5 Habits That Help Cultivate Greatness

Your daily habits can show yourself how good or bad you are living your life. You know that a lot of people often develop some important habits in order to be successful on living their life and also to live their life effectively. These points below showing you the things or habits that you can do to direct your life towards a greater life. We often heard people saying that old habits die hard but hey, you can change it. There are things that can be changed if you wanted to. The change can even be better when you can actually bring the more positive side of your life. So, here are 5 habits that will help you cultivate greatness.

Habit 1: Wake up early

I can not think of a single great person in the course of history who did not rise early to work on their art. Waking up early is one of the hardest habits you will ever attempt to develop but if you are successful you will reap tremendous benefits.

Some successful people throughout history who have woken up early include:
- The Dalai Lama Gandhi

- Aristotle

- Sir Isaac Newton

- Buddha

- Barack Obama

Waking up early and links to a clear mind. What you will notice about the majority of the people on this list is that they are pioneers in critical thinking and inventiveness. One of the main benefits of rising early is that you have an increased clarity of mind. Your faculties are sharper and you will be much more productive. Add this with the fact that by waking up early you will have more time to work on your goals and you have a pretty successful formula.

Habit 2: Eat a clean diet

Something that occurred to me a few weeks ago was how important diet seemed to be for almost every great person I could think of. All of my heroes, bar none, ate a healthy, well balanced diet. And I do not think it is a mere coincidence.

Good food is good fuel. Food is the fuel for our body and mind. When we eat a bad diet we become sluggish, lazy and sick. Think about the last time you went and visited KFC or Burger King. How did you feel afterwards? I am betting you felt bloated, fat, tired and not much like working. Now think about the last time you ate something healthy like salad, fruit or sushi. I am betting the
experience was the exact opposite.

Food is our fuel. You would never put unrefined oil in your car. You would never put sea water or some other foreign liquid in your car either. So why do it to your body? Why spend
meal after meal stuffing yourself with sugars, saturated fats and overly processed food filled with preservatives and chemicals? It just doesn’t make sense. I put it to you that if you
start eating good food you will start living a better life.

What should I eat?I do not believe that we get rid of bad habits. I believe we replace them with better habits. I do not know anyone who is habit free. Keeping this in mind, the best way to start eating a clean diet is to replace the bad habits with new healthy ones. The main thing you need to do is cut out as much man-made food as you can. If you take a look at any highly processed food you will see that it is made up of mostly sugars, fats and preservatives. Try and replace man-made foods like pasta, bread, candy, soda, etc. with natural foods like fruit, vegetables, free range eggs, fresh milk, water, nuts, etc. You will find that your mind becomes clearer, your energy levels increase and your immune system strengthens.

A clean diet is a major habit of great people. You will never meet an Olympic athlete who eats pizza and beer everyday. Likewise, you will never meet a great yogi who fills up on heavy foods and sugary drinks. A clean diet is one habit you cannot do without. To achieve greatness you need all the energy you can get and you cannot afford to waste anytime with health problems or a food-induced afternoon fog.

Habit 3: Practice makes greatness

Recently there was a study done where a group of scientists took a bunch of talented kids, a bunch of average kids and a bunch of below average kids and measured/followed their path to success. Some of the kids played sport, some of them did music, others were artists. The study was attempting to show that only the talented children would achieve anything above average in life. They suspected that the other two groups of children would fail and thus live a life of mediocrity. They were wrong. What the study showed was that success had nothing to do with potential or talent, it was all about practice. The kids who achieved the most all spent over 10,000 hours practicing their skill. It didn’t matter whether they started out as talented, average or below average - anyone who practiced for more than 10,000 hours achieved some level of expertise and greatness. If you want to achieve greatness in your chosen field the most important habit you can develop is the discipline of practice. You need to repeat and train your skill everyday. It needs to become a daily habit, not something that you only occasionally do.

Practice vs natural ability

I am a firm believer that greatness comes from practice and not from natural ability. Sure, natural ability and good genes helps you a lot but it is not the deciding factor, practice is. Throughout history we have seen a lot of naturally talented people fizzle into mediocrity but we have never seen a great person who got there without practice. Great people always
work hard. They practice a lot.

Habit 4: Develop bravery

I would like to put it to you that bravery is, in fact, a habit. A habit is often defined as “something you automatically do” and I believe that all great people have developed the habit of bravery. We need to do the same. Why do you need bravery?Bravery is an essential quality to possess if you wish to achieve greatness. It comes in many different shapes and sizes and is often very subtle.
Take the example of a young musician who has a dream of playing on the world’s great stages. After many years of practice he/she receives an invitation to attend a prestigious music school such as Manchester in England. Now, although the musician is extremely excited, he/she is rather nervous about leaving the security and safety of home. To venture over to another country and adapt to its culture is an extremely difficult thing to do. It takes bravery.

You see, achieving greatness is often about being in the right place at the right time. It is about being able to seize opportunities and exploit those opportunities as much as you can. If you want to put yourself in the direct path of those opportunities you need to be brave.
Other types of bravery that lead to greatness. Packing up your home and heading overseas is not the only type of bravery that will get you places. There are many other kinds that are equally as important.

Standing up for what you believe in

Great people often stand up for what they believe in even if it is the unpopular opinion. This is an act of bravery because you are standing against a large group and relying solely on your own principles and strength.

Habit 5: Condense all blames/solutions in to one

The most outstanding habit of the greats is that they condense all blames and all solutions into one. And that “one” is themselves. They do not rely on anyone else for their success and they do not blame anyone else for their failures. They are completely self motivated and self reliant. The modern world of whingers If you take a look at 99% of people in the modern (western) world you will see that they are taken by the habit of whinging. When something goes wrong at work it is the boss’ fault.

When something goes wrong at home it is their partner’s fault. If your whole life goes to shit it is because your father didn’t love you enough - it is always someone else's fault. But great people don’t behave like this. If something is wrong in their life they fix it. If they want to achieve a particular outcome they go and get it and if they fail they recognize their mistakes and move on. They certainly do not sit around and curse everyone else for causing them to fail!

There is a wonderful saying by the Indian Buddhist master Shantideva. It goes like this:
“Where would I find enough leather to cover the entire surface of the earth? But with leather soles beneath my feet, it’s as if the whole world had been covered.” - Shantideva.
What he is saying here is that people tend to blame the whole world for their problems. They want to make the whole world change to suit their needs instead of addressing the one source of the problem. Themselves. He is saying that instead of trying to cover the whole world with leather, why not just put on some shoes!

The origin of all problems

What Shantideva is saying is very wise. He is point out the fact that the origin of all problems is the mind, not the external world. It is you who decides whether something is nice or bad. It is you who decides whether you are happy or sad.