Every time you engage in a new activity and then practice it, you grow your brain. Every repeated activity requires the creation of a neural pathway. Neural pathways are a series of neurons (brain cells) called into action to communicate with each other. When we repeat new activities, these neurons communicating with each other begin to form a permanent neural pathway, thus growing the size of our brains. It is critical for older people to engage in new activities in order to keep their brains active and prevent shrinkage, which usually accompanies retirement. Those who want to grow their brains should engage in a new activity periodically and repeat it until it becomes a new skill. This can take anywhere from 18 days to 254 days. Each new activity that becomes a skill creates brain mass and keeps our minds active and our brains healthy.

Reading every day for self-education is a necessity for those who want to move forward in life and become successful. Those who do not make a daily habit of reading for self-education miss out on incredible opportunities because of a lack of knowledge. Reading forces you to become open-minded. It changes your thinking at many levels and allows you to expand as an individual. Daily growth, through reading, is a hallmark of the wealthiest, successful people. Since most people do not read every day for self-education, those who do read every day to learn stay far ahead of the competition and are able to see opportunities that are invisible to most everyone else.

Wealthy, successful people pursue their own individual main purpose in life. Because they are pursuing their own main purpose they are infused with a passion that allows them to focus persistently on realizing their dreams in life. They set and achieve specific goals that are linked to their main purpose. Most people are not following their own main purpose in life, however. They are following someone else’s. It may be a main purpose of a mother, father, spouse, or some other significant presence in their life. When you are not following your main purpose you are not happy. You do not look forward to Monday’s or any other work day. You see life as drudgery and anxiously await the weekends, holidays and vacation time. You pursue post-work activities that are often unhealthy, such as excessive alcohol consumption. You are often mired in negative, depressed thoughts. That’s not what life intended for you. Life intended that each of us pursue our own individual main purpose in life. Doing so awakens our inner genius and stimulates the creative parts of our brain that make humans so unique. You will not be happy and successful in life pursuing someone else’s agenda. You need to pursue your own agenda; you need to follow your own individual main purpose in life.

Parents are often the only shot any of us have at having a mentor in our lives. Mentors are critical to success in life. When parents embrace their roles as mentors they set their kids up for success in life; they lay the groundwork for their kids to be happy and live a fulfilling, meaningful life. When parents fail in this role, it is the responsibility of grandparents or teachers to step up and teach children the good habits, behaviors and thinking that will set them up for a happy and successful life.

Success is a process. It is the process of change and growth in an effort to become the person you want to be. This process is unique for each successful person. Your unique success process is determined when you clearly define your life’s dream by establishing the specific goals that must be accomplished in order to realize your dream. You define your life’s dream by creating a script for your ideal life. The script represents the future you. It’s a picture you paint with words of your ideal life. It represents your destination. Your goals are the roads you must take in order to arrive at your destination.

The average American watches 4.5 hours of T.V. a day. 67% of the rich watch less than one hour of T.V. a day. The time not spent watching T.V. by the wealthy is dedicated to educational reading, volunteering, networking activities, pursuing some extracurricular goal, exercising, night school, work or pursuing some passion in life.

Consuming fat is critical to good health. You heard me right. Our bodies need to consume fat every day. Fat helps our body absorb vitamins A, D, E & K. Fat is a key source of energy. Fat is an important building block of all cells in the body. Fat, in the form of glycero- and sphingolipids, makes up the bulk of cellular membranes. There are three types of fat: trans fats, saturated fats and mono unsaturated fats and poly unsaturated fats. Trans fats come from processed food and are considered a bad fat. So too are saturated fats which come from mean and diary. Mono and poly unsaturated fats come from olive oil, seeds and fish. These are considered good fats because they protect the heart and decrease hunger.  The average adult needs approximately 20-30% of the calories consumed every day to be in the form of fat calories.

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
2. Increases DNA repair and
3. Reduces free radical genetic mutations

Free radical mutations are the result of the metabolic process of breaking down what we eat and transforming it into energy used by mitochondria (energy power plants inside each cell). When we eat, this metabolic process creates free radicals. Free radicals are the waste byproduct of metabolizing food. So, the less you eat, the less free radical waste you create.

Wealthy, successful people are persistent. They simply never give up – even if it means they will fail. 27% of the wealthy in my study failed at least once in business. And then they went on to try again. They persisted. Why? Because they were obsessed with pursuing a big goal, major purpose or lifelong dream. They found their passion in life because they found their purpose in life. When you find your purpose in life it will fuel you with a passion that makes it impossible to quit. Persistence is the major factor in success. It is more important than any other success trait.

Winston Churchill had persistence and it infected all of Britain. The Battle of Britain was the longest aerial battle in the history of mankind. Great Britain, at the time, was the only force on earth courageous enough to stand up the all-powerful Nazi army. The Royal Air Force of Britain was commanded by another individual infected with persistence, Sir Hugh Dowding. His close collaboration with Churchill in this great battle, and the citizens of Britain’s commitment to persist against the Nazis, never wavered. The Battle of Britain forced Hitler to concede, which ultimately changed the course of the war. Unable to break Britain, Hitler withdrew his plans for an invasion of Britain and decided to marshal his army to invade Russia instead, which he believed would be easier to defeat than Britain. What’s truly amazing about this is the fact that Britain was very near its breaking point. It was running out of pilots. But their unrelenting persistence broke Hitler’s resolve and the rest, as they say, is history. The persistence of Churchill, Dowding and the people of Britain overcame the most powerful army the modern world had ever known at that time.

Persistence in the face of incredible odds always wins out. Follow your dreams, and never, ever quit.

Wealthy, successful people track the things that are important in moving them forward in life. When we monitor certain behavior, choices and daily activities, we are able to measure our progress. Tracking what we do in life forces awareness. We become aware of those things that are moving us forward and holding us back.

How many calories do you eat every day? How many are junk food calories? How much do you exercise every day? How much do you set aside in savings every pay period? How many things do you accomplish every day? How much do you read for self-improvement every day? What have you done today to move you forward towards achieving a big goal, major purpose or lifelong dream? How much did you spend today, last week, last month? How many people did you call on their birthday last year? How many new business contacts did you establish last month? How many new customers or clients or patients did you have last month?

Wealthy, successful people know the answer to these questions. Take one small step forward by tracking just on aspect of your life you’d like to improve on this month. Next month add another. Keep doing this for six months and your eyes will begin to open. Starting today make a habit of monitoring every important thing you do in life.