5 Daily Habits for Happiness (and Success)

What can you do to foster your sense of happiness along with your success? Your happiness is important because if you aren't happy you won't continue to lead your business well. Here are 5 daily habits for happiness that keep your success and your sense of contentment strong.

Set a morning routine that becomes a daily habit

You might think that your morning routine should be the same things that other happy and successful entrepreneurs do each day. And the truth is, if you read a few dozen interviews, you do find a few commonalities. But the secret to setting up a morning routine is to make it specific to you. What can you do support yourself, to get your day off to a productive and positive start? 

• If you are a morning “get up and move” person, one of your morning routines might be a walk or a workout. 
• Almost every productive, goal-oriented businesswoman includes a “preview of the the day” habit. What's coming up for you today? How will your day flow? What time sucks should you consciously avoid today? What one thing do you really need to spend time on? 
• Inspiration – spend some of your precious morning routine getting inspired. Prayer, meditation, reading, listening to a podcast, or sitting in nature are good ways to calm your mind and inspire yourself toward having a good day.
• Setting intentions or goals for the day in the morning helps to guide your activities and manage your time.

Listening 

I read about habits for happiness and success pretty often, but I rarely see listening on the list. Listening can guide your business decisions and save you so much wasted time. #listen #happiness #happinesshabits Click To Tweet

• Strike up a conversation with a customer or a prospect every day. Just one. What's uppermost in their mind right now? What are they working on? Are they talking about a problem that has them stuck? Listening gives you clues as to trends that might affect your business or the offers you make to customers. 
• Listen to learn. You've probably heard over and over again that entrepreneurship means lifelong learning. Listen to trends in marketing and advertising, new technologies, and trends in your industry. 

Keep your priorities top of mind

It's very easy to get pulled in different directions during your day. It's also easy to go down the rabbit hole of watching the constant stream of news or social media posts. If I could point to one top habit for happiness and success it would be keeping your focus. Set your priorities for today, the week, and the month and work toward those. Make the majority of your time aligned with your priorities. This guides your decisions as you go throughout your day. It also gives you a sense of completion and satisfaction, which in turn builds your sense of happiness. If I asked you right now, “What's your priority for your business?” can you quickly tell me? I've talked to business owners who are so lost in the daily grind that their sense of priority is completely missing. 

If you don't know why you are doing what you're doing, stop. Reposition yourself and make sure you know your priority. Work toward that for a greater sense of satisfaction and happiness.

Happiness and time blocking

Blocking your time gives you a sense of rhythm and directly leads to your contentment and success. I don't believe it's possible to block every minute of time, we have to be willing to float now and then, be flexible. But block the core of your days, and make it a part of your morning routine to notice what you're blocking time for that day. I used to use 4 hour blocks of time, but today's world seems to require more flexibility, and as I've grown older I want more spaces. Here's what works for me.

• Two morning blocks of 90 minutes, with a free half hour in between.
• One or two afternoon blocks of 90 minutes, with free time in between.
• A late afternoon “free time” block.
• A block of an hour in the evening to preview the next day or keep track of my ideas from the day. 

Experiment for yourself and see how your natural rhythm is. Set your blocks and stay focused within each one – you'll be out of it soon enough and can deal later with what tried to interrupt you. 

TIP: Let your team members and family know about your time blocks and ask for respecting your blocked time. 

Evaluate yourself 

We get a greater sense of accomplishment and contentment when we know we've met our marks. I believe that cultivating the habit of self-evaluation is a key to happiness and success. Regularly evaluate yourself – have you stayed true to your priorities? Have you kept to your morning routine? Does something need to change in your time blocking? Have you regularly listened to customers? Do you feel as if you're keeping up with trends and changes? Hone your sense of yourself and your business through self-evaluation. 

These five habits of happiness and success can keep you fresh, relaxed, content, and financially successful. It's part of thinking and acting like the CEO you are. 

Resources for happiness and success

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