Emmanuel Odoemelam
A popular saying that you need to pay serious attention to goes thus: ‘You form a habit and it turns to form you’.
It is also well known that forming good habits come at a great sacrifice and bad ones come easy. Conversely, great sacrifice for good habits returns great benefits just as bad habits formed easily returns great adverse price.
What you are today are cumulative returns from habits, consciously or unconsciously formed yesterdays.
Therefore take heed to form these habits that have formed some great men.
1. Simplify Your Communications
How effectively do you pass your message? Successful people know how to share their message in simplest terms. They use their words with precision and possess deep meaning in what they say. By speaking inappropriately, many people exterminate their opportunities. In short, never drown people in the sea of verbosity.
Unfortunately, too many people get lazy with their communication and subtly conform to the habits of others. However, successful people diligently work on how to improve what they say and seamlessly find easier ways to say it, whether it’s verbally or written.
2. Abandon the Old
Before you are able to face the new, you must relinquish the old. If you want a new car or house, then bless the old one and search for the new. When you want to achieve a positive mindset, you must get rid of the negative one first. To abandon your negative habits, you must replace them with positive ones.
Seek new experiences and information on key issues of your life and apply same for effect and impact.
According to Aristotle we are what we repeatedly do. Therefore, excellence is not an act, but a habit.
3. Set Daily Goals
Successful set goals on paper for every day schedule. This is an inspiring habit that they promise to keep for the rest of their life. Whether you’re writing your financial projections, planning your weekly tasks, or scheming new ways to build your empire, you’ll want to procure a daily goal-setting habit that will give you momentum on a daily basis.
Set your daily goals a night before the day, and your weekly goals a day before the new week, and so on for monthly, quarterly and yearly goals.
When you set your goals every day, it allows you to prioritize and keep “first things first.” Prioritization is doing first what matters most.
Once you accumulate more profitable activities in your day, you’ll add money to the bank, making you a financial success in the process.
4. Being Congruent
Related to the goal setting is keeping faith with the goals. You must do what you say you’re going to do. There will be many times in your life where you’ll be asked to sacrifice your personal values to reach professional goals. When this temptation occurs, don’t do it. There’s nothing more valuable than remaining congruent in your personal and professional lives. It allows you to mix “business with pleasure.”
Strangely enough, many people tell you that you can’t mix business with pleasure. However, this assertion is absurd and will only be preached by incongruent people. When you’re doing what you love, business is pleasure. When you’re living a life that is based on integrity, your reputation will grow, enriching yourself and many others in the process. Never put your reputation in jeopardy by failing to remain congruent with your highest values and ideals.
5. Decision-Making
The more decisions you make, the more successful you will be. While one person could make a dozen decisions in a day, another one can make hundreds in a day. The person who makes the most decisions will win, even if their decisions lead to failure. Just imagine, if you were going the opposite way on a one-way street, you’d learn to quickly make adjustments!
However, most people are afraid to make crucial decisions because they are conquered by fears, which leaves them paralyzed. Being paralyzed prevents them from making decisions, thereby forcing them to forfeit opportunities. Always make a decision, even if you don’t know where it will lead. Soon enough, you’ll find the answers you need.
Indecision is worse than wrong decision because even if you fail to decide then you have decided to fail without a control.
6. Asking Questions
Most people assume that they know answers. Their assumptions actually hold them back from knowing the truth. Truly, you want to ask questions to gain clarity about the direction you are heading. The fact is that many people don’t ask any question as they habitually guess their way by creating answers for themselves.
To become a success, don’t answer your questions, but question your answers. When you need to know the facts, you must inquire, not just make assumptions. Many people don’t want to ask questions because it exposes them to confront the reality of their circumstance, which may scare them. Moreover, asking questions forces them into the laborious task of thinking, which is why they fail to ask questions.
According to the great French philosopher, Voltaire, judge a man by his questions rather than his answers.
7. Become a Master
One time, a fine pianist performed at a party for 50 rich women. After she was done, a woman from the party said to the virtuoso, “I’d give anything to play as you do.” As the master pianist sipped her coffee in slow motion, she took a brief pause and said, “Oh no you wouldn’t.” Soon, a great hush filled the room as they were baffled in astonishment and massive confusion.
She continued, “You’d give anything to play as I do, except time. You wouldn’t sit and practice, hour after hour, day after day, year after years.” Then she flashed a warm smile while repositioning her coffee cup. “Please understand, I’m not criticizing,” she said. “I’m just telling you that when you say you’d give anything to play as I do, you don’t really mean it. You really don’t mean it at all.”
Every master was once a disaster. – T. Harv Eker
8. Embellish Your Appearance
Upgrading your appearance is instrumental to becoming a success. Avoiding bad habits like drugs, tobacco, and excessive drinking of alcohol will always give you a more confident expression. By exercising four to five times per week, you are destined to become more physically attractive. You can easily beautify yourself by making minor changes to your appearances.
Constantly embellish your appearance, even in the smallest ways, like shaving or applying cosmetics. Soon enough, you’ll find more opportunities attracted to you. Looking like a success is the best way to becoming one!
9. Doing the Maximum
Don’t do your best, don’t even stop at doing what is required, aim to surpass expectations. The only element of success that you can control is your effort. Most people do minimum work, but expect maximum results. Instead of shirking the responsibilities of work, successful people find better ways to achieve their goals. They go the extra mile to leverage themselves through people and systems, while using their efforts to optimize their talents.
When you maximize your efforts by focusing on how you can utilize your talents, you will dramatically increase your wealth.
People pretend not like grapes when the vines are too high for them to reach. – Marguerite de Navarre
Good habits are as addictive as bad habits. Once you’ve adopted a good habit, keep gaining new ones. An average person develops 6-10 new habits per year, which also means that they are dropping 6-10 old habits! Regardless, think about your daily habits and how they affect you. And remember, you make your habits in the beginning, then your habits make you!