“I failed some subjects in exam but my friend passed it all. Now he is an engineer in Microsoft, and I am the owner of Microsoft.” – Bill Gates
You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to be successful. No. You just need the ability to copy. You read that right, you just need to know how to copy.
What I mean, is that to get where you are going in life you just need to copy the work of others. In fact, one of the best ways to accelerate your success is to emulate people who are successful.
All you have to do is figure out what makes them so great, and do that. Pretty simple.
It’s like copy-pasting.
Many seem to think that people with lots of money or success have some sort of magic fairy dust that they go around sprinkling on everything they do. When I was starting down the road to financial freedom as a young man, I remember asking successful people simple questions like:
“How did you do that?” What’s your secret?
I’d get out my notebook, ready to hear the secret knowledge. I was excited! I wanted to learn the magic formula so that I’d have the same success.
Then, they’d give me the most boring answer I’d ever heard. It usually went something along the lines of:
“Oh, you know. I just worked hard on it day after day.”
Here I was, expecting to hear something ground breaking, and the answer was something simple.
So I started paying very close attention to people who were successful — and sure enough — I started to connect the dots. This wasn’t about secrets, willpower, or luck. It was about something else.
It was about their habits. People at the top of their game recognize the importance of creating systems in their life that automate success without depending on willpower or motivation.
We’ve talked about habit formation on the blog before, with the Jerry Seinfeld method. It’s also discussed in detail in my ebook, The Financial Freedom Formula. If you haven’t downloaded it yet, it’s an excellent primer on how little habits, strung together over the course of days, weeks and months, can create seismic change in your life. You can download it for free by clicking here.
But today, I wanted to go a little deeper and dispel the myth that successful people succeed because of things like talent, luck, or connections. That’s not the case at all. They manage to succeed because of their habits, habits that you can copy and use to achieve the very same level of success.
What are they?
Below are some of the most common habits of successful people. They are the same habits that appear over and over again in biographies of successful people, proving that success can be copied.
Copy these habits into your life. Engrave them into your heart and accelerate your success.
The 20 Most Common Habits Of Successful People
1. They get up early and seize the day. While others are lying in bed, they are getting the job done.
2. They keep their eye on the ball and never lose sight of their target, while others get distracted.
3. They are frugal and understand that it pays to watch every penny. They know that money is a seed that can be planted to earn even more money.
4. They look for and find opportunities when others only see work.
5. They think about it. They reflect on the events of the day and find the lesson, while others only see the problem.
6. They plan their day and create their success, while others hope that success finds them.
7. They demand an amazing life – and why shouldn’t they? They become amazing by choice not by chance.
8. They know that persistence pays. They don’t make the mistake of giving up at the first major setback. They carry on.
9. They realize that complaining is a waste of energy and benefits no one.
10. They understand sacrifice and will not be outworked.
11. They don’t wait for the right time or the right feeling. They do what needs to be done every day.
12. They don’t waste money on the lottery and know there’s no such thing as overnight success.
13. They have identified what’s important to them and understand the importance of discipline and self-control.
14. They don’t hang out with toxic, negative people. They align themselves with winners.
15. They don’t rationalize failure. They find a way to succeed.
16. They finish what they start. They choose to continue.
17. They are life-long learners and know that learning more is the key to earning more.
18. They never doubt themselves. They ignore the opinions of people that don’t matter.
19. They find a way where others find excuses.
20. They take calculated risks and aren’t afraid to give up “comfortable” for greatness.
It is your habits, more than anything, that will lead to your eventual success. If others have been successful using the same habits listed above, why wouldn’t you copy them into your life?
If you will allow your days to be dominated by these habits, you’ll one day find yourself in a different place.
A place where you want to be.
Doing what you want to be doing
Living the life you want to be living.
Being free.
P.S. More free ebooks are coming! We are in the process of creating a series of ebooks to help people with the basics of becoming financially free. Subscribers will get early access to these ebooks (long before they are posted on the blog) as my way of saying “thank you” for subscribing. If you would like to get early access as well, just enter your email address above and click on “subscribe”. You’ll automatically receive a complimentary download of my ebook “The Financial Freedom Formula” as well as a free subscription to my bi-weekly newsletter, “Finding Freedom”. Don’t worry, you can unsubscribe at any time if change your mind. Here’s to your freedom!