Former US Navy Seal William H. McRaven said, “If you make your bed every morning, you will have accomplished your first task of the day.”
McRaven’s book is aptly named Make Your Bed. As well as earning a place as #1 bestseller, it is also thought as one of the greatest self-help guides out there. Making your bed might seem silly — you might think that nobody will see it, it’s a waste of time, or you’ll only be sleeping in it again anyway. But that is a negative outlook, others looking to improve their life might say “absolutely”.
Consider this: do you think that Bill Gates, Alan Sugar, and Mark Zuckerberg wake every morning, don their favorite and most powerful suit, and leave their bedroom with an unmade, messy bed? The answer is no. Did you know that you spend around one-third of your day in your bedroom? It only makes sense that making your bed would help relieve stress and create a tidy and more pleasant environment to be in.
So, now that you’ve found something to do for the first several minutes of your day, let’s take a look at the rest. We’ll look at the top five daily habits carried out by successful people — after all, if you can’t beat them, you might as well join them. The new year is the perfect time to implement new steps into your routine and change yourself for the better.
Being productive
Work hard, play hard? No — work smart, play hard. Don’t make anything more difficult for yourself than it needs to be. Use your time wisely and assess what you’re doing. Weigh up the benefits that completing a task has.
Think about it: people may wrongly assume that the CEO or director of their company doesn’t have time to speak to anyone. However, they most likely have more time than others, prioritizing important tasks and avoiding wasting precious time on things that won’t yield a valuable return.
Document your goals
One of the biggest errors people make when trying to achieve something is not setting clear goals. And we don’t mean grabbing the nearest pen and note pad to jot down a few empty and meaningless goals to make it seem like you’ve got a plan.
Start by compiling a list of realistic and actionable goals. You don’t need to sit and fret over a 15-year plan — you could set goals for the day, week, or month. Ticking them off will give you a clear idea of where you are and where you want to be. 62 percent of successful people focus on their goals every day.
Early riser
So, we know that successful business leaders don’t leave their bed a mess, but what time do they get up? It should come as no surprise to learn that those who do well in life get up early on a morning.
Virgin Media owner Richard Branson begins his day at 5:45 am. This may seem super early, but this is nothing compared to Apple’s CEO Tim Cook, who gets up at 3:45 am. When the rest of the country has begun to wake up, both of these men have made a considerable dent in their to-do list, as well as exercising and responding to emails.
Rich Habits: The Daily Success Habits of Wealthy Individuals author Thomas Corley carried out a study which involved over 200 self-made millionaires. He found that 44 per cent were awake for three or more hours before officially starting their workday.
Keeping healthy
There are many different ways you can maintain a healthy body. In Corley’s study mentioned previously, he recognized two constants: a lack of junk food and a regular, structured amount of exercise. This can be running, lifting weights, or yoga — whatever you prefer. Plus, this will make you more competitive and fill you with motivation.
Motivated to achieve self-improvement
Now ask yourself, if you don’t believe in yourself, how can anyone else? This can range across many different things in your life but starts with what you do every day. We’re all tempted to get in from a long day at work and sink into a Netflix rabbit hole. But what benefit do you really get from that?
There’s no denying that this time could be used to consider how you can spend time to improve yourself. The successful ones among us will perhaps be reading something beneficial to their development — 88 per cent of rich people spend around 30 minutes reading non-fiction each day.
Of course, we’re not guaranteeing that following these five steps will land you in the C-suite of a major corporation, but it might be enough to set yourself on the track to success.
