According to the Wold Health Organization, depression affects 350 million people each year. Depression can stop you in your tracks. It can put an end to personal growth, affect your health and affect your business. In my research on a new book I am working on, I have discovered a foolproof cure for depression. Taking on a new project or initiative, will prevent depression from attacking you. This approach works to prevent depression, however, not reverse it. The point here is that if you are one of those unfortunate few who periodically suffers from depression, pursuing some major initiative, prior to the depression event, serves as a firewall in preventing future depression from taking root. It’s like preventive care for those afflicted with depression. Pursuing something you are passionate about virtually eliminates the onset of depression.

Neuroscientists have made some incredible breakthroughs in the past ten years. One thing they continue to focus on is why we need to sleep. What they are discovering is fascinating. Sleep accomplishes so many things behind the scenes. One critical purpose of sleep is memory formation. The hippocampus and neocortex send signals back and forth to each other thousands of times during the REM portion of sleep. This process allows memories to stick.  Another incredible discovery is that sleep enables offline communication between the conscious mind (aka neocortex), which shuts down during sleep, and the subconscious mind (limbic system and brain stem). This is important because the subconscious mind is regularly taking in sensory data that is invisible to the conscious mind. When we experience intuition, this is actually the conscious mind telling us something the subconscious mind communicated to it during the last sleep cycle.

“What’s in it for you” is the mindset of self-made millionaires. “What’s in it for me” is the mindset of the unsuccessful. Self-made’s get it. By helping others succeed, those others become part of their team. When you run into that special someone who is in your corner, bending over backwards, trying to help you achieve your goals, dreams or purpose in life, you will knock down walls to reciprocate. Self-made’s make it a daily habit of helping others. It’s not about karma. It’s not about being spiritual. It’s all about the nature of being human. Humans who help other humans command loyalty. “What’s in it for you” is really about creating your own team. Self-made’s are always in search of new teammates to help them pull the cart, which allows everyone to realize their goals, dreams or purpose in life.

When most people think of risk, they think of it in terms of some financial investment they make: investing money in a new business, investing in stocks, mutual funds, bonds etc., the lottery, or lending someone money. But financial risk is not the greatest risk most take. You can always earn more money. Money comes and goes, as they say. But there is another risk, most everyone takes for granted. This is a risk that, when made, never returns. It’s gone forever.

The greatest risk we take is time. When we invest our time in anything, it’s lost forever. It never gets renewed or returned to us. Yet, because we are all given, what seems to be an abundance of time, it has very little value. So we spend an enormous amount of our time engaged in wasteful activities such as sitting in front of a T.V., on Facebook, watching YouTube videos, at a bar, in bed or engaged in some other non-productive activity.

And when we waste time, it’s gone. It will never return. We don’t realize how precious time is until we are older and we realize our time is running out. Time needs to be invested wisely, pursuing goals, dreams, or some major purpose in life. Any investment we make of our time should pay dividends down the road in the form of creating happiness events, financially security, creating a legacy or in helping improve 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 invest your time. Invest it wisely, because you will never get it back.

We are only as successful as those we associate with on a regular basis. If you associate with more positive, success-minded people than negative types, you put yourself on the path towards success. If you’ve got too many negative types surrounding you, you need to change your team if you want to change the outcome of YOUR game.

61% of the wealthy in my study engaged in something I call Dream-Setting. They focused on their dreams and then created a script for their lives around those dreams. They tapped into their imagination and focused on what was possible; the ideal best scenario for their life. Possibility Thinking shifts your mindset from negative to positive. It puts fear, doubt, worry and negativity in a box. It activates a section of the brain that opens your eyes to opportunities that were previously invisible to you. Possibility Thinking is the mental force that has given birth to T.V., the airplane, the telephone, the Internet and the iPod. Elon Musk right now is using Possibility Thinking to transform the future transportation of the world. Sir Richard Branson is using Possibility Thinking right now to make space travel available to millions. Some unknown person is using Possibility Thinking right now that will give birth to something extraordinary. You can use Possibility Thinking to pull yourself out of your current circumstances and transform your life and the lives of your family.

64% of the rich and successful in my study were obsessed with pursuing one, singular goal. Some spent years, others longer, in pursuing and achieving one major goal. Realizing your dreams in life requires an obsessiveness that boarders on fanaticism. It must occupy your thoughts when you wake, during the day, at night and even in your dreams. That is how major breakthroughs happen – through persistent pursuit of your dream or major goal.

Some habits have more influence over your life than others. Keystone Habits are the most powerful. They affect other ordinary habits you may have. One good Keystone Habit, such as daily aerobic exercise, can put an end to numerous other bad ordinary habits you might have, such as eating too much junk food, smoking cigarettes or watching too much T.V. Complex habits, formed over many years, are the hardest to change. They often involve motor skills or some physical activity. An example would be changing a golf swing you’ve had for twenty years. Hard to do. Even simple habits can be hard to change, if you’ve had them for a long time. One good powerful habit can offset five, six or seven minor bad habits. Each habit has it’s own weight in a sense. Those that weigh more, offset those that weigh less. Keystone Habits and complex habits weigh the most. When you embark on habit change, seek to add good habits that are either Keystone Habits or complex habits. All habits are not created equal as there are many shades to habits.

With 40% of all of our daily activities habits, we are all, to a large degree operating on autopilot. To take your life to the next level, you need to make changes in your daily routines, behaviors and choices. You need to do things differently than you have been doing them. You need to change your autopilot.

There’s really no magic to becoming rich. 80% of the wealthy rose from poverty or the middle-class. They adopted habits and behaviors of the rich and successful and incorporated them into their lives. If you walk in the footsteps of the wealthy, you will arrive at the same destination.