7 Ways Successful People Manage to Stay Ahead

7 Ways Successful People Manage to Stay Ahead 7 Ways Successful People Manage to Stay Ahead Success is rarely achieved overnight. And once it’s finally achieved, holding on to that success can take an incredible amount of control, hard work, and discipline. But how exactly do successful people manage to stay ahead ? Is there some top secret manual that only they know about? And do you have to achieve success to get access to this secret? The answer is yes and no. Successful people do have similar habits that keep them ahead of the rest at all times. You can call this their manual. However, this manual is in no way secret, because countless successful people have shared this information time and time again. I won’t make you wait any longer, let’s jump right into the 7 ways successful people manage to stay ahead. We all know that Mark Zuckerberg wears a grey t-shirt to work every single day . His reason for this daily routine is to eliminate unnecessary decision making and instead, focus primarily on work. Richard Branson, the Virgin Airlines boss, wakes up at 5:00am every day so he can spend quality time with his family. Warren Buffett spends about 80% of his day reading, and it’s through this practice that he credits his long-term investment success. You might not have the luxury of reading almost all day every day, but you do have the capacity for adopting a new routine . Successful people take up daily routines in order to form structure and plan out every single minute of their day. Without a routine, a lot of time may fly by trying to think of what to do next. And time wasted is success delayed. If you read autobiographies of successful people, you’ll notice a pattern of goal-setting. They start by setting long term goals, and then break down each of these goals into short term daily goals. By doing so, they ensure that every single second of their day is catered for and there is a task to complete. After a certain period of achieving daily goals, a long term goal that seemed unachievable starts to become achievable. And once achieved, they repeat the same cycle over and over. This then makes it easy for successful people to stay ahead as they attain more success along the way. 3. They capitalize on emotional intelligence The most successful people have mastered and achieved a high emotional intelligence level. In fact, research has shown that 90% of top performers score highly on emotional intelligence, as compared to only 20% of low performers. Successful people understand that being emotionally stable leads to a clear mind and hence more informed decision making. They’re efficient at communication, time management, stress tolerance, decision-making and anger management, among others. All of which are great factors for success. 4. They don’t believe failure is final The most successful people know better than to let failure be the ultimate result. Bill Gates attributes embracing failure as the reason Microsoft became successful in it’s early years. Oprah Winfrey attributes her debut as a TV Show host to her being fired earlier in life. And the late Steve Jobs achieved great success after being fired from his own company. While you may view failure as a setback and spend days on end sad and depressed, successful people shake off the dust and move on. They work to learn from each failure and continue to become a better version of themselves. It is through this mindset that most successful people keep piling on successes. 5. They constantly educate themselves As I mentioned earlier, Warren Buffett spends the larger part of his day reading books, newspapers and financial documents. He advises aspiring investors to do the same as it is “how knowledge works”. Bill Gates reads at least one book every week, Oprah Winfrey is a renowned advocate for reading wide and Mark Cuban sets aside three hours every day to read. Those who can’t read books, listen to audio books. The point is to stay educated about what’s happening, how things works and keeping your mind engaged. This is how successful people manage to stay one step ahead. They ask the right questions , accumulate knowledge and use it when making life changing decisions and structuring their life. 6. They are sensitive of who they spend time with “You are the average of the 5 people you spend your time with.” Simple as this may be, the most successful people are avid followers of this phrase, and make time to hang around people they trust to inspire, challenge and motivate them. In fact, if you’re not offering any type of growth or benefit to their lives, you’re better off at a distance. In a five year study conducted on the daily habits of successful people, it emerged that 80% prefer to spend time with other success-minded people. The study concluded that people are as successful as the people they associate with. 7. They have multiple income streams Successful people are very big on making investments to secure different sources of income. They understand that one stream of income can halt, at any moment and without warning. Adding a new income stream can as simple as starting an online business and learning how to grow their audience , but no matter what they do, successful people make sure to have several backup strategies. Multiple sources of income ensure that successful people remain on top at all times, even when one side of business is not functioning accordingly. And Warren Buffet, the king of investments, advises people to never depend on one source of income. Successful people manage to stay ahead because they understand the winning game. They’ve been through difficult times and lived through easy times. For this reason, they know what works, what doesn’t and what’s worth paying attention to. Looking for more ideas like this? Learn more at Metapress and X3 Digital , or connect with Alex Jasin directly on Twitter , Facebook  and LinkedIn . Read more of Jasin’s writing on Business Insider , Entrepreneur , HuffPost , CMI , Mediabistro , The Next Web and other major publications.