The one thing I love about successful people is their success habits. Every day, they do them consistently.

For example, a millionaire might always exercise for 30 minutes before breakfast. There is no “well, today, I am too busy because I have to do this.”

That’s not how life works.

I’m always impressed. Seeing such consistency in numerous domains is not easy to do. It’s one thing to have just one habit you have to maintain.

But it’s a different thing when you have 7 or more habits that you have to juggle.

When I ask someone what habits they think lead to success, they almost always have random answers.

“50 pushups a day! And you’ve got to pump yourself up,” they say.

The issue is that they don’t know or they take semi-accurate advice from hearsay or a random article online.

Having pored over hundreds of books and research on millionaires and billionaires, the habits that are actually effective are often much different from what people assume or read online.

Here are 7 effective habits of top performers:

Habit #1 – Meditation

It constantly amazes me how many successful people meditate. I am constantly listening to video interviews and podcasts of billionaires and millionaires. Almost every day, I hear of someone new who admits that meditation contributed to their success. Meditation isn’t something that happens overnight. Like weightlifting, it can take years to see substantial results. Successful people know that they have to be patient and avoid the “quick fix” mentality of the crowd.

Does every successful person meditate? No. Richard Branson says he substitutes kitesurfing for actual meditation. When you’re studying thousands of people, there will always be outliers and exceptions. However, there is more proof that it’s useful than proof otherwise. And unlike drugs, there’s no downsides. The billionaire investor Ray Dalio lives a very busy life but he calls meditation “one of the best investments” of his day.

Habit #2 – Exercise

Specifically, do cardio exercise. At least 20 minutes intensively a day is a goal you should work up too. I have also found that many of them do it in the morning. This is nothing new but if you look out on the street, you can clearly see that most people never exercise. There’s been decades of research that has proven that consistent exercise leads to greater happiness, productivity, physique, focus, and energy levels.

Habit #3 – Seeking Win-Win Situations

This one comes from Stephen Covey’s book 7 Habits of Highly Effective People but it’s so true. While there is some discrepancy with millionaires, billionaires make it very clear. They seek win-win relationships. Rather than try to sell a product that sucks, try to sell something where everyone wins: the product delivers for the customer and you profit. You might be able to make a ton of money by scamming people, but in the long run, the most profitable strategy is to be ethical and win-win.

Habit #4 – Do What’s Most Important In The Morning

Productive people do their most important task immediately. This is something that most people are not even aware of. They start their day with a random assortment of miscellaneous tasks that have little impact on their big goals. This results in an unproductive morning and pushes their most important tasks to the end of the day, which leaves room for them to be postponed or skipped.

Habit #5 – Say No To The Right Things

Successful people have more opportunities and requests than they can handle. Many, if not most, of these requests are low impact and low priority. You must be able to properly analyze and say No to things that aren’t a great impact for your time invested.

Habit #6 – Love What You Do

There are a lot of rich people who hate their jobs. There’s a lot who love their jobs. You don’t want to be in the first group. What’s the point of being rich if you’re forced to work 80 hours a week at a job you hate and don’t have time to spend that money? Success is more than just money. I know a lot of people who don’t make millions. They make a modest salary but have everything they need and love their jobs. To me, that’s more successful than a miserable millionaire.

Habit #7 – Surround Yourself With Who You’d Like To Be Like

If you hang around 10 broke, unproductive people, you will be the 11th. Surround yourself with people you want to be like one day in terms of lifestyle, accomplishments, or values. Choose wisely because that will seep into how you behave.

From experience, I know it can be tough to do this. But even wealthy people started with no connections. I supplement this by listening to free interviews and podcasts of billionaires, reading books from the library written by these people, and going out of my way to help out for free in any way someone like this.

Conclusion

Success doesn’t have to be hard. If you just take your time to improve a little every day, you’re doing more than most people ever will.

If theses 7 habits seem overwhelming, start out how I did: with a baby step.

I read in the book The Power of Habit that exercise was scientifically proven to be a keystone habit that paved the way for other great habits to form.

Because I would burn out when I tried exercising, I chose to set a goal of 10 minutes, 3 times a day. I forced myself to leave when the time hit so I wouldn’t overstay and burn out.

Over time, as I became really consistent, I increased how much time I spent per day. Then, I added on other habits like 5 minutes of daily meditation.

I also made it fun by using fun, free meditation apps. The best one I have found is called Insight Timer.

Thanks for reading. What’s the #1 thing you will take action on now? I challenge you to let me know.

About the Author: Will Chou has spent thousands of hours studying the world’s most successful people, especially businessman. He has pored over hundreds of books and thousands of videos and articles to find the secrets to success, which he shares on his blog, willyoulaugh.com.