The One Habit Successful People Have in Common

I still remember vividly the excitement I had when I joined college - meeting new people in a new surrounding and exploring newly found freedom. All this excitement didn't last long as I faced my results. It wasn't bad, but was an average performance. I wasn't satisfied with the results, it didn't reflect the efforts I put in. The same pattern continued in the second year even though I implemented new ways - reading long hours, group studying sessions and so on.
                The next year I decided to look at a common habit other successful peers implemented and learn from them. To my surprise, all my successful peers had one common habit. It was a simple habit of taking detailed notes in every class. I practised this habit of taking notes in class all through the year. Woo-hoo!! the results started to show up that year and my grades improved significantly.

One learning from the above experience is finding out the core habit every successful people practice and replicate it. Success comes your way.

When I reflect the above learning to the game of life and started to figure out the common habit of all successful people, the pattern was clearly evident. It was no secret. It is the most powerful habit that every successful individual from Benjamin Franklin to Mark Zuckerberg practice. It was nothing other than the daily reading habit. All these personalities dedicated the major part of their day to reading. Though reading newspaper articles, journals and blogs give you knowledge, a good book creates a transformation that lasts a lifetime.

We all know its good to have a reading habit but finding time, selecting the right books and keeping the motivation alive seems to be the challenge along the way. Here is my take on those:

# Time: This is the single most challenging thing in the entire process but there is a much easier solution for it. Implement reading habit as part of your daily morning routine. Set up at least 20 minutes every morning to read and experience the difference. I started with reading audio books during my commute to work through audible and then established reading physical books as part of my morning routine as well. If you want to read more on the morning routine look at my post on 6 key habits for an effective morning.

# Resources: Having found our precious time, we want to make it valuable and well spent. We want to pick a book which would likely impress us. But, how do we know it upfront? It's possible, if we pick a book recommended by one of our influencers. When someone you like is impressed with a book there are high chances that you might be as well. This one strategy could save a lot more time in finding the right books. I initially started reading books recommended by author Dorie Clark (such as Influence) and slowly moved onto the books recommended by Seth Godin. This strategy also helps me find books which otherwise wouldn't have been possible.

# Motivation: Stumbling upon an excellent book in itself gives you the necessary motivation to read further but setting up a system to motivate will help you go further. I joined a reading challenge in Goodreads through which I set myself a yearly goal and continue to work on it. This serves as a log of books read and also a source of motivation. Additionally, you can share the learnings from the book to a friend or partner or share it in a blog (like I do). Sharing with people who are interested in you, motivates you to read more.


Happy reading!!!!