12 Little Habits That Create Massive Results — Steal Them to Transform Your Life
Great Things Don’t Happen In an Instant
As the popular adage goes, “Rome wasn’t built in a day.”
Great things don’t happen in an instant.
They occur as a product of a progression of little wins that are strung together and compounded over time.
Stephen Covey once said, “All things are created twice. There’s a mental or first creation and a physical or second creation to all things.”
In other words, creating the big dream you want starts in your mind, but there’s a transition where you must take action to manifest the physical.
Thus, the question to ask yourself is not, “How can I make this happen now?”
It’s: “What habits can I adopt that will allow me to bring my vision to life?”
In this article, I will show you what those habits are.
1. Do everything you say you will do
“Consistently doing what you say you will do is the foundation of integrity.”
— Skip Prichard
People underestimate the value of building rapport with themselves.
Success is as much about building trust with yourself as it is putting in hard work.
You won’t get far if you don’t believe what you say.
The more you break promises to do something you said you’ll do, the less you’ll trust yourself to take action toward what you want.
This is why Les Brown said, “Honor your commitments with integrity.”
You become what you do, not what you say you’ll do.
If you tell yourself you’ll wake up at 5 a.m., do it.
The more you do what you say, the more trust you build with yourself.
It will get to a point where you can say something like, “I want to live on Mars,” and your mind will get to work on making it happen.
2. Never lie (even if it hurts)
“Never lie to people because the people you are able to lie to are the people who trust you.”
— Will Smith
Again, this is about trust…
Honesty builds trust and integrity.
When people know you’ll always tell the truth, regardless of its impact, they’re much more likely to believe what you say.
But never lying also makes you accountable.
When you’re adamant about telling the truth in all situations, you’re much more conscious of your actions because you don’t want to hurt anyone.
You do things that don’t put you in positions to compromise your values.
3. Make time for your loved ones
“Make time for the people and things that matter most to You.”
— Annonymous
There’s no such thing as finding time — every productive person knows that.
If something matters to you, you must make time for it, or else it won’t happen.
One of the most important things you must make time for is your loved ones.
It doesn’t matter how successful you become in life; if you don’t have people who love you for being you, you’ll be miserable.
As the popular saying goes, “The people who love you for who you are and not for what you can do for them are the best kind of people.”
Don’t trade your loved ones for success; make time for those you love.
4. Devote yourself to mastering your craft
“A lot of people say they want to be great, but they’re not willing to make the sacrifices necessary to achieve greatness.”
— Kobe Bryant
Kobe Bryant knew he wanted to be the best from the moment he started playing basketball.
In his book, The Mamba Mentality, he said, “From the beginning, I wanted to be the best. I had a constant craving, a yearning, to improve and be the best.”
In other words, Kobe went after what he wanted.
He didn’t give himself a chance to feel regret in his later years.
You’ll never hear him in an interview reliving a past glory.
All his success was in the present.
This is unlike many of the older folks we encounter in our lives.
I’ve got an uncle (not a real relative) that always tells me about how good he was at football when he was in school.
All my mind goes to when he starts speaking about it is why he never took it seriously.
5. Train 3–5x a week
“Take care of your body. It’s the only place you have to live.”
— Jim Rohn
Keep yourself physically fit.
There’s nothing sexy about being an abled body person who has everything they could ever want in life but being unable to walk up a flight of stairs without losing their breath.
Your body is your temple, and you must keep it until you leave this earth.
The least you could do is keep it healthy by staying active.
Not only does it make you look and feel good, but training also gives you energy.
As stated in the Mayo Clinics blog:
“Exercise sends oxygen and nutrients to your tissues and helps your cardiovascular system work more efficiently. And when your heart and lung health improve, you have more energy to tackle daily chores.”
When you have more energy, you can get more done.
6. Surround yourself who inspire you
“Meanwhile, surround yourself with people who challenge you, teach you, and push you to be your best self.”
— Bill Gates
You’re a product of your environment.
If you don’t like where you are in life, change where you are — it’s a choice.
Get around people who inspire you to be better.
Even if you can’t be around them in person, consume all of their content most of the time to rewire your mindset and expand your perspective.
But not liking where you are in life is not the only excuse to put yourself around people who motivate you…
Do it because you’re a product of your environment.
As the old Jim Rohn quote goes, “You’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”
If you want to be successful, spend a lot of time around other successful people.
7. Read books that help you solve immediate problems
“True learning doesn’t come from acquiring information, but in being forced to handle situations that reshape how and why you live.”
– Benjamin Hardy
Reading 50+ books a year with no intent will not make you successful.
Reading 50+ books a year that help you solve an immediate problem will.
There must be an applicable reason for your learning, or it’s just a distraction.
This is what Jim Rohn meant when he said, “Reasons come first, answers second.”
Success is not about accumulating the most knowledge; it’s about solving problems.
Learn enough to take action, then take action.
8. Track your goals and share them
“When performance is measured, performance improves. When performance is measured and reported back, the rate of improvement accelerates.”
— Pearson’s law
Don’t just set goals and hope they’ll come to life.
Track what you’re doing and share it with others.
This generates a powerful force within you called accountability.
When you know people are counting on you to produce, you become incredibly keen to develop yourself for their sake.
Most people live on autopilot because they lack the courage to define a clear objective, pursue it relentlessly, and share their progress.
This drains their self-confidence and turns them into prolific consumers.
The research says there’s a 65% chance of completing a goal if you tell someone else you’re committing to it.
This success rate increases to 95% when you share your progress and what you’re working towards.
9. Practice mindfulness
“Whatever your mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.”
— Napoleon Hill
Mindfulness is about being fully present where you are.
It’s a technique that helps you improve your ability to notice what’s happening in the moment without judgment.
According to several researchers, regular mindfulness meditation practices can improve focus.
This added level of focus can take the quality of what you do to the next level.
Kobe Byrant, the NBA legend with the 4th most career points in the league, was known to practice mindfulness regularly.
He was once quoted saying:
“I meditate every day. It’s like having an anchor. If I don’t do it, I feel like I’m constantly chasing the day as opposed to being in control and dictating my day. I have a calmness about whatever comes my way, a poise, and that comes from starting my morning off with meditation.”
Practice mindfulness to gain more control of your ability to focus.
10. Share your knowledge
“Here’s what is exciting about sharing ideas with others: If you share a new idea with ten people, they get to hear it once and you get to hear it ten times.”
— Jim Rohn
According to Jim Rohn, sharing is what makes you bigger than you are.
The analogy he gave was simple:
“If you have a full glass of water, can the glass hold any more water?
The answer is yes, but only if I pour out what’s already in it.”
If you’re full of good things, it’s important to pour them out.
As you do so, more good things will fill that void.
In Rohn’s words, “Each time you share what you’ve got, you get bigger. Your consciousness grows. Your capacity increases. Why should you want your capacity to grow? You want it to grow so you can hold more of what is being shared with you.”
11. Eat healthy
“You are what you eat.”
— Annonymous
You’re the product of what you consume most often — physically, mentally, and emotionally (a.k.a. your environment).
That’s not to say you’ll become a marshmallow if you constantly eat them, but you will be unhealthy.
This means it’s your responsibility to consume that which makes you better.
The healthier you are, the more equipped you are to go after what you truly want.
12. Wake up at the same time every day
“Regularity is a key: going to bed at the same time, waking up at the same time no matter what.”
— Matthew Walker
Predicting randomness is hard.
Waking up whenever you want is like playing the lottery.
Your brain doesn’t get a chance to learn when to give you energy.
This is why you feel so tired in the morning—your brain forgot to give you the morning energy boost.
It’s important to wake up at the same time every day to introduce regularity into your life.
It’s your responsibility to teach your body how you want it to behave.
Thanks for reading!