You don’t have one Inner Circle. You have many.

Inherited Inner Circle

Most of the people in your Inherited Inner Circle are individuals you did not choose. They have been literally deposited into your life.

• Family Inner Circle – Everyone has an Inherited Inner Circle. Inside are the members of your immediate and extended family. You have no choice over who is in your Inherited Family Inner Circle. For good or for bad, these individuals will part of your life, from birth to death.
• Job Inner Circle – For most, who you work with are deposited into this Inherited Inner Circle. So long as you and they continue to work where you work, you will have to contend with these individuals.
• School Inner Circle – You don’t get to pick your classmates. So, they are part of this circle until you graduate and move on.
• Neighborhood Inner Circle – You can pick where you want to live, but you can’t choose your neighbors. Once you move into a neighborhood, you inherit your neighbors. These individuals will be part of your Inherited Inner Circle until you or they move out of the neighborhood
• Club/Group Inner Circle – When you join any club or become part of any group, you inherit the members of that club or group. These include Golf Clubs, Country Clubs, Gyms, Business Groups, Teams, Church/Religious Group, etc.

Insider’s Club

Who you surround yourself with in life will directly and indirectly impact your success. Those who become very successful in life, choose to spend the majority of their time with individuals who lift them up. These are upbeat, optimistic, enthusiastic, positive, success-minded people. They possess the habits, the thinking, the work ethic and the emotional balance you desire.

You want your Insider’s Club to be made up of people with a common purpose and who share your desire to succeed.

Some of those invited into this prestigious club may be people you inherited. Some may be outside your Inherited Inner Circle. The people you invite in, must be individuals who will help you become the person you need to be in order for success to visit you.

Once you’ve created a clear vision of your future, ideal self, that is the time to create your own Insider’s Club. Knowing who you want to be will help you choose the right like-minded people to become part of your Insider’s Club. These individuals will share with you a common vision of the future life you desire.

Members of your Insider’s Club will help pull your cart. They will open doors for you. They will participate in your journey towards success.

Everyone who succeeds in life, has a select group of individuals who participate in their success. If you want to succeed, you need to create your own Insider’s Club. It’s an invitation-only group.

Start your Insider’s Club today. And choose wisely.

My mission is to share my unique research in order to help others realize their dreams and achieve their goals. If you find value in these articles, please share them with your inner circle and encourage them to Subscribe. Thank You!

If you ask ten people what it means to be wealthy, you’ll get ten different answers.

Wealth means different things to different people.

I’ve been trying to peel the onion of wealth and poverty since I began my Rich Habits study in 2004.

I’ve written often about need income and want income, as these two things relate to wealth. But one of my financial planning associates had a different spin on what it means to be wealthy.

His argument is that you are truly wealthy when the assets you own generate two types of income:

Paycheck Income

This is income that provides for everything you NEED.

It covers all of your basic expenses, and meets your cost of living needs. This category includes:

• Shelter Costs – Mortgage or Rent, Real Estate Taxes, Utilities, etc.
• Automobile Costs – Loan or Lease Payments, Car Insurance, Gas, Repairs & Maintenance, etc.
• Medical/Dental Expenses – Medical/Dental Insurance, Out of Pocket Costs, Emergency Costs, etc.
• Other Basics – Food, Clothing, etc.

Playcheck Income

This is income that provides for everything you WANT.

This category includes:

• Vacations
• Family Support/Gifts
• Charity
• Travel Dreams – Wimbledon, Europe, Cruises, etc.
• Club Costs – Golf Club, Country Club, Yacht Club, etc.
• 2nd Home Costs
• Hobbies/Recreation – Skiing, Boating, Fishing, etc.

Your Paycheck income is driven by your standard of living. Some people have a different standard of living than others.

Your Playcheck income is driven by our wants and your wants are dictated by what your definition of an abundant life is. An abundant life is different for each person.

This is why it is impossible to numerically define wealth – everyone’s life is different.

My mission is to share my unique research in order to help others realize their dreams and achieve their goals. If you find value in these articles, please share them with your inner circle and encourage them to Subscribe. Thank You!

Victims have a negative mindset fueled by anger.

Anger at fate, anger at the company they work for, anger at their boss, anger at society, anger at government, anger at politicians, anger at anyone who is wealthy and successful.

Victims see themselves as powerless to change their lives.

To medicate their anger by engaging in bad habits that perpetuate the life they despise.

They drink in excess, they take drugs, they defile their bodies through a lack of exercise and unhealthy eating, they spend hours living in the fantasy world TV provides them, and they engage in wasteful brain-numbing activities.

Victims point their finger at everyone but themselves.

When you are a victim, you see nothing good in your future. This negative, pessimistic outlook on life fortifies the circumstances in which they live.

To a large extent, this is most people. To one degree or another, most have a victim mindset.

The exceptional few, that magical 5% I constantly refer to, are able to break free from the limiting belief of blame and victimhood.

This 5% forge Rich Habits that weaken the chains that bind them to their current unhappy circumstances.

These Rich Habits, over many years, eventually break those chains, rewarding them with a happy, healthy and wealthy life.

This 5% are able to break free because they create a very clear, future vision of themselves that is so powerful, it is able to force them to alter their habits, change their thinking, pursue dreams and pursue the goals that make those dreams possible.

When you alter the vision of your future life, you no longer play the victim card.

When you are clear on who you desire to be, you begin to chart a course for your life that completely changes the current circumstances of your life.

Oftentimes, in ways you never expected.

My mission is to share my unique research in order to help others realize their dreams and achieve their goals. If you find value in these articles, please share them with your inner circle and encourage them to Subscribe. Thank You!

When the body is running low on fuel (glucose), the brain will send a signal to the stomach, via the vagus nerve, that it requires fuel.

The vagus nerve will then trigger hunger pains in the stomach, in the hope that you will eat something. Once you eat enough, the vagus nerve sends a signal to the brain – “mission accomplished”. The brain will respond by sending a cease and desist order back down the vagus nerve to put an end to your hunger pains, in the hope you will stop eating.

As a rule, each person has their own genetically predetermined metabolic “weight” set point.

A “weight” set point is the level of weight each person’s body seeks to maintain.

For example, if my metabolic “weight” set point is 190 pounds, my body will do what it can to maintain that “weight” set point.

If I were to go on a diet and exercise regimen, my body’s metabolism will slow down, in an effort to maintain my 190 pounds.

If I decide to eat more and exercise less, my body’s metabolism will speed up, in an effort to maintain my 190 pounds.

So, we’re all screwed then, when it comes to weight loss?

Yes. Unless you know how to change your metabolic “weight” set point.

Since 2004 I have been studying habits. I wrote four books about my findings.

The good news, I learned from my research, is that you can lower your metabolic “weight” set point with just two good habits:

#1 Eating Healthy Nutritious Food

The food you eat generates the fuel (primarily glucose – sometimes ketones) you need in order to provide the energy to get through each day.

If the food you’re eating is unhealthy, meaning not nutritious (junk food/processed food), your brain will continue to send signals to your stomach to eat more, in order to obtain the fuel it requires. This additional excess eating leads to weight gain.

If the food you eat is highly nutritious, however, you will not need to eat as much food and your brain will stop sending hunger signals to your stomach.

#2 Sleeping 7 – 8 Hours a Day

Sleep also affects your metabolic “weight” set point. Those sleeping less than 4 hours a night are 73% more likely to be obese. Sleep deprivation lowers leptin (fat) levels and raises gherlin (a hormone that stimulates appetite) levels. When you don’t get enough sleep, your body increases the level of fat storage and increases your appetite.

Researchers have concluded that the best way to maintain sustained weight loss and permanently lower your body’s “weight” set point is through a lifelong process of eating healthy foods and getting a good night’s sleep (7-8 hours for adults).

My mission is to share my unique research in order to help others realize their dreams and achieve their goals. If you find value in these articles, please share them with your inner circle and encourage them to Subscribe. Thank You!

The recent hit job on Tony Robbins by Buzz Feed really took him to task for certain inappropriate behaviors. I won’t get into much of the specifics of that hit piece, but suffice it to say – Tony Robbins ain’t perfect.

No mentors are perfect.

But the good ones, like Tony Robbins, have a powerful message that is so profound, it casts a shadow over their faults, no matter how egregious.

One of the repeat charges in the Buzz Feed article was Tony’s inability to control his sexual urges.

I’ve been giving this Tony Robbins Buzz Feed hit job thing some thought and I believe Tony suffers from something I’ll call Emotions Gone Wild.

I’ve never been to one of Tony’s week-long events but I know quite a few people who have. And they all agree on one thing – the entire week they are exposed to a a highly emotional experience, with Tony leading the emotional charge.

The idea is that by tapping into your emotions during these events, Tony can exorcise your inner demons, allowing you to escape the limiting beliefs that are holding you back.

Because Tony does many events during any given year, his emotions are constantly amped up.

This effectively takes his Pre-Frontal Cortex offline for long periods of time, which, I believe, has led to behavior that, according to the Buzz Feed article, is inappropriate.

Emotions are very powerful and, if left unchecked, can be very destructive. You must be constantly vigilant in checking your emotions.

Given too much freedom, emotions will take control of your Prefrontal Cortex – your executive command and control center and the place where logic reigns supreme.

When you are controlled by your emotions, it never ends well. Eventually, those emotions will pull you down into a cesspool of poor behavior, your logical brain would never otherwise permit.

This is why controlling your emotions is a Rich Habit.

My mission is to share my unique research in order to help others realize their dreams and achieve their goals. If you find value in these articles, please share them with your inner circle and encourage them to Subscribe. Thank You!

For the three individuals out there who have never hear of Spock, he is the Vulcan in the Star Trek series, books and movies.

Spock’s overriding character trait was that he never expressed emotion and, thus, was ruled by logic.

Interestingly, controlling your emotions was one of the common Rich Habits among the self-made millionaires in my Rich Habits Study.

There is a great deal of new brain science out there that explains how emotions, in particular,negative emotions, alter brain performance. One of the most profound impacts emotions have on the brain is that they interfere with the operations of the Prefrontal Cortex.

Why is that a problem?

It’s a problem because the Prefrontal Cortex does numerous things, some of which impact your ability to live a successful, happy, healthy and wealthy life:

• Executive Command and Control – The Prefrontal Cortex is the area of the brain where logic and decision-making reside.
• Creativity – Insight, flashes of genius and intuition result from the joint communication between the Prefrontal Cortex and the Limbic system.
• Consciousness – Although consciousness is spread out among many areas of the brain, the Prefrontal Cortex is the CEO of consciousness and self awareness.
• Emotional Control – The Prefrontal Cortex has the ability to stop emotions in their tracks, upon command.

When your emotions erupt, you have two choices – let them flow or shut them down.

When you allow your emotions to flow, the Amygdala, one of the primary emotional centers of the brain, takes complete control of the brain by shutting down or overpowering the Prefrontal Cortex.

There are millions of people around the world, sitting behind bars, all because they allowed their Amygdala to control their behaviors and decision-making.

So, controlling your emotions keeps you out of trouble?

Yes, but it is much more than that.

Controlling your emotions also happens to be critical to success, wealth, health and happiness.

When the Prefrontal Cortex is trained to control emotions, and this training becomes a habit, the Amygdala loses all power over you. This allows you to intelligently and logically think through difficult situations, without any emotional interference.

Those who have trained themselves to be unemotional, as I have done, are able to tune out all negativity, no matter the source, and go on about their business.

If someone says something offensive to me, I ignore it.

If something unexpectedly bad happens, I shrug my shoulders and immediately begin seeking a solution.

If I have to perform a task that I loathe, like firing someone, I never allow myself to emotionally react to that employee’s emotional outburst, during the firing process, which only exacerbates a bad situation.

In other words, I have trained myself to be like Spock. And, I even have a mantra I use often to help me retain control of my emotions. When I feel my Amygdala acting up I say to myself over and over –  Be Like Spock.

This way I retain complete control over my thinking, which prevents me from getting off track, allowing me to focus on the task at hand.

Becoming successful is a process. Part of that process is learning to Be Like Spock and control your emotions. And, it’s a big part of that process.

My mission is to share my unique research in order to help others realize their dreams and achieve their goals. If you find value in these articles, please share them with your inner circle and encourage them to Subscribe. Thank You!

Back in October 2015, I went in for my annual physical. One of the standard procedures included taking my blood pressure.

Now, my father struggled with high blood pressure. When he was in his mid-50’s, his blood pressure was so high that he was forced to take blood pressure medicine to get it down and my Dad stayed on those meds until he died at age 92.

So, naturally, when I reached my 50’s, high blood pressure became a concern of mine.

Well, when my Doctor took my blood pressure, he startled me – “Too high”.

“How high?” I asked.

“149 over 110.”

My Doctor opened my file and checked my history. “Last year it was 122 over 81,” he commented, paused, then continued.

“Your father had a history of high blood pressure. I think it’s only going to get worse, the older you get, due to your family history. I believe it would be prudent to get you on some meds.”

I had a different idea.

I told my Doctor that I knew a little bit about health from my Rich Habits research and promised him that next year my blood pressure would be back to normal.

The following year, at my annual physical, my Doctor took my blood pressure. It had, in fact, dropped to 108 over 77 and my Doctor wanted to know how.

I told my Doctor that, after our last exam, I began running “every day”. In fact, I had just completed 365 straight days of running, when it was time for my annual physical.

I also informed him that I had altered my diet – Since my last exam, I began intermittent fasting and shifted 60% of my diet to green vegetables.

How does this have anything to do with confidence?

My new commitment to running every day, in order to help get my blood pressure down, had an interesting and unexpected side effect – my running confidence went through the roof.

I was able to run very long distances after only a few months of running every day. I became so confident in my running ability that I completed three half marathons and, in October of 2018, even completed the Long Beach Island 18 Mile Run with my kids.

At age 57, I was more confident in my running ability than at age 18.

You see, daily repetition in anything you do, produces mastery and mastery creates confidence.

I have high confidence in my writing because I write every day.

I have high confidence in my understanding of habits because, every day, I do daily research on habits.

I have a high confidence in taxes and financial planning because, every day, I spend about thirty minutes engaged in technical reading.

I learned something else about confidence. It’s fleeting. When the repetition drops off, so too does your confidence.

Case in point – Since early January, I have had severe pain in my right foot. “Too much running,” I thought. So, I stopped running for the entire month of January.

During that entire month of January, I could, almost on a daily basis, feel my running confidence dropping like a rock. When I finally laced my sneakers for my first return run, I had zero running confidence and struggled to get through two miles.

Concern about re-injuring my foot has forced me to abandon my daily running routine in favor of an every other day running routine.

My running confidence is still very low, as I write these words. I struggle to run more than four miles at a clip.

Daily repetition produces mastery and mastery creates confidence. 

Inconsistency results in mediocrity, which impairs confidence. 

And, like a third eye, people can sense your level of confidence.

You broadcast your level of confidence to everyone in your orbit.

If you want those around you to have confidence in you, you must first have confidence in yourself.

Daily repetition, in whatever you do, will create a high degree of self-confidence and that self-confidence will be broadcast, subliminally, to everyone you come into contact with.

Those who perceive in you a high degree of self-confidence, will become confident in your skills or knowledge and want to do business with you.

Those who perceive in you a low degree of self-confidence, will lack confidence in your skills or knowledge and shy away from doing business with you.

Daily repetition leads to mastery, which leads to confidence.

My mission is to share my unique research in order to help others realize their dreams and achieve their goals. If you find value in these articles, please share them with your inner circle and encourage them to Subscribe. Thank You!

5% of the population in America make most of the money, own most of the wealth, pay most of the income tax and dictate the lives of the remaining 95%. Here are some stats that will open your eyes:

• The top 5% of households make $231,206 a year (source: Tax Foundation).
• The top 5% of households control 60% of the nation’s wealth (source: Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finance).
• The top 5% of households pay 57% of all income tax (source: Tax Foundation).

This top 5% run big companies, run small companies, employ millions, create new jobs, hire and fire employees, invest in new companies, liquidate old companies, increase wages, decrease wages, increase benefits, reduce benefits and outsource jobs.

They also control politicians through their political contribution and the lobby groups they control, which means the politicians work for them and the other 5%, not for the 95%.

This 5% can (and do) alter our lives, for better or for worse.

So, who are these 5%? Who are these individuals that leverage so much control over our lives?

In my five year study on the daily habits of the rich and poor, I found out.

Here’s what I found:

• 18% were senior executives working for large, publicly-held companies
• 51% were small business owners
• 13% were salesmen/saleswomen
• 28% had some professional designation. Some worked for big companies, others in a small business.
• 63% took a personal financial risk in search of wealth
• 85% liked what they did for a living
• 91% were decision makers at their job
• 21% were “A” students
• 41% were “B” students
• 29% were “C” students
• 68% had a college degree
• 25% had a post graduate degree
• 56% worked their way through college
• 86% worked more than 50 hours per week
• 27% failed at least once in business
• 54% considered themselves optimists
• 67% were frugal
• 76% grew up poor or middle-class
• 80% pursued a major goal or dream in life
• 62% focused on specific goals every day
• 75% had good daily habits
• 76% exercised aerobically 30 minutes or more, four days a week
• 63% watched less than one hour of T.V. a day
• 64% lived in a modest home
• 84% said they created the opportunity for good luck to occur in their lives
• 93% who had a mentor, attributed their wealth to their mentors
• 86% associated with other rich, success-minded people
• 94% engaged in daily self-improvement

My mission is to share my unique research in order to help others realize their dreams and achieve their goals. If you find value in these articles, please share them with your inner circle and encourage them to Subscribe. Thank You!

Use it or lose it applies to intelligence.

The more you use your brain, the more brain mass you create. More mass = greater intelligence.

Brain density is measured by the number of synapses (connections between neurons), the girth of the myelin sheath surrounding each axon (the axon is how brain cells send signals) and the volume of glial cells, which support brain cells.

When you engage in daily learning, daily aerobic exercise and eat healthy, nutritious foods, you increase the production of Nerve Growth Factor (NFG) in your brain. NFG is a protein that helps grow and maintain neurons, the myelin sheath and glial support cells.

Increasing the production of NFG is important when you consider that the average person loses 10% of their brain weight in a lifetime, with more of that brain loss occurring after age 60.

Daily learning, daily aerobic exercise and good nutrition are particularly important in maintaining and growing glial cells.

Glial cells protect the health and support the growth of neurons and the myelin sheath.

Although there was nothing particularly unusual about his brain, Albert Einstein, at the time of his death (age 75), did have an above average number of glial support cells, which no doubt helped keep Einstein’s brain functioning at a high level during his lifetime.

Even up to his last breath, Einstein’s brain was hard at work trying to come up with a unified field theory.

Your brain is a muscle. Like any muscle, you must use it daily for it to grow and you must feed it. You feed it through daily aerobic exercise and healthy eating.

If you want to succeed in life, you must forge daily habits that improve brain performance and brain health.

Success is a process. Part of that process includes increasing your intelligence throughout your success journey. When you optimize brain performance, you are able to find creative and intelligent solutions to all of the obstacles, pitfalls and problems you will encounter during your journey towards success.

My mission is to share my unique research in order to help others realize their dreams and achieve their goals. If you find value in these articles, please share them with your inner circle and encourage them to Subscribe. Thank You!

Obsession is an unrelenting focus that enables you to overcome all obstacles, pitfalls, setbacks, problems and and any unexpected consequences life throws in your path.

One of the common threads of most of the self-made millionaires in my Rich Habits Study was that they had found their obsession.

The rich were single-mindedly obsessed, typically with achieving a long-term goal or in pursuing a major purpose or dream.

Pursuing a long-term goal, dream or purpose infuses you with a passion that gives you incredible powers of focus and persistence.

You can’t force or fake obsession. You either have it or you don’t. It is almost always the byproduct of pursuing some long-term goal, dream or major purpose in life.

Human beings are goal-seeking drones. We function at an optimum level when we are obsessed with achieving something big in life; something that forces us to stretch, grow and become something different, something better.

Goals and dreams are catalysts for great achievement in life. They enable you to accomplish seemingly super-human feats. They force you to dig deep and, in the process, they introduce you to the amazing person buried deep inside of you. Someone who was there all along.

When you find your obsession, your life will change in unimaginable ways.

Read, explore, experiment. Join a new group. Volunteer. Start a side gig. Step outside your comfort zone into the discomfort zone. That is where you will find your obsession.

Your obsession is out there, patiently waiting for you. It won’t find you. You must find it.

My mission is to share my unique research in order to help others realize their dreams and achieve their goals. If you find value in these articles, please share them with your inner circle and encourage them to Subscribe. Thank You!