Successful people are celebrated for standing out and being unafraid to push boundaries. They are held in high esteem for creating their own opportunities and embracing challenges.
Motivational speaker Les Brown puts it simply, “To be successful, you must be willing to do the things today others won't do in order to have the things tomorrow others won't have."
But what exactly are the things successful people do each day? You may be surprised to know that there are a lot of common patterns. Keep reading for tips and tricks that you can implement in your everyday life to become more successful.
Focus on the most important task that day
Have you ever ended a busy day and felt like you didn't actually accomplish anything? That's because it's easy to be busy. Successful people focus on being productive rather than being busy.
Channel your energy and focus toward the task or tasks that will leave you feeling accomplished and productive at the end of the day. A great way to put this into action is to make a habit of setting an intention first thing every morning. Think about what tasks will bring you closer to your long-term goals, and focus exclusively on completing those before you jump into anything else.
Brian Tracy, a Canadian-American motivational speaker and author recommends an "Eat That Frog" approach. He uses the Mark Twain quote, "Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day," to help people focus on completing their most important task of the day. He explains to handle your toughest challenge first thing in the morning, ignoring all distractions until your proverbial "frog" has been eaten.
Act now
In our eyes, our future selves are the most perfect beings – tomorrow, he or she will do all the things we didn't feel like doing today. The problem is that your future self is still you, and what will be different about tomorrow? If you didn't accomplish something today, the day before or the week before, you can not depend on your future self to complete it tomorrow.
Successful people work the other way around; they focus on taking actionable steps every day to set their future selves up for success.
Avoid distractions
One of the easiest things to do throughout your day is get distracted. It happens so quickly – all it takes is one phone message or one email to set you off course. Once you set your sights on completing a specific task, try to limit your exposure to things that could lead you away from your daily goal. As a more productive alternative, block out times each day in your calendar where you will check emails or listen to voice messages. Try to avoid doing these tasks first thing in the morning – that is a recipe for distraction. Instead set these blocks for the afternoon, or after you have made progress in your daily goals.
Delegate
As a small business owner, no matter how much you work, there will always be more work to be done. However, if you attempt to do all of the work yourself, you may actually be setting yourself back rather than making progress toward your goals.
When evaluating tasks, try to take the "I" out as much as possible. Ask yourself the question, "Is this the best use of my time?" If the answer is no, delegate the task to someone else who may be able to do it faster and cheaper.
Have a morning routine
There are many variations of morning routines that successful people follow. However, what is interesting is that many of them include some sort of meditation, exercise and priority-setting for the day ahead.
LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner starts his morning with a focus on his mental health – he uses a meditation app to build his daily meditation routine. Screenwriter and producer Shonda Rhimes begins her morning with a fun workout – "a dance party with Beyonce,” as she calls it. The key is to figure out what works for your needs and be consistent with it.
Network
Successful people consistently grow their circles by networking. One outcome of networking is more business opportunities. Additionally, by surrounding yourself with other entrepreneurs, you can learn new skills and ideas.
It's no secret that becoming and remaining successful takes lots of hard work. While the big moments and big wins of entrepreneurs are highlighted, the hard work that they put in every day is often not shown. They may be small, but when combined, can result in massive improvement not only of yourself, but your business. Try implementing these techniques into your daily life and see how this can help take your success to a whole new level!
