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Simply Successful Secrets

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For the inside scoop on the original Secret to Success, be sure to check out The Hidden Secret in Think and Grow Rich!

UPDATE: The Simply Successful Secrets project has been a smashing success and you can see the results of the program that is detailed below by clicking on over to the Simply Successful Secrets Roundup!

Original Project Details:

Being the race of potentially genius-level linkers that we humans are, it was realized a long time ago that one of the best ways to achieve success was to emulate the efforts of other people who are successful. With that in mind, I have decided to start an interactive research project that will benefit all of the bloggers who participate, as well all of the readers of those blogs.

I am calling it “Simply Successful Secrets” and here is how it works:

1) Compose a new blog post listing the top 5 to 10 things that you do almost every day that help you to be successful. They can be anything at all, but they have to be things that you do at least 4 or 5 times every week. Anything less than that may be a hobby that helps you out, but we are after the real day in and day out habits that help you to be successful.

2) At the top of the post tell your audience (briefly or at length) what you are doing and put a link and/or a trackback to this post, as I will be compiling a master list of the results after the conversation has run its course.

3) Be sure to also put a link/trackback to the blogger who tagged you for Simply Successful Secrets in order to spread the link love.

4) Share your top success secrets with your own audience, which will in turn likely share those secrets with the audience of the blogger who tagged you.

5) Pick as many bloggers as you want and “tag” them to take part in the fun. You will be helping their exposure by linking to their site from your blog, and they will return the favor by having a link to your site in their initial post – just like the “Why do I blog?” meme that went around awhile ago.

6) Sit back and watch the success secrets and the crossover audiences start rolling it! Once I feel the conversation has run its course, I will tally all of the habits that were listed by the bloggers who participated and put those habits in a master list, categorized by popularity. I will then post that list in a new blog post on my site, along with a master list of links to all of the bloggers who participated.

Very simple, very easy. Everyone wins by learning the success secrets of other people who are successful, and all of the bloggers who participate get cross exposure on this blog as well as the sites of whoever tags them.

SPECIAL NOTE: If you are an “A-list” blogger or other well-known person who ends up being tagged, please play along! With about 8,000,000 blog posts (and growing) already out there about the technical/marketing side of blogging and business success, let’s bring it all back home and help people to realize that success depends on proper habits, not just industry-specific jargon.

p.s. – For you self improvement and personal development “gurus”, here is your chance to put your money where you mouth is. What do YOU do every day???

My Habits

1) I exercise almost every day. I do resistance and/or cardiovascular training at least 5 days p/week. In order to keep it fun, I vary my workouts to include weights, kick-boxing, running, roller-blading, bicycling, brisk walks, etc. I maximize my time by listening to motivational/informative podcasts while I exercise, but also switch to mood-appropriate music for more intense workouts.

2) I “schedule” downtime. I tend towards being a workaholic, so I actually have time planned each day for family and other non work-related activities. I even get extra work done in advance when preparing for extended time away from my computer so I can enjoy my time off stress-free.

3) I read everyday. Some days it is just a health/fitness magazine, but most of the time I spend at least 30 minutes with my nose in an actual book. I just finished reading ‘The Attractor Factor‘ and I am presently reading ‘Ask and it is Given‘.

4) I listen to and/or watch motivational content. Whether it is a program on TSTN, or if it is a podcast or recorded teleconference, rarely does a day go by when I am not subjected to uplifting/empowering content.

5) I blog! Blogging – as most of you know – is not just writing, but also reading other’s blogs and participating in conversations. Writing informative and empowering content for my own blog keeps me “in the zone,” and I also stay grounded by reading blogs written by people who have views that I otherwise might not have considered.

6) I get out of bed early. I have found that my brain immediately starts needing my Internet and email fix the moment I wake up, and that takes a certain amount of time, no matter what time I get out of bed. In order to get my fix and still get on with my day at a decent hour, I tend to get up earlier than most people, even when I am away from home.

7) I meditate/nap. They pretty much go together for me because I listen to brain wave altering audio, compliments of Kelly Howell at Brainsync, and I have no issues with allowing my mediations to end in a nap. I schedule 1 hour for that activity which gives me 15-30 minutes of mediation, plus another 30-45 minutes for an afternoon snooze.

8) I shut down my computer and my brain each evening. Even though I almost always end up doing something work-related after dinner, I do take 90-120 minutes every evening and spend it with my family. We have dinner, watch some Netflix, and play with the gang of cats that comes to our back porch for dinner every night. We only fed one, now we have 12. Go figure.

9) I visualize. At a bare minimum I visualize my dreams during meditation and again as I’m falling asleep at night, but I also squeeze in some more visualizations as well as affirmations during the day. Usually while I am waiting for my seriously overwor
ked computer to catch up with me.

10) I become still. Whenever one (of only two) cats that actually live inside our house wants attention, I stop and enjoy their company. When outside, I stand in the sun for a minute just relishing the fact that I am standing in the sun. When I read or see something truly inspirational, I stop what I am doing to enjoy the moment and really soak up what I just learned. In short, I take time to relish the moments of my life.

Okay, that’s it for me! I have other habits, but those are the Top 10, and this post is already WAY too long!

I TAG

Since this is the first list of this type (to my knowledge), I am going to pull out all the stops and tag all of my favorite bloggers, and also some well-known folks who I know have blogs, even though they aren’t that active in the blogosphere. Here we go, and don’t forget to link or trackback to this post so I can tally up the results at the end! Also shoot me an emailwith any questions.


Related Content:

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  2. aaron says

    Sania,

    Great! Looking forward to seeing your success secrets list, and thanks for supporting the effort! :)

  3. Borino says

    Great list, Aaron! Amazing that after all these seminars, books and DVDs, I’ve never heard of TSTN. Thanks for the tip.

    BTW, Ask And It Is Given is a great read and it made a profound impact on me. See Jerry and Esther and Abraham in person if you get a chance. Awesome experience.

  4. aaron says

    Borino,

    Thanks for the heads up about Jerry and Esther in person. From what I’ve heard and seen, I think I would enjoy checking them out!

    As far as TSTN, they’ve got a great offering and it helps to keep me inside my personal development bubble! :)

  5. Nathaniel Broughton says

    Sweet bait idea! Very original! Every day, I make sure to save time to eat lunch, bathe, and I try to ‘schedule’ time to interact with other humans but it’s tough going with all the time I spend working on my self esteem.

  7. aaron says

    Char,

    I just saw your post, but haven’t had a chance to leave you a comment yet. I will drop by your site later today to do so. I have made a point of leaving a thank you comment on the site of every person who has participated in Simply Successful Secrets so far.

    The response has been amazing! Many thanks to you as well as to the many other people who are participating!

    Together we are building an INCREDIBLE list of success secrets that I very much looking forward to sharing once all of the entries have been submitted. :)

  10. aaron says

    Chris,

    Thanks for your own list, as well as the others that you tagged. See, you are being successful already by just helping others!

    After reading through your post, I see that I will need to come by often to see how my fellow professional talker is doing!!

    Thanks again for coming on board, Chris! :)

  12. aaron says

    Scott,

    That’s the beauty of blogging – the information isn’t going anywhere! :)

    Enjoy it at your own pace, and thanks for stopping by.

  13. Anne Maybus says

    Hi Aaron. I was tagged by Chris at Pink Apple and can I say that this was a bonus for me. What a way to make me think. Thanks for the challenge.

  14. aaron says

    Anne,

    You are most welcome,and thank you again for your participation. Both with this project as well as with Alex Shalman’s ‘Gotta Get Goals’ project, people are putting “pen to paper” about what they want, and also figuring out the habits needed to attain those desires.

    I couldn’t be happier about helping people to accomplish those two critical tasks! :)

  16. aaron says

    Rob,

    Thank YOU so much for your contribution! This project has grown so huge and each of the participants are directly responsible for that, so I continue to be eternally grateful to each of you for your powerful lists of secrets.

    I will be swinging by your blog soon to give a virtual high five and to take a closer look at your wisdom.

    Thanks again, Rob!

  22. aaron says

    Christ,

    Your comment wasn’t removed, I just hadn’t posted it yet. To keep my blog readers from seeing the hundreds of pieces of comment spam that this blog gets every day, I choose to manually moderate the comments.

    Unfortunately, if I go 2 days without Internet access (like I just did), things tend to fall behind. Many apologies for the confusion, and I will be leaving a post on your unique entry into the Simply Successful Secrets projects shortly.

    Thanks for participating!

  23. Christ Almond says

    Thanks for that. I see it’s right there above my comment saying it’s not there! Perhaps I should have made one of my success tips ‘Think again before firing off an e-mail of complaint’.

  24. aaron says

    LOL, no worries, Christ! Besides, for the record, if I had known in advance that I wasn’t going to have access to the ‘net for 2 days, I probably would have had a mental meltdown… ;)

    Thanks again for your great contribution!

  25. aaron says

    Hueina,

    Thanks for participating in the Simply Successful Secrets project! I am playing catch up right now on the dozens of new entries that have come in recently, and I’m looking forward to seeing what you came up with!

  26. aaron says

    Rachel,

    I left a comment over on your blog entry to the Simply Successful Secrets project, but I wanted to thank you here as well for participating.

    You’ve got a great list with some solid advice, and I truly appreciate your input!

  30. aaron says

    Check this out:

    One of the Simply Successful Secrets participants, Cardin over at OptimistLab had this incredible bit of wisdom that I wanted to share with everyone. Cardin, I couldn’t comment directly on your post, so I hope you get a chance to read this so you know how much I appreciate this timeless bit of wisdom from you:

    “…the things I do (or make an effort to do) each day are less about taking specific actions to meet my goals but more about creating the conditions into which the success I desire will flow.”

    In my humble opinion, that is nothing less than profound. Thank you SO much, Cardin!

  31. aaron says

    Lisa,

    I went over to your blog and left you a comment. Thanks a bunch for participating and for tagging others to join in the fun! :)

  33. Alvaro says

    Hey Aaron, thanks for dropping by. Great initiative. And I agree, we need to de-mystify what good mental habits are…we can do a bit every day and that simply becomes us and makes us grow.

  34. aaron says

    Takuin,

    Thanks for participating! I’ll swing by your blog to check out your list and see what success secrets you’ve come up with!

  35. aaron says

    Alvaro,

    You are SO right! Success and development in life don’t come from making one massive effort, and then sitting back to watch happiness come rolling at us. Rather, it is a step by step process, and every single step – no matter how small – is a step in the right direction!

    Thanks for your comments!

  36. Cardin Routh says

    Hi Aaron,

    I just noticed your lovely comment about my “SSS” post–I’ve had my nose buried in stylesheets for the past couple of days.

    Thanks a bunch for the shout out, I really appreciate it. You probably already knew this, but this project of yours, this SSS meme, is generating some incredible connections between people and ideas–and it’s not hurting anyone’s traffic either. What fun!

    Oh, and by the way, when I get my head out of the CSS and the PHP bubble, my site will have a new design, and… comments will be enabled! Sorry you weren’t able to leave a comment earlier, but I do hope you’ll stop by again.

    Thanks again!
    Cardin

  38. aaron says

    Cardin,

    I’ll look forward to the new design and being able to leave comments! In the meantime, I’ve got you in my RSS reader so I can share any future bits of your wisdom. :)

    As far as SSS generating connections, it is amazing! I had no idea when I first put it together how much buzz it was going to create, but I couldn’t be happier!

    Thanks for your thoughts and for your posts, Cardin!

  39. aaron says

    Thea,

    Thank you so much for participating! I see from MyBlogLog that you have a hand in a number of blogs, so I am looking forward to taking a look at the success secrets of someone who must be a very busy blogger!

  41. Dr.Mani says

    Your meme sneezed its way to my blog – ‘remarkably purple spots’ :)

    Very interesting experiment.

    All success
    Dr.Mani

  42. aaron says

    Dr. Mani,

    Thanks for participating in the Simply Successful Secrets project! You’ve got a great list going on over there at your blog, and I love how you are doing things to be different than “the herd”. That’s a great philosophy and one that definitely leads to success!

  44. aaron says

    Ray,

    Thanks a bunch for participating! I will swing by your site to see what success secrets you came up with and to leave you a comment!

  45. Bill Simmon says

    I read about your excellent idea at joe vitale’s blog. I decided to join in. I wish great results for everyone. Keep up the great work.

    Sincerely Bill Simmon

  46. aaron says

    Bill,

    I very much appreciate your positive feedback, as well as your participation in the project! I will go by your site and check out your list straightaway.

  48. aaron says

    Christy,

    It IS fun, isn’t it? Thank you so much for your contribution and your positive attitude! I will swing by your blog to see what fun success tips you’ve come up with! :)

  49. Tracey "Word Doc" Dooley says

    […] Blogger Aaron Potts https://TodayIsThatDay.com/blog has created a fun blog experiment called ‘Simply Successful Secrets‘ based on the 5-10 things one does each day in the quest for success.

    The idea is to get as many bloggers taking part and for each to link back to the original post by Aaron. Think of it as a ‘viral blog’ that helps spread the word as well as helpful, creative info and know-how to boost your own success rates.
    Not one to miss out on challenges, I thought I’d play along. […]

  50. Margaret says

    Hi!
    This is a great idea! it got me thinking about my success habits that I let slip because I focused on my family and forgot what worked for me to feel good. I may even come up with some new success habits to implement now that my life includes a 3 year old!

    Cheers! Margaret

    (p.s. I hope I linked to this site properly!)

  51. aaron says

    Margaret,

    You did the link just fine, and thank you so much for participating! Our success habits are certainly modified when there are children involved, and for most people who have responded so far, spending time with their children was one of their most successful habits. 🙂

    Thanks again for coming on board, Margaret, and I will be sure to swing by your site to check out your list!

  55. Cin77 says

    Great idea and excellent article, although some days I feel that if I can get out of bed early then I already consider it a great day 🙂

  56. aaron says

    I’m with you, Cin! I feel great just by being awake and lucid early in the morning while the rest of the world is asleep.

    I’m very productive early in the morning, but even if I just take the a.m. time to relax, I still feel better just for having gotten up early and started another beautiful day!

  57. Alan says

    Nice to see how you rounded up everything nicely. This has been the best Meme written up to day for my likes. Hope to see more of this kind of projects in the future!

  58. aaron says

    Alan,

    Much obliged for the positive feedback. It was indeed massively successful, and I do have some ideas for future projects along these lines. Look for more info to be posted to the site! 🙂

  59. Jim Peake says

    Hey Aaron great site. the three key factors that i have found are common amongst all who are successful:

    1) they all have mentors/coaches
    2) the expand their extended network
    3) they invest in themselves.

  60. aaron says

    Jim,

    Thanks for the positive feedback on the site, and for joining the conversation.

    I agree 100% with each of your 3 points. I don’t think that a mentor or coach has to necessarily be a “hired” individual, although those individuals rock and they provide a valued service. However, some people just need a role model whose behavior or teachings they take to heart, even if they have never met the person face to face. Using that model, though, the person needs to be disciplined enough to do what their mentor or coach would advise them to do.

  61. Jim Peake says

    Aaron you are 1000% right on that. I could have used the language ‘annoint a coach/mentor’ and we can do this just by reading a book or going to your web site or my web site or another web site that is supportive.

  62. Bob Billings says

    One of the hardest things in our business is dealing with people that are extremely busy. So the way we sell is start with relationship building.
    One of my mentors years ago said the only way to get a “kiss” was to get the other person to trust, respect and believe in you.
    NOTE the last three important words…

  63. David Tupica says

    One thing that I have started to do is article submitting. I write one article per week and submit it to 3 article submission site which have a high rank such as GoArticles. I have found my article all over the internet and even on some RSS feeds. I am totally amazed at the power of article submissions.

  64. aaron says

    David,

    I like article submissions as one tool, but I have also found that it is only effective to a point. Article marketing is not the only tool to keep in the marketing shed, and finding the fastest ways to get articles in front of the most number of people is critical. Otherwise, article marketing could literally take the place of a full time job!

  65. Coach White says

    Thanks for the list – this is mostly just common sense, but it needed to be said!

    For me, exercise especially makes such a huge difference. Even a few minutes walking can make the difference between feeling good and feeling ‘out of it’.

    Coach White
    Nouveau Riche University – working together for success.

  67. Faiz78 says

    Its no doubt an INCREDIBLE list of success secrets. Great to exercise them as well. Thanks!