Successful leaders are not made overnight, but are cultivated through their drive, life experiences, and habits.
Drive is believed to be self-generated and life experiences come from external sources, but habits are routines that are within our control and up to our own creation.
Habits are not just a part of your daily life but they are practices that can also shape your character and reputation.
1. Read
Successful people love to read, and it has been researched and proven that reading helps to make you smarter. Bill Gates’ reading list is so popular that his yearly recommendations have turned into quarterly editions.
Not only is it entertaining and relaxing, but reading is stimulating.
Through daily reading, it can not only increase your knowledge, but also to give you greater memory, reasoning and vocabulary skills, and boosts your mental skills such as clarity, concentration and focus.
2. Good health
A person cannot succeed if they are ill in bed all the time – thus, it is important to get your health in tip-top shape by taking care of your mental, physical, emotional and spiritual health.
By making it a habit to eat well, exercise regularly, and get enough rest and relaxation are ways to sustain your energy, endurance and mental capacity throughout the day.
3. Plan ahead
Be it for tomorrow or for next year, making plans is a good habit to keep, and keep you up-to-date on tasks and challenges ahead.
Being organised can also help you manage your stress levels and let you feel accomplished by knowing you are on top of things.
Another perk of planning ahead, it gives you more time to come up with solutions for potential problems ahead.
4. Challenge yourself
A person cannot grow if they stay in their comfort zone.
Challenging yourself lets you grow your confidence and accelerate your skills. Good stress is known to stimulate the mind.
By making it a habit to set targets and find ways to meet them, you are training yourself to a risk-taker and be ready for any road blocks ahead in life or your career.
5. Learn from leaders
Is there a successful leader you admire? Then make them your role model.
By focusing on the traits you like in them, it can inspire you to adapt to their good habits.
Even better, choose someone that you know personally and have access to so you can have first-hand observations on how they lead their lives.
You can have the freedom to consult with them when necessary and have a more personal in-depth look at how they reached their achievements.
6. Be generous
Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey and Richard Branson are some of the world’s most wealthy people. Another thing they have in common – they donate most generously to charities and causes around the world.
But giving away money is not the only way they show their generosity.
They are also committed to sharing the credit of good work done on social media platforms on subjects such as social causes or key contributors to jobs well done.
By caring for others and being generous, they are constantly inspiring their people to do better and reach their personal best.
7. Being connected
Communication is a fundamental form of connecting with people, inspiring them, and getting your message through.
By being genuine and approachable, you can welcome challenges or criticism from anyone, and garner supporters through understanding them and speaking to their needs.
By making a habit to practise effective communication and the earlier suggestions, you can be on the road to becoming a great leader.
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