I thought this would be a short one, because I started writing it in the Airport, but I was wrong.

Over 10 million people have read Atomic Habits, so it's likely you understand the power of habits, but few people do anything about what they read.

Worse, they often don't know what habits will help change their life for the better.

Based on observing successful people and what I've experienced, I want to share some habits that will change your life.

They've changed mine, and I'll be focusing on them again in 2025.

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The 12 Habits of 2025

Whenever we write about these 12 habits, they go they go viral.

Why, you may ask?

Well, it's really quite simple. They're simple.

These habits are easy for you to implement, and they're easy to maintain.

Don't worry, you don't have to disappear for 6 months for this to work, you need to be consistent.

Consistency has solved many problems in life. Many.

But here's a caveat.

Don't try to do them all out of the gate. Choose those habits that resonate the most with you and focus on them. Simple. Easy to do. Easy to maintain.

These are the habits I want you to focus on and when they're part of your routine, add another.

1. Wake Up Early

The early bird gets the worm.

Research shows if you wake up early you'll go to bed earlier and have a longer, better sleep, which is a habit on our list!

Benefits are:

• More time to yourself

• Reduced commute to work

• Better diet and eating habits

• Increased likelihood of exercise

The biggest thing for me is waking up early is intentional.

You don't wake up early to do nothing. You wake up early because you have a specific objective.

It's the opposite after 8:00 at night. You often are up for the sake of being up. You're not up with a goal. You're not up to hit the gym.

It's hard to be a loser if you're at the gym at 5:00 AM every morning. Try it. I promise you'll see.

2. Exercise

Daily exercise helps to keep the doctor away even more than an apple does.

Benefits of daily exercise include:

• Manage weight

• Reduce risk of falls

• Improve cholesterol

• Lower blood pressure

• Reduce risk of heart attack

• Lower risk of type 2 diabetes

Here's the thing - daily exercise really pairs well with waking up early.

Getting up, hitting the gym and getting your steps and exercise in together is a huge win in the morning.

I'm committed to hitting the gym for weight lifting at least 4x to 5x per week in 2025, with my brother.

We'll focus on:

Chest, Shoulders and Triceps - 2x per week

Back and biceps - 1x per week

Legs - 2x per week

While we're lifting, I also walk around the gym between sets to get adequate rest and increase my step count.

3. Meditation and Mindfulness

You don't need to be a monk to enjoy the benefits of meditation and mindfulness.

When you take time out of your day to meditate and be mindful, some of the benefits include:

• Reduces stress

• Controls anxiety

• Promotes higher EQ

• Enhances self-awareness

• Lengthens attention span

This is going to be big for me in 2025.

I did a two year mindfulness and meditation teacher certification program in 2022 and 2023, which was transformative and included a one week silent retreat and many micro retreats.

With a focus on improving my health, I will increase my meditation.

I've talked about this before and I'll share it with you again - I'm BIG into Habit Stacking and here's how I do a lot of the above, and some of the below, together:

• Wake-up early

• Hit the gym with my son

• Get 1,000+ steps in during the workout

• End the workout with a steam, sauna and cold shower

• During the steam and sauna, practice loving-kindness meditation

By the time I leave the gym, I've STACKED WINS.

Mindfulness is about being focused on the present moment.

Right here.

Right now.

This moment.

I often say A purposeful focus on the present moment without judgment.

Mindfulness also helps us realize what's truly important.

Experiences.

4. Read

Benefits of reading for you will be:

• Reduces stress

• Improves sleep

• Exercises the brain

• Increases motivation

I focused on reading what I want, when I want and sharing what I learn with you, the readers and listeners.

It means I'll break down some of the best-sellers in self-development and self-help and share them with y'all.

I'm super excited about this !

5. Walk 15,000 Steps

Why'd I choose 15,000 steps?

Simple. It's hard to do. It requires intention and with that intention, you can do it and will feel better for it.

This is going to be one of my biggest focuses in 2025 as I work on my health - long slow and steady walks with my dog, Oscur. He loves walks. Even the word walk sets him off incredibly.

6. Fix Your Sleep

Sleep is so important.

The challenge is I've always sucked at it.

Here are some things I'll be focused on when we move to help with sleep hygiene.

Devices away two hours before bedtime - in fairness, in 2025, I want to spend a lot less time on devices.

Finish the evening with an hour of reading books , journaling on gratitude, and my daily check-in practice, which I've been working on with ChatGPT.

I'll make sure we have sufficient black-out blinds and minimal, ideally zero, lighting in the bedroom and a temperature that's ideal for sleep - i.e. cold, for me.

7. Invest in Learning

There's a reason I write the Elevated Path, I'm obsessed with learning and self-development.

On the idea of going all-in on my growth to help you with your growth.

8. Build Rare Skills

We tell young people to focus on in-demand skills.

It's a mistake.

When you focus on in-demand skills, you're taking advantage of arbitrage.

The skills are in demand, because there's not enough people doing those jobs right now, but...

When something pays well and is in demand, more people flock to that area, which brings the supply and demand back into equilibrium and your salary DROPS.

Your window for arbitrage opportunities is generally short.

Instead, Focus on Rare Skills.

Rare skills are a combination of multiple skill sets that mix into a super-power, such as an accountant who:

• Understands leadership

• Is a public speaker

• Is a strong writer

• Learns to sell

Build Your Rare Skills

Turn your quant skills into rare skills by learning how to:

• lead

• network

• write well

• speak publicly

• market and sell

Quants avoid these areas.

You'll stand out when you combine them.

It's hard to get to the top 1% in any of these, but it's relatively easy with effort, a well thought out plan and a high level of consistency to reach the top 10%.

When you're the top 10% across a myriad of categories that generally aren't seen together, you're going to be in the top 0.01% and that's when you get paid.

9. Write and Publish

Writing clarifies your thoughts.

When young people come to me with ideas, solutions or suggestions, I often ask them to write it down.

It's not a make-work project.

By writing it down, it clarifies their thought.

By turning it into a long-form memo, they need to really understand the idea they may have half-assed in their head and often it never comes back.

It's why Jeff Bezos pushes for memos at Amazon, as he says, The document should be written with such clarity that it's like angels signing from up high.

Hitting publish takes it to a different level.

It exposes our thinking to others. It requires conviction and confidence.

When you learn to express yourself clearly and put yourself out into the world, you'll build relationships based on your words and your work.

I'll be doing a lot more writing in 2025.

The focus will be on what you've all seen, self-development, but I'll add in entrepreneurship (I am starting a business).

10. Fix Your Thinking

We are what we think and our thinking is flawed.

You can fix your thinking and here's a suggestion on some of the ways to do that:

11. Build Your Circle

The longest study on happiness at Harvard University found close relationships are more important than money or fame for happiness.

Also, you've heard it said before, and I believe it, you become the average of the five people you spend the most time with. This is often summarized as Your Network is your Net Worth.

It isn't only about money, though, it's about all areas of your life. Surround yourself with people who're focused on what you want to be focused on.

If you want to be wealthy, have wealthy friends.

If you want to be fit, surround yourself with people focused on fitness.

Ultimately, your network will determine your net worth: mentally, physically and financially.

I think about my close friends often.

We're talking about ways to increase our connection.

These are all people who're high performing in their lives - it's insane what most of them have achieved and I get to hang out with them, which can't help but make me better.

12. Pick Up a Side Hustle

I like this for everyone.

In a job, we're dependent on our employer.

Something could go wrong with the company or economy and we're out of a job.

We could have a manager we love and they leave the company for whatever reason and we know longer love it.

Barring building up enough wealth to be financially independent and choose where, when, what and how we work, which I want for all of us, having something to fall back on is important.

Also, there's an awesome side effect. It will make you better at your existing job, often, as it can regularly tie to rare skills, which we talked about above. By becoming a better writer, conversationalist and public speaker in building out my social media businesses, I've become a better coach, colleague and business leader, which will serve me now as an Entrepreneur.

That's it.

These are the ones I'll be focused on in 2025.

Now, tell me what your favorite habits are.

What isn't on the list above that you believe in and why?

Last Word 👋

I love hearing from readers and I'm always looking for your feedback.

Hit reply, say hello, and let me know what you think of The 12 Habits of 2025.

I'd love to chat with you !

All my best,

~ Elevated Path