5 Intentional Habits To Be A Better You For Others and Your Success

Habits are an important part of our lives that we all have and do every single day. Some of our habits are good and some of our habits are bad. And I have some bad habits myself that I have to work on daily. Some include overreacting to my wife, reacting vs responding with my kids, letting go of my ego with any partner I have in business, being on my phone too much, not being “present” and where my feet are in many different settings at many different times, not giving thanks often enough or not “patting someone on the back” for their good hard work, cussing too much, over serving myself at times! As you can see, I have many habits to work on!

We all have them regardless if we have been intentional in making them or letting them simply happen as to what feels good. Our greatest opportunity as an individual, as a leader of any team of people or business, or being a parent is the intentional creation of great healthy habits. It takes 66 days to wire in a new habit into a new neural pathway into our brains. We have to utilize two strategies to do so, starting with the destruction of old habits and the integration of the new great and healthy habits. The following are five habit opportunities to create success in our individual lives, our work lives, and our family’s lives. Do these five new habits, and you will achieve greater success!

Create Value – If I am at a feed yard, I must create value for them. I must do things, say things, and recommend things that make the yard better, cattle better, or their people better. If I do those things, I create value, and I make myself a “lynchpin” in the operation. If I, a “lynchpin” were to be removed, they would miss me given the value I created. But if I don’t create value for them, then I, a “lynchpin” can be removed and they can separate their train from my caboose without any loss and even potential gain. You are no different. You must create value at work or at home to make yourself a needed “lynchpin” so that they need the value you bring. That value is in your skillset, your attitude, your work ethic, your concern for the animals and those around you, your desire to always learn and get and be better, your positive effect on those around you each day, your coachability and teachability, your behavior, your personality, integrity, grit, self-awareness, overall happiness, and passion. If you do these things, you create undeniable value and will be a “lynchpin” for anything you are involved in.

Touching Other People’s Lives – With every interaction, we have every single day with each person, it is either positive, negative, or neutral. If we are unhappy, uptight, upset, or in a bad attitude, that effect on the other person will be negative. But if we are in good spirits, happy, grateful, in a good attitude, and looking to help, that interaction will be positive. We have the ability with every interaction to be positive and make a difference for that person. I want you to take just a minute, and thank about three people that have “touched your life”. Think about what they did to “touch your life” and why. Begin to imitate them! What behavior or emotional skill can you work on to work on touching someone’s life around you today. Work on touching someone’s life every day. If you do that for 365 days a year, you will begin to have a massive effect on your own life, I promise. You will go from being forgettable to most people you touch to being unforgettable to most people you touch. I expect you to be unforgettable to most people!

Putting other people’s interests first – We begin our lives as a baby where everything is done for us from feeding to wiping our rears. Everything is about us and for us. As life transitions, we then have to do it ourselves. As life continues to transition, some choose to serve others. The amount of success one achieves is a direct correlation to the number of people they serve. The greater amount of people we serve, the greater level of success we achieve. Don’t ask for more money, but ask for an opportunity to serve. Ask for an opportunity to get better or do more. The purpose of the business isn’t to bring value to you, it is to bring value to the customer and to serve our purpose and our mission. The beauty is anybody can be successful because anybody can serve. Who are you serving today? If you can intentionally serve someone 365 days a year, you will enjoy greater success.

Being real – Authenticity is a must. We live in the most fake, dishonest, insincere, synthetic world now more than ever. Most people on the planet are in search of real, honest, sincere, authentic caring people. The more caring you can be, the more open you are, the more sincere you are, the more transparent you are, the better communication you can give, the more faults of your own you confess, the more real you will be to those around you each day. Authenticity is bred by owning and talking about your screw-ups, mistakes, and failures. Not owning them breeds dishonesty and insincerity. You must look to create authenticity because authenticity builds relationships, relationships build trust, and trust builds loyalty. Aren’t we all looking for loyal friends, family, coworkers, team members, and relationships!? We know what it takes, look to execute being real by executing the action items above!

Have the humility to stay open to receiving and learning – I am a highly decorated over-educated idiot! I am also an arrogant egotistical consultant, as most of us, consultants could fall into that category. But I also believe most humans are prideful humans that have a vast working knowledge with the capacity to learn more. I routinely tell people I don’t know it all but am willing to learn more and reach out to others for their knowledge to help us. We must set aside our egos and have a humble attitude and heart to learn. We also can’t let our learning lead to knowledge, but lead to action. It’s what we learn after we know it all because learners create the future for the learned. As Dr. Tom says, we create learners and leaders, not laborers. If we aren’t open to the message we are only hurting ourselves.

Anyone reading this is a leader, be it the tank washer or the feedyard manager, or the veterinarian or the rancher. Leadership is simply serving others by being a positive influence on those around us, and help make the people around us better each day. Our daily habits of how we act, walk, and talk is our greatest opportunity of being a leader through our actions. Average companies or leaders give their people something to work on. Innovative companies or people give their people something to work towards. What are you and your people working towards? Have you communicated opportunities or objectives for your people to work toward? And not just the daily activities of going from point A to point B, but deep actionable behaviors and habits to work on. It is a simple fact that we imitate the habits of those around us. By shaping the tribe or team you belong to, you often shape your habits just by imitation or by being the example. If you focus on the daily processes and habits, the outcomes you desire will happen. Forget your focus on outcomes, and focus on your daily processes, habits, and behaviors!

Success is the result of specific habits of action. Creating value, touching other people’s lives, putting other people’s interests first, being real, and having the humility to stay open to receiving and learning. We are only as sick as our secrets, but I also believe we are only as healthy as our habits. Destroy your bad habits and integrate your new ones for at least 66 days. We can all wire in new habits, we often just don’t stick with it long enough! And as a feedyard manager told me today, a quote from a nutritionist named Twig Marston, “The only difference between a rut and a grave is the depth!” Get out of your rut of old habits and integrate these five intentional habits to enjoy even greater success!