I’ve been tagged again.  This time by Karen at Live The Power.  As before, I am honored.  The original idea for this post came from Aaron Potts at Todayisthatday.com.  While I no longer have time to participate in every tag that comes my way, this one is very worthwhile.  Aaron’s idea came from the concept of copying genius.  I have spent my entire life living this paradigm, so here goes. 

Following are my top 10 success habits, with links to posts on topics I’ve written about before for much more detail.

1. I keep a special journal where I write my ultimate goal every day.  I’ve been doing this for almost two years now and it keeps me focused on my main objective and helps me eliminate time wasters.  It also motivates me.  This is the first thing I do every morning. 
2. I also have a goals journal in which I have every goal listed at the top of a page, with action steps listed below it.  This is the second thing I do each morning.  I review each page, check off anything I’ve completed, and add to the steps as I receive divine guidance.  Writing my ultimate goal puts me in a trance-like state so that when I move on to all the individual goals, I’m often inspired by my guardian angels, my future self, or divine providence.  Having this as a daily ritual helps me get into that state a lot quicker.  The ideas just come, or I get a better sense of what to concentrate on today.
3. I still do weekly planning as taught by the FranklinCovey approach that I learned so many years ago.  Each Saturday or Sunday, depending on my schedule, after reviewing all of my goals, I look at the week ahead and decide what to work on and when.  Doing this helps me realize if a deadline is set too soon, but also keeps me on track and motivated.  I’m one of those people who takes it to infinity – I even plan our meals during this session.  Knowing what I’m going to cook ahead of time allows me to better plan grocery trips and know when to thaw what.  Of course, I allow a sudden inspiration to change things, but overall, my subconscious knows what I want to accomplish in a given week and how much time should be spent.  I will often change things around and tweak things here and there, but I will never give up my weekly planning.
4. I use Microsoft Outlook to keep my to-do list and recurring tasks organized.  I plan my week using a traditional paper planner, but my daily reminders are stored in Outlook.  I’ve been using this system for more than 8 years and would be lost without it.
5. Each day, I take time to appreciate where I am right now.  A couple of weeks ago I had a task come up in Outlook that I had set one year ago.  It was to remind me to go back in my journal one year, (my regular daily journal), and read the entry to compare where I was today.  It was amazing!  I have learned so much and my business has come so far in one year.  I had no idea one year ago that I would be blogging, or that I would be successful at it.  All I had was my mission statement, my ultimate goal, and my firm belief in myself.  My goals are on going.  I learned a long time ago that the only way to stay motivated is to be constantly updating and creating goals.  One side effect of this paradigm is that it makes you successful beyond your wildest dreams.  Another possible side effect is that it can potentially make you feel like you’re always struggling.  But taking the time to appreciate where you are now, each and every day, helps you to focus on your successes.  Failure does not exist; this is a journey.  Appreciate how far you’ve come, the fact that you are on your path, and the fact that there is plenty of road still ahead of you.

These are my top 5 daily habits.  Following are 5 more success habits that I utilize and believe to be critical to a person’s success.  I will spare my regular readers some redundancy by giving a synopsis with a link to my original post.

1. Personal Strategic Planning is a concept used by many successful people and has been invaluable to me.  I now review my plan monthly, which feeds into my weekly planning as mentioned above.
2. Determining Your Top 20 activities has been crucial to me over the past several years, but especially since starting my own business.  It’s too easy, when you have control over your own time, to become distracted and get off track.  When you’re a control freak, it’s easy to give in to the “If you want anything done right, you have to do it yourself,” thinking.  When money is tight, it’s tempting to try to do everything yourself to try to save a few bucks here and there.  But once you sit down and think about where your money really comes from, and what you truly enjoy doing, you’ll view each task on your to-do list very differently. 
3. Look Your Best Every Day.  Really.  It’s motivating, and one of the best success “secrets” out there.  What I’ve noticed, however, is that people who get it, get it.  Those who don’t, don’t.  I hope you do.
4. One Hour of Solitude is what I practice anytime I start to feel overwhelmed.  It’s a way of allowing my natural state of well-being to take over my Type A personality.  I’m always glad I took the time for it, and it definitely makes me more productive in the long run. 
5. Lastly, because I want to honor the request to keep the list to 10 items, I must say that nothing matters unless you’re living your life on purpose.  The greatest gift you have to give to the world is your own happiness.  If you’re not happy right now, Wake Up and Create the Life You Want.

I now tag Alex King, Rebecca Newburn, Dave Prouhet, and Wanda Grindstaff.

You can subscribe to this blog here.

GET THE BOOK   If you’d like to read all my latest success tips and how I’ve applied 20 years of solid business principles and the law of attraction to acquiring the life of my dreams, and am helping others do the same, you’ll want your own copy of Wake Up and Create the Life You Want: A Self-Empowerment Guide.  It comes with my free report on “The Science of Getting Rich.”  Both are downloadable, so you get them immediately, pay no shipping, and it’s only $19.95.

Posted under Inspiration, Leadership, Motivation