We all look up to the ultra-successful individuals living in sky villas, surrounded by angels, with doves flying around them. And we wonder what he/she did to get there. Was it luck, ancestral money or a secret formula?

After a thorough research, one thing is clear – road to success is thorny, patchy, muddy, gruelling, torturous and not meant for the faint hearted. If you want to be successful shed all inhibitions, get ready to be challenged, back stabbed, pulled down and demotivated by hordes of people, friends and foe alike. There are many management gurus who’ll teach you the techniques and theories to make money, but something that can’t be learnt is attitude and habits. One has to cultivate the right set thru trial and error and hope they work the magic.

Let’s look at few traits successful people share:

1. Organisation – this is one of the most common trait of a successful person. It includes planning, setting priorities, goals and managing time. Organisation has multiple viewpoints, but the crux remains how well can one utilise the given resources for an optimal output.

Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey considers Sunday as an important day for organisation, as it helps him “get ready for the rest of the week”.

Take your time in organising your thoughts, plans and actions. Consider it as potential energy that’ll soon be converted into kinetic energy with the right push and direction.

2. Relaxation – a very important factor in success is a clear mind. This fuels new ideas, creative thinking and decision making. Most successful people meditate or cut off from distractions in their own way. But at the core it boils down to sitting still with your mind and body flushed of all thoughts and activities.

It’s like taking a breather in between a heavy workout. It helps you recalibrate and prepare for the challenges ahead.

Start with easy meditative exercises and give it at least 1 hour a day and extend it as per your comfort.

3. Taking action – Procrastination is a silent killer which creeps into your life and erodes away the most precious resource – time.

Work every waking hour – Elon Musk.

Successful people act – every minute of the day they are awake. Ask yourself the question “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do?

Best way to start something is to get started. It may not be grand, but every action will produce some reaction that’ll bring you closer to your path to success.

4. Self-preservation – exercise, personal care, grooming, diet and hygiene are few things everyone should maintain with utmost care. Successful people have these qualities ingrained in their system like oxygen for body.

Elon Musk, put it succinctly when asked what daily habit has had the largest positive impact on his life. He said, “Showering”.

To build a successful empire, you have to take care of your people – employees, family and friends. You can’t share what you don’t have, hence start with yourself and spread the positivity forward.

Healthy body creates a positive body language, speech patterns, decision making, ideation and managerial style.

5. Rising early – A habit that goes a long way in shaping your life and how you lead your day. The more time one can devote to being successful, the more likely success will follow you.

“Early Riser’s Club” has a huge membership among successful people, a few notable members include Sir Richard Branson of Virgin Group, Disney CEO Robert Iger and former Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer.

While rising early may be a challenge initially, but with training, your body clock will adjust to the new schedule. According to the National Sleep Foundation, the recommended amount of sleep for most adults is eight hours. Hence sleep early, to rise early. And avoid early morning habits like checking your cell phone or going straight for coffee. Instead hydrate yourself with water and get your body moving with an exercising regime.

6. Sharing – Never neglect to show kindness and to share what you have with others; for such are the sacrifices which God approves. ~ Bible.

Sharing always doesn’t mean giving away money. Sharing can be anything from ideas, knowledge or volunteering at a community, school or a NGO. Successful people know the importance of giving back to the community. Success to them mean more than just accumulation of wealth for themselves.

Some of the most well-known philanthropists are Bill and Melinda Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Oprah Winfrey.

Try sharing your time with others, help and support the less privileged, sometimes a small act of kindness goes a long way in building goodwill for you and your brand.

7. Reading – There is only one thing behind all sort of success – the wisdom of the past found in books. Learning should never stop, there can never be a time when we can know it all. Every successful person in history was well read, academically or otherwise.

For anyone who needs inspiration about the value and importance of reading, look no further than the example of billionaire author, J.K. Rowling, who says she read “anything” as a child. She advises, “Read as much as you possibly can. Nothing will help you as much as reading.”

In Conclusion

Every person has an innate possibility to be successful. Success comes from consistency, strong will, positive attitude and good set of habits. Everything else is learnable or doable. Start by cultivating positive habits, they are as easy as developing bad ones. Most people have habits – some are positive, some are not. Successful people tend to have more of the kinds of habits that contribute to their success.