7 Habits of Successful Women You Can Emulate

April 25, 2019,

By Guest Writer Emma Lymn

Ever wonder what makes a person successful?

The answer lies in their habits. That’s because our habits influence our behavior. And, because human beings are creatures of habit, we tend to keep doing the things we do over and over again.

So, if you have good habits in place, they’ll allow you to become the most successful person you can be. On the contrary, bad habits keep you from becoming the person you want to be.

The good news is that it’s never too late to adopt new habits that will help you improve your life. And, the best way to do so is to find successful people with routines and rituals you can emulate and apply in your own life.

To help you get started, here are 5 successful women and 7 of their habits that have helped them get to where they are today.

Oprah Winfrey

Better known as Oprah, Ms. Winfrey is one of the most influential people in the world. She is a self-made billionaire who overcame difficulties earlier in her life to help empower women through her talk show, The Oprah Winfrey Show.

This propelled her to superstardom making her show the highest rated talk show during its run between 1986 to 2011.

So, what habits make Oprah successful?

Daily Exercise

One of Oprah’s daily habits is exercise. She tries to make sure that she starts every day with physical activity. This helps her in her long-documented struggle with weight. A topic that she’s always been open about with her fans.

When it comes to her morning workouts, her go-to move is cardio. This allows her to start breaking a sweat. Going on the elliptical machine and then the treadmill allows her to warm up before moving on to bodyweight training.

Besides helping you lose weight exercise has many health benefits. This includes reducing stress, boosting your energy levels and keeping your brain healthy. It also wards off chronic illnesses like hypertension, diabetes and heart disease. Plus, it helps you sleep better.

By keeping your body and mind healthy, you’ll be able to focus on doing what you need to do in order to get where you want to be.

Practicing Gratitude

In addition to exercise, practicing gratitude is another habit that keeps Oprah grounded despite her enormous success. One of the things she does before going to bed each night is to write down things that she’s thankful for in her gratitude journal, which she keeps by the side of her bed.

Doing so not only helps her take stock of the good things in life, but it also lets her feel grateful for them.

Sheryl Sandberg

You’ve probably heard the quote, “Behind every successful man is a woman”. While this often pertains to a man’s wife, it doesn’t always have to do so.

This is the case for social media giant Facebook.

Mark Zuckerberg is the founder and leader of Facebook. And while he’s rightfully credited with a lot of its success, Facebook’s no. 2, Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg is the company’s steadying force.

It is the reason why Zuckerberg himself lured Sandberg away from her high-paying job at internet search giant Google. And, why Facebook continues to be one of the most successful technology companies in the world today.

That said, Sandberg has collected numerous accolades as well. She graduated from Harvard University and has been named to Time’s 100 most influential people in the world. Like Oprah, Sandberg is another self-made billionaire.

She Makes Sleep a Priority

To help her perform at a very high level, Sandberg prioritizes sleep. Getting your zzz’s may seem like a waste of time since while you’re asleep you won’t be getting anything else done. But in reality, sleep lets you be more productive.

In fact, not getting enough sleep hinders your performance. That’s because sleep deprivation makes you feel tired. It also makes it difficult to think, focus and concentrate on your job at hand. Plus, you get sick easier, which keeps you from doing anything at all.

On the other hand, getting the recommended 7 to 8 hours of sleep nightly makes you smarter. It reduces stress, makes you happier and allows you to live a longer life. This is why sleep is very important.

It is also the reason Sandberg revealed in an interview that not getting enough sleep during her earlier years is among her biggest regrets.

In addition to getting enough sleep, she also wakes up early every day. In fact, you’ll find her in the office at 7 a.m. in the morning, making her among the first ones there despite her COO title.

She knows that the morning is her most productive time of the day. So, she makes sure to get a lot of work done then.

Sara Blakely

You may not be familiar with her name. But, you probably love her products.

Sara Blakely is the founder of Spanx, which makes ladies’ pants and leggings that help you look slimmer. While the company has branched out to different apparel, it’s still best known for its tummy-slimming hosiery products.

While Oprah and Sheryl Sandberg’s daily habits are geared towards health, Blakely’s is focused more on life and your ability to succeed.

Having a Different Perspective on Failure

For her, it’s all about persistence.

Most of us were taught in school not to make mistakes. Or, at the very least avoid them. That’s why we were punished for misbehaving or not getting our homework done on time. Similarly, tests made us believe that a failing grade is a bad thing.

However, that isn’t always the case.

In fact, the very thing that made Sara Blakely successful was not being afraid to fail. This was something her father instilled in her while she was still a child.

Unlike most parents who’d tell their kids to avoid the bad and work hard so you don’t fail, her father encouraged her to fail. And, to fail often.

In multiple interviews, Blakely recalled how her father made her value failure. He’d often ask his kids to share their failures so that they wouldn’t be embarrassed by them. This helped her reframe her perspective on failing.

As such, Blakely doesn’t consider unsuccessful attempts as failures. Instead, she believes that failure is not even trying at all.

One exercise that her father often did was to ask Blakely and her brother, “What have you failed at this week?” And, when they didn’t have any, he’d be disappointed. That’s because it meant they weren’t trying or challenging themselves.

This mindset is what helped Sara Blakely overcome the many failed attempts at success earlier in her life. This included failing the LSAT, which are like the SAT but for law school, twice. It also made her pass up a gig at Disney World because she wanted to suit up as Goofy but was told she wasn’t tall enough.

Her final job before starting Spanx was as a fax machine saleswoman, which she did for 7 years. As you can imagine, she received hundreds if not thousands of “No’s” from potential customers.

But, none of those kept her from trying new things, one of which turned out to be Spanx.

JK Rowling

JK Rowling takes failure to another level. That is, hitting rock bottom.

But, more importantly, it’s rising up from your lowest point and not being afraid to try again.

Rowling is best known for her Harry Potter books and movies. Her boy wizard fantasy series made her an overnight sensation.

However, the reality is, that success took a lot longer than one night to happen.

Don’t Be Afraid of Hitting Rock Bottom

Rowling is your epitome of a “rags to riches” story. She was literally living on welfare after her divorce from her first husband. She had to do so because she couldn’t make ends meet to care for her daughter.

But, instead of breaking her, it made her stronger.

As she once mentioned in an interview, hitting rock bottom became a foundation on which she was able to rebuild her life.

At that point in her life, everything seemed to have gone wrong. She was jobless. Her marriage ended in failure. She was poor and didn’t have enough to support her daughter.

However, it did teach her one thing. It allowed her to strip away all the non-essentials. Things that you didn’t need in life. And, leaving only what’s important to you.

For her, that was her daughter and her writing. So, she focused on them. And it was on this foundation she rebuilt her life to become one of the most successful authors in history.

Be Humble

Because of the journey life has taken her through, Rowling remains humble despite becoming a billionaire. It’s the reason why you don’t hear a lot of her in the news or celebrity gossip.

It’s also why she’s given away such a huge chunk of her money that Forbes doesn’t list her as a billionaire anymore.

Arianna Huffington

You probably know her from the online news publication that bears her surname. But, Arianna Huffington is more than just the founder of the Huffington Post.

She’s a best-selling author, and one of the Forbes Most Powerful Women, not to mention among Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world.

Take Time to Meditate

For Arianna Huffington, what you do the first thing in the morning dictates the rest of your day. This is why she doesn’t reach for her cellphone upon waking up.

Instead, she does some deep breathing and figures out what her goals are for the day. Right after, she practices meditation and yoga.

For some, meditation may seem like a waste of time. But, it is a simple yet powerful way of focusing your thoughts and being aware of the present. It also allows you to relax and de-stress.

Yoga often goes hand in hand with meditation. In fact, a holistic yoga program combines poses, breathing, and meditation. This allows you to relax your mind while moving your body to get in some exercise.

For this reason, yoga has many health benefits. These include getting stronger, being more flexible and achieving better balance. It also reduces stress, improves learning and memory. Plus, it makes you happier as well.

Considering that many people are in a constant state of stress from having to balance life and work, starting your day off with yoga and meditation helps you be more physically active and lets you reduce stress as well.

Summary

To sum things up, habits make you who you are. However, it’s up to you to figure out which habits to get rid of and which to adopt or keep.

As far a being successful goes, one of the quickest ways to do so is to follow the habits of successful people around you.

Some of the habits you can incorporate into your life include:

1. Making exercise a part of your daily routine
2. Practicing gratitude
3. Making sleep a priority
4. Reframing failure such that it isn’t when you don’t succeed. Instead, it’s when you don’t try at all because you’re afraid to fail
5. Not being afraid of hitting rock bottom to rebuild yourself
6. Being humble
7. Taking time to meditate. Five minutes a day is all it takes to make significant changes in your life.

About the Author

Emma Lymn is the editor of Health Grinder, a health and nutrition blog. She is passionate about helping others learn to eat healthy and lose weight. A proud mom of two kids and a very spoiled dog, she enjoys traveling and volunteering in her spare time.

Opening photo pexels.com Christina Morillo photo credit