainly related to daily work-out. Later while doing my research to know the reasons behind the financial success, I have gone through more than 90 books. These books are mainly related to mind, money, and business subjects. During this period, I included personal goals, professional goals, affirmation, visualization in my morning routine along with work-out.
This habit transformed several important aspects of my life, be it personal, professional, financial, social. Very few people get the benefits of reading books and implementing written-down principles in real life. Statistics show that fewer than 10% of people who buy a non-fiction book ever read past the first chapter. To bridge this gap, I have started www.fastlanefreedom.com.
Here you will find the best content related to mind, money, and business. Each and every article is having something special, which can be implemented in life immediately. You will come to know the reason for your current financial condition. And also way-ahead plan to improve this. (Excerpt is from one of the best short books ‘Rich Habits: The Daily Success Habits of Wealthy Individuals’ by Thomas Corley)
“The only difference between a rich person and a poor person is how they use their time.”- Robert Kiyosaki
