The path to habit change is via repetition. The more you repeat a behavior, the stronger the neural pathway becomes (aka synapse) and the stronger the synapse becomes the more permanent it becomes.

Eventually, strong synapses will be marked as a candidate for a habit by the basal ganglia. The basal ganglia marks a synapse as a habit by reaching its neural tentacles ( dendrites) up and out until they touch the synapse. Once this occurs, the synapse becomes a habit and will remain so for most of your life.

It’s not easy to forge a new habit. Some habits take more time to form than others, depending on the complexity of the habit. According to a 2009 University College London study, this habit timeframe can range from 18 – 254 days, with the average being 66 days to forge a habit.

In the early going, forging a new habit requires the brain to work harder than normal. Energy, primarily in the form of glucose, is called upon to power the newly forming habit synapse. At times, during this habit formation process, the brain will fight you on habit formation when the stores of glucose run low. This is commonly referred to as decision fatigue – periods of low willpower.

The trick to habit formation, during periods of low willpower, is to trick the brain into believing there is no need to put up a fight. This is where Strategic Cheating comes into play.

Strategic Cheating is a habit formation shortcut that avoids decision fatigue and fools the brain into continuing the new habit formation process.

Here’s how it works. Habit formation requires repetitive behavior. Oftentimes, this new behavior requires a commitment of time. Thirty minutes a day of aerobic activity, for example, can quickly deplete the stores of glucose readily available and cause a loss of willpower, triggering the brain to send a signal to other parts of the brain to cease and desist from the new habit formation activity. The key to preventing this from happening is to cheat.

When your willpower energy is low, instead of engaging in 30 minutes of aerobic activity, cheat – only engage in 5 or 10 minutes of aerobic activity. This cheating stops the brain from sending out the cease and desist order and the brain will not fight you or prevent you from engaging in the new habit.

Strategic Cheating works in forging new habits by allowing the new synapse to strengthen, without causing decision fatigue. In time, the synapse will strengthen and eventually the basal ganglia will mark it as a habit. Once it is marked as a habit, the brain will no longer fight you when you engage in the habit.

Come on. Did you really think I would have research on why drinking beer is a Rich Habit?

Well, actually I have something to share that you might call a stretch as it relates to beer drinking being a Rich Habit.

Rich Habit #6 – Everything in Moderation

You might find this piece a bit counterintuitive, since I spend so much time expounding on forging good habits and eradicating bad habits. But I’m also a realist and I know none of us are angels. We all do bad things every now and then.

What separates the successful from the unsuccessful, however, is the successful moderate the bad things they do in life. And, sorry to say, beer is one of those bad things. So is wine, hard liquor, smoking pot, Oreos, White Castle hamburgers, etc.

They’re all bad for your health and every time you go overboard consuming these bad things, it’s like opening the door and inviting cancer to walk right through. Why? Because too much of these bad things create free radicals (free roaming electrons inside cells) and too many free roaming electrons do two things:

1. Bounce off the nucleus inside cells, mutating your DNA, potentially mutating your DNA, causing cancer and
2. Damage telomers (caps at the end of every chromosome), damaging chromosomes, which can then mutate, causing cancer.

Because I’m here to help, I want you to know that it’s OK to engage in bad things, but only if you follow Rich Habit #6. When you consume beer, wine, hard liquor or smoke pot in moderation, your amazing body has the ability to fix any damage that you do.

But when you violate Rich Habit #6 and do bad things in excess, your body gets overwhelmed and is unable to clean up or repair the damage you do.

So, in order to keep the door closed to cancer, stick to Rich Habit #6. Do what you want to do, just do it in moderation.

Any mental thought, often repeated, becomes a habit. Habitual thoughts make you who you are. Millionaires are rich because of the way they habitually think. Their habitual thinking comes first and their habitual behavior follows. If you habitually think a certain way you will habitually act a certain way. To become rich you have to learn how to think like a Millionaire. What are some of the thinking habits of Millionaires?

• Millionaires Believe in Themselves: 79% believed they could rise from poverty or the middle-class to wealth. 90% did not believe in fate. They believed they were the architects of their lives.
• Millionaires Believe Hard Work Trumps Intelligence: 90% believed hard work was more important than a high IQ.
• Millionaires Believe Persistence Creates Good Luck: 92% believed they created their own good luck by relentlessly pursuing something they were passionate about. They were persistently patient in their pursuit of their dreams and goals. It took the average person in Millionaires 12 years to succeed in their realizing their dream and becoming rich.
• Millionaires Are Optimists: 54% believed their optimism was a critical factor in their success.
• Millionaires Control Their Emotions: 81% made a habit of controlling their negative emotions such as anger, envy, resentment and hate. This made it easier for others to do business with them.
• Millionaires Believe Honesty is the Best Policy: 85% told the truth all the time. They never lied. Being perceived as honest helps build trust, a foundation for success and strong relationships.

Constant communication is a prerequisite to building strong relationships. Millionaires are great communicators and because of that they are able to build strong, long-lasting relationships. What are some of the communication strategies I uncovered in my research?

• Millionaires Do Not Gossip: 94% avoided gossip. Most gossip is negative and can do irreparable harm to your relationships. Since Millionaires are fanatics when it comes to building strong relationships, gossip is something they avoid like the plague.
• Millionaires Make Happy Birthday Calls: 80% made happy birthday calls to the people who were important to them. Happy birthday calls serve to keep your important relationships on life support but 25% of those you call will reciprocate and call you on your birthday, taking your relationship off life support.
• Millionaires Make Hello Calls: 80% regularly called those they wanted to build a strong relationships with. One of the tools they used was the Hello Call – regular calls to say hello and gather information on your relationships.
• Millionaires Make Life Event Calls: Life event calls, such as calling someone to congratulate them on the birth of a child, an award or a promotion, creates strong emotional bonds that allow you to grow strong relationships. Making a life event call is like putting your relationships on steroids.
• Millionaires Vet Their Thoughts: 94% did not say what was on their mind. They restrained themselves. This allowed them to gather their thoughts about how to effectively communicate something that was important.

Millionaires have certain ritual behaviors that put them on the path towards success. What are some of those behaviors?

• Millionaires Take Care of Their Bodies: 76% engaged in 20 – 30 minutes of cardio, four or more days a week. That’s running, jogging, brisk walking, biking, swimming, etc. It doesn’t cost any money to run, jog or walk, so this is a habit anyone can mimic.  75% of Millionaires avoided fast food restaurants. Fast food is unhealthy food. Too much can lead to obesity and other health problems.
• Millionaires Are Readers: 85% of Millionaires read two or more books every month and 88% read 30 minutes or more each day. What did they read? 51% read about history, 55% read self-help, 58% read biographies of successful people and 79% read educational material.
• Millionaires Build Rich Relationships: 86% networked with people who could help them realize their dreams and their goals. These were individuals who were like-minded in their pursuit of success.
• Millionaires Are Decision Makers: 91% were decision makers at their place of business. They made quick decisions and lived with the consequences of those decisions. They took action and did not overthink things.
• Millionaires Have Good Etiquette: 75% sent thank you cards, holiday cards, and other cards for special occasions.  They said please, thank you and may I. They looked others in the eyes while listening. They acknowledged birthdays, anniversaries and important events in the lives of those they cared about. They did not criticize others, condemn others or complain to or about others.
• Millionaires Are Passionate: 82% pursued something they were passionate about. Passion is like a light switch. When it is turned on it endows you with an unlimited supply of persistence and persistence is the #1 trait of all successful people.
• Millionaires Set and Pursue Big Goals: 55% pursued one singular goal for more than one year.
• Millionaires Say No Often: They made a habit out of saying no to people and things that interfere with the important things they wanted to accomplish in life. It’s hard to say no, but learning to say no is an important time management tool Millionaires relied on heavily.

It’s hard to weed out 100% of your toxic relationships.

Family members are the most common of the toxic relationships that infect our lives. Childhood friendships are another source of toxic relationships that infect our lives.

One of the Poor Habits prevalent among toxic relationships is financial dependence. Toxic people with this Poor Habit frequently have some financial emergency that they need bail out money for. If you allow them to remain part of your inner circle, these toxic relationships will invariably hit you up for money.

If you’re married, trying to raise a family and working hard to forge a successful life, these financial bail out requests will negatively impact your marriage and your life. And that is one of the fall outs of having toxic relationships – they bring stress to your life, stress to the lives of your immediate family and they take you off your mission – to build a successful life.

As hard as it is to do, you must weed toxic relationships out of your life. If you don’t, they will negatively affect your life, undermine your marriage and drag you and your immediate family down with them.

Much of life is a series of tough choices. Choosing to eliminate toxic relationships from your life is one such choice. It’s not easy weeding out certain relationships, but it is necessary if you want to be the architect of your ideal, perfect life. Toxic relationships will throw a wrench into your plans and set you back financially, unless you make the right, tough choice and remove them from your life.

But don’t fret too much. Toxic relationships will always find someone else to bail them out financially – some other patsy who is not tuned into this financial dependence Poor Habit. Because you’re reading this, you are tuned in. And because you’re tuned in, you will make the right choice – to cut them out of your life.