There are many things that differentiate unsuccessful people from the persons considered successful. A bigger part of the differences stem from their actions or inactions.

And below are some things you should start doing at the beginning of every month if you aren’t doing them already.

One may also argue that you should forget about the word should and consider the following five points must-dos if you want to be a successful person yourself.

I want to see you become successful.

Just getting an email from a reader saying they have been able to overcome a bad habit, become more confident, take their business to another level, got better at managing time and worked hard towards making their relationship with God better – makes me happy.

A man is not man enough if he doesn’t interact with others, take his time to know more people, learn a thing or two that will add value to his life, love people and share what he has learnt.

The same principle applies to women and children.

Everyone.

Time is never enough for everything we want to do.

Months come and go.

Wishes come and go.

But how many of us wish we had more time on our hands just to be able to achieve certain goals? Me? You?

This brings us to the first point of the things successful people do at the beginning of every month:

1. Become a successful person: Look at possible ways to organize your life then start implementing, bit by bit

Have you ever had so much to do—with little time on your hands that you ended up doing nothing at all (especially when you wanted to do everything at the same time)?

Look at the things that take your energy without giving back to you the equivalent (could be a big bounty!) of the energy you invest in them.

I discovered that doing several tasks or taking upon so many projects at once always left me feeling stressed, and devoid of energy and enthusiasm to tackle the next task or undertake the next project.

Doing several things at once always robbed me of my energy—and I didn’t achieve what I wanted in most cases.

This brings us to the matter of priority.

How does one go about prioritizing things?

Make a list of things you should do first.

Do them fast as you possibly can! Always give them priority.

Make another list of things you would like to do (but aren’t very important) and create time for them.

List down the possible distractions you might encounter and besides each, note how you are going to best deal with each.

Allocate time for everything you want to achieve and don’t get too much obsessed with a few things that you end up neglecting some other important things that you’ve ‘always wanted to achieve’.

If you normally take at least twenty minutes daily writing on your personal journal, don’t let a movie get in your way when that time ‘for you and your personal journal only’ comes.

Don’t promise yourself to get back to your personal journal when the movie is over. It always never works.

If you let something distract your schedule, you’ll likely be rolling with another schedule which isn’t yours. And you’ll, in most cases, hate yourself for having left distraction destruct your schedule.

Sometimes I define the word organised to mean the ability to do something you promised to do at the time you allocated for it, without letting it rob even a minute off another to-do.

2.To be successful: Find out what makes you happy (the right things that make you happy)

Sometimes we derive contentment from doing things we like doing – whether they are good or bad.

At the beginning of every month, you should come up with a list of the right things that make you happy.

Whenever I feel low, reading, biking, doing my thinking while drinking lots of cold water, writing poems, recording myself talking about life, dancing to music or writing song lyrics uplifts my spirits.

I also do these things whenever I feel worry filling my lungs, heart and mind.

I do read some of my works later on and feel good – marveling at my own creation.

I share some of my works (like this post you are reading now) here at Niabusiness.com knowing that someone will also find something that’ll add value to their life.

Beware though of things that brings you ‘happiness’ and not happiness – you know, pleasure for a moment, regret for a season!

Do things that don’t at all bring the word guilt into your mind.

Indulging in illicit sex, gossiping, watching too much TV, making fun of other people, chasing money like a hyena, showing off or consuming a lot of drugs like alcohol to get happy (i.e. numb some pains) won’t get you where you want to be in the long run.

I believe you wouldn’t want the word trouble to be your synonym for happiness.

Sometimes your intuition tells you this and that won’t bring you contentment but you choose to ignore the warnings, rush somewhere in search for happiness only to find yourself surrounded with trouble.

Find out the right things that make you happy and spend time doing them throughout the month.

3. Another tip from the lives of successful people: Find out who brings joy and happiness to your life

That may be one or all of the following:  God, your spouse, children, siblings, friends or a relative.

Be honest with yourself when making a list for ‘who brings joy and happiness to my life’.

Don’t just add a name because you feel obliged to.

Spend time with these people. Spend time studying God’s word or sharing it with others.

Come up with different ways, you and the people who bring joy and happiness to your life can also bring joy and happiness to other people’s lives.

Go ahead and do this.

You’ll reap a lot of benefits. ‘What benefits?’ you may ask.

Go out there, and you’ll find out (and please come back here and share with us).

Generosity coupled with a cheerful heart makes you strong. And enjoying your days with strength and health in your bones, that is a good thing to have.

4. To be a success: Look back – what did you do well in the past month?

Look at the goals you set for yourself last month. What did you achieve?

If you managed to save more money than you ever did at any point of your life, don’t stop there. Save even more this month – with the aim to invest and not just keep it all sitting idle in your bank account.

If you managed to rise from bed two minutes after the alarm went off in the past month, go ahead cast the two minutes aside and experiment with one minute or less. You’ll like the results that come with rising out of bed immediately your alarm goes off.

At the beginning of the month, make a list of your achievements in the past month and devote more energy towards achieving even more this month.

Don’t try to achieve everything overnight though. Remember we talked about this in point number 1 above.

Make another list of things you didn’t do well and outline things you’ll do to make improvements.

And please don’t let failure weigh you down forever (or for longer than it is necessary).

5. Be successful: Reduce the number of times you say ‘I will’. Get down to business

We humans are very good at listing things we are going to do then end up doing the opposite or doing nothing altogether.

Why? Procrastination? Because sometimes we love taking too much time planning and getting absorbed in excitement (results we are hoping to achieve) – and hating the boring part that entails DOING (the process).

So stop saying ‘I will’ and get down to business. How?

Start by finding out what happens to you in between planning and execution.

Find out what always stops you from executing your plans to completion.

Find out the kind of distractions that you usually face and the ones you are likely to meet.

Then do the obvious: come up with measures that’ll ensure you execute your plans.

If you have ideas, it’s time to get down to business. It’s not time for excuses, wishing and being lazy sitting on your behind. Life doesn’t sit lazy waiting for you to put yourself together and up your game.

If you want to stop a bad habit, don’t say: ‘I will stop smoking starting tomorrow.’ Start the journey now.

Why?

Have you heard many people (even in your family line) with big plans who died with their big plans because they always waited for tomorrow and that tomorrow turned into a week, a month, a year, a decade, a lifetime and finally a regret that was then extinguished when death came?

Can’t you just make a conscious choice to do – and stop with the wishing and hoping while you tie your own hands with the cuffs of inaction?

You already have the power in you, granted by your creator, the Almighty God, to execute on your plans, not only for your own benefit, but for the benefit of others as well.

So, why the constant whining and blame games?

Why the softness, when your mind and heart are capable of resilience and love?

Why the hesitation from taking action on an idea that can affect the lives of many people in a good way?

You know what? The best way to execute is to start immediately. Now.

You’ll have to gather enough strength to start doing things right at the beginning of every month.

And why should you bother doing all these things? Just to be like successful people?

The little, little things you do every month will have an impact on your New Year Resolutions.

Building your confidence from doing these things will encourage you to do even more. And affect more lives with love, solutions and your time. And that’s one way to become a really successful person in the world we live in.

What do you think? Doing any of these things already? Are you experiencing difficulties implementing the five points and thinking that this success people talk about is all but an illusion? Share your thoughts in the comments below.