What Are Uncommon Habits that Contribute to Success?

All habits that contribute to success are uncommon, because success is uncommon. The offhandedly-thrown percentage of successful people is 5%. I dug deeper into it and think it’s closer to 2–4%. Small enough to apply “uncommon,” don’t you think?

So here are four that I find even less common. And there will be a twist to my approach at the end.

1. Taking Time for Yourself.

There are various ways to cultivate this habit: meditation, prayer, reading scriptures, journaling, “thinking” walks, visualization, jogging, contemplation, retrospection, introspection… They have only two things in common: you do them alone (you can jog with a friend, but that will not count as time for yourself), and they help you to reach inside you.

For many people who are not used to spiritual exercises, a lonely walk is a method to gather their thoughts, to mull over present issues, or to simply let random thoughts penetrate their consciousness.

I study successful people. The ones I consider truly successful always had some kind of ritual of taking time for themselves. On the other hand, I know at least one case of a very successful self-made guy who had no such ritual. He is still wealthy, but his life is far from balanced. In the last couple of years he divorced (and that was an ugly divorce), went through an unhappy relationship, and experienced a yo-yo effect.

A true success is not sacrificing one thing for another, but a holistic growth. You need to start from yourself, and you need some regular “me” time to achieve that.

2. Cultivating Your Vision.

In September 2017, I was at a live event focused on personal development. I spoke with about a dozen coaches, authors and entrepreneurs who had their stands there. One thing shocked me a bit. I asked them if they had their personal mission statement. 100% of them had one created. Every single one.

I said “cultivating” your vision, because it’s not enough to have a vision. You need a ritual that refers to this vision, preferably on a daily basis. It’s not enough to state once that you want to help people in such way or another. You must keep this vision in front of your mind all the time.

The means vary here as with taking time for yourself: some people read their personal mission statement, others repeat it in their minds multiple times, yet others look at their vision board every morning.

3. Taking Care of Your Body.

This is Success 101, but so few people are doing this. It’s not hard to figure out daily disciplines that will improve your health. There is an ocean of free (and paid!) advice on the subject matter. Yet, we generally suck at this point.

You need a proper exercise regime, a proper diet (including hydration), and a proper sleep culture to function optimally.

Move more. Eat better. Sleep enough. Basics! How many people do you personally know that are doing all three things at the same time? They are as rare as unicorns.

I have exercises and diet covered. Despite my sedentary lifestyle, I can do over 160 consecutive pushups and I’ve maintained my body weight in the narrow 138–144 lbs. range for the last 5 years.

But my sleep schedule is a disaster. I know how important sleep is, but again and again, I go to bed too late and don’t sleep enough. My wife’s sleep schedule is much better, but her workouts are heavily influenced by her moods, and her diet is a disaster.

We all are like this, despite the fact that the connection between health and success is so obvious! It’s not that a healthy individual will automatically become successful and a sick one is doomed for failure. But the probability of both is much higher than average.

You need to figure out what works for you. Some people run many miles a day. I hate running. I cannot imagine running 2 miles. I do pullups and pushups to failure. Often, I feel like puking my guts at the end of a workout. It’s not for everybody. My friend lost 15% of his body weight going to a swimming pool, because swimming is the only kind of exercises he tolerates.

The same goes with diets, and your sleep schedule must be adjusted to your life. It’s your responsibility to discover what works for you and to stick with it.

4. Networking.

A lone wolf myth is just that — a myth. Success doesn’t happen in a social void. You need others to succeed.

Whenever I think of any success I had, I can find someone else’s doing in the background. The bigger the success, the more obvious was the connection.

I remember back when my book became a bestseller for the first time. It was also the first time my book was half-professionally edited, and the first time I actually prepared a marketing campaign. With both of those things, Chris Bell helped me. 
My mentor, Steve Scott, notified his email list about the free promo of my book, and thousands of people downloaded it in a few days. Because of that momentum, “Master Your Time” became visible in the Amazon store and sold hundreds of copies in the next month.

Success is always the result of cooperation. If it’s your own doing, it may be called success as well, but 999 cases in 1,000, it will be much smaller than it could’ve been if you cooperated with someone else.

This is especially true in business. I’m a mere amateur in business and networking, but my mentor, Aaron Walker, does both at top level. He is a serial entrepreneur, his net worth is somewhere around 6- or 7-figures, and this guy takes a conscious effort to network every time he shows up in his business. He endorses, gives testimonials, introduces people one to another, and he does it on a daily basis.

The True “Unusual”

Well, I could continue this list for a long time. I admit none of the above four are extremely unusual. Do you know what’s unusual? When someone practices those habits together on a regular basis.

Plenty of people do one or two of those habits quite notoriously. However, only successful people do them all and do them consistently.

Take time for yourself, cultivate a vision for your life, take care of your body and network. I would be extremely surprised if you don’t become successful.