If you want to know what sets successful and happy people apart from the rest of the crowd, it all boils down to the positive habits they’ve adopted for themselves. From creating a morning ritual, to practicing daily gratitude, to prioritizing intermittent breaks and regular self-care, to planning ahead and single-tasking, we’ve curated 11 positive habits that will change your life for the better!
11 Positive Habits that Will Change Your Life
1. CREATE A MORNING ROUTINE
If you Google ‘positive habits of successful people’, you will see all kinds of commentary around the importance of creating (and sticking to) a solid morning routine. Whether you hit the gym, meditate, journal, or sit down to a full breakfast with your family, developing a morning ritual helps you start the day on a positive note. Getting up earlier and being more deliberate with your time first thing in the morning also helps reduce stress and boosts your productivity. Not a morning person? CLICK HERE for some of our best morning hacks and ideas to help you create a morning routine that works for you!
2. PRACTICE GRATITUDE
Take a few minutes each day to write down 5 things you’re grateful for. These don’t need to be huge, but you do need to be intentional as you think through and write down the items on your list. A warm cup of coffee, a good book, snuggles with your kids, lunch with a friend, and a lazy night watching movies with someone you love are all examples of small but meaningful things that can add a huge amount of joy to your life. Keeping a daily gratitude journal takes very little time, but it’s one of my favorite positive habits as it can make a huge difference in setting a positive tone for the day ahead and reminding you to count your blessings.
3. FIND YOUR PURPOSE
If you’re into personal development and self-improvement, you’ve probably heard an expert (or 3) discuss the importance of knowing your ‘why’. Having a clear purpose creates meaning – it gives your life a sense of direction, and influences your goals and behaviors each day. If you’re unsure what your ‘why’ is, think about the things that excite you. What gets you out of bed in the morning? What are the things you excel at most? How do you want to add value to the world and the community you live in? What kind of a person do you want to be? What do you want to be remembered for? What legacy do you want to leave behind? All of these questions will help you define your purpose, allowing you to focus on the things that matter most.
4. TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF
A list of positive habits wouldn’t be complete without reminding you to take care of yourself, both physically and mentally. Eating a clean diet, exercising regularly, drinking half your body weight in water each day, getting 7-8 hours of sleep a night, and detoxing from screens and social media on the regular are all important to your well-being. The challenge is to prioritize these things each day so they become routine.
5. PLAN AND PREPARE
If you’re looking for positive habits that will improve your productivity while also decreasing your stress levels, don’t underestimate the importance of a little planning and preparation. I realize this isn’t ground-breaking news, but spending 15-20 minutes getting yourself organized each evening will enable you start each day with a plan of action so you can be more intentional with your time. Having a back-up plan can also make a world of difference since life has a way of throwing us curve balls at the most inconvenient times. Work schedules and commitments change, and babysitters get sick, leaving even the most organized person scrambling at the last minute. If this sounds familiar, make sure you always have a back-up plan you can fall back on to prevent those last-minute moments of panic.
6. DON’T MULTITASK
While it feels great to knock a million thing off your never-ending list of things to do each day, multitasking can actually make you less effective with your time. The key to productivity is to do fewer things for more effect instead. Focusing on ONE task at a time allows you to be more efficient with your time, and enables you to give 100% of your effort.
7. PRIORITIZE SELF-CARE
There are so many benefits to taking care of your physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being. Self-care has been shown to reduce stress, help manage the symptoms of mental health challenges like anxiety and depression, improve focus and attention, and improve sleep. It can also lower your blood pressure, improve your gastrointestinal health, and reduce chronic pain. If you’re trying to add positive habits into your routine, CLICK HERE for 21 self-care rituals you actually have time for!
8. KEEP LEARNING
When it comes to adopting positive habits, make sure that education is on your list. Whether you enroll in a course, take up a second language, or read nonfiction books on the side, learning new things keeps you motivated and improves the quality of your life. The more you know, the more confident you’ll be, and you’re never too old to learn something new!
9. MEDITATE
Meditation can be a total life-changer – it urges you to slow down and experience the benefits of mindfulness, and when practiced consistently, it can relieve anxiety, increase focus, and boost your self esteem, making you happier all around. It can be hard to find silence in your hectic day-to-day, but if you carve out time to meditate, you’ll notice all types of positive differences in your life.
10. SURROUND YOURSELF WITH POSITIVE PEOPLE
I’m a firm believer that our lives are a direct result of the people we surround ourselves with, and if you’re trying to adopt positive habits so you can live your best life every single day, be careful with the company you keep. Misery loves company, so try to surround yourself with happy, positive people as much as possible. And when you do spend time with negative, pessimistic people, make sure you have strategies in place to ensure you don’t allow their negative energy to take up too much residence in your mind and spirit. Go for a walk, talk to a friend, and/or write in a gratitude journal to offset negative interactions.
11. TAKE BREAKS
My last tip for those who are looking for positive habits that will change their lives is to allow yourself to take regular breaks. We live in a day and age where we’re encouraged to over-schedule ourselves as much as possible, and fail to realize that breaks actually boost our energy and productivity, allowing us to be more focused and efficient. It also allows us to think outside the box, re-asses, and re-prioritize, and prevents burnout.
Whether you’re an entrepreneur or small business owner, or you’re climbing the corporate ladder at a large corporation, I hope this collection of positive habits inspires you to live intentionally and create daily rituals and routines to keep yourself accountable and on track. Remember to create (and stick to) a morning ritual, practice daily gratitude, prioritize intermittent breaks and regular self-care, plan ahead, and stop multitasking!