3 Powerful Habits Successful People Never Skip (Even On Their Worst Days)

The difference between successful people and everyone else isn't what they do on their best days, but what they refuse to skip even on their worst days. Today I'm sharing three powerful habits that successful people never skip, even when everything is going wrong and they least feel like doing it. I have studied productivity patterns for over a decade and coached hundreds of people, so I've identified those non-negotiable practices that separate those who reach their goals from those who don't.

Okay, I know what you're thinking. Sometimes you're just having a bad day and you deserve to cut yourself a little bit of slack. I am here for self-care. I am here for you leaning into what happy looks like for you. But if you want something that someone else has achieved and you want it for yourself, then you need to figure out where the commonalities are of what you need to do and how you need to show up in order for that to happen. But if you want to stay in the comfort zone and you want to be able to just chill every day, don't want the same thing. So let's dive in.

Habit number one, successful people start the day on their terms. Let me ask you something. Do you know what it means for you to start the day on your terms? If you literally got to decide for yourself every day, if I were to be in charge of the whole day, this is how I would start it. This is what I would want to do next. This is what I would want to be working on. This is how much time I'd want to spend with my family. Do you know what a best case scenario looks like? Because successful people are simply saying, I am going to start on my terms so that I'm more likely for every moment after to be closer to if not totally on my terms.

Now, people who have time and location freedom, they get to decide all the minutes. There are nuances to that. We still have to show up and do things that sometimes we don't always want to do. Thus, this video, but knowing what does it look like to start on your terms as a great place to begin. Lots of people like to look up other people's morning routines and say, I'm going to do that. That's not even starting the day on your terms. That's deciding somebody else's process is a really good idea and so you're going to try it out for yourself. What would it actually look like for you to start the day as a success to you that you would be really proud of yourself for taking a moment to do those things?

Now, some people are going to look at their phone right away. Some people check their email right away. Some people are in the business of news and therefore looking at the news first thing in the morning when they open their eyes is what they want to do. Now, I would argue it might still be good to not do those things even if you're in that business. But how am I to know it's not my life? It's not me deciding what's right for your terms. I'm simply saying, take back your power. Show your ability to make a decision and define what starting the day on your terms looks like, because whether it's going to be a hard day, whether it's Groundhog Day and you have to do yet another day of a job that you hate, show that you can rise above that by doing what you want to be doing to start. If you have to then roll into the every day of get ready, commute, go to work, do this, do that, then fine. But that little bit of power that you have at the beginning makes you feel like you are taking back some of your day, and we want to get to more of just some. It's hard to do that. Waking up a little bit earlier so that you have that decision making power and being able to do a little something that feels good to you. It takes some practice, it takes some reps, and there are days where you just don't feel like doing it. Well, guess what? You're not alone. Successful people have that happen all the time as well.

Here, I'll give you an example. I was scheduled to go to the gym this morning. Guess what happened? I woke up. I didn't want to go. I didn't want to go. But guess what? I have systems built into my life that reverse engineer success so that I am more likely to go. Today is a shoot day. Here I am making this video for you. If I have a shoot day, I have a blowout scheduled. My blowout for my hair is scheduled for 9:00 AM. In order for me to get to a 9:00 AM blowout, I have to drop the kids off at school at eight. I have to have showered before that and in an ideal situation, I will have worked out so that after I paid for this awesome blowout, which by the way, I am really pleased with today, I don't want to go to the gym after my hair is well done and I am freshy fresh. So the system of that, the schedule, the things that are going to be inevitable, having to shoot the video on a deadline, having to get to an appointment, otherwise I have to pay a cancellation fee. My kids got to go to school. I really do need to get clean. And definitely because I woke up and went to the gym. Now here I am and it's lunchtime and I have done the most. That is not willpower. That is setting up for the inevitable. That is setting up an assuming success. That is the difference.

So starting the day on my terms meant I need a couple minutes to just come to terms with the day. I'm going to do a little bit of reading. I'm going to stretch, wash my face, put on my fitness clothes like I laid out for myself. I knew this moment of adversity was going to come and then get my butt in the car to go to the gym. Did I want to go this morning? No. Did I do it anyway? Yes. What made that easier? Assuming that I would follow the process. What are the implementation tactics that you need to make yourself successful? Choosing the outfit, moving your phone to another room so that you're not on it too late at night and then therefore it ends up 2:00 AM and of course you're not going to wake up at five. If that's the case, what do you need to fall into place so that it is more likely you are successful even if you don't feel like being successful? That is the difference. And when someone is a high achiever, they assume that they're going to be human every minute of the day and whatever they can do to protect themselves from those feelings they're going to make happen. So schedule the accountability partner for the gym. Make sure that your phone is sleeping three doors down so that it is not keeping up all night. Whatever you need to do, the implementation that has to happen for you to start the day on your terms, it will change your life and soon enough, if you don't have control over your full day, but you get a taste of what it's like to have your movement, mindfulness mastery moments for a good morning, good life, and that's only a 20 minute pocket, wow. You're going to want more time to enjoy what you would decide to do for the rest of your day, and now we're talking about tactics that support you to make that happen sooner than later. By the way, one of my goals is to hit 500,000 subscribers on this channel. So if you haven't had a chance to press that button, please do.

Habit number two, successful people protect their strategic thinking time. You're probably thinking these successful people, they definitely have an appointment on their calendar just holding strategic thinking time. Well, that very well could be. I'm a huge fan of calendar blocking. If I know something needs to happen and I haven't given enough thought to it, I might outline that on my calendar, but let me tell you what's probably more likely. There are a lot of people that that's the case, but even when you have such a life where your appointments are stacked back to back, to back to back, something's got to give. And in order to get creative, in order to give something a little bit of thought, you need the support that you need. Some people need that support by having the right people around them to provide those ideas to them because of the way they've structured their life. Other people, most of us, especially in the come up in the beginning where we're really bootstrapping and we're just getting started with what we want to do and we have to do most of it ourself. We just need the time and space and rather than the rigidity of a hold on the calendar for when you're meant to be creative and strategic, white space does a lot for you.

You mostly hear successful people talk about the power of saying no and the power of saying no means if they get invited to a meeting that's unnecessary or an event or somebody would like to pick their brain over coffee, they're very good at saying no, and the reason for that is because they want to say yes to something else, and that's something else may be completely undefined because at a point you realize that you're more likely to come up with the fun stuff in the present moment. Have you ever noticed you have an idea in the shower? Why is that? Because you put your phone away for once. I know people who don't put their phone away when they get in the shower. I can't tell you the number of places I am required to put my phone away. I live for, I'm not even remotely thinking about technology when I'm trying to get ready for my blowout shampoo. The hair, the craziest thing happens when you disconnect from the rest of the world. You have your own original ideas. Successful people know that. So when they say no to an appointment, they say no to these things that probably mean something to someone else but have nothing to do with what they want for them. They have more white space. That white space on the calendar, it's coveted because I don't have to report to someone. I don't have to be somewhere. What are the possibilities? The average person looks at white space, let's call it the weekend as, Ooh, what are we going to do for the weekend? Maybe we should binge an entire television show, or maybe that's the time that I'll finally get my side hustle off the ground. You see white space and you think I have to fill it. Successful people see white space and they realize that's where the magic is happening most of the time, and it might be the most valuable moment that could happen throughout the entire day, no matter how dialed in their life is, if they just got a little more of it.

What does it mean for you to protect your time? Whether you want to call it strategic thinking time or the possibility of a creative strike happening. What do you do to protect your time? That's what successful people are doing no matter what the possibilities are, no matter if they have a plan to put in that place or not, they say no to what isn't a fit because they are insanely clear about what is and habit. Number three, they fit in time to move their body before the mental fatigue sets in. We don't want to hear it, right? Got to go to the gym, got to work out, got to move the body, got to get outside, got to take a walk. Got it, got it, got it, got it, got it. We're tired of hearing about it, especially if we're completely out of the habit of it. That's why if someone is more successful at this than you might be, they've built it in. I gave you the story earlier of the fact that I went to the gym this morning. I now, because I sit here on camera, that's one of the most important things I've done so far today because when I show up for you, I want to be firing in all cylinders. I want to be able to share my best ideas and be just excited about it, not just like, oh, I think I have a good topic for today, so let me share it with you. Going to the gym actually gives me more energy than I spend, and then I'm able to take that energy boost and apply it in the best places here for you on calls with my team, motivating them, hanging out with my kids when we get together later on, it's insanely powerful.

Now, imagine if I skipped and I didn't go and I didn't challenge my body and I just use the energy that I have throughout the day and it just depletes. You see the three o'clock slump? You're counting down the minutes for the day to end. You just want to move on. You want to go to sleep. It's time to pick up the kids and they're rowdy. What is it about kids coming home from school? Why did they not get all their sies out already? That's what I want to know, but now I'm prepared for that. I know it's coming. I've set myself up for success for what's happening, the life I built for myself and the way it's going to be, the way it flows, the people that are in it, the things that are going to come my way, all because I knew if I took that time to hold myself accountable and move my body, that it would pay me back in spades. The best of the best. Do this before they have time to turn it down first thing in the morning, get it done. I have so many reasons why I will not work out the later in the day. It happens. For a long time, I was a nine or 10:00 AM worker outer, but it's just not conducive to getting things done. It's not great for when I want to meet with my team productively or when I have to take calls and when I've got to start preparing for different things in my business, and I also want to be done by a certain time. I want to be done on time every single day because the sooner I'm done, the sooner I get to go see my family and spend that time with them. So the earlier the workouts happen, especially when you need that energy on the other challenging things you have to do in that day, the better.

Successful people know that. They just tell their assistant to schedule it. They schedule the personal trainer. That person is waiting for them. It's going to happen. It is dialed in. It is by default. It is inevitable. It is non-negotiable. I actually ask my clients in my coaching program to move every day. It's one of our daily push items, 45 minutes of movement make it happen. They didn't even realize they came in for a business coaching program and I'm telling them to move their butt. It blows people away, not because I asked them to do it, but because they do. They love having the guidance and then even more, they love to see how it has a positive effect on getting to their financial goals. The level at which these are connected is insane.

So habit number one, start the day on your terms. Get a feel for what it's like to step into your power the moment the day begins. Habit number two, protect your time, especially that strategic, creative time that's going to help you build the thing that you're hoping to create. And habit number three, move your body before that. Mental fatigue talks you out of it. Make it inevitable. Make it a non-negotiable. These three habits are the foundational practices of successful people who go on to do massive things. They're more collaborative, they're more creative, and they step into their power in so many ways. It affects the lives of everyone that come into contact with their work. Those are three powerful habits successful people refuse to skip. If you want to learn how to dial in a morning routine that actually sticks for you, click the link below and I'll see you there.