How many posts do you think you’ve read about the habits of famous people?
10? 100? 1,000?
Posts detailing the power of good habits clog the blogosphere.
Stephen Covey started this thing, or maybe that was Ben Franklin, or maybe it was Seneca or one of the ancient stoics.
My point is that it’s kinda, sorta spiraled out of control.
Just the other day I was reading a Hubspot post by Caroline Forsey about the morning routines of five ultra-successful people.
The list is a familiar one, including entrepreneurial wunderkinds Elon Musk, Sheryl Sandberg, and Jack Dorsey; and hyperkinetic otherworldly beings, Tony Robbins and Gary Vaynerchuk (Gary Vee).
I loved the post and props to Caroline for enduring the crazy habits of these five people.
She took a crack at the routines, wrote honestly about her experience, and reported the results. And she had fun with it!
I could take any mix of current darlings in the online-techno-entrepreneur-superstar bubble and write a post about their simply amazing morning routines.
Hit publish, add a stylized quote from some famous person with amazing habits, and blast it into the echo chamber.
But I don’t want to follow or emulate or even try to embrace the habits of people like Tony Robbins or Elon Musk.
Can you imagine?
And man, I love Gary Vee’s crazy energy. He’s fun to watch but c’mon, the guy’s an alien being sent here from another planet.
Me? I’m fine and content living on my humble little rock, thank you very much.
But I do have my own mix that helps my body and brain sing together in sweet harmony, often starting this harmonious productivity at the crack of dawn.
I need to be creative, exercise, get in a wee bit of Zen time, learn, and oh, get shit done because I do have a business to run 😉
I’ve gone through a long list of self help blogs, books, and podcasts, from Tim Ferriss to Eckhart Tolle but I keep coming back to three, count ‘em, three big fat rules that keep me on track.
Let’s call them Craig’s meat and potatoes get shit done foundation.
THINGS that I think are 100% necessary to have enough creative energy to run a successful business. And have some gas left in my tank at the end of each day.
1. You must have a daily routine
As the title states, habits can make or break you.
Your hyperactive brain is great at letting fear slip in.
Dwelling on the past, anticipating things that might happen, and time traveling, these destructive habits, will chomp away at the precious hours in your day and quash your spirit.
Bad habits will kill your day.
How many times have you been ready to take on the world after a strong cup of java, soon to be derailed by anxious thoughts, demanding emails, and looming deadlines?
This opens the door to your familiar, counterproductive bad habits. They sneak in, sap your energy, and suck your spirit dry.
Bad habits are productivity killers. Been there. So done that.
But simply taking the time to stop, relax, and breathe can help fight off these demons.
Building a daily routine filled with GOOD habits will help fight the fear, keep you energized, and stay focused.
So, what are good habits?
Well, that’s for you to decide, but daily writing, meditating, or simply reading inspiring content can make all the difference.
Here is one of my favorite quotes ever…
“One does not accumulate but eliminate. It is not daily increase but daily decrease. The height of cultivation always runs to simplicity.”
—Bruce Lee
Bravo, Sir Bruce.
To me, this means doing the utmost with the minimum.
Think about it.
You work daily to acquire, develop, and enhance a skill.
To master a topic.
Be the best.
But overcomplicating things will quickly fry your brain. And you cultivate nothing but disorder, disarray, and disorganization.
This is why I love the quote so much. Because for me, good habits are about “daily decrease.” Greatly simplifying your process of cultivation.
Build yourself a routine — great habits to start and fill your day.
Here are my big five…
a. Ignore.
I’m continually honing my “ignore” power. Ignoring the unimportant, which leads to…
b. Taming the email beast.
Check email 1-2 times per day. I’ll admit this one doesn’t always work and is not always practical, but it’s a daily goal.
c. Read first thing every morning.
Today I studied up on one of my favorite topics at my SEO temple, Stone Temple Consulting.
Yesterday I read about George Carlin’s particular talent for language.
And I can’t help going back to James Altucher’s impressive, inspiring, and fun Idea Machine post.
I also dip in and out of a variety of books each morning.
d. Write, daily. This is my medicine 🙂 I discovered the magic of daily writing fairly late in life, but this habit has changed everything about my life and particularly my business.
e. Focus on one project at a time.
I LOVE this simple list from Ray Edwards about tripling your productivity instantly, which is very similar to mine. This gets back to a.) ignore and b.) tame the email beast.
“Being productive is more about eliminating resistance (drag) than about getting better at anything.”
…I completely agree, Ray.
I also love Srinivas Rao’s “10 Daily Habits” list in his habits and mindset required to write a book article.
If you love to write, follow his “1,000 words a day” rule.
2. Consistency rules
Do you often try to visualize your positive future?
How are you going to get there?
Do you have specific steps?
Many people spend too much time focusing on the space between their now and their future.
This creates a vast chasm that will cause you to stall because of the perceived weight of the tasks needed to achieve your big goal.
To maintain a consistent path towards success, you must learn to manage the gap.
To move one small step at a time, turning that vast chasm into a series of baby steps you can easily make.
That’s consistency.
Create a framework for each and every day — a series of steps you continually take to get things done.
This is how you manage the gap and avoid getting lost in the space between.
3. Clarity
My job is helping people grow their business by attracting the right people — their ideal customers.
To achieve this desired result, brand clarity is a must.
To clearly communicate what you do to your ideal customer.
To explain this, I love to highlight Donald Miller’s brilliant “grunt test.” Could a caveman grunt what you offer after a quick peek at your site? That is, understand exactly what you do, how you can help them, and make it clear what to do next?
It’s a simple rule that explains the importance of branding done right. And it’s step one to effectively marketing your business.
But clarity is not just about correctly branding your website.
It should extend into everything you do.
A business won’t grow and flourish without brand clarity.
And you won’t thrive without clarity in your life.
Here’s an example of how I use this in business…
I’m always working to identify the few critical tasks that contribute the most to my income (and my happiness). I focus on those tasks and set very clear goals with short deadlines.
In the past, I tried to fill my day with batches of tasks, usually from 7:00 am to 6:00 pm. I was stuck in the factory model.
Clarity is about breaking free from that destructive factory model by…
a. Finding the small percentage of tasks that bring you desired results, business and personal growth, and happiness.
b. Then purging the small percentage of tasks that bring problems, derail you, and make you unhappy.
For me, this was…
a. Focusing on things that bring me energy…
Business (for me and my clients) — Brand development, top-level strategies, writing and online networking. And outsourcing the rest.
Life 🙂 — Always finding time for exercise (here in Colorado that’s daily biking and/or hiking), study (daily reading), and hobbies (my current obsession is photography).
b. Purging tasks that drain me and don’t contribute to growth…
Business — For this, I go back to Ray Edwards simple list because it’s simple and it works…
- Focus on only one thing at a time, for a specific block of time.
- Check email only once per day (for me this is usually two times a day).
- Accept no incoming phone calls, and return voicemails only once per day.
Life 🙂 — Remember that quote from Bruce? Well, this kind of sums it up for me…
“One does not accumulate but eliminate. It is not daily increase but daily decrease. The height of cultivation always runs to simplicity.”
—Bruce Lee
Simplify.
Simplify.
Simplify.
So my meat and potatoes foundation is about…
1. Having a regimen (structure is a must).
2. Maintain consistency (without it you’re lost).
3. Be clear about your mission (clarity is key).
My 1-2-3 medicine above is about doing things I need to do to have enough creative energy to run a successful business. And have some gas left in my tank at the end of each day.
What’s yours?
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Craig McBreen
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