It’s been said that successful people are just ordinary people with extraordinary habits. This might seem rather mundane.

Most of us were either taught or came to believe that success is a rare combination of talents that only a few people are lucky enough to be born with. Each of us knows someone successful, but can’t quite put our finger on why they’re so successful. Podcast: Extraordinary Habits

Could it just be the right habits?

It can. But it’s not just having the positive habits. It’s avoiding negative habits, too. Unsuccessful people are just as skilled, only they’re skilled at avoiding success by engaging in poor habits.

Over time, it’s your habits that ultimately determine your success. Podcast: Extraordinary Habits

The good news is that habits are learned behaviors. Just as you learned to brush your teeth or get out of bed each morning, you can learn the habits of success.

The bad news is that habits can be tricky to install and maintain. Bad habits are hard to break. However, if you can enhance these two skills, you can live the life you’ve always wanted.

Before we get started, let’s consider what a habit actually is. Podcast: Extraordinary Habits

The dictionary defines a habit as “a settled or regular tendency or practice, especially one that is hard to give up”. So, a habit is just something that you do regularly. You do it with little mental effort, like brushing your teeth.

Making 100 cold calls each day can be a habit. But being miserable throughout the process suggests that it’s not a true habit, since it would be easy to give up.

So, we’re not just talking about doing something useful on a regular basis. We’re talking about making it a comfortable part of your routine. That makes all of this a little more challenging.

Podcast: Extraordinary Habits

When you think of having good emotional health, terms like happiness, self- esteem, self-confidence, optimism, and mental toughness likely come to mind. You might not consider the ideas of self- acceptance and contentment.

But isn’t contentment what we’re all seeking?

Contentment is the place where we don’t need anything. We’re completely satisfied as we are, as our life is.

Think of how many things you do each day in an effort to feel more content:

> You say or do things to impress others.

> You say or do things to avoid being ridiculed by others.

> You work at a job you don’t like so you can make more money to buy things you want or to impress others.

> You exercise and diet beyond what is reasonable in order to look a certain way.

The list is really endless. We spend a lot of our day trying to feel more content. However, these things aren’t the path to radical contentment.

The real secret is self-acceptance.

We’re all seeking contentment, perhaps even more than happiness. But we need to view happiness as a side-effect of contentment. The fact is, contentment is a prerequisite to feeling happy. Everyone is driven by the need for contentment.

Some of us seek contentment through achievement or wealth. Others seek it through altruism or creation. Both can be dead ends. Where does it stop? Does a billionaire ever feel content, or does he continuously feel the need to create greater wealth?

Nothing external can ever provide life- altering, radical contentment. Contentment must be found from the inside through kindness, compassion, and self-acceptance.

Passion is more than dreams of great things and following your bliss. It is energy. Passion requires reserves of energy that are replenished as you feed your dreams through accomplishments. That feeling of power, drive, energy, and borderline obsession required to achieve your dreams is passion.

A psychologist once related that, during both of her pregnancies, she lost all her creative energy. The conclusion she drew from this was that for her, there was a limited amount of energy reserves. During the time her body was creating and sustaining another life, she did not have enough energy to create anything more.

Considering the quotes noted previously with references to passion as energy and soul fuel, her thinking makes sense. Passion is energy – physical, emotional, and spiritual. Perhaps passion is even social when working in groups or sharing your passion with others.

In the case of social energy, we are fueled by both the intrinsic and extrinsic rewards of our progress, success, accomplishments. The passion is continuously sparked, and reserves are replenished, through these processes. The drive – and need – to continue to reach toward our goal is reinforced.

Let’s look at this in greater detail.

The starting place is often the end. Stephen Covey talks about beginning with the end in mind. That refers to your goal – what do you want to accomplish?