“Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement.”
If you didn’t think I was going to start by quoting James Clear… Come on, now.
All jokes aside, let’s talk about the importance of HABITS. If I wanted to discover the secret weapon that makes the Vice President of my company the successful superhuman that he is, I would follow him around for a day and observe his habits, taking thorough notes. Your habits become your repeated behavior, and your repeated behavior determines your path. .
This is something I have found to be increasingly true over time in business and leadership. Furthermore, as a leader, your habits can affect others just as much as they are affecting you, and stunt your success collectively. If you want to reach the next level of success but can't quite seem to get there, I would strongly suggest evaluating your habits. Let's discuss four impactful things you can do in your daily life to help move the needle with your success.
Prioritize your health!
This one is first for a reason. Your health is your greatest asset and is key to being successful in all areas of your life. The longer you sit in your bad habits and neglect your health, the more you delay your success. Quit junk food, stop drinking so much, move your body more. Whatever it is you need to change in your life to get healthy, start now.
I get it - it's hard to break a habit, and it's hard to establish new ones. Start small by implementing one thing - maybe it's a goal for how much water you want to drink a day, or how many steps you want to get in. In general, water and walking are always good places to start. Where can you add just a little more activity throughout your day? For a while, I set an alarm for 11:00am each day to get up and walk the stairs at my hotel. If you aren't intentional, you can easily spend your whole day sitting at a desk.
No matter what you do or how much time you have, if you want to be healthy I highly recommend implementing some sort of weight training into your routine, even if it's 2-3 days a week. Weight training increases your bone density, improves metabolism, and reduces the risk of various health issues - such as osteoporosis, diabetes, and heart disease. Additionally, everyone should be taking Creatine. Creatine is the most widely researched supplement out there, and it benefits everyone - men, women, and old people alike. It helps build and maintain muscle, improve cognitive function, and improve sleep.
Of course, these things won't just insert themselves into your day, you have to work them in with intention. So start with small adjustments, and work more in little by little. Before you know it, your entire routine will have changed and you won't recognize yourself. Hang in there when it gets hard - it's not supposed to be easy. But I promise, having more energy is worth it. Having more confidence is worth it. Being able to move better, sleep better, and think better is worth it. At the end of the day, good health is the secret weapon to success.
Establish a routine.
I learned this one not necessarily the hard way, but definitely the long way. Routine is not a natural thing for me. Growing up my mom teased me about being a free spirit as I never wanted to follow a strict schedule, but would rather go where the wind blew me. I’ll admit, as an adult I have fought like hell to avoid having to change this part of me. However, over time in leadership, it became inevitable that I would have to evolve if I wanted to truly be successful.
It’s simple - without a routine, you simply find yourself wasting too much time. You find yourself scrambling at the end of the day to complete the mundane but mandatory tasks because you didn’t have a system in place to knock them out at the beginning of the day and move on. I shutter at the amount of time I have wasted simply because I refused to embrace routine.
Most importantly as a leader, your daily routine should start with connecting with your team. After that, knock out any non-negotiable daily tasks like paperwork or deposits. This way, the rest of your day is open for whatever meetings, projects, or fires may present themselves, and you get to decide which ones to prioritize. You may even find yourself with some free time at the end of the day!
I now force myself to embrace routine because I have learned that in the long run it actually gives me freedom, which was always my greatest desire in the first place.
