Brain cells (neurons) communicate with one another by sending chemicals (neuro-chemicals or peptides) to one another. This communication channel is called a synapse.

Each individual neuron can form thousands of links with other neurons in this way, giving a typical brain well over 100 trillion synapses.

Synapses are the latticework of the brain. They are very much like branches on a tree. A synapse, or tree limb, grows from the trunk of the brain every time two or more brain cells repeatedly communicate with one another.

With each repeated communication, the synapse, or gap between two or more brain cells, grows closer together.

This makes the distance neuro-chemicals need to travel between brain cells, shorter.

Synapses that become habits, have the shortest distances, making habit synapses the most powerful type of synapse in the brain.

This is what makes habits so hard to break – the synapses of habits are the strongest, shortest synapses in the brain.

Once a habit is forged, all activity associated with that habit becomes automatic, meaning unconscious (we are not consciously aware of our habits).

Now, this is intended to be a good thing. Automation, or unconscious behavior, allows the brain to work less, using less brain fuel (glucose or ketones), making the brain a more efficient machine.

When you forge habits that produce good behavior (saving money, eating healthy, exercising regularly), this automation puts you on autopilot for a happy, successful and healthy life.

When you forge habits that produce bad behavior (spending more than you make, eating junk food, not exercising), this automation puts you on autopilot for an unhappy, unsuccessful and unhealthy life.

The “secret to success” is a secret because the behavior that creates success is the byproduct of habits. And habits are below the level of consciousness.

Thanks to my research, the secret is out.

There are many types of habits.

There are time habits. For example, what time you wake up or go to sleep, taking a shower in the morning, watching TV before going to bed, etc.

There are relationship habits. For example, going to the bar with a particular friend, talking about sports with another friend, friday night movies with your significant other, etc.

There are commuting habits. For example, getting a cup of coffee on your way to work, reading the news or listening to a particular radio station, etc.

Then there are pleasure habits. Think of anything you do on a regular basis that gives you pleasure. That’s a pleasure habit.

Pleasure habits are the most potent type of habit. They are the hardest to break because these habits cause your brain to release a chemical called dopamine. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that makes you feel momentarily good or happy.

The more you engage in pleasure habits, the more neuro-receptors your brain cells create in order to send and receive dopamine. Once created, these neuro-receptors begin to dictate your behavior, forcing you to engage in pleasure habits in order to feed the craving of those neuro-recptors.

These neuro-receptors are physical appendages that constantly call out for dopamine. And this is why pleasure habits are the hardest habits to break.

But, they can be broken.

Breaking a pleasure habit requires self-control, discipline and willpower. Initially, the neuro-receptors will fight you, but, depending on the nature of the pleasure habit, they tend to die off after a few weeks. And so too does their power to dictate your behavior.

Beware of pleasure habits. They are the most destructive type of bad habit. They can cause you to gain weight (eating sweets to get a dopamine rush), damage your health (drinking alcohol to get a dopamine rush) or cause you to waste time (viewing pictures or videos on the Internet to get a dopamine rush).

There are thousands of receptors on each cell in the body. This includes the cells in every organ, including your brain. Each receptor is specific to one peptide (protein).

Anger, sadness, guilt, excitement, happiness, nervousness, each separate emotion you express, releases its own specific neuropeptide inside each cell.

The more you habitually express an emotion, the more receptors your cells will create for that emotion.

If you forge the habit of being upbeat, for example, you are literally causing your cells to manufacture more neuro-receptors in order to meet the demand for the positivity-induced neuropeptides your habitual optimism creates. This means, you are building a cellular foundation for more future optimism – or a positive mental outlook.

The same holds true for habitual negative thinking. The more negative thoughts you allow yourself to have, the more neuro-receptors your cells will create, perpetuating a negative mental outlook.

The good news is that every two months 100% of the cells in your body are replaced by new cells. This means you can physically change the cellular framework from negative to positive in just two months, by making positivity a habit for two months.

Thoughts do become things. Be careful of those thoughts. The wrong ones, negative thoughts, will alter the physical properties of your cells, creating a domino effect that will perpetuate that negativity.

I knew one of the self-made millionaire- entrepreneurs in my study for a long time. Several years before he became rich, he and I took a Saturday to play golf. Throughout our round he must have said to me a dozen times that he was a pathetic loser. I told him he wasn’t a loser. He was smart, a hard worker and incredibly focused. He told me all of that didn’t matter because no matter what he did, he could not turn the corner on the dream he was working so hard to realize; he could not break through and succeed.

Eventually, after many years of struggle, he did succeed. He went on to earn millions pursuing his dream. But I never forgot that golf day. I never forgot how down my future millionaire friend was that day.

There are far more bad days than good days for the intrepid entrepreneur. In fact, given all of the research data I have on entrepreneurs, I’d bet that the bad days outnumber the good days 100 to 1 during the journey to success.

Being an entrepreneur, pursuing a dream, requires broad shoulders, relentless determination, facing adversity on an almost daily basis and fighting to maintain a positive mental outlook even when nothing is going your way. It’s hard and emotionally draining, being an entrepreneur in pursuit of a dream.

If you are one of those pursuing a dream, feeling down, feeling like a loser, find solace in the fact that your negative state is part and parcel of the success journey. Those who become successful entrepreneurs are not some aberrant breed of perpetually upbeat, enthusiastic stock. They are human just like everyone else, who often fall victim to the uncertainty, worries and stress swarming all around them as they battle to realize their dream.

It’s easy to get down on yourself, to feel like a loser, when nothing is going your way. But I’ve learned from studying millionaires that the only real losers are the ones who quit on their dream. So long as you keep trying, so long as you keep pushing the ball up the hill, so long as you never quit, you are not a loser. Your persistence, in the face of adversity, will one day be rewarded. And then you will have the rest of your life living it like a winner.

Never quit on your dreams!

The wealthy are nine times more likely to read than the poor based on my Rich Habits data.

Eighty-eight percent of the wealthy in my study read 30 minutes or more every day for self-improvement/learning. Only 2% of the poor read 30 minutes or more each day for self-improvement.

According to a 2013 Report by the Pew Research Center report, about 4% of the poor become wealthy.

Based on my research, there is a direct correlation between reading for self-improvement and becoming wealthy. So, the poor who forge the habit of reading for self-improvement, are the ones who will most likely wind up in that 4% group.

According to another 2016 Pew Research report, the affluent are twice as likely as the poor to read books. So, if you’re poor and you want to become affluent, start reading books.

But books are only one way of acquiring knowledge. Thanks to the Internet, there is a treasure trove of valuable information for those interested acquiring knowledge. The Newspaper Works 2015 Quarterly Report found that those who regularly read digital information, earned 34% more than those who do not.

There are plenty of examples or poor people who climbed their way out of poverty by forging the reading habit: Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Franklin, Ben Carson.

Dr. Ben Carson’s story is particularly relevant because he is living testament to the power of reading. Carson was raised by a single mother in the ghettos of Detroit. Concerned that their sons, Ben and Curtis, were taking the wrong path in life, Sonya Carson made a fateful decision that altered all of their lives forever. Sonya Carson, a single mother with a third grade education, turned the T.V. off for her kids, limiting them to only two hours of T.V. a week and forced her two young boys to read two books every week and then write a summary of what they read and what they learned from their reading. Each week they would hand their mom this summary for her to review. Sonya would mark up the summary with notations and hand the summary back to her boys. Reading for learning, soon became a daily habit for Ben and Curtis.

Ben Carson went on to become a world famous neurosurgeon, ran for President in 2016 and now heads the Housing and Urban Development federal agency. Curtis Carson went on to become a highly successful senior mechanical engineer with Honeywell, specializing in developing braking systems for aircraft.

If you’re poor and you don’t read to learn every day, you are missing out on a foolproof path out of poverty. Get on that path today. Forge a daily reading habit. The more you learn, the more you’ll earn.

I have a challenge for you; a little thought experiment to highlight the omnipresence of habits in your life.

For one day, call it Day One, I’d like you to abandon the use of just one word or phrase that is unique to you; one that you use every day. Then, on Day Two,  I’d like you to try to replace it with a substitute and document your success on a small notepad or piece of paper.

For example, I use the phrase “No Worries” almost every day in my conversations with others. I substituted the phrase “Can Do”, which I attempted to use in conversation on Day Two.

In my little thought experiment, on Day One, I documented the use of the phrase, “No Worries”, nine times. One Day Two I attempted to use the substitute phrase, “Can Do”, and failed four times.

Habits infect every aspect of your life. They reside in the words you use, your thinking, your emotions and your behaviors. We only recognize their omnipresence through awareness. And, only through awareness, can old habits be replaced with new habits.

For those of you who take me up on my thought experiment, email me the results (tom@richhabits.net).

Do you often feel as if you are in a constant state of dissatisfaction, not content with your life?

If the answer is yes, you are in good company.

In my Rich Habits study, there were essentially three groups of self-made millionaires:

SAVERS – Individuals who saved and invested their way to wealth.

PUBLIC COMPANY EXECUTIVES – Individuals who worked for publicly-held companies and became senior executives.

ENTREPRENEURS – Individuals who pursued a dream.

Those entrepreneurs who pursued a dream accumulated, by far, the most wealth ($7.4 million vs. $3.4 million and $3.6 million) and in the shortest period of time (12 years vs. 32 years and 25 years).

This last group, the Entrepreneurs, all shared one common trait that separated them from the Savers and the Public Company Executives – they all had a profound sense of discontent.

This discontent drove them to separate from the herd. It pushed them to pursue dreams and goals that were bold and daring.

Through a process of trial and error, these Entrepreneurs experimented until they found their destiny, their fate. Then, they spent the rest of their adult lives tenaciously pursuing their dreams and their goals, until they became experts, leaders in their niche or field.

Discontent is not a deficiency. In fact, I now believe that discontent is a key driver to success. It pushes you to do what most are unwilling to do – pursue your dream.

Embrace your discontent. It is life’s scratch. A scratch imprinted on a select few. A scratch that can only be itched by pursuing a life dream.

Don’t fight discontent. Embrace it. Somewhere, within that discontent, resides your calling in life.

Angiogenesis is the process through which new blood vessels form from pre-existing vessels, feeding cells with oxygen, nutrients and also removing waste products.

Under normal conditions, angiogenesis is fundamental to good cell health. But when it comes to cancer, angiogenesis becomes the villain, helping the growth and spread of cancer cells.

Numerous studies have found that you daily habits can contribute to the formation, growth and spread of cancer. In one such study, researchers at Mass General Hospital and The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health studied 130,000 patients and determined that 50% of all cancers are preventable – caused by unhealthy habits.

We pick up most of our habits from our parents, family and our environment, according to the latest research.

In a Brown University Study in which 50,000 families participated, the researchers found that most of your lifelong habits are forged by the age of 9.

In another study, Nicolas Christakis, head researcher at Yale University, found that habits spread like a virus thorough your social networks. Your social network includes your home, school, neighborhood, workplace, gym, etc.

Since we pick up many of our eating habits from our parents, family and our environment, our diet can either inhibit or stimulate angiogenesis, making cancer, in part, a habit-driven disease.

Thus, one of the keys to minimizing cancer is to forge healthy eating habits that inhibit angiogenesis or add antioxidants to your diet, which helps prevent cancer.

In general, processed foods stimulate angiogenesis. Processed foods are essentially most of the foods that you find up and down the aisles in supermarkets.

Healthy, organic, whole foods inhibit angiogenesis and are packed with antioxidants. These can be found in the perimeter of your supermarket, outside and around most of the aisles.

Specifically, which foods inhibit angiogenesis and help prevent cancer?

• Tomatoes contain Lycopene, a substance that inhibits angiogenesis. The concentration of lycopene increases by cooking tomatoes.
• Red Wine contains Resveratrol, an antioxidant that kills bacteria, viruses and fungi. It also increases energy production within each cell, preventing damage and stimulating repair functions within the cells. Pinot Noir and Bordeaux contain larger concentrations of resveratrol.
• Blueberries/Rasberries decrease oxidative stress within each cell, inhibiting angiogenesis and lymphangiogenesis, the lymphatic form of angiogenesis.
• Dark Chocolate contains polyphenols and flavanols, antioxidants which inhibit angiogenesis and lymphangiogenesis.
• Coffee and Green Tea are loaded with antioxidants which help clean and maintain cell health.
• Other foods which act as inhibitors include: oranges, grapefruit, lemons; apples, pineapples, soy beans, kale and bok choy, garlic and olive oil.

Most people don’t think about their habits until they have to. Heart attacks, diabetes, strokes and diseases like cancer, force their victims to confront and change their habits. Don’t wait. Forge healthy eating habits now, before it’s too late.

According to a Columbia University study by lead investigator Renee Goodwin, cigarette smokers are seven times more likely to smoke pot than non-smokers.

Why?

A little-known phenomenon, known as The Transfer Effect, is to blame.

According to researchers at Indiana University, when you forge a habit that improves one area of your life, this automatically triggers a desire for improvements in other areas of your life.

What’s behind this Transfer Effect?

A unique breed of habits called Keystone Habits.

Keystone Habits are infectious habits that act like catalysts, giving birth to other related habits. Cigarette smoking and pot smoking are one example. Another is drinking alcohol and cigarette smoking. Still another is commuting in your car and listening to the radio.

While Keystone Habits like smoking, can be a bad thing and lead to other related bad habits, they can also be a good thing.

The Rich Habit of aerobic exercise, for example, is a good Keystone Habit. The Indiana researchers found in their study that those who exercised aerobically, by virtue of this Transfer Effect, also forged the habit of eating healthier food. This had the effect of improving overall health of the exercisers in their study.

The Poor Habit of sitting on the couch and watching TV can be a bad thing, leading you to other Poor Habits such as eating junk food.

The Rich Habit of saving 10% or more of your income can be a good thing, leading to other Rich Habits such as using coupons, buying your clothes at Goodwill stores, prudent investing, budgeting, etc.

The Poor Habit of spending more than you earn can be a bad thing, leading to other Poor Habits such as using credit cards or borrowing money from banks, family and friends. The stress associated with struggling to pay your bills can also lead to other Poor Habits such as eating unhealthy comfort junk food or drive you to drink alcohol or take drugs to relieve the stress.

The Rich Habit of pursuing a dream can be a good thing, leading to self-improvement reading, forging new skills, seeking mentors, etc.

The Poor Habit of staying in a job you hate, for security purposes, can lead to chronic stress and cause you to forge bad habits intended to relieve the stress, such as drinking or eating junk food.

This is why it is so important to forge good habits – good habits lead to more good habits. This is also why it is so important to eliminate bad habits – bad habits lead to more bad habits.

Habits are your transportation system in life. If your desired destination is a healthy, happy, successful life, good daily habits will push you along to that destination.

Open your eyes to your habits because the wrong habits could be pushing you along to a destination you won’t like very much..

Everything that exists today was built upon a foundation.

The life you have, rich or poor, is a reflection of the foundation you’ve built over your adult years.

If you’ve worked hard and sacrificed for many years in order to build a foundation that will pay dividends down the road, then you have a strong foundation. Your strong foundation means you will be financially sound and financially independent in your later years, once those dividends start paying off. It also means that you will not be a burden on the ones you love – your children, immediate family and close friends.

If you have done the bare minimum required of you in order to earn an income with very little sacrificing, your foundation will be weak and will not pay any future dividends. Your weak foundation means you will be a burden on your children, immediate family and close friends.

So, how do you go about building a foundation for financial success?

There are really four parts, or four steps, you must take in order to build a strong foundation for financial success:

Step #1 Become a Virtuoso

A virtuoso is someone who sits at the top, as an expert. When you are a virtuoso, the world pays you a premium for your knowledge or skills. It takes some effort and good daily habits to become a virtuoso:

• Purposeful Reading – Focusing your reading to books/articles that expand your knowledge in a specific field. Thirty to sixty minutes a day, every day, is enough to become a virtuoso.
• Purposeful Practice – Practicing specific techniques in various ways in an effort to master that technique. How much time you need to devote to Purposeful Practice depends entirely on what skills you are trying to perfect. For most skills, one to two hours a day will make you a virtuoso.
• Purposeful Study of Facts – Focusing your study to facts that are specific to a topic and focusing on that topic until every fact about it is known. This can be accomplished through Purposeful Reading.

Step #2 Live Below Your Means to Create Excess Income

Keeping your living expenses below your income means you will have excess income. How much excess income you have has a lot to do with how far below your means you are able to live. Those who are able to live off of 80% or less of their net income will have a great deal of excess income.

Step #3 Save and Invest Your Excess Income

Once you have forged the habit of living below your means, you can put your excess income to work by prudently investing it, so that it will grow. This growth compounds every year, meaning your invested savings grows and kicks off interest, dividends and appreciation, which also grows every year. Over time, this compound growth accelerates in later years and can be substantial, facilitating early retirement. Early retirement means freedom.

#4 Create Multiple Streams of Income

Another important brick to lay in building your strong foundation is to create multiple streams of income. The self-made millionaires that I write about in my books did this one revenue stream at a time, often devoting a decade or more to each revenue stream until it began to pay dividends. Once the revenue stream became self-sufficient, they moved on to building the next revenue stream, then the next one, etc. The cash flow generated from these multiple revenue streams can come to the rescue when other sources of income are negatively impacted by economic downturns. Plus, the cash flow generated from multiple revenue streams can be invested, like savings, leading to increased compound growth of your investments.

There are no shortcuts to building a strong foundation for financial success. Hard work, persistence, consistency, patience and good habits are all fundamental to building that foundation. It takes many years to build a strong foundation, but the longer it takes, the stronger the foundation will be.