10 Habits That Will Help You Become a Better Version of Yourself

By Nelson Wang

These are my top 10 habits I’ve developed over the last 33 years after studying entrepreneurs, executives from Fortune 1000 companies, and my own personal experiences:

Every morning, make a list of the 3 most important things you have to do for the day that will make the largest impact. This helps to cut out the noise and forces you to prioritize. For example, the top 3 things on my list today were to host a training, attend two executive meetings and write 2 articles. I completed all 3. #Priorities
Use the 10 years test – When you run into tough situations, often times it will seem like a disaster. Many years ago, I made a mistake at work and my boss was incredibly upset with me. I immediately became really disappointed in myself and moped around for two days. Fast forward many years later to today and it turns out it was a just a slight bump in the road in my life. It’s such a small issue that I don’t even remember exactly what happened anymore! You know what does bother me though? I could have spent those two days creating something or helping others in their lives instead of moping. So when you run into tough situations, instead of panicking, ask yourself, will this matter in 10 days? 10 months? 10 years? Chances are it won’t. Don’t sweat the small stuff and keep you eye on the big picture.
Learn one new thing a day – It could be a list of new habits (wink wink), a new language, a skill or insight. Push yourself to grow every single day. For example, today I hopped on a call with a the creator of a TV show and learned about the entertainment industry. If you improved just a little bit every single day, think of how that effect compounds over a year. The impact becomes dramatic over time.
Watch a thought leader on Youtube every week – A lot of my friends and gurus recommend reading every day to learn. I like reading, but I tend to learn better through visuals. That’s why I like to watch a thought leader discuss their learnings and insights on Youtube instead. Here’s one of my favorite videos when I need a little bit of inspiration. I find it to be a great way to supplement my learning. #GetInspired
Batch your emails. It’s easy to get distracted as a thousand emails hit your inbox throughout the day. Instead of checking each one as it comes in, batch it and check the batch every 3 hours if you can. Usually if it’s something urgent someone will Gchat, Slack, Sype, text or call you.
Drink a green smoothie every morning – It’s quick, easy and healthy for you. Who wants to chew vegetables for hours during breakfast anyway? This is such an awesome way to get a lot of your vegetables and fruit servings every day. I’ve been doing it for years. I even pack a blender in my suitcase for my work trips (true story). Pro tip: freeze your fruits and vegetables so they last longer. Plus, it gives your smoothie a nice texture (especially if you add bananas!).
Work out in the morning – It’s so simple but it’s so effective. Your energy will be much better or the rest of the day and your health will be better for it. I aim to run 2-3 miles a day followed by circuit training. I’m not perfect, but on the days that I do it, I feel like a completely new person. Speaking of good morning habits…
Practice gratitude – Every morning (or night), tell yourself 3 things that you’re grateful for that day. It will make you feel much happier. Another way to do this is to write it on post its and to put it into a mason jar. Anytime you’re feeling down or stuck, just take out one of the post it notes and read it. I call it the jar of awesomeness. I have one sitting on my kitchen island now.
Build a “feel good” crew – Spend time with friends and family that lift you up and inspire you to live the best life possible. Have someone negative in your life? Don’t spend time with them. Get the toxicity out of your life! Be around people that bring out the best in you and help you shine.
Have a bias towards experimenting – A lot of times we don’t know what the right answer is. What’s the best way to find out? Experiment. Test your ideas and have a bias towards taking actions to find out what will work. For example, I wanted to launch a consulting service helping people to launch their business ideas but had no idea how to do it. So what did I do? I started writing content around the subject, built a landing page and hosted 1:1 consulting calls. Guess what happened? I just got a verbal today for my 6th client for a $2,000 engagement. Know how many tries it took me? Too many to count. I had to constantly test different ideas on the way to finding the success that I’ve found today. When in doubt, have a bias towards action and experimentation. Here’s the good news, you don’t have to go through all the failed experiments I went through! I wrote a free guide for you here on how to land your first 3 clients.