We can trace every success or failure we had in our lives back to a habit or a couple of habits. Look at where you are today, and it should be easy for you to see which are those habits that got you to this point either good or bad.

Some people think that motivation is the key to success. In order to be successful you need to get motivated and work hard. This is good, sometimes you get motivated and work your butt off but what do you do in those days you feel like shit and you don’t even want to get motivated? Probably, you’ll say “I’ll do it tomorrow”.

You see, the basic difference between successful people and unsuccessful people is that successful people will do the work whether they feel like it or not. If you want to become truly successful you can’t rely on motivation.

As Mel Robbins says “the thing about human beings, is that we are not designed to do things that are uncomfortable, or scary, or difficult. But you need to do them. You just have to understand you’ll never feel like doing the things that are tough, or difficult, or uncertain, or scary, or new, so you need to stop waiting until you feel like it. And believe me, when you didn’t exercise in 5 years, going to the gym will be incredibly difficult.

The solution?

You can slowly change your behavior by implementing new good habits into your life. You already have lots of habits e.g. taking a shower in the morning, making a coffee, drinking a shake for breakfast, going to the gym several times a week. Those habits don’t require motivation, they probably require motivation not to do them.

The great thing about habits, is that you only have to push yourself through that buffer period until your brain creates new neural pathways. This buffer period is around 66 days but depends on the difficulty and the kind of habit you want to implement in your life. After this period, you’ll find it harder not to do it, than to do it. That’s the result we want.

Now, what we have to do is to find those key habits which in time will make us successful.

Coming next

For the next articles I've selected 11 habits from the most successful people in the world that can make anyone successful. They are general habits everyone can apply into his or her life regardless if you are an employee, and entrepreneur, or a student.