Success Habits of People Who Are Killing It

The secret sauce to success: success habits from the most unlikely people to make it big in this world. Habits that aren’t rocket science, that might even sound silly, but that are ridiculously easy to implement into your own life.

Write Your Goals Down Daily

When I first heard this, I was like “What!? Who has time to do that?” But the people saying it were incredibly successful, well-respected and with arguably more on their plate in a day than I had.

The thing about writing your goals down is that it keeps them fresh in your mind. It keeps you hungry. It gets them out of your head and into the reality of the world.

Here’s how to start:

1. Grab a journal. Or don’t. Rachel Hollis says that when she was just beginning, running around after her kids, she would write them down on whatever she had. A note in her phone, a napkin, the back side of a scrap sheet of paper, etc. It doesn’t have to be pretty- it just has to get done.
2. Write down the biggest picture goal in each of the topics of your life: finances, health, family, love, possessions, etc. From the big goals, write down smaller, specific goals. You can have as many or as few as you want; the point is to be consistent.
3. Add it into your morning routine, so that you spend the whole day with what you’re working so hard for, fresh in your mind.

Visualize What You Want Specifically

This is a hallmark success habit of individuals who make it. They don’t just abstractly think about a house or a car; they see in their mind what the house looks like. For years they intimately consider what color, make and special customization their dream car (or cars) has.

Manny Khoshbin visualized the type of woman he wanted to marry. Andy Frisella visualized the type of massive impact that he wanted to have in the world. Be specific.

Manny started his life in America as an immigrant, living out of a van with his entire family, not speaking a word of English. Do yourself a favor and Google his garage, then listen to his story here.

Andy built a massive, $300million+ fortune in supplements…not as a body builder. For a long time he wasn’t even in shape, but he still dominated this industry.

Again, get it out of your head and into the world. This is something you might want to do once, or on a yearly basis, but create some type of vision board. If you’re good at drawing, draw your dreams.

Success Habit: Vision Board

If you’re like me and have the artistic capabilities of a raccoon, make a vision board. Get a cork board or a large piece of paper board and cut out and paste images of specific things you want in your life onto it. My vision board is something of a living document. I’m always adding things, getting more and more specific.

Put your dreams where you’ll see them. This is important- this is your life. So many people go through this life disillusioned, without purpose. Maybe you feel like that right now- you want big things, but you don’t know what.

Start small. Put something on the board. The simple act of starting breaks down massive barriers of fear and makes your goals a reality. Taking action changes the inner script from if I win to when I win.

Write Down Your Accomplishments

Ideally, this should be done at the end of the day. You can use the same journal (check out this 5-second journal from Mel Robbins) you used to jot down your goals in the morning. It’s important to document even small, daily wins, because it’s so easy to hammer away at your rock for months and think that you’re making no progress.

They don’t have to be mind-blowing accomplishments. Start with something like this:

Because soon, they’ll be things like this:

• Hit 50k page views this month!
• Closed a $20k client deal
• My online course filled up in less than an hour
• Had my first $10k month
• Last day working for anyone else

Act Like You’ve Already Won

Behave like the person you want to be. How do you envision that you’ll act when you’ve made it? Start now. Act as if you have already won. That doesn’t mean walk about with a chip on your shoulder, unless that’s how you plan to act when you’ve made it. It means stand with confidence and show up like a leader.

Do you walk around like you don’t deserve your dreams because you haven’t gotten there yet? Or do you walk tall, like the CEO, controlling your space, making decisions and taking action?

You want to be a millionaire? Ditch the “poor” mindset. Leave behind the scarcity mentality. Stop pinching pennies over coffee and avocado toast, and focus all your efforts into increasing your income. Invest heavily in yourself. Take calculated risks. Spend money to save time– because your time is valuable now.

Make the Most of White Space

What is white space? I’ll admit, I picked that term up in the Marine Corps, but it’s super relevant everywhere. White space is down time, or time where you could be learning while also accomplishing other tasks. I’ll admit, this is one of the cringier success habits, because I’d much rather be trolling Instagram than putting tools in my toolbox.

Examples of White Space

• Chunks of open space in your schedule
• Driving/flying
• Cardio/working out
• Doing mindless chores
• Waiting (at the doctor’s office or other similar situations)

If you add up all the available white space that occurs naturally throughout your day, I think you’ll be surprised at how much time you actually have, even though you feel “busy”.

Success Habit: Creative Ways to Use White Space

I keep my white space filled by always having a separate list of tasks that can always use some work, or need to get done whenever I have time, or podcasts/audio books I can flip on, etc.

For example, if I have ten minutes of free time between calls, I might: post a swipe up to my Instagram story, request to join a couple of group Pinterest Boards, update my day planner for tomorrow, one-click-edit a couple of photos to use later, etc.

If I’m driving or doing cardio (when I lift I listen to music, I’m not a complete robot) I have a podcast or audio book on. I love podcasts, honestly, because they’re exactly the right length to get through in entirely in the amount of time I’m willing to spend on the stair master.

I’ll also have one on while I’m cleaning the house, cooking, grocery shopping, etc. It’s an easy way to maximize my working time so that when I’m done for the day, I can be totally done and present with my loved ones.

Constantly Seek Information

This success habit really ties into the one before and after it, but I want to draw a parallel. In this day and age, with all the information that we have available to us, if you don’t know something, that’s by choice. You have all of the tools available to you to find out anything you need to know to be successful.

However, you do not need an overabundance of information to take action. If you have the ability to get information, you don’t need to know every, single, thing to get started. Don’t let information paralyze you. Eventually you have to stop preparing and start doing.

Once you’re in the fight, keep seeking answers and new ways to win. Keeping learning from other people’s experiences and keep finding ways to be more efficient, to grow, to scale and to expand.

Even when you’re a gabillion-aire, you must keep seeking knowledge. The second you stop is the second you start to lose.

Surround Yourself With Winners

Don’t be the most successful person in the room. Seek out mastermind groups and other growth cultures. If you want to be a millionaire, get around other millionaires. You want to own a billion dollar real estate portfolio? Get around other successful real estate investors.

I recognize that physically being around people like this might be impossible for some of us. Where I grew up, (in interior Alaska), the best I probably could have done is to fly out for an expensive conference maybe once a year.

Ways to “Surround” Yourself with Winners

Daily ways that you can “surround yourself” though, are similar to some of the ways we discussed above regarding seeking information:

1. Listen to stories of successful people when you’re driving, or during white space
2. Subscribe to the podcasts of successful people, where they literally spill the beans on what they do daily, and have done, to make it
3. Get rid of all the meme pages you follow on social media, and fill up your feed with these same people
4. Join free mastermind groups on Facebook. Seek out paid mastermind groups hosted by specific people who you want to emulate
5. Create your own virtual mastermind group and invite like minded people. (If you wish, you may join mine here.)
6. Attend training as often as possible

People to Get Away From

Additionally, as important as it is to add people in, recognize that if you’re going to make the internal shift from where you are now to where you want to be, you are going to change. With that change, you will have to let go or limit some friendships and relationships. People you don’t want in your daily life:

1. Those who make fun of your dreams or ambition, even in jest. “Wow, I get tired just listening to you!”
2. The ones who only talk about other people or shallow topics.
3. Individuals without any bigger dreams or goals of their own. People who have settled.
4. Anyone with a victim mentality. “I can’t because this or that happened to me.”
5. People obsessed with their past success.

Get a Mentor (or Two)

You don’t need to hire someone at the level of Bill Gates to help you be successful. I guarantee that there is someone, (or multiple someones) who you look up to in your immediate vicinity, who would be more than happy to give you guidance in what they have been successful at.

Key Criteria for Choosing a Mentor

1. Always be willing to pay for their time. This is an investment in yourself, and a huge favor on their part.
2. Choose someone who has been successful in the same area that you want to be.
3. Recognize that you may need multiple mentors.

Types of Mentors

Personally, I have three mentors:

1. One mentor guides me in my overall business model. He helps me to see opportunities that, in my greenness I would miss. He also helps me to learn simple business related tasks, such as SEO optimization, website design and maintenance, hacks to drive traffic, etc. Finally, he helps me to brainstorm and allows me to bounce ideas off of his vast experience and expertise.
2. My second mentor is specifically for my finances. He helps me take my income from my business model and continue to invest it in ways that will help it to massively grow. He advises me on accounting and legal practices, on what and where to put my money on, and on how to continuously grow my financial education.
3. My third mentor is on the personal growth side. She knows what comfort zones I struggle to break out of, failures that I’ve had and am rebuilding from, and the non-business-related goals tied into my overall future.

Things to Beware Of

Whatever combination of mentorship works for you is what works, and it’s always okay to move on from someone or something that is not working. Beware of giant “mastermind” groups that have tons of people in them and little personal contact from the group moderator.

Beware of paying exorbitant amounts of money each month for someone who has no contact with you beyond a coaching call or two. Look for people who are so truly passionate about success that helping other people radiates out of them.

When you find one, remember how much their insight and time meant to you, and pay it forward as soon and as often as you can.

Don’t Neglect Your Health

Nutrition and fitness are not optional- they directly correlate with your mental health and functionality in business.

This is highly personal and you’ll have to find what works for you and your schedule, but set some personal minimums and stick to them. Here are mine:

1. Work out 5x/week for 60-90 minutes.
2. Don’t eat food that makes you feel like crap.
3. Take your vitamins & micro-nutrients daily.

That’s it. I keep it really simple, because if I don’t, it doesn’t get done. If you don’t know what micro-nutrients are, they are the full spectrum of vitamins and minerals that your body should get from whole foods. Because I don’t eat a huge variety of fruits/vegetables, I use both a reds & greens supplements and multi-vitamin from 1stPhorm Nutrition.

Let me clarify, the most important supplements that you should be putting into your body every, single day are: a high quality vitamin product, and a greens micro-nutrient product. Even if you are the diva of salads and green smoothies, (which I most certainly am not) there is no way that you are getting the full spectrum of nutrients that your body needs.

The vegetables we consume are typically not of the highest quality, or preserved correctly, or in enough daily variety to keep us from having deficiencies. Having the proper range of micro-nutrients in your body is huge, not only for your physical health, but for your mental clarity, sleep quality, skin, hair, nails and mood support.

If you are truly committed to being successful in every area of your life, this is non-negotiable. Go get your stash right now and put that ish on subscription. I pay the exact same for mine as you do, so if I can make room in my wallet, so can you. It’s all about priorities my friends.

*Ad: 1stPhorm does not run sales or promotions, because their products are high enough quality that there is constant demand. However, you can get free shipping by ordering through the links above, or at 1stphorm.com/halfpint .

Thank you for contributing to my donut fund- and the ability to do fun things like product giveaways.

Other Helpful Links:

–5 HIIT Workouts With Zero Equipment Needed

-Cardio Without Running

Control Your Time

Don’t let your day run you. Deciding when you get up is a common one, but deciding when you go to bed is arguably more important- and more difficult.

Audit your time throughout the day. Identify when you had unprofitable white space and what you can do to avoid it. This might sound nit-picky, but if you maximize your work hours, you also maximize your relaxation hours, because you know that you got done everything that you could possibly do.

Embrace Friction

Run towards possible failures. If you aren’t failing on a regular basis, you aren’t growing. Failure is never comfortable, no matter how successful you become. I’m not advocating recklessness, but rather responsiveness to growth.

If you grow into a task and become really good at it, it’s time to level up.

Success Tip: How to Handle Haters

Embrace haters. If you are successful, the haters will come. You will never be able to please everybody. Recognize that people who hate on you, are reflecting the hatred that they feel for themselves. They don’t have what you do because they aren’t willing to do what you do.

Don’t take haters personally, in fact, do the opposite. Hater attention is still attention, which makes you more well known, and ultimately drives business. Treat every negative input with respect, and thank them for reaching out. Then move on.

Also watch this awesome Q&A between Trent Shelton and Rachel Hollis. 10/10 recommend following both on social media.

They Figure Things Out

Successful people are the champions of trial and error, of making things work, of finding information. They love to solve problems. These champions don’t see obstacles as obstacles, but as reasons why they will succeed and others won’t.

Their first reflex isn’t to throw in the towel, or run to someone else for help. Successful people get creative; they think outside the box, and they never limit an idea with the label of “impossible”.

Do you have this mindset?

Keep an Abundantly Broke Mentality

I know, I know. What the fudge does that even mean?

It means to hustle like your broke, no matter how much you start to make it. Never think that there’s not market share for your ideas, or that because someone has already done something that you can’t do it also or better.

It means to stop wasting your brain power trying to save money, but to bend all of your mindset into how to increase your income.

Not a scarcity mentality, but a broke mentality. Stay hungry. But get that bread. (Sorry, I had to. Haha.)

Persistence

The final and most important success habit of those who massively win: Never freaking quit.

The only difference most times between success and failure isn’t the quality of your idea or plan, but how long you can hold on and bring the energy to win.

Is there a finite number of times that you can you get back up? Exactly how much beat down can you take? How close can you come to broke and not sacrifice your dreams out of fear by going and getting a job?

How long are you willing to work for your ultimate outcome? Months? Years? During those years is why it is so important to do the above; to write your goals down, to visualize your massive dreams, to document your wins.

Nine out of ten times it is a long, hard night before the sunrise of success, and if you want to make it, you need to be deliberate about your strategy to get through.

That’s really it, folks. Save this page for later, share with a friend who needs to hear it, and start implementing these things, one at a time, into your life.

Go get a journal.