How much you eat may very well determine how long you live.

In a report issued by Roderick Bronson and Ruth Lipman of the Human Nutrition Research Center at Tufts University in Boston, reducing your normal intake of food by 40% yields a 20% longer life span.

Eating less does three things:

1. Reduces DNA Damage – When you eat, oxygen converts glucose into Adenosine Triphosphate, or, ATP, inside the mitochondria (fuel factory inside every cell). This glucose conversion is almost violent and can cause quite a mess inside each cell. This mess includes free radicals or electrons, that have been ripped away from its atom, during the conversion process. If these free radicals are not removed within the cell by oxygen, they can fly around and damage the cell wall or, even worse, fly straight into the cell’s nucleus, damaging the DNA that resides in there. Those who consume fewer calories, have less of a mess to clean up inside their cells.
2. Increases DNA & Cell Repair – 30% of all of your body’s fuel (glucose or ketones) is used to digest food. Those who eat less, require less fuel. The excess fuel available is then put to use cleaning up damaged cells or repairing any DNA damage that might exist. Part of this DNA repair includes fixing frayed telomeres, which reside on the end of each of the 46 chromosomes that make up your DNA. When telomeres are frayed or damage, this can lead to cell death. Many studies have shown that individuals who have longer telomeres, live longer lives.
3. Increases Good Bacteria Inside Your Gut – Recent studies have discovered that the trillions of microbiota that reside inside your gut (primarily large intestine) function as a separate component of your immune system. When you fast or restrict calories, this can help to re-balance your microbiota, especially if there is too much bad bacteria living in the gut. This reset, therefore, helps imrpove your immune system. The stronger your immune system, the better able you are to defend against disease.

This is why eating healthy and eating less are Rich Habits. These particular Rich Habits add years to your life.

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When you find your life’s purpose, that thing you were born to do, you know it. There is no doubt. You are 100% certain.

In fact, if you have any doubts about whether you are pursuing a career that is your life’s purpose, the answer is you are not.

Constant doubt or uncertainty is life’s way of notifying you that you are not doing what you were supposed to be doing – you’re not engaged in your purpose.

Unfortunately, most of us never discover our main purpose in life. We put our ladder on someone else’s wall and then spend the rest of our lives climbing that ladder.

You know your ladder is on the wrong wall when you hate your job or your work bores you. And your displeasure shows up in your paycheck or net profit.

Not doing what you’re supposed to be doing, causes unhappiness, financial struggle and stress.

So, how do you find your main purpose in life?

The key to finding your main purpose is by discovering some hidden innate talent that is unique to you.

So how do you find your hidden talent?

Through Experimentation!

We all have innate talents. These unique talents are hardwired into our DNA. But finding those talents requires experimentation.

If you’re young, explore various professions until you find one that you were born to do.

If you’re not young, your time to experiment will be limited to mornings, nights and weekends. Finding your innate talent on a part-time basis will take you longer. It may take as long as six months for each new activity you experiment with.

How do you know when you’ve found something you were born to do?

Your hidden talent is revealed in two ways:

#1 Your talent is revealed any time you try something new, and right out of the gate, that new thing comes easy to you. Being a quick study or a natural at something is life’s way of informing you that you have unearthed some unique innate talent – a talent specific only to you.

#2 Your talent is also revealed to you when engaging in it makes your heart sing. Passion is the song your heart sings. Passion is toggled on when you find an innate talent. That passion will possess you. It will stimulate you. You will find yourself wanting to engage in your talent 24/7, on weekends, holidays and vacations. You will dream about it. It will wake you up early in the morning.

Once you find your innate talent, your job then is to devote the rest of your life to perfecting that talent.

If your talent is knowledge-based, it will drive you to increase your knowledge by reading to learn, daily study and relentlessly seeking knowledge from those who are experts in what they do.

If your talent is skill-based, it will motivate you to devote many hours to practice in an effort to improve and perfect your skills.

In both cases, whether it be a knowledge-based or skill-based talent, passion will transform you into a Virtuoso.

And the world is more than happy to pay a premium for the services Virtuoso’s provide. That premium results in greater compensation, which, when saved and prudently invested, can translate into millions of dollars (wealth).

When you find your unique talent, you have found your main purpose in life.

And when you do, everything about your life will change.

Happy hunting.

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!

“I no longer listen to what people say, I just watch what they do. Behavior never lies.” – Unknown.

Some Poor Habits can be masked but eventually they reveal themselves to those around you.

LeBron James was unmasked recently after China became angered by a tweet from an NBA owner supporting the freedom-fighters in Hong Kong. This “social justice warrior” dropped any pretense that he cared more about social justice than making money. His greed habit was revealed for the whole world to see.

Bill Cosby, a famous comedian-actor, was also recently unmasked. He dropped his wholesome image mask when his sexual predator habits finally caught up with him.

Beloved Penn State coach, Joe Paterno, saw his mask fly off when it was discovered he knew about his assistant coach’s sexual abuse habits. His winning-is-everything habit caught up with him, eventually.

How about Lance Armstrong? He won seven consecutive Tour de France cycling events after battling back from testicular cancer. His hero mask also came flying off after his blood-doping habit was revealed to the world.

Other Poor Habits can’t be concealed by a mask, such as poor eating habits and lack of exercise (obesity and poor health), poor work ethic (frequent unemployment and money problems), infidelity (divorce), uncontrolled emotions (frequent relationships/work problems), smoking (lung cancer/heart disease), etc.

My point in all this is that your habits are who you are. And, they paint a picture for all the world to see.

That is why it is so important to forge good habits – good habits also paint a picture for all the world to see – a magnificent, splendid one.

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The financial planning group I am part of is very successful. Almost everyone in our group is what you’d call high achievers. It’s not an accident that so many of us are succeeding within out financial planning group. One of the drivers for this is the mentoring we receive from the two leaders of our group.

The two principals of our group have figured out what to do and what not to do. In an effort to help their reps, they run spring and fall training sessions. What makes those sessions so special and educational is the fact that the principals always share at least one or two mistakes they’ve made over the years.

One of the principals really does a very entertaining job sharing his mistakes. And, some of the mistakes are downright funny. But, funny or not, they are always a learning event for all of us.

When I was interviewing the rich and poor people for my Rich Habits Study, I was fascinated with the mistakes both groups willingly shared with me. I was very fortunate. From those interviews, I was able to learn from the horse’s mouth, what to do and what not to do.

Mistakes are teachers, for those who want to improve and succeed. They are dead ends, however, for those who quit on themselves, surrendering to their mistakes.

Learning from mistakes really only sticks when you get up off the ground and try again. When you quit, the learning is lost or forgotten.

Mistakes teach you what doesn’t work and force you to pivot, or make adjustments, until you figure out what does work.

When you think of it, knowing what not to do is like a quarterback throwing a 50 yard pass completion – it gets you half way down the field.

Knowing what to do, gets you down the rest of the field, allowing you to score.

Learning from others mistakes is the fast track to success. That is why I am such a huge advocate of finding mentors or coaches. Because mentors or coaches or typically Virtuoso’s at what they do, they can save you an enormous amount of time and money, by showing you what works and what doesn’t work.

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The aviation industry was one of the first industries to institutionalize checklists as part of their industry business model.

Today, ground crews are required to complete checklists whenever a plane comes in and complete another checklist before a plane departs.

Likewise, pilots must complete multiple checklists before, during and after a flight.

Why?

Checklists institutionalize success. They reduce the risk of mistakes that can lead to failure.

Checklists are, in effect, mandatory success habits. They insure against failure and put success on autopilot.

The use of checklists also happens to be a Rich Habit.

Back in 2007, when I was wrapping up my Rich Habits Study, I was trying to forge some of the Rich Habits I discovered during the study. In order to ensure I followed my Rich Habits, I used checklists almost on a daily basis. Oftentimes, I embedded them into my To-Do List.

Here’s an example of my daily checklist:

• Ran today
• Read to learn 60 minutes today
• Wrote 1,000 words today
• Lifted weights today
• Made Happy Birthday Calls today
• Made Hello Calls today
• Returned all phone calls today
• Did not drink any alcohol today
• Ate < 1,800 calories today
• Did not curse today
• Expressed Gratitude today
• Returned all emails today

I modified my checklist for certain things, like lifting weights, which I do once every three days. I’ll just write n/a next to checklist items that aren’t applicable for that particular day. You’ll notice that most of the items on my checklist are Rich Habits I am trying to incorporate into my life. In this regard, the checklist becomes your accountability partner or reminder system to help keep you on track.

My Rich Habits checklist helped me go from 212 lbs, in July of 2007, down to 174 lbs by February 2008, thanks to the running, reduced alcohol consumption and calorie restriction.

My Rich Habits checklist reduced my blood pressure from 140 over 102 down to 118 over 78, thanks to the daily running I was doing.

My Rich Habits checklist enabled me to write 4 books, thanks to the requirement that I write 1,000 words every day. The royalties and paid speaking engagement fees that resulted from my books, are now two very important additional streams of income I didn’t have before. The vast majority (65%) of the self-made millionaires in my Rich Habits Study had three or more streams of income, so building revenue streams is important for financial success.

My Rich Habits checklist helped me to forge stronger relationships with other success-minded or successful people, thanks to the Happy Birthday Calls, Hello Calls and staying on top of my phone calls and emails.

The truth is, I no longer need to rely on these checklists. After about six months, the Rich Habits became my habits. And, once they became habits, I found myself engaging in them almost every day, without needing a checklist as for external accountability or a reminder tool.

Create your own Rich Habits checklist and devote yourself to it for six months. You’ll be pleasantly surprised at the progress you’ll make.

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!

What scares you?

My biggest fear is poverty.

When I was nine years old, my father’s business burned to the ground. He spent the next 18 months in court fighting insurance companies. Eventually he ran out of money for legal fees and the insurance companies essentially won.

Somehow, my Dad was able to keep us in our home, but it wasn’t easy. On many occasions we’d see real estate agents walking around our property, showing it off to interested buyers. The problem was, we weren’t selling. At least, not willingly. Our house had been through several near-foreclosure emergencies, which put all eleven of us living in our home, on a knife’s edge.

I suppose that fear of poverty has been following me since I was nine years old.

That fear drove me to go to college. I had no business going to college. My family couldn’t afford college tuition. So, I worked as a janitor during my college years and used that money to pay my tuition.

That fear drove me to become a CPA,  a two-year commitment to intense study, in order to successfully complete a 22-hour, three day exam (at the time, in 1986, it was a 22-hour exam). Studying to become a CPA, I reasoned, would help me to become more expert in money and finance and also help me make more money.

That fear drove me to go to graduate school at night for a Master’s Degree in Taxation. It took me three years, going to night school two days a week. I felt that getting an M.S. in Taxation would help me become a Virtuoso in taxes and enable me to make more money for me and my growing family.

That fear drove me to become a Certified Financial Planner, once again, so I could become more savvy with money and, once again, to help me hone my Virtuoso skills.

Most importantly, that fear drove me to devote five years to studying the daily habits of 361 rich people and poor people. This has become my Opus X, or highest achievement in life, all thanks to fear.

As I sit here writing these words, I find myself grateful for my fear of poverty. That fear lead me to the Rich Habits and opened my eyes to the Poor Habits.

For the first time in my life, I now know what to do and what not to do.

I am not one of the millionaires in my study yet, but I can tell you this – I am most definitely no longer one of the poor people in my study.

Successful people use fear as fuel to supercharge everything they do. Unsuccessful people get used by fear. They give into their fears, preventing them from making moves that could one day improve their lives.

Fear can either act as a springboard to great achievement, or it can become an anchor, pulling you down into the abyss of failure and poverty.

Use fear. Don’t get used by fear. Never let fear be an anchor.

The only thing to you should truly fear, is giving into 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!

Each one of us inherits 23 chromosomes from our Mother and 23 chromosomes from our Father. Residing on each one of those 46 chromosomes are genes. It is estimated that humans have approximately 23,000 genes. So, one chromosome can be home to literally hundreds of genes.

Each gene is like a computer command that directs the RNA within a specific cell to manufacture a specific protein needed to help the cell function. Different genes command RNA to make different proteins, so multiple genes are needed to keep just one cell functioning properly.

DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) is the technical name given to your 46 chromosomes. Those 46 chromosomes, in actuality, represent an instruction manual that tells RNA in each cell to manufacture the various proteins necessary to keep the cells in your body running smoothly.

Interestingly, an individual gene can be turned on or off by something called methylation. Methylation is the process of creating enzymes that make genes active or inactive.

What triggers methylation?

Many things, in particular – Habits.

The simple act of forging a new habit can have profoundly beneficial or harmful effects on your health and well being.

Good habits, such as reading to learn, is an example of a habit that turns on certain good genes. These good genes, once activated by your reading habit, instruct RNA to produce proteins that help grow and strengthen brain cells that are being called into service as you read. Reading, in effect, stimulates genes to help maintain and grow brain cells.

So long as you keep reading and learning, those genes will keep churning out proteins that help strengthen brain cells, which, in turn, boosts your IQ.

Bad habits, or time-wasting habits, such as sitting on a couch watching Netflix for hours at a time, is an example of a habit that keeps good genes toggled in the off position.

How?

This TV watching, time-wasting habit, in effect, keeps those learning genes inactive due to your lack of mental activity. Without these good genes working to maintain and strengthen brain cells, the brain cells and their synapses weaken.

In other words, your brain cells become impaired by your time-wasting habits. This can result in a lower IQ, at best, or Alzheimer’s, at worst.

When you have bad habits, good genes can’t do their job. We can see this manifest itself in the form of various disorders such as obesity, Type II Diabetes, heart disease, dementia, and all sorts of other preventable diseases.

You are your habits, right down to your genes.

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According to the Tax Foundation, only 5% of America’s households make enough money to be considered “wealthy”.  And this 5%, according to the Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finance, controls 60% of America’s wealth.

According to my Rich Habits research, this 5% share 4 common traits:

#1 The Rich Don’t Follow the Herd

Human beings so desire to blend in, to be a part of the herd, that they will do almost anything to avoid standing out in a crowd. It’s not theory. It’s science (http://www.nature.com/srep/2013/131009/srep02905/full/srep02905.html). Many years ago Candid Camera decided to test this science in their famous Elevator Prank. As funny as that Candid Camera prank was, it highlighted the lengths people will go to blend in and be part of the herd

The problem is, in order to become successful and wealthy, in order to become part of the top 5%, you must separate yourself from the herd – the other 95%. Separation from the herd is a prerequisite for achieving success. Consequently, successful people must become outliers by pursuing various paths towards accumulating their wealth:

• The herd does not save and invest 20% or more of their income – Saver-Investor millionaires, do.
• The herd does not devote hours every day to Deliberate and Analytical Practice or in growing their knowledge-base – Virtuoso millionaires, do.
• The herd does not devote time to forging strong relationships with Powerful Influencers – Big Company Senior Executive Climbers, do.
• The herd is risk averse. They do not put everything they own on the line in pursuit of a dream – Dreamer-Entrepreneurs, do.

If you do what everyone else is doing, you’ll wind up being part of the 95% herd. If you want to be rich and successful, you must separate yourself from the herd.

#2 The Rich Have Growth Habits

Greatness is an evolution. It is the byproduct of daily growth. Growth Habits are daily habits that enable you to grow and improve – to become the person you need to be in order for success to visit you:

• Reading to learn 30 minutes or more every day in order to grow your knowledge-base.
• Thirty minutes a day of daily study of new or important facts you learned from your daily educational reading.
• Perfecting your skills through Deliberate and Analytical Practice in an effort to become a Virtuoso in what you do for a living.
• Focused study in specific niche areas – niche-building helps separate you from everyone else in your field.
• Pursuing dreams forces you out of your comfort zone and into the growth zone. Every dream you pursue exposes you to new information and may also require that you develop new valuable skills.

#3 The Rich Are Persistent and Relentless – They Never Quit

Success takes a long time. How long it takes to become wealthy depends on the path you’ve chosen ( 4 Paths to Becoming a Self-Made Millionaire – http://richhabits.net/4-paths-becoming-self-made-millionaire/). Nonetheless, each path requires a different type of persistence:

• The Saver-Investor Path requires persistence in the form of saving and investing your income, year in and year out.
• The Big Company Senior Executive Climber Path requires persistence in doing excellent work and in building alliances with powerful influencers within your company.
• The Virtuoso Path requires persistence in gaining Virtuoso Knowledge or developing Virtuoso Skills. The persistence part involves a daily commitment to growing your knowledge or perfecting your skills. It takes many years to become a Virtuoso. Only the persistent reach Virtuoso levels.
• The Dreamer-Entrepreneur Path requires persistence in overcoming obstacles, pitfalls, mistakes, poor decisions and failure. Entrepreneurs who never quit, never fail. We call them self-made millionaires.

#4 The Rich Have More Good Habits Than Bad Habits

Most habits are below the radar – most, the 95%, are generally unaware of the habits they have. Those who succeed, on the other hand, are totally aware of their habits. They are obsessed with their habits. They proactively alter their habits – eliminating bad habits that can undermine everything they are trying to achieve and adopting good habits that help them automate their success.

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Time, depending on how you use it, can be your greatest asset or greatest liability.

Self-made millionaire turn time into their greatest asset by continuously investing their time. They invest their time by daily educational reading. They invest time by constantly meeting with or communicating with certain Rich Relationships. They invest their time through Deliberate and Analytical Practice, in order to become Virtuoso’s at what they do.

Those who Invest their time, create assets that generate future benefits, typically in the form of multiple streams of income. Those income streams take many years of sacrifice to create. But self-made millionaires are willing to make the sacrifice, in the hopes their income stream assets will produce an abundance of cash flow well into their retirement years.

Those who Spend their time are not interested in sacrificing their today time in exchange for future benefits. Their hedonistic approach to life is intentional and regretted only when they are older and wallowing in poverty, dependent on their children or friends.

When you invest your time in the hopes of a better future, that investment becomes an asset that pays dividends until you die.

Investing your time is a Rich Habit. Any investment you make should pay dividends down the road in the form of happiness events, financially security, a legacy or adding value to the lives of others.

When you see time as the greatest risk of all, it will force you to become more aware of exactly how you use the limited time you have.

Invest it wisely today, because you will never get it back.

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If you try to make massive habit changes immediately you’re going to fail.  Your new habits will only last a few weeks and your brain will force you back into old habit patterns.

Creating new habits is a brain energy hog. It sucks up a lot of the glucose and oxygen (brain fuel) that the brain desperately needs for other vital tasks.

Eventually the prefrontal cortex will send a directive to the basal ganglia (habit command and control center and energy efficiency manager for the brain) that this new massive habit change is consuming too much brain fuel and the basal ganglia will hen peck you until it succeeds in forcing you back to your old ways.

Therefore, the key to lasting habit change is to prevent the prefrontal cortex from putting the basal ganglia on high alert. In other words, you’ve got to keep your habit change below the radar, so to speak.

There are two ways to change a habit without going to war with your prefrontal cortex:

1. Make The New Habit Easy – If your new habit consumes very little time and effort, your prefrontal cortex won’t take notice. For example, if you want to read 30 minutes a day to learn, so that you can become more successful, don’t. Instead, read ten minutes a day. Do this for about a month. Why one month? After one month, a new neural pathway will form. Only a few neurons will be involved, too few to get the attention of the prefrontal cortex or basal ganglia. The following month increase your reading to fifteen minutes a day. This will force the brain to add a few more new neurons, too few to create a fuss. After five months you will have forged a new, powerful habit. You can use this example for forging other new daily habits, such as exercise.
2. Habit Stack – Habit Stacking occurs when you add a new habit to an existing habit. Think of an existing habit as a train on a track, except it’s inside your brain. If you add your new habit to that same train, as if it were a new passenger, the brain won’t put up a fight because you’re not trying to take control of the train or the track. You’re just taking a ride. When an old habit does not perceive a new habit as a threat, the prefrontal cortex does not wage war against the formation of that new habit.

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