While it is common in present day psychological research to put personal achievement down to cognitive IQ, socio-economic standing or some measure of innate talent, there is a growing body of evidence from behavioral science to the contrary. Long-term achievement, these newer perspectives hold, is for the most part a function of deliberate self-improvement, emotional self-regulation and the habit loops one puts in place. One would think with the cultural vogue for self-help that empirical work isolating the behavioural underpinnings of personal mastery would be plentiful; in fact such rigorous investigations are hard to come by. The present study is an attempt to rectify this by looking at the direct empirical link between longitudinal outcomes and certain self-improvement behaviours including time architecture, micro-goal tracking and emotional regulation. A mixed-methods approach was taken: three-year panels of 950 adults from all walks of professional and private life were tracked longitudinally, while 60 in-depth interviews with high achievers, executive life coaches and behavioural therapists provided the qualitative psychological narrative. From our quantitative data we have daily habit adherence, milestone velocities and emotional stability indices. When put through advanced statistical modelling in the form of hierarchical multiple regression and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), the results show systematic micro-goal tracking and a firm hand on one’s emotions to be very strong positive predictors of long term achievement (β = 0.74, p < 0.001) . Unchecked procrastination and a bias for instant gratification have the opposite effect, with a marked negative bearing on developmental velocity (β = -0.56, p < 0.01). It is the conclusion of this paper that any lasting personal achievement demands a move away from the odd motivational surge in favour of automated systems of behavioural self-regulation backed by environmental feedback.