12 Habits of Successful and Happy Women

Success means something different to everyone. Maybe success for you is landing your dream job. Maybe it is reaching financial freedom. Or maybe it is as simple as being happy with where you are in life. Whatever you define as success, it is going to take more than a wish and a dream to get there. The key to being successful is routed in your daily habits and your mindset. Once you crack these habits of successful and happy women you will be unstoppable!

So what is the difference between a successful woman and an “unsuccessful” one? Many people think it is luck, or maybe just a gift they were born with. When, in fact, a successful woman just happens to live differently. They develop different habits, they work on their mindset and most importantly, they never give up.

Today we are going to dive into some of those habits so that we can be inspired to be successful ourselves.

But before we do, I have one very important disclaimer for you.

Success means NOTHING without Happiness.

Whilst, in many cases, happiness comes with being successful, this is not a concrete rule. You should never lose sight of your happiness in the pursuit of success. Nor should you measure your worth as a person on your level of success.

As I said at the beginning, success means something different for everyone. And for me being successful has always meant being happy. That is why I have created this list of Habits of successful and Happy Women, in hopes that we can all strive to be both.

She Follows her Purpose

There is nothing more fulfilling than finding your purpose. It is very easy in today’s society to just work for money and be motivated by your imminent bills. Although this is necessary a lot of the time, it is never going to light that spark inside of you.

Following your dreams and finding your purpose is what is going to set you apart from everyone else and drive you to work harder and keep going even when things get tough.

If you are passionate about something, you are going to be more engaged with it and more motivated to come back to it every day.

Find what makes your soul sing and you will be a big step closer to success.

She Eliminates Doubts

Your mindset is your most powerful tool. Without a strong mindset, you will fail before you have even begun. That is why it is crucial that you eliminate all of your doubts. The inner voice telling you that something is “too hard” is the biggest obstacle that will stand between you and your goal.

The saddest part is that this self-sabotage is what stops the majority of budding female entrepreneurs.

Can you imagine what kind of life you could build if you believed you could achieve anything?

Hold on to that dream.

Because that is exactly what you should be striving for.

That is your dream once you have stripped away all of the fears and self-doubt.

Working on your mindset and ridding yourself of all of those doubts is a huge step on the ladder of success. It may not be easy, but I promise it will be worth it.

She gets Comfortable with the Uncomfortable

No-one ever grew by staying in their comfort zone.

Unfortunately for us, we find the comfort zone rather… comfy.

I find it incredibly difficult to push myself, which is why I stayed stuck for a while after graduation. No matter how confident you are, the unknown is scary.

We worry about everything that could go wrong, instead of focusing on what could go right and before we know it we have frozen ourselves in place through sheer terror.

To beat this twisted form of self-preservation, you must leave your comfort zone, “one small step” at a time. Try to challenge yourself to do something new each week so you can practice leaving your comfort zone, and become more familiar with that uncomfortable feeling.

Given time and practice, you will soon be able to push yourself further away from your comfort zone, and further towards your dreams.

She Starts her Day Right

I am a big believer in the power of a Morning Routine.

It is well documented that it takes up to an hour to fully wake up in the morning. So if you are falling out of bed and going right to your desk every morning, chances are you are not bringing your most awake, energised and efficient self to the start of your day.

Many successful millionaires have said that waking up at 5am got them ahead of the rest. Now I am not saying you have to wake up at 5am to be successful, but becoming a morning person and creating a morning routine could truly change your life and get you one step closer to success.

In fact, people who get up earlier are actually more likely to enjoy more, better quality sleep. Better sleep will help you stay motivated, increase productivity and keep your brain on top form so you can smash your goals even quicker!

She Takes Breaks

If you want to be successful in any part of life, you have got to put in a lot of work. We all know that.

But what many women struggle with is the idea that taking breaks is a crucial part of success too.

Neglecting to take breaks is the quickest way to burnout. And once you burn out it feels almost impossible to carry on working to the level you were.

Every successful woman knows the importance of breaks, both on a daily basis and on a more long-term basis. So if you are starting to lose sight of your goal, or if everything is starting to seem monotonous, do yourself a favour and take a break for a few days. Fresh eyes and a clear head will achieve so much more, so stop feeling guilty and just take a break!

She Listens to her Body

As I said, this list is not just about success. With these habits I hope you can be both successful and happy. And to be happy as a women, you have to listen to your body.

Men’s hormones cycle every 24 hours, but women’s hormones cycle every 28 days (or so). That means there will be times in the month where your hormones will be working for you and you will feel full of energy and unstoppable. But there will be other times in the month where everything seems much more difficult and you will feel tired more quickly.

I have been interested in the world of “cycle syncing” and women’s hormones for over a year now but I am certainly not an expert. If you are looking for more in depth information about it I would highly recommend finding @misty.myler on Instagram.

What I want you to take away from this is by listening to how your body feels every day, you can learn to work more efficiently. If you are feeling exhausted and uninspired one day, then perhaps have a shorter working day, or look for simpler or more fun tasks on your to do list. And if you wake up feeling energised and ready to take on the world, this is your time to tackle the hard work head on and make huge strides towards success.

By listening to your body and not just “powering through” you can reach success without compromising your health or your happiness.

She Learns from other Successful Women

Although your path to success will be different from everyone else’s, there is still so much you can learn from other successful women. Both in your specific field and in general.

Hearing other people’s success stories have always been a great source of inspiration for me as well as an amazing education. Remember, on the path to success there is always something more to learn. The mark of a successful woman is someone who is always willing to learn more.

If you can find a mentor figure who is already successful in your field, this could be invaluable to you. You could also simply read about other successful women and what they credit their success to.

She doesn’t listen to Criticism from “Unsuccessful” People

On the other hand, on your way to success, you may face a lot of criticism. And I guarantee you this will be from people who secretly consider themselves “unsuccessful” or less successful than you.

You cannot listen to this sort of negativity. Many people like to criticise to make themselves feel better or to put you off to try to sabotage you.

Constructive criticism is different. This can help you see where you are going wrong or help you by giving you a fresh perspective. But the criticism will only be constructive if it is from someone who knows what they are talking about.

So block out any negativity and don’t take any advice from people who are not successful, even if it is coming from a good place. Focus on moving forwards and don’t get caught up in other’s jealousy-fuelled criticism.

She Follows her Own Path and Timing

Is it me or as a woman do you always feel like you are “behind” in life? By my age some people already have their dream job, some people are already on the property ladder, some are even settled with a partner and kids! Seeing all of this plastered across social media is just a constant reminder of how I am “behind”.

But this simply is not true!

You are never “behind” in life. You are exactly where you should be. Others may have done more of the big” life milestones” than you, but that does not mean they are ahead, nor does it mean those milestones will never happen for you.

A successful woman knows that her path is her own. The timing of her life is hers alone and worrying about what others have done will only serve as a distraction.

I encourage you to walk your own path and be unashamed of your story. Creating your own success takes guts. Even if it pushes back some of your other life milestones, you should be proud of what you are doing.

She Uses Consistency over Motivation

“When you look at people who are successful, you will find that they aren’t the people who are motivated, but have consistency in their motivation.” Arsene Wenger

In other words, relying on motivation alone will never be enough. You will always have days when you feel unmotivated and unfortunately you will have days where you feel like throwing in the towel.

This is where consistency and discipline beats motivation every time. Having the self discipline to keep going even when you feel like giving up is the mark of a successful woman.

Sometimes success isn’t about your most amazing achievements and most productive days. Sometimes success is simply about keeping going when you have had a set back.

Once you establish consistency and discipline in your routine, all that is left to do is to slowly strive towards your goals.

She is Not Afraid to Fail

When you hear about big success stories, you rarely hear about the struggles they faced. This has given us a warped sense of how success works.

When I started my first business, I had one set back and thought that meant it was never going to be a success. How wrong was I!

The road to success is full of failures.

So the key to success is to accept the failures, learns from them and try again.

I could honestly give you dozens of quotes I love about failure being a part of success, but instead I will just give you my favourite.

“Success is going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.” Winston Churchill

She Never Gives Up

This leads perfectly on to the final and most important habit of successful and happy women, they never give up.

This is the one golden rule to success. To succeed you just can’t give up. Sometimes this can be harder than others. Every successful woman will have a time in her life where all she wants to do is give up.

It is a major challenge that we will all face. I can’t tell you how to get through it but I will tell you the one quote that helped me.

“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.” Thomas Edison

For me, this is the most inspiring quote I have ever found. To think that at any moment you could be one more try or just one more day away from the success you always dreamed of…

It is enough to keep anyone going.