True long-term happiness is found in doing work that you love and which, at the same time, enables you to meet your needs and financial obligations in life.

According to my research, over 95% of the 361 individuals in my study did not love what they did for a living. Even more revealing, 96% of those struggling financially indicated that they did not even like what they did for a living. How on earth can you be happy when you hate what you do for a living? The answer is, you can’t.

Odds are, if you’re reading this and are struggling in life, you probably don’t like what you’re doing for a living. And, as a result, you are unhappy most of the time. The solution is to find something you love to do that can produce enough income to support your lifestyle. But how do you even start the search?

There is only one way. Experimentation. You have to devote time, on the side, to experimenting with different activities. At a minimum, you must devote six months of concentrated side-time to each new activity. Six months is all it takes. Within six months you will either feel passionate about the new activity, or you won’t. If you don’t feel the passion, move on. Passion is your brain’s way of communicating to you that it loves the activity. When you are passionate about something you will want to do it all the time. Passion is the driver for finding something you love.

But what does passion look like? Think back to when you were a child. Do you remember any activity that you did as a kid that you could spend an entire day doing? That’s what passion looks like. Any activity that you can engage in for hours at a time without wanting to stop is a passion activity. When you find a passion activity that requires developing any marketable skill (can generate income), pursue it.

I had the opportunity to talk to Richard Branson at a speaking engagement we both spoke at last year. One of the things I asked him was if he would define what he does as work. He said no. He never saw what he did as something most would call work. So when you read about the work ethic of individuals like Richard Branson or Elon Musk or Warren Buffet, dismiss it. What the world calls work, they call enjoyment. Do you think you could do something for 14 hours a day that you enjoyed?

Your beliefs are likely holding you back in life. We form habits from our beliefs. If we have negative, limiting beliefs, we will adopt daily habits that mirror those beliefs. “I’m not smart” forges the habits of not studying, not listening and not focusing. “I can’t lose weight” forges the habits of eating too much, eating poorly and not exercising.

Become aware of your beliefs. Identify those that are negative and are holding you back. Once you change your beliefs, changing your habits becomes easier. The main reason habit change is so hard is because we fail to change the beliefs behind the bad habits we have.

Willpower is the ability to force yourself to focus on something for hours a day, day in and day out. Willpower is a limited resource that forces the brain to consume a lot of brain fuel (oxygen and glucose). Because the brain cannot store its fuel, this means every time you force the brain to work it must send a signal to various organs and glands to increase production of glucose. The brain would rather not do this. It will fight you when you are engaged in forced focus of any kind. When you want something enough, however, this Want Power overrides the brain’s natural inclination and forces it to secure more glucose. The brain has no choice but to obey the command.

If you want something bad enough, your brain becomes your servant. If your passion for something is not that great, the brain becomes the master and will force you to stop engaging in forced focus. Want Power creates willpower.

Habits represent unconscious behavior, thinking, choices and emotions. A habit is formed when neurons (brain cells) talk to one another repetitively. A neuron is three things: the nucleus, the axon (cable) and the dendrites (branches similar to a tree). When neurons get mapped inside the brain as a “habit” here’s what happens:

• The myelin sheath (fatty substance that surrounds each axon) gets thicker. Thicker means healthier and better.
• The # of neurons talking to one another gets reduced.
• The chemicals released by the axons and received by the dendrites speed up.

Why is this important to know? The larger the myelin sheath, the larger the axon. Large axons translate into higher intelligence. Bigger axons increase your IQ. The lower the # of neurons needed to talk to one another, the lower the consumption of brain fuel (glucose and oxygen). The brain cannot store brain fuel. It has to get it from the body. So the brain naturally prefers habits. The faster the release and receipt of chemicals by the axons and dendrites, the less effort is required by the neurons. The end result is a more efficient, better communication process between neurons.

In short, habits make the brain work better. The brain is always looking to create habits for this reason. Habits put you on autopilot. If you adopt good, daily success habits, this puts you on autopilot for success.

What happens to your brain when you engage in daily self-education?

When we engage in learning, our brain releases a protein called Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF). The release of BDNF has the effect of turning on a part of the brain called the Nucleus Basalis. When the nucleus basalis is turned on it releases a chemical called acetylcholine. The purpose of acetylcholine is to excite neurons to talk to each other. When neurons start talking to each other, a new synapse is created. The nucleus basalis is then turned off by this same protein (BDNF) and this new neural connection is locked in (sealed, so to speak) and the new learning then becomes a memory. The more we review the new learning, the stronger this new neural connection becomes and the easier it is to recall that information.

BDNF is fertilizer for the brain. It’s purpose is to help nerve cells (i.e. neurons – also known as brain cells) grow. When we make learning a daily habit (i.e. reading every day to learn) we turn on this nucleus basalis, create more neural connections (synapses) and, thus, our brains grow bigger and we become more intelligent.

There is another side benefit of daily learning that is only now being studied by neuroscientists – the more synapses we have the less likely it is that we will fall prey to Alzheimer’s disease, particularly if we continue to engage in daily learning after age sixty-five.

You’ve no doubt had your fill of stories about successful people who failed and failed their way to success. There are many successful people who attended the school of hard knocks. Abraham Lincoln failed six times in politics before he was elected President of the United States. Henry Ford’s first automobile company went bankrupt. Thomas Edison failed 10,000 times with the incandescent light bulb. R.H. Macy failed seven times before figuring it out. There are enough successful failures out there to fill volumes of success books.

But history is also replete with stories of successful individuals who did not experience failure. Andrew Carnegie experienced nothing but success in his march to making millions. Benjamin Franklin, America’s first millionaire, succeeded in just about every endeavor. Warren Buffet’s rise to billionaire status was all but uninterrupted.

My point is that you don’t need to graduate from the school of hard knocks in order to succeed. There’s an easier way. You just need to adopt good daily success habits. Habits put your life on autopilot.

Habits are automatic, subconscious behaviors, thinking and choices. Most are not even aware of the habits they have. The Midas Touch is nothing other than having good daily success habits. To the untrained eye, those who have this Midas Touch, seem to coast through life realizing one success after another. But the reality is these individuals have incorporated good daily success habits into their lives and , as a result, have put their lives on success autopilot. Why go at success the hard way when the easier approach is to simply mimic the daily habits of successful people.

Vanity has historically been cast in a negative light. It is, after all, listed as a sin in the Bible not once, but 35 times. So, if vanity is such a bad thing then why is it hardwired into our human DNA?

There are evolutionary and biological reasons why vanity exists. The drive to procreate runs strong in humans. The more attractive an individual is, the greater the likelihood that they will find the ideal mate. Vanity can, induce one to improve their physical appearance in the hopes of attracting such a mate. But attractiveness has many facets that go beyond just physical appearances. In today’s modern world, attraction includes superior intellect, wealth, celebrity, power and influence. Vanity can act as a driver for self-improvement and nudge us to do things we would otherwise not do. Here are some examples of vanity put to good use:

• Exercise – Improving one’s physical appearance by exercising daily has a derivative benefit of improved cardio, muscular, neurological and physical health.
• Education – Furthering one’s education in an effort to be more successful has a derivative benefit of improving brain function and intelligence. Your brain actually grows the more you learn.
• Pursue and Achieve Dreams/Goals – Pursuing and achieving your dreams and goals as a means of separating yourself from the crowd has a derivative benefit of increasing your self-confidence and overall happiness.

There is a very good reason human beings are vane. Nature doesn’t endow us with certain traits that do not serve some purpose. Vanity can act as a driver to improve our health, mind, emotional well-being and financial circumstances. The next time someone says you’re so vane, say thank you.

Humiliation can be a good thing if you learn to channel it. It can stimulate a burning desire to improve and grow. Pursuing success is like navigating a mine field filled with obstacles, mistakes, failure and regrets. The key is to learn from those pitfalls rather than wallow in regret. Humiliation can elevate you to a better place. There’s a reason why nature endowed us with the humiliation emotion. It is there to push us to improve our lives. Don’t view humiliation as a bad thing, rather, see it for what it is – a signal to change. Let humiliation drive you to grow as an individual.

History is replete with individuals who experienced humiliation and used it to further their careers. Abraham Lincoln experienced humiliation often. He was defeated for state legislature , failed in business, defeated for state speaker, lost an election to Congress, lost renomination to Congress, rejected for a land officer position, defeated for U.S. Senate, defeated for nomination as Vice President and again defeated for U.S. Senate. He could have wallowed in regret but instead he used humiliation to push himself to improve and the rest, as they say, is history.