10 habits we're stealing from the world's most successful humans
How to sleep, eat and bathe your way to superstardom
‘New Year, New Me’ posts on social media are still attracting a lot of engagement. But that sentiment is slowly crawling back into its shell, the ‘Old Me’ habits are rather persistent.
And we are gingerly returning to our skip-breakfast-because-I-hit-the-snooze-button-20-times wellness regime.
But at 4.30am, Apple CEO Tim Cook is responding to emails, PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi is up and ready to roll, and a little while later, at 5am, PM Modi manages to clock in an hour of yoga before he jets off to work.
At 6.30 am, Katrina Kaif is dunking her face in ice water to close the open pores on her face, and most of us are still slowly gliding towards that snooze button.
But it’s not just about our erratic sleep cycle. Habits, the good ones, trickle down to the first food we stuff our faces with in the morning.
It can also mean turning on all the lights in the house and dressing up to feel good after a gloomy day, like veteran actor Waheeda Rehman does.
From being a bathing professional to playing tennis daily, here are the famous habits we won’t mind imbibing this year.
Good habits to steal from your favourite icons
Prioritise sleep
Take baby steps and head to bed early, and rise to see the sun. Yes, almost like Narayan Shankar’s wellness regime from Mohabbatein.
- Less is not always more
Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg knows the importance of a good night’s sleep. She clocks in at least eight hours of sleep each night, and wants the same for her employees.
In one of her previous interviews, she said, “It’s incumbent upon all of us who run companies to make sure that people can make ends meet and have the ability to get a good night’s sleep.”
- Water is therapy
Winfrey advocates drinking loads of water and taking a bath before going to bed. “I have a bath before bed; it’s a ritual. I’m a bathing professional—I have different bubble baths, salts, beads, and oils.”
Writer Stephen King has his own water quirk too. His bed-time ritual made the cut to his biography, Haunted Heart: The Life and Times of Stephen King. “I wash my hands before going to bed. I don’t know why.”
- Disconnect
Sleep experts and Arianna Huffington agree that not taking your smartphones to bed is the first step towards falling asleep. “I like to say, gently escort all your devices into another room.”
Bring on the breakfast
That final slice of pizza never tasted better than on the morning after, especially when you’re living on your own, and Mummy isn’t making a three-course breakfast for you every day.
But since we are turning over a new leaf and leaving those old habits behind, keep a bottle of water and a fruit plate (with the salt shaker) handy.
- Keep it simple
Downloading Aqualert isn’t enough. You have to follow in Anushka Sharma’s footsteps. The actress glugs 4-5 glasses of water first thing in the morning. Nothing is simpler than this, even you know it.
Malaika Arora’s usual breakfast suspects include desi favourites – idli, poha and upma with a side of seasonal fruits.
- Go crazy with fruits
Often in her interviews, tennis champ Serena Williams has confessed her love for a healthy platter in breakfast including staples like smoothies and fruits. Adding a multigrain toast helps too.
Banana is Kareena Kapoor Khan’s chosen fruit for breakfast, a tip she probably picked up from her nutritionist Rujuta Diwekar who advocates mindfully eating seasonal fruits or dried fruits and nuts as the first meal of the day.
- Let your freak flag fly (on cheat days, only)
Some of the biggest entrepreneurs and tech billionaires obviously think outside the box. But a lot of them have some OTT weird breakfast habits. Save them for your cheat days.
Bill Gates often skips breakfast and loves his cheeseburgers so much that one must be ready to have them at any hour of the day if you’re meeting him.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk is not fussy about the first meal of the day. In fact, he often skips them too. But in case, he decides to have breakfast, he indulges in a Mars bar.
Seems befitting for somebody aiming to drive to space, after all.
The feel-good factor
A closet filled with athleisure, check. A renewed annual gym membership, check. A new fitness tracker is in the house too. But who is going to make us leave the house to achieve those giant fitness goals? Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour certainly will.
- Just shut up
Didn’t mean to offend you, but observing silence voluntarily for a certain duration during your busy day will certainly keep you from some unwarranted screaming.
Huffington’s wellness regime includes half an hour of meditation. Winfrey, too, has spoken about how she prefers 20 minutes of complete silence twice a day. Beware, it also sounds like a trap to lure you into falling asleep at work.
- Walk and talk, literally
Ditch the standing desks, go for walking meetings instead. Accomplish work and step goals all at once.
Steve Jobs swore by this habit. Huffington, Amazon tycoon Jeff Bezos, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey are merely following suit.
- Swear by yoga
There are more kinds of yoga than there are matches on your Tinder profile. Power yoga, Kundalini yoga and Vinyasa yoga are just three of them. Buy a yoga mat and take your pick because your fitness icons are mighty serious about it.
Arora loves to perform a handstand and a headstand, right after she wakes up. Huffington does it too. You don’t have to necessarily start with her wellness regime. But also, please go beyond Savasana.
- Make a game out of it
Tennis, badminton, squash are all alternatives to a workout session in the gym. At 70, Wintour still regularly indulges in an hour-long tennis session to wake herself up. It helps to find an equally motivated partner.
