Want to know 20 healthy habits that will give you energy, vitality, and self-confidence?
I’ve got you covered. For over five years, I’ve been experimenting with different self-improvement habits, trying to determine which ones contribute the most to my quality of life. Some habits are better than others. However, they all move you along your self-improvement journey to become the best version of yourself.
With that in mind (and in no particular order), here are 20 healthy habits you should follow every day to improve your life.
20 Healthy Habits Rating System
As I go through each habit, I’ll give it an honest rating out of 10.
The rating signifies a couple of things: the degree of effort it takes to get started combined with the long-term benefits if you stick with it. The lower the rating (1 or 2 out of 10, for example), the harder the habit is to get started, and the lower the perceived value of the long-term benefits.
Conversely, the higher the rating out of 10 (8 or 9, for example), the easier it is to start the process, and the better the benefits you’ll experience.
Let’s get started.
1. Begin an Exercise Routine
It’s no surprise exercise made this list. A regular workout regimen is one of the best things you can possibly do for yourself.
I placed it at number one as it’s the easiest way to start. You don’t need any equipment, special education, or expensive training. You can jog on the spot for 5 minutes. Do 20 pushups. You can also put on an exercise video from YouTube and follow along with the workout (I did that a lot when I first started).
Exercise keeps you at a healthy weight, lowers your chances of diseases, ensures you’re mentally and physically strong, and can even prolong your life.
In fact, according to a 2018 study, 150 to 300 minutes a week of vigorous activity or 300 to 600 minutes a week of moderate activity were all you needed to do to maximize mortality reduction. Exercise is a 10 out of 10.
2. Juice Vegetables
I started juicing vegetables daily in 2021. However, I took a break in 2023 due to extensive traveling. But I returned to the practice because it keeps me focused, gives me energy, and puts me in a positive state.
Here’s the recipe I’ve been using if you’re interested.
This simple habit shift can be the foundation of a healthy lifestyle. Moreover, out of the 20 healthy habits, juicing vegetables lies in the middle ground of our rating system.
Let me explain.
This simple practice is easy enough to do. All that’s required is to get the ingredients and blend them together. However, it also requires a little bit of a commitment. You have to get a blender if you don’t have one already, you need to learn to try a new recipe that you’re not familiar with, and it’s also a pain in the ass to put together every week (there are quite a few ingredients).
As a result, it’s a great habit that’s easy to do, and it’s also very beneficial for your health, but it demands some effort. For this reason, I’ll rate this habit as a 5 out of 10.
3. Take Cold Showers
I recently completed a four-year sprint of daily cold showers.
So, believe me when I say I have a few strong opinions on this habit. Cold showers have many proven advantages. And if you’re looking to challenge yourself, toughen up a bit, and really see what you’re made of, I recommend a cold shower.
However, this habit is oversold in the self-improvement world.
In fact, out of the 20 health habits on this list, cold showers are the most overhyped. That’s not to discount their utility; it’s just a personal opinion. But don’t let that dissuade you if you’re interested in this discipline.
With all this in mind, I give cold showers a 3 out of 10.
4. Drink 8 to 10 Cups of Water
As a result, you need to stay hydrated throughout the day in order to optimize your performance mentally and physically. It’s like eating the right food—which we’ll get to shortly—to maintain a strong body.
I took up this habit in the summer of 2022.
And I haven’t looked back. The cool part is that this habit kind of forces you to cut out all the horrible liquid calories you may be consuming from other sources. Think about it… To accommodate your water intake, you’ll naturally have to stop drinking sodas, energy drinks, or juices.
These things are loaded with empty calories that do nothing for your body.
Water, on the other hand, is the life-sustaining agent you can’t live without. It’s critical for your health and well-being, and the best part is that it’s easy to consume. I mean, come on, all you have to do is visit a facet in your kitchen for 5 seconds.
I don’t think it can get any easier and faster than that. For this reason, I’ll rate this habit as a 10 out of 10.
5. Read for Personal Development
Health goes beyond just what you consume orally.
It also encompasses what you consume mentally. For this reason, reading is one of the most beneficial of the 20 healthy habits. Reading improves your cognitive abilities, increases your knowledge base, and even reduces stress and anxiety.
As a result, try to make it a habit to read every day.
I started a daily reading habit in July 2017 and haven’t missed a day since. So, I speak from experience when I tell you that reading is a cornerstone self-improvement habit that can change everything for you if you commit to doing it for a few minutes every day.
Reading is also rated as a 10 out of 10.
6. Feed Your Mind
You become what you repeatedly expose yourself to.
Many times, people fall short of goals and ambitions. However, it’s not because of a lack of drive or knowledge; they don’t have the right mindset. And one of the best ways to develop a powerful mindset is to guard your mind.
This idea is not taken seriously enough.
Think about it… You wouldn’t just leave the front door to your house unlocked, would you? I hope not. In the same way, you shouldn’t leave the door of mind unattended as well. The way you protect your mind is by feeding it empowering thoughts and eliminating negative ones.
This can include:
- Reading books
- Listening to podcasts
- Watching documentaries
- Listening to audiobooks
- Limit social media use, etc.
This is probably the easiest of the 20 healthy habits and can have disproportionate advantages. As a result, I’ll rate it as 10 out of 10.
7. Start a Journaling Practice
As of this writing, I’ve had a daily journaling practice for over 5 years.
Journaling is one of the best disciplines I have. I use it to plan out my goals, gain new understandings about myself, document special or unique moments in my life, and vent my frustrations and disappointments.
As a result, it serves as an anchor that keeps me grounded.
This is especially useful during difficult periods. In fact, journaling (combined with the other disciplines I have in place) has kept me afloat in many challenging times in my life. And it can do the same for you.
Journaling is easy to do and can have many psychological and mental health benefits. As a result, I’ll rate it at 8 out of 10.
8. Limit Your Sugar Intake
I live a pretty clean life…
Case in point: I don’t gamble, I don’t do drugs, I don’t smoke or watch pornography, I rarely drink (in the last year and a half, I’ve had two beers), but there is one guilty pleasure I do enjoy… Sugar…
More specifically, a sugar-filled french vanilla from Tim Hortons.
I’ll stumble into a Tim Hortons restaurant once or twice a week to get my fix, despite knowing that added sugar is horrible, and if not used in moderation, it can completely ruin your health.
Like anything else, moderation is key to your sugar intake.
I’m rating this habit as a 3 out of 10. It gets a low rating because it’s so difficult to quit. I’ve tried numerous times to limit/quit sugar. And while I have gone weeks at a time without it, it is a very challenging habit to drop, as added sugar is everywhere and in everything.
However, quitting or severely limiting your intake of added sugar will be one of the best decisions you can make for your health and wellness.
9. Connect With Good People
What if I said there was one healthy habit that could quickly skyrocket your quality of life?
This habit could improve your well-being, extend your life span, increase your happiness, make you more self-aware, and just enrich your life in countless other ways. It’s forming strong connections with good people. As the old adage goes, you are who you surround yourself with.
Out of the 20 healthy habits on my list, this one is probably the most underrated.
You were not designed to be a self-isolating hermit. I don’t care how introverted you may claim to be; even if you thrive in being alone, at some point, you will crave human connection. You can’t help it—it’s in your DNA.
As a result, connecting with good-quality people—periodically, at the very least—is essential for your mental health.
And it’s easy to do. It doesn’t take a lot of effort to fire off a quick text message to ask a close friend or family member about their availability to hang out. I rate this habit a 10 out of 10 on our rating system.
10. Create a Morning Routine
I’ve been experimenting with morning routines for about 4 years.
And for the last 3 years, I’ve been engaging in one that has really worked for me. This morning routine gets my days started on the right note. It involves:
- Pray
- Read
- Exercise
- Eat healthy breakfast
- Preliminary writing (writing for personal projects; doesn’t involve client work)
- Doing actual client work
This routine has served me well over the years.
Now, do you have to do the same things to lead a healthy life? Yes! You do! Just playing. Of course not. You have to find what works for you. These are just a few examples to give you some inspiration.
I rate a morning routine at an 8 out of 10.
11. Engage in Evening Wind-Downs
There’s a big mistake you’re probably making before you go to bed.
And this could be costing you… In fact, skipping this single habit could compromise the quality of your sleep, prevent you from waking up feeling refreshed and revitalized in the morning, and may even lead to lost productivity the next day.
It’s failing to engage in a quiet evening routine that prepares you for sleep.
This is what I refer to as evening wind-downs. Here’s the thing… If you just hop in bed after a long and busy day with no preliminary nighttime routine, you’ll often spend a couple of hours lying awake with your mind racing.
However, an evening wind-down allows you to decompress.
This puts your mind at ease, relaxes you, and helps facilitate a sleepy state that makes it easier to fall asleep. Here are a few practical habits (that have worked really well for me over the years) to consider for your nighttime wind-down routine:
- Journaling
- Reading
- Reviewing my goals
- Hot showers
- Prayer
Play around with some of these ideas (or come up with a few of your own) to see what works best for you. Evening wind-downs are easily a 10 out of 10 in my books.
12. Plan Out Your Week
What if I told you that you could streamline your schedule?
And that doing this would skyrocket your productivity, efficiency, and peace of mind? Well, this is exactly what happens when you plan out your week. Every Sunday, I do what I refer to as my weekly blueprint. I’ve been doing this for years.
It’s essentially a meta-approach to your weekly schedule.
At the end of each week, you’ll sit down to list your priorities for the following week. You can use the Notes app on your phone, a Google spreadsheet, or, like me, do it old school and just use a sheet of paper—whatever works best for you.
With all the 20 healthy habits on this list, this one will make you the most productive. It’s easy and very effective.
For this reason, it gets a 9 out of 10 on our rating system.
13. Develop a New Skill
Skill development keeps you sharp.
It helps you to adopt the identity of a lifelong learner. As a result, you always remain curious, never becoming complacent with where you are. And that’s an important quality, especially in today’s fast-paced world.
For this reason, you should always be honing some type of skill.
It could be a skill related to your business or profession, a hobby or interest, or even just a practical, everyday skill such as learning how to navigate your relationships better. I’ll use myself as an example…
My main priority at this time in my life is my copywriting business.
So, every day, I study and practice my copywriting skills for 2 hours minimum. Of course, many days, I’ll go over that baseline; however, that is the standard I’ve set in this area of my life.
Now, it’s your turn…
What skill are you looking to commit to? Give yourself a daily timeframe that you’ll dedicate strictly to the development of that skill. It will pay off big time down the line if you’re able to stick with it.
I rate this habit as a 10 out of 10.
14. Participate in Your Hobbies and Interests
These 20 healthy habits are designed to make a full and complete life.
As a result, there’s more to them than simply optimizing your lifestyle. Sometimes, it’s good to have habits for no other reason than they’re just fun to do. For example, as a public speaker, I enjoy attending weekly Toastmasters meetings.
Another activity I enjoy is training martial arts, most notably Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
These are hobbies and interests I enjoy outside of my professional life. They keep me well-rounded as a person. Also, as a freelance copywriter, I spend most of my time alone. So, these hobbies are great for getting me out of my house and interacting with others.
Engaging in your interests gets a rating of 10 out of 10—there are no downsides to this, so do it.
15. Wake up Early
Imagine having more time in the day, productivity in your work, and discipline in your life.
That’s what waking up earlier will help you achieve. Now, this isn’t for everybody. Some people just naturally function better in the evenings—to each his own. However, if you’re a morning person (like me), you’ll most likely thrive a lot more if you wake up a bit earlier.
I started waking up between 4 and 5 AM in 2020.
And it’s been one of the main disciplines responsible for streamlining my life. And it can do the same for you if you give it a chance. The best part is that you don’t have to wake up at 4 or 5 AM. Simply turning your wake-up time 30 to 45 minutes earlier can make a drastic difference.
Waking up earlier can be challenging if you’re not much of a morning person.
However, it can be incredibly beneficial if you can turn it into a habit. For this reason, I’m giving it a 7 out of 10 on our rating system.
16. Engage in Daily Prayer
Prayer is powerful, whether it’s done for a couple of minutes when you wake up or periodically throughout your day.
It doesn’t matter what your beliefs are on this topic. Prayer offers you a form of emotional and psychological release. It’s casting your worries and anxieties on Him so you don’t have to carry those burdens.
Maybe for you, it’s more of a meditation than a prayer.
Whatever. Do what works best for your temperament. The idea is to do something that releases the tensions of everyday life. Because let’s face it: Reality isn’t all butterflies and unicorns.
We have downtime and challenging moments.
As a result, you need some type of release. You have to vent; otherwise, you’ll accumulate all that pent-up angst, and that’s never a good thing. Prayer helps to alleviate that by providing an outlet for you to release your worries and concerns.
I’ll rate prayer as a 10 out of 10 on our rating system.
17. Review Your Goals
Every morning when I wake up and every evening before I go to sleep, I review my goals/vision.
This simple practice keeps my aims fresh in my mind. Therefore, I’m continually reminded of my priorities and the actions I need to take every day that will move my life in that direction. It’s an easy practice anyone can do.
But don’t let its simplicity make you think it won’t yield powerful results.
This is how you stay focused in life. Seriously. There are countless distractions vying for your attention. But just by reading your goals or vision to yourself every day, you can center your focus on what matters most.
This simple habit gets a 10 out of 10 rating.
18. Create a Study Period
You have goals, undoubtedly.
Maybe you want to start a business, write a book, or master a skill. Awesome. Everyone should always have something they’re working toward. Whatever that something is for you, I’d like to suggest that you dedicate a certain amount of time to learning about it.
This is your study period.
It could be 10 minutes; it could be an hour—it doesn’t matter. The point is to simply have a blocked-off period during which you can focus and learn more about what you’re trying to do.
And most importantly, that it’s a consistent and regular part of your schedule.
While studying is without question one of the best things you can do to advance yourself personally and professionally, it can be difficult to force yourself to get it done. As a result, I’ll give this habit a rating of 8 out of 10.
19. Set up an Accountability Check-in
If possible, find yourself an accountability partner.
And set up weekly check-ins with this person to help hold you to your goals. I talk about this a lot: accountability is great for helping you develop follow-through. But you don’t want just anybody. Find someone who shares goals and values similar to yours.
Make sure it’s someone you can trust and have a high level of respect for.
This will ensure you’re putting your best forward to hit those goals. After all, no one wants to look like a flake in front of someone they hold in high regard. Because this habit is easy to do and highly effective, I’m rating it at a 9 out of 10.
20. Track Everything
This last habit ties everything together.
Whether you integrate only one or two of these habits or you use the entire list, track them to build consistency. There’s a reason people log their workouts when they go to the gym. What gets tracked gets measured, and what gets measured gets improved.
By keeping tabs on your habits, you can better see how they improve your life.
But more than that, it also helps you to stay consistent. You can think of habit tracking as another form of accountability. Therefore, it becomes easier to stay the course, especially when you see the progress you’ll make over time.
Use these methods to track your habits:
- Habit tracker (there are plenty of free downloads available)
- The Notes app on your phone
- Pen and a sheet of paper
Another advantage of tracking is that it helps to establish a strong sense of momentum in your life.
It’s like a snowball rolling downhill. The further along it goes down the slope, the faster and more powerful it becomes until it can’t be stopped as it begins to take on a life of its own. The same concept applies to the habits that you track.
Give it a try. I think you’ll be shocked at the results. Because of its simplicity and effectiveness, this habit gets a sold 10 out of 10 rating from me.
Final Thoughts
There you have it: 20 healthy habits to help you form the ultimate self-improvement routine. You can mix and match these ideas to see what works best for you. Experiment with them until you dial in the set that complements your lifestyle. And if you need additional inspiration, I’ve got you covered…
Check out my ebook The Disciplined Mind. It’s brimming with proven ideas, strategies, and insights to keep you honed in on your self-improvement journey.
