9 habits of highly successful

people, from a man who spent 5

years studying them

Building wealth takes years of smart decisions, both professionally and financially.
But according to according to one man who interviewed hundreds of self-made
millionaires, getting rich also means keeping certain lifestyle habits.

Tom Corley, an accountant and financial planner, surveyed 233 wealthy

individuals, mostly self-made millionaires, on their daily habits. He compared
those answers to responses from 128 lower-earning individuals, or those with less
than $35,000 in annual gross income.

In his best-selling book “Change Your Habits, Change Your Life, ” Corley
explains that wealthy people set themselves up for success in a few specific ways.
Here are the habits they have in common:

1. They get up early

Nearly 50 percent of the self-made millionaires in Corley’s research got out of bed
at least three hours before their workday actually started. Many of them use the
free time to tackle personal projects, plan their day, or make time for exercise.

“Getting up at five in the morning to tackle the top three things you want to
accomplish in your day allows you to regain control of your life,” he writes. “It
gives you a sense of confidence that you, indeed, direct your life.”

2. They read, a lot

A whopping 88 percent of Corley’s wealthy respondents say they devote 30

minutes or more each day to education or self-improvement through reading.

Most do not read for entertainment; they prefer biographies, history, and self-help
books.

If you enjoy a good novel, that can help you too. Science showsthat reading for
pleasure can also boost your career. And Corley’s point holds for many kinds of
narratives. “There are important life lessons to be learned in biographies of people
with rags-to-riches stories,” he writes.
Legendary investor and self-made billionaire Warren Buffett says that reading has
been the most crucial habit he’s developed. If you’re looking to pick up a new
book, check out the business classics Buffett and other leaders love.

3. They spend 15 to 30 minutes each day on focused thinking

Many of the self-made millionaires Corley interviewed said they make time to
process everything that’s going on in their lives.

“The rich tend to think in isolation, in the mornings,” he writes “and for at least 15
minutes every day.”

Often they’ll reflect on their career, their health and their personal
relationships. Having quiet time to analyze your thoughts is associated with stress
reduction.

In fact, taking two minutes at work to focus on nothing but your breathe will help
you relax, a Harvard-trained doctor tells CNBC.

4. They make exercise a priority

Working out regularly clears your head and makes you feel more
motivated, studies show.

According to Corley, 76 percent of his survey respondents carve out 30 minutes or

more for aerobic exercise like jogging, biking or walking each day.

Many successful business leaders make sure to workout. Billionaire Richard

Branson, for example, says that his morning routine of waking up at 5 am to play
tennis or bike, has doubled his productivity.

5. They spend time with people who inspire them

“You are only as successful as those you frequently associate with,” Corley says.

If you don’t have highly-motivated people in your personal network yet, fear not.
Self-made millionaires volunteer, which is a great way to meet other positive,
motivated individuals. You could also join groups for people who share your same
career or personal interests, Corley suggests. Then develop the relationship by
keeping in touch.
And be choosy about who you spend your time with. ”[Successful people] also
make a point to limit their exposure to toxic, negative people,” says Corley.

6. They pursue their own goals

Most self-made millionaires plan to get rich and then make it happen, Corley’s
research finds. 

Eighty percent of the wealthy are “obsessed with pursuing goals,” he writes. They
refer to both daily and long-term goals regularly.

“I’m here to tell you to avoid putting your ladder on someone else’s wall and then
spending the best years of your life climbing it,” Corley says. “Find your own wall,
your own dreams, and your own goals, and pursue them.”

7. They get enough sleep

Albert Einstein reportedly preferred to get at least ten hours of sleep a night. If you
too function best when you’re well-rested, Corley has some good news.

An overwhelming 89 percent of self-made millionaire sleep seven or eight hours

each night or more.

“Sleep is critical to success,” he writes, citing its effects on memory function and
creative thinking.

8. They have multiple incomes

“Self-made millionaires do not rely on one singular source of income,” Corley

says. “They develop multiple streams.”

So how many sources of income do they have?

“Sixty-five percent had at least three streams of income that they created prior to
making their first million dollars,” Corley says, such as a side-business or income
generating investments like REITs or real estate.

“Diversifying sources of income allows you to weather the economic downturns

that inevitably occur,” he writes.

9. They avoid time-wasters

Money isn’t the only important resource for wealthy people. Time is crucial too.

“When we invest our time in anything, it’s lost forever,” Corley writes.
Be choosy about the apps you spend your time with, too, instead of spending hours
on end watching Netflix or scrolling through Instagram.

“When you see time as the greatest risk of all, it will force you to become more
aware of exactly how to invest your time,” says Corley.
Warren Buffett’s reading
routine could make you
smarter, science suggests
Warren Buffett credits many of his great money decisions to his voracious reading habit. He
says he starts every morning by poring over several newspapers and estimates he spends as
much as 80 percent of his day reading.

The CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, when asked once about the key to success, pointed to a
stack of books and said, “Read 500 pages like this every day. That’s how knowledge works.
It builds up, like compound interest. All of you can do it, but I guarantee not many of you
will do it.”

“I read and think,” Buffett once said. “So I do more reading and thinking, and make less
impulse decisions than most people in business. I do it because I like this kind of life.” 

Turns out, science shows that a Buffett-inspired reading habit could benefit you in several
ways.

You’re more likely to be rich

Self-made millionaire Steve Siebold interviewed 1,200 of the world’s wealthiest
people to find out what traits they shared. One trait nearly all of them had in
common? They read everything from self-improvement books to autobiographies.

Next time you reach for the remote, you might want to reconsider.

Author Tom Corley spent five years studying the daily activities of 233 rich people
and 128 poor people, which he wrote about in “Rich Habits: The Daily Success
Habits Of Wealthy Individuals. ” He found that 67 percent of rich people limited
TV time to one hour or less per day, compared to only 23 percent of poor people.

You’re more likely to be smart

The advice you receive as a kid from your parents, to read because “it makes you
smarter,” is indeed supported by psychology and neuroscience research.
“If ‘smarter’ means having a larger vocabulary and more world knowledge [...]
then reading may well make people smarter,” psychologist Keith Stanovich writes
in the U.S. National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health.

He adds that the data supports this finding “time and again.”

In separate research, brain scans of college students after reading a thriller showed

increased activity in the areas of the brain related to language comprehension and
sensation.

You’re more likely to be emotionally intelligent

If you love a good novel, science has some great news.

Several studies have found that people who read literary fiction show higher levels
of empathy and emotional intelligence, according to studies published in Public
Library of Science, the Journal of Research in Personality, The European Journal
of Communication Research and Science Magazine.

You’re more likely to stay mentally sharp

Making reading a life-long hobby could increase your overall well-being,
especially down the line.

Research published in the Journal of American Academy of Neurology finds that

people who engage in mentally stimulating activities like reading experience
slower memory decline than those who do not.

While a lot of people might still associate books with required reading at school,
studies show that reading is a great way to invest in yourself. And, if you’re
looking for something to get you started, try a book Mark Zuckerberg or even
Warren Buffett himself recommends.

The Busier You Are, the More You Need Quiet Time
In a recent interview with Vox’s Ezra Klein, journalist and author Ta-Nehisi Coates argued
that serious thinkers and writers should get off Twitter.
It wasn’t a critique of the 140-character medium or even the quality of the social media
discourse in the age of fake news.

It was a call to get beyond the noise.

For Coates, generating good ideas and quality work products requires something all too rare
in modern life: quiet.

He’s in good company.  Author JK Rowling, biographer Walter Isaacson, and psychiatrist
Carl Jung have all had disciplined practices for managing the information flow
and cultivating periods of deep silence. Ray Dalio, Bill George, California Governor Jerry
Brown, and Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan have also described structured periods of silence as
important factors in their success.

Recent studies are showing that taking time for silence restores the nervous system, helps
sustain energy, and conditions our minds to be more adaptive and responsive to the complex
environments in which so many of us now live, work, and lead. Duke Medical School’s Imke
Kirste recently found that silence is associated with the development of new cells in the
hippocampus, the key brain region associated with learning and memory. Physician Luciano
Bernardi foundthat two-minutes of silence inserted between musical pieces proved more
stabilizing to cardiovascular and respiratory systems than even the music categorized as
“relaxing.” And a 2013 study in the Journal of Environmental Psychology, based on a survey
of 43,000 workers, concluded that the disadvantages of noise and distraction associated with
open office plans outweighed anticipated, but still unproven, benefits like increasing morale
and productivity boosts from unplanned interactions.

But cultivating silence isn’t just about getting respite from the distractions of office chatter or
tweets.  Real sustained silence, the kind that facilitates clear and creative thinking, quiets
inner chatter as well as outer.

This kind of silence is about resting the mental reflexes that habitually protect a reputation or
promote a point of view. It’s about taking a temporary break from one of life’s most basic
responsibilities: Having to think of what to say.

Cultivating silence, as Hal Gregersen writes in a recent HBR article, “increase[s] your

chances of encountering novel ideas and information and discerning weak signals.” When
we’re constantly fixated on the verbal agenda—what to say next, what to write next, what to
tweet next—it’s tough to make room for truly different perspectives or radically new
ideas. It’s hard to drop into deeper modes of listening and attention. And it’s in those deeper
modes of attention that truly novel ideas are found.

Even incredibly busy people can cultivate periods of sustained quiet time. Here are four
practical ideas:

1) Punctuate meetings with five minutes of quiet time. If you’re able to close the office
door, retreat to a park bench, or find another quiet hideaway, it’s possible to hit reset by
engaging in a silent practice of meditation or reflection.

2) Take a silent afternoon in nature. You need not be a rugged outdoors type to ditch the
phone and go for a simple two-or-three-hour jaunt in nature. In our own experience and those
of many of our clients, immersion in nature can be the clearest option for improving creative
thinking capacities. Henry David Thoreau went to the woods for a reason.

3) Go on a media fast. Turn off your email for several hours or even a full day, or try
“fasting” from news and entertainment. While there may still be plenty of noise around—
family, conversation, city sounds—you can enjoy real benefits by resting the parts of your
mind associated with unending work obligations and tracking social media or current events.

4) Take the plunge and try a meditation retreat:  Even a short retreat is arguably the most
straightforward way to turn toward deeper listening and awaken intuition. The journalist
Andrew Sullivan recently described his experience at a silent retreat as “the ultimate
detox.” As he put it: “My breathing slowed. My brain settled…It was if my brain were
moving away from the abstract and the distant toward the tangible and the near.”

The world is getting louder.  But silence is still accessible—it just takes commitment and
creativity to cultivate it.
Richard Branson says this daily
habit doubles his productivity

Billionaire Richard Branson wakes up at 5:00 am everyday to start on the right

note: by exercising. He’s an avid runner and cyclist. In fact, the Virgin Group co-
founder completed a marathon and has his own charitable triathlon.

Branson says that working out helps significantly boosts his productivity and has
helped him get to where he is today.

“I definitely can achieve twice as much by keeping fit,” Branson

tells FourYourBodyPress. “It keeps the brain functioning well.”

Science shows that exercise can help you out professionally.

1. Improves memory and mental sharpness

If you feel like work is a struggle, but can’t pinpoint what is off, working out can
help significantly. Working out releases brain chemicals key to better memory,
concentration and mental sharpness, according to Harvard Medical School’s
journal.

When you work out, your brain releases a chemical called brain-derived
neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which improves brain function.

2. Reduces stress
If stress is a daily part of your life, know that you’re one of many nationwide.
Seventy percent of adults in the U.S. say they deal with stress or anxiety daily,
reports the Anxiety and Depression Association of America.

Studies demonstrate that physical activity, like a brisk walk, jog, game of
basketball, or time spent at the gym, will help you better manage stress by
releasing endorphins.
A research team based at Princeton University found that physical activity actually
“reorganizes the brain so that its response to stress is reduced and anxiety is less
likely to interfere with normal brain function.”

For Branson, exercising regularly “keeps the endorphins running.”

3. Promotes creativity
Even a short walk gets your creative juices flowing.

Stanford researchers found that the act of walking boosted a person’s creativity by

an average of 60 percent.

So if you’re stuck on a work problem, take a few minutes to get moving. You’ll be
boosting your productivity the way Branson does.