5 Simple Things to Start Doing For Success

In today’s world, with everyone trying to be advanced and sophisticated, we can easily forget how doing the simplest things can get us to the next level we so desperately want to achieve. Basic habits that should be established are thrown out the window and replaced with time-consuming activities such as networking at large conferences, participating in endless Twitter chats, finding the right financial adviser, and the continuous downloading of mobile apps hoping that they’ll ease up our daily pains.

Today, let’s take a step back and focus on the basic things that we should really be doing instead. Not only because they matter, but because they’ll help us get ahead of everyone else who are still complicating their reach for success.

1. Read 30 minutes, every day.

Books are written by people who have gone through years of mistakes and lessons learned. Whatever they put down on paper, they’re putting down their solutions to attacking problems experienced by many in their journey to success. By reading their writing, you’re gaining exclusive access to best practices that work. 30 minutes every day reading the minds of top professionals and experienced veterans?

Much better than 30 minutes of watching cat videos.

2. Hold brain picking sessions with your friends.

Since I moved to the city, I was very fortunate to set up a weekly meeting with two of my cherished friends. At these meets, we work on personal projects, explore topics of personal finance, career advancement, and even dive into things like juicing.

It’s important to have access to people who you can flush out your ideas with. Not only do you gain a different perspective on things, you’re being fed healthy brain food. Brain picking sessions are like the discussions we have in school — except more practical, career-oriented, and enlightening.

Entrepreneur Ramit Sethi formed a weekly meet with his friends in college to discuss interviews. What happened? They became interview experts, learning from each others interview experiences to script together effective answers. Eventually, they had well-rehearsed responses to almost every interview question a potential hirer would ask. Similar to when you’ve written on a topic a few times. No matter what kind of prompt you’re given on that topic, you can crank out an essay by simply mixing and matching previously written content.

3. Start tracking your spending.

Are you a spendthrift? I am so I get it. No matter how money conscious we are and how poor we claim to be — if we’re spending money on concert/rave tickets, $50+ on a single clothing item, or $3 four times a week on boba — we’re not poor, we’re just making poor choices.

But when we don’t notice how luxuriously we spend our money, we just keep going. Ignorance is bliss but it’s not so blissful when our bank balance falls below $25 and rent is due next week.

Track your spending. Use Google spreadsheet, Excel, Mint, or a simple notepad to write down the amount and the thing you spent it on. Go back to that list after a week and examine your spending habits. Now ask yourself, “do I really need to spend money on that?”

You’ll be hearing a lot of Nos. The obvious next step would be to develop a savings plan. But wait, you can’t do that until you start noticing your lack of spending plan.

4. Skip the apps, write down your to-dos.

Wunderlist, Clear, Reminders — and the to-do list apps goes on. Do they work? Sure, for a while before we stop checking them. But when we take out a piece of paper and write down our to-dos for that day or week, then stick that piece of paper somewhere we have to look at all the time (your desk, bathroom mirror, computer screen), you cannot forget about it even if you try. You’ll be consistently reminded of what you should be accomplishing. No need to pick up your phone, scroll through your to-do apps and somehow end up scrolling through Instagram.

It’s scientifically proven that you remember better when you write things down. To learn the science behind it, follow up with this read: Writing and Remembering: Why We Remember What We Write.

5. Send 3 Thank Yous every week.

I cringe every time I help someone else and don’t receive proper thanks. Will I complain to their face? No, of course not. But I will always remember how used I feel and this will certainly affect my willingness to help that same person out in the future. This is true for everyone.

When someone lends you a helping hand and you fail to express proper gratitude, the person will surely remember. Each week, create a habit of sending a well-written e-mail, letter, or even a phone call to three people who’ve helped you out. Be sure to be specific about what they did.

Not only will they feel appreciated, but you’ll become a rock star in their book. Because as sad as this sounds, people are too often taken for granted. We say thank you to strangers every day for simple things like holding the door. Now, it’s time to give genuine thank yous to friends and coworkers who’ve truly helped us out.

via tingjunglee.com