Success leaves clues.

To become great at anything — whether it’s writing, engineering, or dancing — the best way is to study those who have succeeded before.

“Success,” as Tony Robbins said, “leaves clues.” And while they might not all follow the same methods, they often share many similar traits you can add to your own life.

Over the years, I’ve learned several valuable lessons from elite athletes that have helped me become more successful. …

Because you’ll never “feel ready.”

Many years ago, a friend and I were talking about our dating lives while driving. He was a kind, solid-looking guy who was struggling, so I encouraged him to talk to more women—but he hesitated.

“Yeah, I will,” he said, “but I just need to lose 20lbs first.”

Sadly, I’m sure we both knew that was a lie. So I asked, “If you met the perfect woman right now before you lose the weight, what are you going to do? Tell her to come back a few months later?”

“No,” he said defiantly. “I’d ask her out.”

Sadly, I’m sure we both knew that was a lie too. …

How to remain happy in situations in which most would struggle.

I believe being mentally strong is the most valuable skill of all.

It means you can handle whatever comes in life. (Like in 2020, for example.) You might feel upset in the moment, but those emotions don’t control you — instead, you’re able to bounce back from setbacks and still live the life you want.

Building mental toughness helps you cope with intense demands and situations, maintain control over yourself, and still perform your best. …

Stay grounded with an easy question.

Last July, I sold all my possessions, put my life into a backpack, and flew to Europe to find a new place to call home.

And while I was excited about my adventure, one critical thing I knew going into this “digital nomad” lifestyle (I’m not a fan of that term, by the way) is that many digital nomads eventually burn out — after a year or two, they get exhausted with constantly moving, constantly going to different places, not having a steady home, and not having established relationships.

Then, they go home.

On the surface, it makes sense. After all, constant travel isn’t easy—even if you’re staying at each place for several months at a time—and neither is short-term friendships and heartfelt goodbyes. …

Stop asking for permission

To this day, no book impacted my life more than The Four-Hour Workweek, by Tim Ferriss. He’s one of the world’s most influential entrepreneurs, author of five #1 New York Times bestselling books, and the host of The Tim Ferriss Show, which has been downloaded over 500 million times.

I stumbled on his book back in 2010 when I was 22, living in South Korea, and teaching English. …

Stop asking so many questions.

Back in high school, I was extremely shy and deathly afraid of talking to people I didn’t know. In college, I hit a breaking point and gave myself a challenge: For 90 days, I forced myself to talk to at least one stranger every day and even took notes to analyze how it went.

It was painful. It was embarrassing. It was uncomfortable. To make matters worse, I had body image issues because I was short, skinny, and covered with acne.

90 days later, however, I became a new person.

Since then, I spent years refining what works and what doesn’t and learned how to start conversations, build connections, and make new friends, no matter the language, country, or situation. …

It’s not what I thought

To kick off the new year in 2017, I challenged myself to meditate for 21 straight days. At that point, I had dabbled in Headspace, before but wanted to see if I could actually build a mediation habit — 1400 days later, I didn’t miss a single day, despite all the things life threw my way.

But the journey was nothing like I expected.

I’ll share what happened (and what didn’t happen), what I learned, and my thoughts on meditation, but I’ll start by answering the most common question I get:

“How did you build the habit?”

How To Start Meditating

Building the habit wasn’t easy — there were many times I didn’t want to meditate during the first few weeks. But here are 3 tactics that worked for…

Embrace the power of quick wins

Neil Patel, the co-founder of KISSmetrics and CrazyEgg, is a New York Times bestselling author and is heralded as one of the world’s top marketers and entrepreneurs.

Called a top 100 entrepreneur under the age of 30 by President Obama and a top 100 entrepreneur under the age of 35 by the United Nations, Neil has also helped companies like Amazon, Microsoft, Airbnb, Google, NBC, and Zappos boost their marketing.

His blog gets several million visitors per month, and he hosts a podcast with Eric Siu, called “Marketing School”, that teaches marketing advice to over 1 million people per month around the world. …