“Successful people aren’t born that way. They become successful by establishing the habit of doing things unsuccessful people don’t like to do.” ―William Makepeace Thackeray.

Great self-improvement advice tends to not change over time.

What works for successful people in the past will tend to work for those trying to be successful today and into the future.

Think about the most successful people you know. What habits do they have? What mindsets do they cultivate? Who do they tend to surround themselves with? I can almost guarantee there are areas of commonality.

For me, the people I look up to would be Naval Ravikant, Elon Musk and Tim Ferriss. Sure, they all have their own personality and quirks but the foundation of their success has been built off similar habits.

I am not saying that simply doing these habits will automatically make you more successful. But I don’t know many people who experience long-term success who don’t do these things.

You first make your habits and then your habits make you — Josh Dryden

Everyone has habits. But not all habits are created equally. Some habits have a disproportionate impact on the direction of your life. Invest consistently in these 5 keystone habits and you’ll see your life improve.

Are you ready to improve your life?

1. Start With This Habit First.

People always tell me “I don’t know what to write about, I need more time to think”. But writing should be done for the opposite reason. I write daily in order to think. Not the other way around.

You don’t know what you really think unless you put pen to paper, or more likely, keyboard to the computer.

When you are forced to articulate a position or an argument you start to think better. Not magically, but through consistent practice. Writing daily is the mental equivalent of going to the gym. Your mind, like your body, needs to be consistently challenged and stretched in order to improve.

When you start to write consistently, you become far more aware of your own prejudices and bias. Your thoughts are there to see black and white. Criticism and feedback from others only help to improve your thoughts and writing.

Writing is like having another pair of eyes on your mind. You start to understand how you think, your thought patterns and how you come to draw those conclusions.

Try writing every day for 30 days. Even for only 2 minutes. You’ll start to see a significant difference in how you think. You’ll look at regular problems in your life differently. You will start to appreciate the beauty and power of words.

I’ve personally found that writing every day has improved my public speaking. I can quickly synthesis new thoughts and ideas because I’ve been forced to publicly articulate my thoughts.

I don’t want to sound like an elitist, but I can tell very quickly when talking with someone whether they read or write regularly. It’s the same difference of knowing if someone exercises regularly and eats well.

Your body is a lagging measure of your exercise and eating habits. Your mind is a lagging measure of your reading and writing habits.

When you are able to show what’s in your mind, you also tend to grow your mind.

2. Leverage This Habit Next.

Reading is one of the highest leverage activities you can do to improve your life. For the cost of a dinner or lunch, you get access to wisdom that has taken another person a lifetime to cultivate.

Author’s take the time to understand their experience, package it up neatly and make it available to anyone in the world for a small fee. There is no greater investment in your life than a good book.

Any success that I’ve enjoyed in my life has been built off the back of reading lots of good books. Finance, spirituality, consulting and even my writing have all been improved from reading what the best practitioners out there have to say.

Think about it. Reading is the only thing that separates us from other animals. We have the ability to learn and transfer knowledge from generation to generation that is not found anywhere else in the animal kingdom.

At most, animals can learn from 1–2 generations ago. As humans, we have access to past emperors, poets and philosophers that have died hundreds or even thousands of years ago.

We get access to the best minds and ideas in human history. And we can use them however we like. One thing to also remember is that:

“A person who won’t read has no advantage over one who can’t read.” — Mark Twain.

With the advent of the internet, access to high-quality information has never been easier. If you don’t like books, read short blog posts. If you don’t like reading, listen to audiobooks or podcasts. You have no excuse to not be learning all the time.

3. Don’t Forget About This Habit.

We all know the physical benefits of exercise and moving your body. But very few people understand the connection between the body and the brain.

Anything I want my mind to do, I’ll make my body do it first.

Do I want to feel cognitively energized? I’ll do some high-intensity low duration activities. You can often find me doing short sprints in the backyard before a long and potentially boring meeting.

Do I want to have deeper more introspective thoughts? I’ll do some deep stretching or yoga in a quiet room with few distractions.

Do I want to feel less stressed? I’ll start by controlling my breathing. Control over my breath gives me control over my thoughts. I can start to slow down and put things into perspective.

My body and mind share a symbiotic connection.

Moving my body creates momentum for my mind. I try to start my day by getting outside and moving. The light exposure and heat help to wake up and energize my body for the day.

4. Understand This Habit.

Mindfulness is not just about meditating in a half-lotus position with your eyes closed. Mindfulness is about cultivating a moment in time that connects you with the present.

The longer you can connect with the present moment, the greater your mindfulness practice.

You can achieve mindfulness in a variety of ways. Most commonly through meditation but you can creating mindfulness via long walks, gardening or art.

It doesn’t have to be hard. Anything that connects you with the present moment is a form of mindfulness. Embed some form of mindfulness throughout your day to help ground you. This becomes particularly important after a hard or stressful day.

5. Connection

As a human being, there are four connections you need to have daily.

These are:

1. People

2. Purpose

3. Passion

4. Nature

If you have to sacrifice time on your phone, binge-watching Netflix shows or wake up 1–2 hours earlier in order to have these connections, do it. The trick is to have activities that incorporate one or more of these connections.

I’ll often go on nature hikes with a group of friends. I’ve made sure I work for an organization that strongly aligns with my purpose. I’ve invested in hobbies that engage my various passions such as podcasting.

These aren’t that difficult to attain. You just need to be more intentional with how you spend your time and who you choose to spend it with.

The main cause of burnout and chronic stress is a lack of connection to these things. People who work in dead-end jobs with people they don’t like are dying a slow death.

It is often not the difficulty of the job that makes people quit, rather the lack of alignment and connection.

Summary:

Habits are an investment you make in your future self. Positive habits make your life better over time. Negative habits make your life worse over time. The decision of which investment you make is yours.

Just remember that like any other financial investment, your habits compound.

The habits I’ve outlined in this article are not easy to cultivate. And that’s good. If they were everyone would already be doing them. In the world of infinite distraction, taking time to read or connect has been lost.

This is your opportunity to make your life better and stand out from the crowd. You might have to live like no one else will so that you can have a life that others can’t.

___________________

If you enjoyed this article, you can connect with me HERE.

You can also support more of my work by becoming a Medium Member using my referral link: michael-lim.medium.com