Success is subjective.
For you, it might be financial wellness, while for an entrepreneur, it’s launching a startup that takes off. And for others, it’s fostering optimal health.
But in every case, success requires reaching meaningful goals you set for yourself.
Whatever your definition of success, you’ll need to make an intentional effort to reach it. Creating that powerhouse startup may require years of planning, an intense fundraising round, and grit during rocky times. And achieving physical or financial wellness is no simpler and can imply years of saving and investing, training, or eating right.
Healthy habits support your road to success. These daily customs create the ideal conditions for cultivating a more fulfilling life and the energy it takes to attain significant goals.
Start achieving more by building the 10 habits of successful people into your day to power up your potential.
What are good habits?
Habits are actions you perform consistently, and they can positively or negatively affect your life. Perhaps you exercise every afternoon or prepare nutrient-rich meals for the week ahead. These recurring activities improve your lifestyle, and you can consider them good habits. Other habits, like frequently going to bed late, extending your workday past its limits, or skipping meals, don’t benefit you and are considered bad habits.
Good habits are tough to form, and bad ones are hard to break. As you implement success-driving habits, prepare to work hard. Some days, following through on a new practice will feel like a drag. But if you push through these moments, you habituate day-to-day activities that support a more fulfilling life.
10 habits of successful people
No one can teach you how to become a successful person. Only you can determine your personal values and dreams and live by them. But there are tried-and-true habits for success that change makers have been implementing for generations, and you can, too.
Start with the following 10 successful people’s habits, monitor the positive changes they bring, and create your own potential-boosting routines. Whatever your goals are, you’re about to be several steps closer to achieving them.
1. Getting organized
One of the top tips to be successful in life is knowing where you hope to go and how you’ll get there. Start your journey to success by setting goals and creating an action plan to reach them.
A 2023 Gallup study found that those who determine clear goals and write them down are likelier to achieve them. If you wish to start your own company or learn a new skill, write your vision statement and generate a timeline with specific steps for achieving this.
Once you define a goal, it’s time to get organized. Tidy your workspace, obtain tools (like project or time management software) to plot your tasks, and make a schedule. You lose time and focus to poor planning, incorrect tools, and messiness, so prepare well and advance your work quickly and correctly.
2. Taking action
Setting out toward a dream is nerve-wracking. You may fear success or wish to avoid failure. But you shouldn’t let these insecurities keep you in your comfort zone. Once you have a plan to reach a goal and have projected potential obstacles and risks, jump in.
If you take the leap at the wrong time or don’t achieve what you’d hoped, don’t despair. You’ll learn from your experience and be better prepared to try again. The mere act of getting out of your comfort zone increases your resilience and confidence. And you live with fewer regrets.
3. Prioritizing tasks
In “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” best-selling author Stephen Covey recommends task prioritization. This activity goes hand-in-hand with effective goal-setting, as you need to determine the order of importance of the tasks that bring you closer to achieving your dreams.
Prioritization doesn’t just mean hierarchically scheduling your activities based on urgency. You should also consider each task’s worth — that is, how important it is to your vision. Find a balance between completing pressing action items and work that brings fulfillment.
4. Taking self-care seriously
When you hear “self-care,” you may imagine taking a bubble bath with a glass of wine. And while this can be an enjoyable activity, it doesn’t represent the complete meaning of the concept. Self-care is any activity that promotes your physical and emotional well-being, including exercise, doctor’s appointments, and free-time hobbies.
Start implementing healthy daily habits like eating well, getting sufficient rest, and disconnecting from social media to access your most productive self. Doing so offers you boosts in creativity, energy, and mental sharpness, all of which might help you avoid burnout as you work toward your goals.
5. Staying curious
If there was one take-home message on how to be successful in life, it’s to keep an open mind. You’ll need to perform self-directed learning to reach your goals — whether researching how to legally register a new business, polishing foreign-language skills, or adopting healthier habits.
And remaining open-minded ensures you’re prepared to learn everything you must to achieve your goals, without any biases or blockers.
While your independent education will take you far, don’t negate the importance of learning from others. By doing so, you integrate others’ experiences into your own, expanding your worldview and gaining access to information you might’ve missed. A software developer can take lessons from a painter, and employees have much to teach their leaders about the inner workings of an organization.
6. Having a daily routine
It’s very normal to observe a spike in your motivation and productivity when you hit a comfortable stride. A 2018 study published in Sage Journals Research found a correlation between establishing a routine and improving performance, reporting that routines support healthy cognition, positive social interactions, and physical health.
At a basic level, a schedule ensures you have time for every valuable aspect of your life — from exercise to self-care to spending time with loved ones. And routines also foster a flow state, a highly productive rhythm one might colloquially call “getting in the zone.”
When you work without interruptions on one task, you enjoy performing it more (the act releases a happy hormone called dopamine), feel more satisfied with your progress, and enjoy improved emotional regulation.
7. Spending wisely
You have resources to spend, and not just monetary ones. Your time and energy also have weighty price tags. Spend your resources frugally to ensure you don’t burn out.
In a 2023 Zippia survey, 89% of employees report feeling burnout, a suboptimal physical or mental health state caused by stress and hard work. To avoid this, use your energy wisely, building in time for relaxation, self-care, and a full 7–9 hours of sleep.
Then, there’s the issue of time. You don’t have enough of it to complete everything on your list in a day, and scheduling, prioritizing, and delegating ensure you use this resource wisely. It’s also healthy to shelve an activity if it becomes too time-intensive and puts you at risk of not completing other essential personal or professional tasks.
Finally, money is often a key factor in certain types of success, like entrepreneurial ones, so frugality can be a successful habit. Saving money doesn’t mean denying yourself the basics or never dining out.
But being cautious about what you spend encourages efficiency, lessens waste, and deters the kind of overspending that can spur financial troubles. Always leave enough in your rainy-day fund to support yourself if you need to take time off or rethink your career’s direction.
One way to build this rainy day fund is by investing — wisely, of course. A financial adviser can guide you in finding low-risk investments, like high-yield savings accounts, bonds, and CDs, or help you navigate the stock market. These wise investments might mean you enjoy less luxury and perks today but gain your long-term dreams, such as home ownership, travel, or a comfortable retirement.
8. Valuing community
Human beings are social creatures. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, a pyramid prioritizing the critical aspects of existence, categorizes social health right after essentials like food, water, and safety. According to this theory, forming part of a community is a prerequisite for self-esteem needs like professional success and self-actualization.
Interact with your community, perhaps by signing up to volunteer, accepting an invitation to a party, and attending networking events. Building your social network offers inspiring friendships and chances to learn from those around you. And you’ll gain a support system to share ideas with and lean on when times get tough.
You’ll also give to others, and doing so benefits everyone involved. Not only will your connections be grateful for your help and empathetic ear, but you’ll also experience health benefits as drastic as improved life expectancy.
9. Accepting help
You may want to be the sole driver of your success, but no one can do it alone, and you'll inevitably face a roadblock you can’t resolve. If you accept help, you can circumvent an obstacle quickly and keep moving. And the results of your efforts will taste just as sweet.
Let’s say there’s an important cause you want to support. You can make a donation on your own, but you’ll make a greater impact if you crowdfund. With the help of others, you can raise a significant amount of money and change more lives. What’s more, you remove the stress of trying to make a difference all on your own. And others that help with fundraising may have ideas you didn’t for how to better support the organization.
You can apply this lesson to life’s tasks — no matter how small. Let a writer help you create a knockout cover letter or a professional web designer make your business site.
10. Practicing gratitude
Your plans won’t always work out, but if you practice gratitude, your outlook will always be half-full. An optimistic viewpoint helps you appreciate your successes and how others have helped. You understand that challenging moments are a natural part of life and present opportunities for growth.
When you harbor a negative outlook, you might feel like things never work out and get down on yourself. You risk losing the confidence to push your projects forward, and you might distance yourself from those who believe in you. A positive mindset can be hard to maintain all the time, but being thankful for what you have is an excellent start.
Good habits are successes, too
You have a vision of your ideal life, the drive to reach that goal, and an understanding of the habits of successful people that’ll support your work. There’s nothing that can stop you now. While you may enjoy the most significant payout for your efforts in the future, appreciate the perks healthy habits provide now.
Enjoy the mood boost of high-quality rest and the comfort of your community. These upticks in your personal wellness are successes in and of themselves. Personal growth is a journey, and there’s plenty to celebrate on the road to your destination.
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