Self-made millionaires don’t get there on their own. The greatest wealth accumulation occurs through the pursuit and realization of a dream. And almost 100% of the time it requires a team effort. Those individuals who are able to elevate themselves from ordinary to self-made millionaire status, are the ones who have found their apostles – fanatics who share your dream and your passion for that dream.

It’s not an easy thing to do. Unfortunately, most people who will be drawn to your cause won’t become apostles. It’s hard to find people who will commit themselves 100% to your dream. Most everyone you find is pursuing their own initiatives, projects, dreams and goals. You have to keep searching to find your apostles. But it’s worth the effort. You don’t need twelve. Just one apostle is all you need to make the magic happen.

The Difficult can be accomplished in a short period of time. The Impossible, however, takes a bit longer. What seems impossible is really just a long period of hard work and individual growth. The Impossible requires that we change and evolve. We need to learn new things, new skills. Impossible becomes Possible once you grow into the person you needed to become in order to gain the knowledge and skills that transform the Impossible into the Possible. So, pursue your dreams. The Impossible only seems Impossible today.

Proper Planning Promotes Prosperity. Becoming wealthy requires planning. There are 10 types of planning that self-made millionaires engage in:

1. Plan Their Day – 67% prepared daily To-Do Lists.
2. Plan Their Ideal Life – 59% scripted their ideal life by defining their dreams and wishes.
3. Plan Their Achievements – This same 59% then built goals around their dreams and wishes.
4. Plan for Loss of Income – 72%, prior to becoming millionaires, had life insurance that averaged 5 times their income.
5. Plan for Death – 54% had life insurance for estate planning purposes.
6. Plan Their Weight – 57% counted their calories every day to manage their weight.
7. Plan Their Health – 76% engaged in some type of cardio exercise 4 or more days a week to help manage their health.
8. Plan Their Investing – 95% either used financial advisors (76%) or managed their investments themselves (19%).
9. Plan Their Income – 65% created 3 or more streams of income.
10. Plan Their Thinking – 63% used various techniques to foster positive thinking.

If you want to be wealthy, you’ve got to plan for it. Wealth happens in the precense of planning. Poverty happens in the absence of planning.

 “Ask and it shall be given”, is one of the most famous verses in the Bible. There’s a very good reason for that. The self-made millionaires in my study made it a habit to ask for help. Yet, despite the fame, very few take this advice and ask for help from others. Why?

Fear. Actually, two fears: #1 The Fear of Rejection and #2 The Fear of Obligation.

Rejection makes you feel embarrassed, it’s humiliating, its demeaning. It can cause anger, hatred and, well, pick your favorite negative emotion. Rejection takes us to a deep, dark negative place.

Obligation means you owe someone. Someone did you a favor and now you owe them. Many people don’t ask others for help because they don’t want to feel like they are then obligated to them.

Self-made millionaires have been able to overcome these two fears, because they learned two magic secrets. Want to know they are?

Secret #1 Flipping the Dopamine Switch by Managing Expectations – Dopamine is a neuro-chemical produced by the brain. A drop in dopamine causes negative emotions. A rise in dopamine causes positive emotions. When you expect a “yes” after you ask for help but receive a “no” your dopamine level drops immediately, generating feelings of sadness, depression, anger (negative emotions). Self-made millionaires somehow figured this out and have come up with a way to flip the switch on this dopamine process. They manage their expectations by conditioning themselves for rejection when they ask for help. They actually expect to be rejected, so when they are rejected they’re ok with it. Their dopamine level is unaffected. When someone surprises them, and instead says “yes”, their dopamine level immediately shoots up and they instantly become happy, optimistic and enthusiastic (positive emotions). They’ve figured out a way to flip the dopamine switch.

Secret #2 Obligation Creates Partnerships – Self-made millionaires also figured something else out. When you are obligated to someone it actually strengthens relationships. You will eventually reciprocate the favor and that relationship will become stronger as a result. Obligation forges partnerships. You need partnerships to succeed in life. Obligation is a way to gain partners.

Most people do not seek feedback. And coincidentally, most people are not wealthy. It is the fear of criticism that prevents you from seeking feedback. Most of the self-made millionaires in my study were fanatics when it came to obtaining feedback. Somehow, they were able to overcome this fear. Feedback is necessary in order to learn what works and what doesn’t work. The military is expert in training their troops to seek feedback. Feedback tells them where the enemy is, how many there are and what they are doing. In pursuing success you need to take a page out of the military’s feedback book. You need to learn everything about what you’re doing to find out if you are on the right path or if you need to change what you’re doing and how you’re doing it. It is much less costly to seek feedback than to lose time and money learning what not to do via the School of Hard Knocks. Learning via the School of Hard Knocks is the hard, expensive way; seeking feedback is the easier, less costly path towards success. Feedback guarantees success or guarantees that you will not fail.

Awareness and Tracking are critical to habit change. Tracking gives you the power to change your daily habits. A simple way to process Tracking into your daily routine is to incorporate a checklist into you daily to do list:

I add my other to do’s below my core Rich Habits daily to do’s. My goal is to check off at least 4 of these Rich Habits to do’s.  It’s the little things you do day in and day out that eventually lead to a successful life.

According to my Rich Habits Study data 76% of the self-made millionaires were raised either poor or middle-class. One of the Rich Habits of these self-mde millionaires, that I uncovered in my study, was finding a millionaire mentor; someone who could teach them what to do and what not to do. If your poor or middle-class, you can find these millionaire mentors where you work, in non-profit organizations: trade groups, business groups, charities etc., in books or in mastermind groups. A mastermind group is typically 5-6 individuals who meet (by phone, skype etc) weekly to share best practices, advise and trouble shoot.

In order to be successful, you must walk in the footsteps of the wealthy. Finding your own millionaire mentor is the fastest path to riches!

There’s actually a process to realizing your dreams. Unfortunately, many well-meaning personal development experts don’t fully understand the process and, as a result, those who embrace their teachings soon find themselves discouraged and disillusioned when they fail to realize their dreams. The confusion is in misinterpreting Goal-Setting as the process to realizing your dreams. While Goal-Setting is part of the process, the actual foundation for realizing your dreams begins first with Dream-Setting.

You probably never heard of Dream-Setting before. Dream-Setting is the springboard for the realization of your dreams. If you don’t Dream-Set, you can never realize your dreams. Dream-Setting is the starting point. It lays the foundation for the Goal-Setting process. Let me explain this process in a little more detail.

Dream-Setting is the act of clearly defining a dream. It’s a two step process:

Step One – Ask yourself what you want your ideal life to be ten, fifteen or twenty years out. Then write down every detail of your ideal future life. Be very specific in the details: the income you earn, the house you live in, the boat you own, the car you drive, the money you’ve accumulated etc.

Step Two – Using this detailed description of your ideal future life, make a bullet point list of each one of the details that represent your ideal life. These would be the income you earn, the house you live in, the boat your own, etc. These details represent your wishes or dreams.

Only after you’ve defined your wishes or dreams does the Goal-Setting process begin. This Goal-Setting process requires you to build goals around each one of your wishes or dreams. In order to build goals around each wish or dream you need to ask yourself two questions:

Question #1: What would I need to do, what activities would I need to engage in, in order for each wish or dream to come true?

Question #2: Can I perform those activities?

If the answer to Question #2 is yes, then those activities represent your goals. Goals are only goals when they involve physical action and you have the capability to successfully take action.

For example, if your wish is to make $200,000, what would you need to do, in a given year, in order to make $200,000? What specific activities would you need to engage in successfully during a given year, in order to make $200,000? Make more telemarketing phone calls? Do more training? Get a specific license in your industry? Expand your product offering? Purchase more rental properties? Invest in more efficient equipment or technology? Etc. Then you must ask yourself if you have the capability to do these things. If you do, then each action you must take represents a goal. If you don’t have the capability to act then you must develop that capability before you can even begin to pursue each individual goal.

Pursuing and then achieving each goal is like a rung on a ladder that you must climb. Each goal achieved gets you closer and closer to realizing your wish – making $200,000.

Let’s summarize this process:

1. Paint a picture with words of your ideal life.
2. Define each wish or dream that must be realized in order to have your ideal future life.
3. Establish specific goals around each one of your wishes or dreams.
4. Take action. Pursue and achieve each of the specific goals that will make each wish or dream come true.

You then repeat this process for every other wish or dream. When you realize each one of your wishes or dreams, your ideal future life will then become your actual real life.

Successful people devote time every day to thinking. 15 – 30 minutes a day seemed to be their sweet spot. The thinking the successful individuals in my study engaged in was more like personal brainstorming sessions spanning 10 core areas: Career, Finances, Family, Friends, Business Relationships, Health, Dream-Setting/Goal-Setting, Problems, Charity and Happiness. Thinking allows you to come up with novel solutions to pressing issues. Issues that are likely holding you back in life from achieving success. Take a page out of the self-millionaire manual and start thinking today. Start small – that’s one of the best ways to form a new habit. For a more detailed analysis of this research check out my latest blog article: 10 Thinking Habits of Self-Made Millionaires

Every habit begins with a trigger. The basal ganglia, our subconscious brain, is always looking for triggers in order to notify the pre-frontal cortex, our conscious brain, to stop what’s it’s doing and engage in a habit. Unless you’re aware of your habits and consciously override the command from the basal ganglia, you will unconsciously engage in the habit. Part of the job of the basal ganglia is to create habits in an effort to allow the brain to work less and, thus, consume less fuel. The basal ganglia is the brain’s fuel efficiency manager, using habits as its main energy savings device. There are 4 primary habit triggers you need to be aware of:

1. Visual Triggers – Visual Triggers are like unavoidable neon-glowing highway billboard signs that remind you to engage in a habit. The McDonalds arches are an example of a powerful Visual Trigger. Once your eyes catch the visual trigger, the basal ganglia immediately sends a signal to the pre-frontal cortex. The next thing you know, you’re eating a hamburger with fries.
2. Time of Day Triggers – We all have habits that we engage in during the morning, afternoon and evening. Waking up in the morning is a trigger that sets in motion all sorts of habits: drinking coffee, exercise, brushing your teeth, taking a shower, reading, meditating, going to the bathroom etc. Afternoon Triggers set off your afternoon habits: eating lunch, gossiping, reading, surfing the Internet, making personal phone calls, networking, meetings with other people etc. Nighttime is a trigger that prompts you to engage in nighttime habits: eating dinner, a glass of wine, watching T.V., reading, making personal phone calls, exercise, engaging in a hobby or extracurricular activity, gardening, going to a bar etc.
3. Stress Triggers – Stress can force you back into old habits. Stress overwhelms the brain, consuming far too much fuel. To compensate, the basal ganglia changes it’s game plan, using stress as a trigger to get you to engage in an old habit in order to conserve fuel.
4. Association Triggers – People who you associate with are habit triggers. One friend can be a trigger for hitting the bars, another for exercising, another for gambling, another for reading and another for cheating on your spouse. Who you associate with can be a habit trigger, setting in motion all sorts of good or bad habits.

The key to breaking any bad habits is awareness of the habit and awareness of the triggers that set them off. Being aware of the triggers to your habits is critical to understanding what is setting off your bad habits. Once you have identified the bad habits you’d like to change, the next step in the habit change process is to identify the triggers to those habits. Only by identifying the external triggers that set a habit in motion, will you be able to break bad habits.