Have you seen the viral blog post going around about the top daily habits for success?  I’ve caught the virus from…well…I’m not sure where I first heard of it, but I guess most recently from Andy Wibbles, a blogging expert whom I read frequently. Just goes to show how such thing gets around.

The Simply Successful Secrets list originated with Aaron Potts on his Today is That Day blog.  His challenge to us is that we each list 5-10 things that we do every day (or at least 4-5 times a week) that are our personal secrets to success.  As participants link back to each other, we create a web of simple habits with big power — lots of common themes here too.  What a great way to share what’s working while picking up new ideas.

So here is my contribution to the web.

Laura’s Simply Successful Secrets for Thriving Against the Grain:

Express myself to my loved ones.   Every day I make it a point to tell my husband and daughter that I love them.  That’s the easy part!  Much harder to talk to loved ones about hurt feelings, anger, misunderstanding, etc.  Nonetheless, life is much smoother when I get these frustrations out in the open, where they can be addressed instead of smoldering.   That’s the edge I’m working on. 

In the meantime, I share the love with my family freely.  Yes, I even talk to my Mother almost every day.  I love to talk with her and I’m so fortunate to have her around, so why not.   It makes us both happy.

Read something fascinating and/or inspirational.    Learning about new things, innovations and the daring/inspiring things that people do is energizing to me.  I like to find something interesting then “follow the links” more deeply into the subject or related topics.  This leads to a mild case of Internet addiction, which leads me to the next success secret…

Step away from the computer.  Admittedly this is a habit I am working on.  Evidence shows that those days when I shut down the computer completely after dinner, are the days of sweetest connection with my family, especially my 3 year old daughter.   I am able to be more fully present when I have given myself permission to “shut down” shop for the evening.  And I am better rested …too many computer nights turn into computer early mornings.  Step away from the computer!  It will be there for you in the morning!

Breathe.  Duh, well of course…but the key here is to breathe consciously.  Truth be told, I’m a habitual shallow breather.  Never quite fully filling my lungs.  To correct this, I try to tune in often during the day and simply take a few deep breaths.  Then I go on with what I was doing.  This breaks tension, and brings a quick moment of awareness. 

Pet the dog or the horse.  Animals are my personal conduit to being present.  This goes hand in hand with the deeper breathing.

Read.  Oh, did I say this already?  It bears repeating because curiosity and learning hold such high value for me.  I am continuously renewed and inspired as I read.  I read magazines, books, fiction and non-fiction, pamphlets from co-op. You name it, I compulsive read it.   

So there you have it!  Now I challenge you to do the same:  What are your Simply Successful Secrets?    Add a comment here, or post them on your own blog (with a link back to this blog, please: http://dowhat.typepad.com/dowhat/2007/04/success_secrets.html )