6 secrets of successful people

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

The lives and careers of many outstanding people show that the key to success is managing your time correctly.

Why do some people manage to become world famous businessmen and leaders who can change the world around them, while others still cannot budge, despite their hard work? The reason for this phenomenon is often overlooked.

Successful businessmen try to invest their time in something that in the future will provide them with new knowledge, creative solutions and energy. Their successes may not be visible at first, but in the end, thanks to long-term investments, they reach unprecedented heights.

As a result, the time invested makes an excellent profit, so it can be called profitable. The graph clearly shows the dependence of work results on how we spend our time.

For example, Warren Buffett, although he owns companies with hundreds of thousands of employees, is not completely absorbed in the work. According to him, he devotes 80% of his working time to reading and reflection. The time spent on this brings him the knowledge he needs to make the right decisions and run a successful business.

The best return comes from investing in knowledge.

Benjamin Franklin is a politician, inventor, and writer.

Successful people have good habits that are worth adopting. Here are some effective tips to help you organize your time in a way that will bring you profit in the long run.

1. Keep a diary

Many successful people keep diaries, albeit sometimes not in the most traditional sense of the word.

For example, Benjamin Franklin asked himself every morning, "What good should I do today?" And every evening I ended with the question: "What good have I done today?" Steve Jobs, standing in front of the mirror, was interested in the following: "If today were the last in my life, would I do what I am going to do?"

Economist and management consultant Peter Drucker, making a decision, wrote down his expectations about it, and a few months later compared them with what actually happened. And Oprah Winfrey begins each day by keeping a gratitude diary, writing down five things for which she is grateful in life.

Albert Einstein left behind more than 80,000 pages of all kinds of records. The second President of the United States, John Adams, kept diaries all his life, the number of which exceeded 50.

By writing down your thoughts, plans and life events, you become more attentive and focused, develop meta-thinking and learn to make the right decisions.

2. Take sleep breaks

Sleep breaks for an hour or an hour and a half have the same positive effects on the ability to absorb information as a full eight hours of sleep, says Sara Mednick, a sleep researcher. Scientists have found that people who study in the morning perform 30% better on control tests in the evening if they take an hour's sleep during the day.

Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, Winston Churchill, John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, John Rockefeller and many other prominent personalities adhered to this habit. For example, Leonardo da Vinci practiced a polyphasic sleep regimen, dividing it into many ten-minute chunks. Napoleon preferred to take a nap before each battle. The famous actor Arnold Schwarzenegger takes a quiet hour every day in the afternoon.

Modern science confirms the benefits of this habit. Daily nap breaks not only increase productivity. but also develop the creative. thinking.

Perhaps this is why Salvador Dali and Edgar Allan Poe used this technique to induce hypnagogia - a state between sleep and wakefulness that helped them become more creative.

3. Walk at least 15 minutes a day

Successful people make sure to devote time to sports in their schedules. Walking can be a great exercise too.

Charles Darwin walked twice a day: at noon and 4:00 pm. Beethoven would go for a long walk after dinner and take a pencil and music paper with him in case inspiration came to him. Charles Dickens walked at a brisk pace of more than 10 kilometers a day, which helped him not to burn out from work. Steve Jobs walked when there was an important conversation ahead of him.

Only those ideas that emerged during the walk are of value.

Friedrich Nietzsche is a famous philosopher.

Other famous personalities who have learned the benefits of long walks include Aristotle, Mahatma Gandhi, Jack Dorsey, Tory Birch, Howard Schultz, Oliver Sachs, and Winston Churchill.

This habit is definitely worth adopting. After all, scientists have confirmed. that walks invigorate, refresh the head, increase creativity and even prolong life. According to research., which lasted 12 years, among people over 65 who walked 15 minutes a day, the death rate was 22% lower.

4. Read more

Regardless of life circumstances, each of us has access to books - the favorite educational resource of Bill Gates, the richest man on Earth. It's a cost-effective and incredibly effective way to improve your knowledge of anything.

Winston Churchill read biographical, historical, philosophical and economic works for several hours a day. Theodore Roosevelt read one book on days when he was busy, and two or three books on days off.

Mark Cuban reads over three hours a day. Billionaire David Rubenstein reads six books a week. Elon Musk in his youth read two books every day. And Disney CEO Bob Iger wakes up at 4:30 every morning to read. And this list can be continued for a long time.

Reading improves memory, increases empathy and reduces stress levels, helping us achieve our goals.

5. Find people with the same interests

According to writer Joshua Schenk, creativity develops through communication with other people. In his book Powers Of Two, he talks about outstanding duos who have worked together to reach great heights. For example, John Lennon and Paul McCartney, Maria and Pierre Curie, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.

Psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, during long walks together, developed a new theory of behavioral economics, which earned Kahneman the Nobel Prize.

Tolkien and Lewis gave a friend a friend to read their sketches, and spent Monday evenings in the pub. Scientists Francis Crick and James Watson often socialized and dined together, and then discovered the structure of DNA with Maurice Wilkinson.

And Theodore Roosevelt had a so-called tennis cabinet, whose members played tennis together and discussed political issues.

The experience of many outstanding people shows that communication with other people helps to look at things from a different point of view and even create something completely new.

6. Don't be afraid to experiment

Each of us makes mistakes, regardless of the level of reading or possession of important qualities of character. Treat them as experiences that will be useful to you in the future.

Success directly depends on the number of experiments you conduct. One win is worth all the failed attempts.

Thomas Edison had over 50,000 failed experiments before he invented the alkaline battery. It took him over 9,000 tries to create the perfect incandescent light bulb. However, by the end of his life, Edison had about 1,100 patents.

Experiments are not limited to practice. For example, Einstein carried them out in his mind, which helped him develop his brilliant scientific theories. And in the diaries of Thomas Edison and Leonardo da Vinci, in addition to notes, there are also mental maps and various sketches.

Experimenting helps you develop good habits. Producer and screenwriter Shonda Rhimes decided to get rid of workaholism and pronounced introversion, agreeing to everything that scared her before. This experiment is called “The Year I Said Everything to Everything,” which she talked about at TED.

The philosopher and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson is the author of the remarkable phrase: “All life is a continuous experiment. The more experiments you do, the better."

To achieve your goals, you need to properly manage your time. If you devote it to what will benefit you in the future, you can achieve success.