18 Mar THE Top 19 Habits of Insanely Successful and Passionate People (Download Free Inspirational Poster)
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”
– Aristotle
Hey Legends,
#1 and #2!
#1 is “I Don’t Know What I’m Passionate About” and #2 is “What If I Fail.“
We heard you AND you’re not alone. Those were the TOP 2 (out of 15) most common reasons why we continue to work in jobs we don’t love.
They are more common than you think. In fact, they are always the most common excuses, AND they never quite go away, EVER! Stop thinking you’re crazy. You’re normal.
We all have those doubts. It’s what we do after that counts.
News Flash: Quitting your job before taking some simple steps to guarantee success is crazy though.
Sometimes, the best way to find and do work you love is to look for better opportunities at your current company.
Especially for most of us who are risk-averse, this is frequently the best course of action.
Why leave a (paid) job until you have an idea of what it is you’re passionate about and how to turn that passion into a career? Why not take some proven steps to discover your passions AND minimize the risk?
Many times our dream jobs exist within the companies we already work for! Jackpot!
It’s such an obvious solution that we’re in the design stages of a completely new product centered around “un-hating” our jobs. We’re very excited to share this groundbreaking course with the world, soon!
Now, let’s dig into how a Living Legend behaves and see what we can learn. Let’s overcome these excuses and fears that are holding us back, together!
What are those certain characteristics and habits of highly successful, highly passionate people?
Over the past decade, we’ve made a deep study of hundreds of what we call Living Legends: those who spend their time putting their unique dent in the world. We’ve been on a quest to understand how they got there, and what do they do differently than the rest of the world.
Their stories continually blow our minds, and their habits and beliefs which create their success are truly magic.
Look for an upcoming post where we do a “Top 10 List of Living Legends” and share with you some of the challenges they had to overcome. (Maybe it will be Top 25, who knows? There are so many damn inspiring people living their legends, it’s hard to narrow it down!)
Put simply, Living Legends do things differently. These are the tenets that guide their actions. The great news is there’s nothing stopping you from adopting them as your own.
If we are going to change the world by doing work we love, then the habits below become requirements. As you read through, pick out your top 2-3 which resonate the most for you.
Make it to the bottom to get the free poster version of The Creed of Living Legends.
- Try new things. Constantly experiment with new people, jobs, projects and experiences. See what sticks. Without experiments, we’ll never learn anything. Without learning, we’ll get nowhere. Consider your life a series of experiments, both big and small. Always test ideas. Live outside your comfort zone and don’t underestimate the importance of being a beginner.
- Measure against your own standards, not others. All of us have different definitions of success and goals that likely have nothing to do with those around us. So stop comparing yourself to others. It’s like comparing apples to oranges, and you’ll either feel overly confident or overly disappointed. Either way, it’s not useful. You are your own comparison – be better today than you were yesterday! Define your success and own it.
- Know who you are. The better you know yourself, the more likely you are to do work that matters. Study your strengths, know your weaknesses, identify your values, and learn the things which bring you excitement and make you tremble. Take all the tests and evaluations you can find. Begin to live a life congruent with your values, strengths and purpose, and you’ll never look back. Do things for the wrong reasons, and there will be nothing but disappointment. No sleepwalking allowed!
- Realize you’re already free. Freedom doesn’t come from huge financial achievement or the ability to live in some little hut over a Tahitian lagoon. Go out and survey the average guy rolling in Benjamins and we bet you’ll find that they feel a lot less free than you’d think. Freedom in its purest form is the ability to choose the way we interpret what happens to us. We can either see life’s occurrences, good or bad, as reasons to pursue what matters, or we can see them as excuses to sit on our ass. The choice is yours. All the freedom you’ll ever need is already here. Start acting like it.
- Find the right reasons. If a passionate person gets fired, they brush it off and get excited about the opportunity the lost job must be presenting. You can’t control what happens, but you can control your reaction to it. What challenges have come up today? How could you reframe them? The juiciest possibilities often have the best disguises. Notice them.
- Create space. If you don’t give big ideas room, they’ll never show up. Purpose and passion are no different. Lack of space creates pressure – the ultimate killer of creativity. And nothing requires more creative juices than passion. Start small with five minutes each morning, and always schedule downtime. Start walking to work instead of taking the bus. Don’t multitask. Get out in nature. Just be, let things flow and see what comes up. Give yourself permission to dream. Passion thrives in emptiness.
- Learn from those around you. Every interaction is a chance to either learn what fires you up or what makes you want to put a wet finger in a light socket. Knowing one is just as crucial as knowing the other. Embrace your surroundings. Observe closely.
- Challenge the norm. Assume there’s another way. Ask questions. Don’t take things as gospel just because this is how they’ve always been done. Don’t passively listen to those around you. Question everything you’ve been doing and are about to do, especially if you don’t enjoy it. Is it really what you want? Is it in line with who you are? Perhaps there’s a better way. There often is.
- Believe in what you do. If you don’t have a deep emotional reason for doing the work you do, you’ll likely never do what matters. Know your beliefs. Why do you care so much about the things you do? Nothing big happens without the right reasons. Does what you’re doing actually matter? If you can’t put your heart into it, then get yourself out of it.
- Constantly seek adventure and explore. Nothing adds more clarity to most of life’s confusions than seeing new things. Get out and explore foreign worlds. Spending too much time in one environment makes most people feel like it’s the only way. We assure you it’s not. Notice how different cultures do things differently. Defining moments come when your perspective changes, when you see the world in a different way, when you get out of your comfort zone. Whether it’s seeing a town across the world or across your state, adventure has to be a priority. Your mind will never be the same.
- Scare yourself. Passionate people thrive off uncertainty. If you aren’t doing things that give you a few goose bumps, then you’re either not learning, or you’re dying or bored out of your mind. None of which are good. Do something at least mildly uncomfortable daily. This could be as small as making a phone call or sharing your art with someone. Be vulnerable. There’s a pretty direct correlation between pushing limits and epic living. Uncertainty is a sign that what you’re doing actually matters.
- Be a constant learner. Become obsessed with learning everything you can find – new skills, approaches, ideas – you name it. If it interests you, then it’s important enough to get in your brain. We have to fuel what excites us. Commit to going to bed each day at least slightly wiser than when you woke up. The results will add up. Read books, take courses, and work with experts. Do it all. Do nothing but this, and we guarantee you’ll do work that lights you on fire. Be a sponge.
- Focus on the process, not the outcome. Stop worrying about getting there. You never will, anyway. All the fun is along the trail with you. It’s impossible to enjoy it if you’re dazed by the blurry horizon that never actually gets any closer. Embrace persistence. Learn to love the process and everything becomes epic.
- Love change. How else are you going to get where you want to be? Change is going to happen no matter what, so you might as well get used to it. Adopt these habits and you can be sure the change to come is for the better.
- Model excellence. For just about every goal someone has, there are likely at least a handful of people who’ve already done it. Don’t reinvent the wheel if you don’t have to. Find the people who live the life you want to live. Those who’ve experienced the dreams you’ve always had. Find models for everything. Take note of the good and the bad. Adopt the former and drop the latter. With the right models, you can do anything. Check out this inspiring article titled “57 Living Legends Expose the Moment that Defined Their Passion” and how they crushed their fears on the way to success! Truly Inspiring.
- Test what’s possible. We are capable of so much more than we give ourselves credit for. Most things are not as impossible as we think. The only way to find out is to try. This is as important physically as it is with business. When we start to do things we didn’t used to think were possible, the newfound confidence transfers to all kinds of other parts of life. If you just pushed yourself over the finish line of your first marathon (or 5k for that matter), then why couldn’t you also find a way to double your business’ sales next year? If something seems impossible to you, find those who have done it, learn from them and try it. You’ll start to impress yourself. Then watch out. Go on and do something impossible.
- Take notes. Pay attention. New things are constantly happening. Keep a journal of what inspires and excites you. Let your thoughts run wild. Most importantly, keep a running list (or pinterest board) of what inspires you: books, magazines, movies, people, products, music, stories, careers, everything. Most people have a brush with passion almost daily. Unfortunately, we’re often too busy thinking of our 97-item to-do list to take in the education. Any time something catches your eye or excites you, open up your journal and get it onto paper. Over the years you will have a running story of how you might enjoy spending your time. This isn’t a test run. Live accordingly.
- Act on what you learn. None of this advice matters if you don’t get out and actually do something with the information and the tools you’ve developed along the way. It’s not just about finishing a book, completing a course, reading a blog post or having a chat with a wild new person. The magic doesn’t happen in the learning.
- Surround yourself with passionate people. This is the foundation. Most people don’t believe you can do work you love because they’re constantly around people who hate their jobs and don’t know what excites them. This has to change – NO, this MUST change. Those around you have everything to do with your success and your belief in what’s possible. You’ll either rise up or sink down depending on who’s next to you. Passion is contagious. You must have an environment that embodies it. You need a support crew who believes what you believe; people who dream as big as you or bigger. Not only will they give you ideas, but they’ll support the belief that doing what you love is the norm. They fuel our passion and make the unthinkable possible, even normal. You’ll begin to expect the same of yourself. The fastest way to do things you think are impossible is by surrounding yourself with people already doing them.
We have a free webinar planned early next month that will feature fun techniques from our How to Connect With Anyone course. Specifically, how to effectively build a team around you who will refuse to let you fail – a “can’t fail, fear nothing, been there done that” mastermind team! Plus, we’ll have some cool giveaways! Date to follow…
Until you have the right team around you (physically), make successful people part of your virtual mastermind team. Learn from them by osmosis.
In his teen years Ben Franklin was reported to have held regular board meetings with very successful and influential people where he sought out their advice on business and life. The one problem? These board meetings consisted of just him. The rest were his imaginary mastermind team. He learned by studying them from afar and modeling them. He later went on to create “real” mastermind teams called the Junto (Club) and the rest is history.
Learn from greatness, surround yourself with greatness – physically and virtually (and imaginary, whatever works!!
Learning’s an important step, but it’s still just the first one. The magic and the transformation happens in the action you take as a result. Don’t read any further if you don’t plan to act on what we shared. Seriously.
Take action on any one of the habits, TODAY! Add them to your repertoire one-by-one and you’ll feel an amazing transformation happening. A sense of purpose and passion!
Most importantly, do not live a life of regret. Avoid should-have’s and what-if’s. Dreams not pursued. Truly, regret itself is really the only thing we should fear.
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Living a life of purpose and passion is just that—a way of life. Those who wake up excited aren’t just the lucky ones; they have conditioned themselves through daily habits to experience and deserve the life of their dreams.
They put the time and effort in—and at any cost. It’s hard work. But it’s fulfilling work you’ll never regret when you look back from your deathbed.
Our latest “Free Start a Blog Writing Challenge” winner, Melinda Stanford, did just that. She put in the hard work and it is paying off. Check out her inspirational blog and coaching business called World Stage Coaching. Her story will be featured in an upcoming guest post on Live Your Legend – it’s sure to inspire.
Join our current blog challenge here if writing and having a voice interests you.
Simple habits. Profound habits. These 19 habits separate the Legends from the rest of the world. Practice these daily. Make them routine.
Get them right and the outcomes will start to blow your mind.
There is no more “later.” It’s NOW!
Can you guess which habit is “the can’t-fail strategy that is right in front of you that you likely aren’t using.”
A strategy used by all successful people?
The one thing that you can do so that you are “pulled effortlessly” to success…
It’s likely not what you think, but It will become obvious to you in future posts, hang tight!
For now, Download our Creed of Living Legends poster we made for the community and post it in your work space…we think the habits are that important.
Hang it up in your office and commit to incorporating more of them into your life.
Give a gift and share it with others as a reminder of a life well lived.
Leave a comment below and let us know which habit you’re committed to adding to your daily life.
We’re here to help you on your journey!
With Gratitude,
Chelsea and the Live Your Legend Team
P.S. Look for our Top 10 (or 25!) List of Living Legends coming soon…which Legends will make the list?
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Related Article: The 4 Required and Necessary Steps to Discover Your Passion
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