Small Habits, Big Results: The Secret to Sustainable Success

I recently listened to a podcast about "The 5 Habits That All the Most Successful Women Share" by Grace Beverley on the Working Hard Podcast and it really resonated with me. Over the past three years, I’ve been intentionally working these habits into my own life, and I can tell you they make a difference.

These habits show up again and again among the world’s most successful people and bringing even a few of them into your life can have a massive impact.

Success doesn’t come from talent, luck, or working harder than everyone else. These women aren’t superhuman, and their lives aren’t perfect. What they do have are powerful habits that they consistently stick to. No matter where you’re starting from, adopting these habits will change not only how you live your life but also where you end up.

It’s not about big leaps—it’s about small, consistent action. Doing something every day matters so much more than doing something once in a while. Success is built through the quiet discipline of showing up for yourself, following through on what truly matters, and protecting your mindset and energy along the way.

Habit #1: Protect Your Time Like It’s Money

Time is our most valuable, non-renewable resource. Once it’s gone, we don’t get it back. If we’re careless with it, it gets lost via endless micro-scrolls, distractions, or tasks that don’t actually matter to us.

So how do we stay focused on what does matter and actually achieve our goals—or those New Year’s resolutions we set for ourselves? It comes down to strategies like time blocking and prioritisation, making sure our daily actions align with the life we want to create.

Don’t wait to “find” time for what’s important—make the time. Schedule it, protect it, and set clear boundaries without apology. Get comfortable saying no, even if it means disappointing someone. Protecting your time might feel uncomfortable at first, but the alternative is spending your life pleasing others at the expense of your own dreams.

Treat each hour like it’s coming straight out of your bank account—because in many ways, it is.

Habit #2: Progress Over Perfection

Perfection often disguises itself as productivity—but really, it’s procrastination in an expensive outfit. When we get caught up in making something perfect, we end up stalling instead of moving forward.

The most successful women don’t wait for the planets to align before making a decision or finishing a project. They focus on clarity over perfection and action over hesitation. They make the call, take the next step, and figure it out as they go.

Progress will always beat perfection. Eighty percent good and done is far more powerful than one hundred percent perfect and still sitting on your to-do list.

Instead of obsessing over making the right decision, just make a decision. You can always adjust as you go—but you can’t edit something that never gets started.

Habit #3: Advocate for Yourself

You won’t just wake up one day magically confident and ready to ask for what you deserve. Confidence doesn’t come first—advocacy does. You build confidence by taking action: having the difficult conversations, asking for what you want, and showing up even when it feels uncomfortable.

The most successful women aren’t sitting around waiting to be discovered or handed opportunities. They put themselves forward, negotiate, push back, say no, and ask for more.

People aren’t likely to go out of their way to give you what you need—you have to be your own advocate and your own biggest cheerleader. Yes, sometimes you’ll get a “no.” But if you never speak up, the answer will always be no.

Habit #4: Keep Promises 

This might be one of the most important habits. Every time you follow through on a promise you made to yourself—whether it's showing up to the gym or something as mundane as doing your expenses—you are proving to yourself that you can be trusted because you did what you said you would. You’re showing that you take your own commitments seriously. This is the foundation of true confidence.

Motivation is unreliable; it cancels on you when you're tired. Consistency, on the other hand, is like a reliable friend who always shows up and whom you can count on. Successful women know not to rely on motivation, but on the discipline built from showing up for themselves time and time again.

You can't truly believe you are trustworthy or have self-confidence if you negotiate yourself out of the things you said you would do. If you aren’t committing, then you can’t trust yourself—and without that trust, self-confidence is impossible. You need to prove to yourself that you are a good and trustworthy person in order to believe it.

So, if you say something, do it. Doing so will go a long way in building your self-confidence.

Habit #5: Schedule Recovery 

 

Recovery is just as important as productivity. In reality, it can be hard to choose rest, especially when we have a million things on our plate, are constantly fighting fires, and there always seems to be more to do. But athletes have long known that rest is literally part of training. You cannot sprint every day and expect to win a medal. Yet, we often act as if we’ll earn a prize for answering emails at midnight or working 12 hours straight. There is no medal for burnout.

Increasingly, more of us are experiencing it. The 24-hour news cycle, instant access to friends and family, and social media all add mental load, making burnout easier. On top of that, many of us are expected to—and want to—maintain careers while still often being primary caregivers. Women at the top understand that rest isn’t self-indulgent; it’s strategic. They schedule downtime because you cannot have your best ideas, be a strong leader, or show up as your best self if you’re running on fumes.

I hope this post has sparked some inspiration and given you practical ideas for habits you can weave into your own life. Small, consistent actions really do add up. Start where you are, take the next step, and keep showing up — that’s how you move closer to your goals and grow into the best version of yourself.