How to be in the Top 1% in 2026: Nine simple ideas

What does "top 1%" really mean? People usually think it's just wealth. But for me, it's more than money. For me, success is in the meaning drawn from well-spent moments of my scarce time. Therefore, I want to learn from those who make up the top 1% of truly happy people-those who go beyond money and status, feel in control of their time, and set clear, deliberate priorities. They create a life with a solid foundation of strong intentions.

Those who are awake in their own lives will be the "satisfied" top 1% in 2026. They are inquisitive, creative, and have enough energy at the end of the day to spend time with the people they care about. Without a doubt, you could be one of them. 

There is no secret recipe for getting into the top 1% in 2026. It's a sequence of deliberate decisions. A wealth chart may not always show the most valued "1%." It is the tiny portion of individuals who are conscious of their own lives. 

They're not always "rich." However, they are unrestricted. intentional and inquisitive. It's the club that counts. The door is also open. All you need to do is choose that you desire it enough to create a change in your present life.

Nine simple ideas to focus on for the life you want.

1. Start by making instead of consuming. 

• The algorithm wants you to passively take in knowledge that doesn't really improve your life. If you're always overloaded with content, you won't be able to make it to the top 1%. Author Derek Sivers remarked, "We'd all be billionaires with perfect abs if more information were the answer." Give yourself an hour to think of what to make without any feedback. Or how to make the most of your time. Making the video, writing the newsletter, developing the product, and managing the staff are all done by the top 1%.

Hard things, the challenging tasks. 

• The task is important to your future self. You might want to think about switching from audience to author. Observe an issue at work? Focus on your solution. Doing the hard things. Have an interest in something nerdy? Put it in your purse. Take action to address it. Launch a small newsletter. Building things, no matter how tiny, gives you impetus. Consuming indefinitely causes you to lose it. Do certain things make you hard to replace and impossible to ignore?

Take care of your attention like it's your money. 

• Your focused attention is what converts time into outcomes; it is more valuable than your time. The cost of attention increases annually. Not cash. not vitality. Pay attention. Perfect discipline is not possessed by the top 1%. They just put systems in place. Let's start with your phone. Put it out of sight for ten deep work. Better still, turn off those annoying alerts. It's an affirmation of mental dominance. Each notification is a small tax on your ability to focus. Flip the phone over. Anything that helps you focus on the task at hand. I don't trust myself not to pick it up, so I do it. And watch how much clearer your brain feels. Pick an hour or two every day where your phone is out of sight.

Choose one skill and practice it every day.  

• Not ten. Not five. One. Seriously. Most individuals scatter themselves and wonder why they aren't accomplishing anything important. The most successful people dig deep first, then wide. Hone your leverage. When I determined to improve my writing. I did not tell myself, "I'm going to be a writer!" I recently committed to writing every day, three times a week. And my first few attempts were terrible. But I wasn't concerned about how excellent it should be. I simply persist. I'm still learning to write every day. I'm a newbie every time I sit down to write.

The goal I had was to get my brain in the habit of writing a little each day. 

• The more you write every day, the better you'll get at it, and you might not even notice that the progress is happening. What one thing do you want to get better at? Coding? Public speaking? Design? Sales? Who cares what it is. The key is to try to do a little bit each day for a short time. That's already ahead of about 99% of the people who get held back. Consistency beats having a lot of intensity. I know you've heard that a million times - but have you actually tried it? Something shifts after a month or two - and what used to feel scary all of a sudden becomes doable. The best 1% in the world aren't immune to all the bad things that can go wrong. They've just learned to accept the obstacles and do the thing anyway

Build a system that makes good choices easy for you. 

• I've got a lot of love for willpower - but it just doesn't work in real life. You use it up by lunchtime. If you want to be in that top 1%, don't rely on making heroic efforts to be disciplined. Build some systems you can just do on autopilot without thinking too hard about it. If you want to read more, just chuck your Kindle on your pillow at night before you go to bed. You'll probably have to move it out of the way before you go to sleep - and chances are you'll end up reading a few sentences. Sounds silly, but it actually works.

Make the default you, 
The one who wins by having healthy food right in front of you. 

• Put the things that tempt you to be rubbish away in a corner. And get the most boring stuff done automatically - the things you're not exactly wild about doing. Being in that top 1% is about avoiding all the stupid battles you don't need to have. Just sort out the boring stuff - like getting a good night's sleep, and staying hydrated and rested. Throw in some basic self-care and maybe invest in some things that will make your future self love you. The top 1% are all about making life easy and enjoyable - they know it's the small things that keep life running smoothly. If you can get a good nights sleep and know you're being intentional about everything in your life then that's pretty much your best life.

Build a life you don't need to escape from. 

• Lots of people don't actually want success - they just want to be relieved from the misery of getting by. They want an out, a break from all the craziness. People in the top 1% are different - they will not tolerate bad work that drains them for long - they'll turn it round or leave. And the same with relationships that are driving them nuts - they'll set some boundaries. Or if they're starting to burn out from their schedule, they'll sort that out too. They're not about making huge changes - just tiny tweaks that get better and better over time. Like what single thing would you do to make your life just 5% easier each day? Thats your starting point.

Know what you're actually optimising for. 

• This is the tricky bit - because you might think you want what everyone else is talking about - the money, status, and all that. But when you take all that away, what do you really want? Maybe you want some freedom. Or time to do what you want. Or to be able to make some art. Or to be stable and secure. If you chase the wrong thing because that's what everyone else is doing, you'll burn out and still feel empty. And you'll wonder what the point was. You get what you want, but you might not get what you actually need. What is winning to you? Once you work that out, the path ahead of you will become clear.

Set stakes that actually matter to you. 

• Don't set your goals on guilt or ego - that's a recipe for burnout that'll leave you crashing fast. But if you tie your ambitions to things that genuinely mean something to you- your future, your pride, the freedom to live life on your own terms, the people you care about most - that's a whole different story. What's something that you care so deeply about that you'd be willing to change your daily habits for it? Tie your growth to something that's precious to you, and motivation won't be a daily struggle. You'll have purpose, and you can put up with the 'anyhow' days when the stakes are personal.

Let yourself be bad before you get good. 

• This one's tough to swallow. We're all taught to put on a perfect face - to be the "great" version of ourselves. The top 1% know that the only way to get good is to be bad first. They'll try new things even though they know they'll likely fail at first. They permit themselves to look like beginners. Most people are terrified of looking stupid, so they bail just before things start getting better. Don't be one of them. Stick it out long enough to get past those first few embarrassing lessons. The top 1% aren't walking around with an air of absolute certainty - most of them are still figuring some things out.

Most of them are making it up as they go along, half the time. 

• They get wiser with every experiment they try, every mistake they make. You know what they do have? A willingness to act before they feel 100% ready. They don't wait until they've eliminated their fears. They act with fear around them, through it. So if right now you feel like you're not sure about your path? Great - that means you're actually on one. Get comfortable with being a beginner. And then get comfortable being a beginner all over again. It's a pretty humbling experience.

Forgive yourself faster. 

• This might just be the most important top-1% skill out there. Anyone can put in the hard work and make a plan. But it takes a select few to fall off the path and get right back on without a huge internal meltdown. When you screw up - and you will - don't overthink it. Don't turn it into an identity crisis. It happened, and then move on. Get back to what you do best. The quicker you cut yourself some slack, the faster you're going to grow. Shame's a much bigger brake on progress than laziness ever will be.