Image by: Banjo Brown
By Charles Lewis

You have heard the old saying that men are creatures of habit. Well, it’s true. And certainly, many of the habits that we possess are wonderful, and have helped you get that extra edge in business as well as in life.

We should celebrate those with a fine scotch, for sure.

But there are also bad habits, and, then there are those habits that we don’t possess at all. These are the habits that need addressing, the ones you need to work on. Grab a pen.

Why? Because you want to be successful. You want to be the top dog. But to do so you have to make some adjustments of the life-changing variety.

I get it – habits are hard to break. Or hard to start. But should you choose to buckle down and employ these four disciplines listed below, you will find yourself more successful on the other side.

1 – Regular Self-Evaluations

If you cannot afford or want an outsider’s perspective, you need to take a cold, hard look at your personal performance at least once a month, if not once a week. Try to imagine yourself as a competitive colleague looking for weaknesses and really dig deep.

2 – Don’t Become Complacent Or Lazy After First Taste Of Success

You just landed that first big account, now you can sit back, smoke a cigar and relax. Wrong wrong wrong. You need to work even harder. You will find that the most successful men do so at a detriment to their personal and social lives. It is called dedication and resolve and it equals money in the bank.

The true superstars go all in, all the time. Will you commit to doing the same?

3 – Get Up Early

A brutal 5:00 a.m. wake-up time is not uncommon for men of success. Before you’ve buttered your muffin, these guys have already worked out for 45 minutes, showered, shaved, dressed, read the morning paper and eaten breakfast.

Which one do you think is better prepared for the day ahead? The early bird does indeed catch the worm. He also has a fat 401k and a driver named Pete.

4 – Get Organized

This one is easy to overlook because on the surface it seems that your house is in order. But peel back that facade and you will find files that need attending to and shelves in disarray. Just look at that mess. You would be surprised how much more confident you are knowing your are 100% organized.

Then there’s your computer – those folders are everywhere and your desktop looks like a crime scene. And part of getting digitally organized is backing up all of your data, including your cell phone contacts. And this should be done regularly … you know, like a habit.