Plan
Now plan on how to implement the Successful Habits formula you have developed in the second step.
Adoption of a successful habit
Adopting the new habit may take a day, a few days or even more than a year. This is why the focus is important. When you focus on the task, you get your results quickly.
Start with some of the easiest habits mentioned above. Practice it for a few months until it blends into your routine. Give some time to yourself for adopting the habit. Also how intense you are in achieving it would determine how fast you can adopt the new habit into your lifestyle.
Identify your bad habits with clarity
First, tweed out the habits that form a roadblock to your success. Bad habits may affect today, tomorrow or years later. Analyze minutely which habits are your torchbearers for your success and which are not.
Identify them without prejudice in a completely honest way and initiate the process of removing them from your life.
What habits you should develop to be successful
The next step would be to discover some good habits that can replace the unproductive habits that you weeded out. At this stage, you are developing a prototype, Successful Habits formula.
Pick some of the above-mentioned habits and also the ones that work for your profession/studies or whatever you want to do with your life.
Now that you know about the Successful Habit formula that great men practice, let us learn how to use it for our own good. It can be implemented in four steps and each step has to be followed judiciously.
Identify your bad habits with clarity
What habits you should develop to be successful
Plan
Adoption of a successful habit
Keep motivating themselves
Successful people have the habit of motivating themselves at regular intervals. They either use the X method on the calendar or read motivating books to keep them on their toes at all times.
Self-discipline
Self-discipline is a highly valued habit. The ability to control self has led men to reach great heights in life. Prince Siddhartha became Gautama Buddha, and M.K. Gandhi became the Mahatma.
"The road to success and the road to failure are almost exactly the same." -- Colin R. Davis
Work even when they are not inspired enough
The show should always go on. Top leaders who have touched the pinnacles of success are constant workers and take only a minimum amount of rest, come summers or rains.
This habit keeps them in sync with the latest developments, technologies, and generations, which in turn helps them to take advantage of their knowledge to get more success.
Practice, persist
The successful keep practicing their art every day. Some writers do not relax till they write a minimum number of pages per day. Sportsmen practice at least one hour in the morning or evening, even if they are in form. Singers need their early morning practice to keep their voices in form.
The businessman keeps evolving himself as per the conditions keeping up-to-date on the market trends
Focus on strength over weakness
International personalities like Bill Clinton, Tiger Woods and Don Bradman concentrated on their strengths to reach great heights of success in their lives.
While successful people work with their strengths, they delegate the areas of weakness to others, so that a balance is achieved.
If a person is good at singing and weak at drawing, which art would he develop to be successful? Naturally singing would be the art he or she would choose.
This is the reason why to focus on strengths instead of weaknesses is practiced by successful people
Avoid distractions
Front-runners of the world use their time wisely. They avoid distractive acts and concentrate on things that can be productive to the job on hand.
Use anxiety to focus
Top leaders use their anxious thoughts as motivation to move further. Stress levels are alienated through meditation or yoga practices. Arnold Schwarzenegger took to transcendental meditation to keep his anxiety and pain under check and to improve focus on his acting career.
Reading
They read a lot. Some of the best examples are President Obama, Bill Gates, and J.K. Rowling. Reading improves knowledge as well as helps them relax after their hectic schedules.
Bill Gates reads at least one book every week. The CEO of Berkshire Hathway attributes his success to reading which amounts to 80% of his waking time.
Store the read information for future use
The top cream of successful individuals stores whatever the useful information they gather inappropriate storage devices so that they can retrieve it when required.
Wake up early
Some strict practitioners of this habit are Sir Richard Barson, Marissa Mayer, Oprah Winfrey, Michelle Obama, Bill McNabb, Chairman of Vanguard Group and many others.
What do they do early in the morning?
Some plan their work for the day early in the morning. Some read newspapers and journals to be up-to-date on the latest information. Some exercise or give instructions to their juniors as to the activities of the day
Keeping healthy habits
Eating right and exercising are a part of many leaders’ daily routine. Healthy food at the right time and in the right proportions is what keeps them energetic and effective at all times.
Some go for long walks or jogs. Others indulge in the gym or perform light exercises to keep every limb and joint of their body active. They also relax well at night and begin fresh and bright the next morning. Jeff Bezos is one example of an industry-topper who practices this good habit.
Industrialists, Politicians, Sportsmen, Artists, Writers, and others at the top of their chosen career consider some of the following as their Successful Habits formula on their path to goal achievement.