10 Habits that will change your life

The most important habits are keystone habits; habits which have positive cascading effects throughout your life. Here are 10 of the most effective, valuable keystone habits I’ve found.

 

1. Wake up early

The early bird really does catch the worm!

It’s no coincidence that many of the most successful people wake up early, many of the world’s top CEOs are well known for getting up as early as 430am.

2-. Every time you log onto Facebook, send a message to someone you haven’t spoken to in a while. It’s easy to put off getting in touch with old friends you’ve been meaning to reconnect with. This habit makes staying in touch almost automatic.

 

3- Write down your thoughts

Everyone takes a little time out of their day to daydream. Those are also the times when you come up with some of the best ideas. More often than not, however, people don’t write them down. You should always have a notepad handy to write down your thoughts.

 

4-  Do the task you’re least looking forward to at the beginning of every day. Until you get that one big thing done, it’ll be nagging at the back of your mind all day. Get it done, and you’ll feel better for the rest of the day.

 

5- Exercise regularly

Quite apart from staying in shape, keeping your body active goes a long way to helping you feel more alert during the day.

Exercise increases the blood flow to your brain, keeping you sharp and helping you stay on top of everything.

6- Focus, don’t multitask

It might be tempting to try and maximize your daily productivity by doing as many things as possible, but sadly this only reduces efficiency and effectiveness (multitasking may even be bad for our brains!)

Instead of flitting between different tasks and trying to do everything at once, take the time to plan your day.

7- Follow the Pareto Principle

The Pareto Principle is also known as the 80/20-Rule. It suggests that 80 percent of the results come from 20 percent of the efforts. It’s your job to identify which 20 percent of your efforts are producing your best results. Do your best to hone in on these specific efforts and scale them the best you can.

8-  When meeting someone new, assume the attitude of “I hope I like you.” Compare this to the neediness of “I hope you like me,” or the negativity of “I hope you’re not a jerk.” You won’t like everyone, but it pays to set a positive expectation and look for people’s best qualities.

9- Make personal investments

The world’s most successful people are always prepared to invest time and resources in their own personal development.

If you stripped someone like Bill Gates of his assets and dumped him on the street I’d be willing to bet he’d be ok – he’s constantly invested in himself and built up huge reserves of human capital, major companies would be falling over themselves to offer him a job.

10-  Adopt the body language of a happy, confident person to feel happy and confident. Stand up straighter and you’ll feel more confident. Lean back, and you’ll feel more relaxed. Smile and you’ll feel happier. By controlling your body, you can control your mind