5 Behaviour Change Techniques for a Successful Life

5 Behaviour Change Techniques for a Successful Life 5 Behaviour Change Techniques for a Successful Life Image Source: iStockHERE’S  a wake-up call for ‘get rich quick’ optimists. According to author Thomas C Corby, it takes the average millionaire over 30 years to become rich. It’s not a matter of luck or legacy. It entails hard work, dedication and disciplined behaviour. Here are five common behavioural traits, with a brief look at why they’re the real secret to success and wealth. If you are not known for any of these, consider them behaviour change techniques that you must implement immediately. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); 1. Early  Rising“In creating these great products we focus on enriching people’s livesâ€"a higher cause for the product.” Tim CookNOT only does the typical millionaire habit of setting the alarm clock early help to ensure that they’re fresh as a daisy at the start of the dayâ€"they’re also ahead of the pack.To say millionaires are committed to hard work is an understatementâ€"they’re utterly committed to it. Getting up early is  a big part of the deal. If you are not doing it already, make it top of  behaviour change techniques that can you utilise starting from tomorrow morning.Many high-achievers  turn off  the alarm  (with no  sneaky snooze button indulgence)  at 5am-ish, but Apple CEO Tim Cook is reported to be up and in his gym gear at 3.45am.Cook’s motivations, summed up by his words of wisdom, above, to  Bloomberg Businessweek, clarify his decision to get up and at ’em so early. These concerns entail energies and often huge risks. Such are the things that the super successful focus on while the rest of the world slumbers.2. Voracious  Reading“I really had a lot of dreams when I was a kid, and I think a great deal of that grew out of the fact that I had a chance to read a lot.” Bill GatesSUCCESSFUL people usually have a knowledgable air, not only about their own interests, but about life in general. That’s because they are readersâ€"perpetual studentsâ€"of classic literature, coll ections of motivational wisdom, and of materials on learning websites.Many wealthy people  were not high-achievers in school  and  either flunked or voluntarily left the education system at different stages to focus on building their businesses.But  most of them are lifelong advocates for and devotees of learning.  Thomas C Corley, author of Rich Habits: the Key to Success and a Happy Future, estimates that it takes the average self-made millionaire 32 years to become rich, and that  85 percent of them will read two or more books every month.Their choice of reading is selective, and dominated by the kinds of books that help the reader grow and learn. Make this another of the behaviour change techniques that you put into action immediately. It works.“Devote 30 minutes or more each day to learning by reading books,” Corley advises. “If you do, it will set you apart from the competition, as most people do not read.” (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); 3. Financi al  WisdomMANY of the most successful millionaires do not squander their personal cash. They tend to use it to purchase the things that really matter, and at the beginnings of their careers, these tend to be the things that will help the growth and success of their businesses into the future.Although many of them have estimated net worths in the millions or billions that might seem mind-boggling to someone starting out in business, in the majority of cases, these fortunes were amassed by living frugallyâ€"not by squandering cash on the trappings of success, or plunging themselves into mortgages or other long-term credit arrangements.AARP has a brilliant story about American Football star Alfred Morris. In 2014, while holding a four-year contract with the Washington Redskins worth $2.2m, Morris was driving a 1991 Mazda that he is reported to have purchased for just $2 from his pastor when he was a student at Florida Atlantic University.Successful people have a sense of perspective ab out what matters, and if a car is functional, reliable and can convey one from A to B in reasonable comfort, then such a car costing $2 is doing the same job as one costing $200,000.Famously, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg came under heavy fire for failing to tip in a Roman restaurant where he’d dined with his new bride Priscilla Chan during their honeymoon in 2012.While some might view this as extreme tight-fistedness, others might say that if Zuckerberg was the kind of person to generously tip at every place he dined, or every hotel he stayed in, he would probably not have the kind of net worth that makes him such a role model for all aspiring millionaires.If you are a big spender, this is one of the  behaviour change techniques that you simply cannot afford to ignore. Become conscious of every single expenditure you make, and think carefully about the things you can live without, and start putting aside what you would have forked out for unnecessarily.4.  Trust“Owners of th oroughbreds never stop their horses mid-race, every ten seconds, to remind the horse and jockey how to run…”AUTHOR Scott Berkun’s open letter to micromanagers, quoted here, underlines that the importance of trusting the people you have assembled to complete tasks and projects.If  you continually  involve yourself  directly with all decisions entailed in projects and tasks that youve already to assigned to others, you are on  the road to  burnout.While it’s essential to know everything about your business, and the progress of your teams on their various projects and tasks, you must beware the temptation to micro-manage.Absence of trust can really stymie business growth. Achieving it should be regarded as one of the most important behaviour change techniques.  As a team leader or business owner, it’s more important for you to focus on the big picture, rather than the minutiae of decision-making.Obviously, you must seek regular debriefs on the overall state of playâ€"and that is the most appropriate time to make any interventions and fine-tuning to the work at hand.The alternative is burnout and exhaustion, and insufficient time to take stock of the widescreen bit picture view that gives your overall business direction and purpose. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); 5. Organisation“Success will be within your reach only when you start reaching out for it.” Stephen RichardsCELEBRATED self-help expert Stephen Richards here touches on one of the things that truly sets millionaires apart from the crowdâ€"their tendency to commit to targets and ambitions that the majority of people will regard as pipe dreams.Not only do successful people know what they wantâ€"they know what they want in the extreme long-term (their ultimate goal), but also the kinds of goals and obstacles that they have to surmount in the short- and medium-term towards reaching this outcome.The available evidence suggests that successful people write down and record thei r goals.That is one implicit takeaway in the research of University of Toronto academic Jordan Peterson, who has studied the impact of written goal-setting and on organising thoughts and emotions in universities.While seeking a larger audience for his findings, Peterson told NPR that “we increased the probability that students would actually take their exams and hand in their assignments”, and that “the act of writing is more powerful than people think”.Business mentor Michael Hyatt, too, is convinced that writing down goals works. He quotes a study undertaken by Dr Gail Matthews (psychology professor at Dominican University in California), among 267 participants, which found that those who wrote down goals were 42 percent more likely to achieve those goals.Some commentators claim that these findings are not conclusive.But until they are, one thing is beyond doubt: writing down goals is in itself a proactive thing. It helps to focus, clarify and organise your objectives, and will certainly do no injury to your long-term business objectives.