I often am asked by those pursuing some dream – how do I know if I am on the right path and not just wasting my time and money?

You know you’re on the right path in life when:

• You Feel Uncomfortable – Pursuing any dream takes you outside your comfort zone. It makes you feel uncomfortable. When you perpetually feel uncomfortable, you are on the right path.
• You Feel Awkward – Pursuing a dream forces you to learn. Learning something new feels awkward at first. When you feel awkward, you are on the right path.
• You Experience Ah Ha Moments – When you pursue a dream you will struggle in the beginning. It is the struggles that force you to dig deep for solutions. These solutions often reveal themselves in the form of Ah Ha moments, the inspired genius inside each one of us that comes to our rescue. Solutions only happen when you struggle with problems. When you start to experience Ah Ha moments, you know you are on the right track. Those solutions lead to fool-proof processes. Fool-proof processes automate success.
• You Feel Frustrated – Frustration accompanies action. When things do not go your way, you get frustrated. It’s normal to experience frustration, especially in the beginning.
• You Get Angry –  You will experience many emotions. Anger is one of them. You will get angry for not knowing something or for making a mistake. It’s all part of the process.
• You Get Happy – When things go right, it’s exhilarating. Success will make you feel happy.
• You Feel The Flow – When you are in the flow, time seems to stand still. You can work for hours without stopping. When you begin to experience flow, you know you are on the right path.
• You Become Obsessed – When you find yourself thinking about your dream 24/7, you are on the right path. Obsession is a prerequisite for success. It fills you with persistence. And luck finds the persistent. When you become obsessed, you are most definitely on the right path.

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!

Assumptions are, by definition, the act of accepting as fact, something which is unknown.

The habit of making assumptions is a bad one because it can lead to unexpected consequences, oftentimes bad ones that cost you not only time but money.

In my five year study of the daily habits of the rich and poor (Rich Habits Study), 72% of the poor in my study had this False Assumption Poor Habit.

Sixty-seven percent of the self-made millionaires in my study were entrepreneurs, or individuals who were pursuing some dream. When you are an entrepreneur, you figure out what to do and what not to do through the school of hard knocks.

In this school, the entrepreneurs learn the hard way the fallout of making assumptions. Those assumptions can lead to mistakes which cost them time and money.

Time is one thing, but money is a precious commodity to budding entrepreneurs who need every dollar. They simply cannot afford to lose too much money.

Successful entrepreneurs quickly realize that making assumptions jeopardizes their business. So, they make a habit of vetting all assumptions.

I found in my research that individuals make assumptions in one of four ways:

1. You do not ask enough questions.
2. You do not ask enough of the right questions.
3. You don’t seek feedback from experts in your industry.
4. If you do seek feedback, you ignore it.

Successful entrepreneurs do not make important decisions until they have evaluated all of the feedback they receive from many different sources. This helps them avoid making false assumptions.

Seeking feedback from others, prior to making any important decision, is a firewall against making a false assumption.

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!

There are essentially four types of millionaires:

1. Savers/Investors
2. Senior Executives at Large Publicly-Held Corporations
3. Virtuosos
4. Dreamers/Entrepreneurs

Everyone who wants to be wealthy, needs a bow and arrow.

Your particular bow and arrow, however, really depends on which type of millionaire you want to be.

For the Savers/investors, their bow and arrow is keeping their expenses low. This enables them to save 20% or more of their income, which they then prudently invest over many years.

For Senior Executives, their bow and arrow is building powerful relationships with others within their company and industry.

For Virtuosos, their bow and arrow is an advanced skill or some advanced knowledge in a specific area or niche.

For Dreamers/Entrepreneurs, their bow and arrow is perpetual learning in order to figure out what works and what doesn’t work.

Choosing the wrong bow and arrow for your particular path is why so many are unable to achieve the success and wealth they desire.

For example, if you are a Dreamer/Entrepreneur, it may be impossible to keep your expenses low. You may need to spend significant amounts or money and perhaps even go into debt in order to fund your dream, so keeping your expenses low, just won’t be possible.

If you are a Senior Executive, specializing in something in order to become a Virtuoso may actually prevent you from rising up the corporate ladder, which requires a broader scope of skills and knowledge.

You must, therefore, first decide on the path you want to take in order to become rich. Then you may choose the right bow and arrow. This dramatically increases your odds in achieving the success and wealth you desire.

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!

Most disease is self-inflicted.

Poor lifestyle habits can, over time, overwhelm the body’s ability to repair itself. In effect, your rain barrel fills up and then overflows, resulting in disease.

When you engage in poor lifestyle habits, your immune system becomes chronically activated and the DNA within the cells of your body become damaged. This chronic activation is known as inflammation.

When your immune system becomes overwhelmed, when your rain barrel overflows, it loses its ability to do its job and this overflow results in disease.

There are six Toxic Health Habits that cause your rain barrel to fill up and overflow:

1. Over Eating – When you over eat, your body stores the excess calories, and the toxins from excess food, in fat cells throughout the body. Over eating is a habit, something you have 100% control over.
2. Eating Too Much Junk Food – Any food you consume that is high in calories and low in nutritional value, is junk food. Think of all processes foods as junk food. Alcohol is a junk food. Eating too much junk food is a habit, something you have 100% control over.
3. Excessive Toxic Exposure – When you eat many of today’s manufactured or grown food products, you are also consuming toxins in the form of additives, preservatives or pesticides. What you eat is a habit, something you have 100% control over.
4. Chronic Stress – Chronic stress produces cortisol, which depresses the immune system, leading to disease. It is triggered by constant worry, anxiety and fear. Worry about your job, anxiety about money, worry about your health, your family, etc. Worry, anxiety and fear is a thinking habit that you can, to a large extent, control.
5. Physical Inactivity – Daily exercise improves your health, boosts your immune system and optimizes brain health and performance. When you do not exercise, you forgo all of the benefits daily exercise produces.
6. Inadequate Sleep – Sleeping between 7-8 hours a day is critical to good health. When you sleep, the body’s janitorial crew, the lymphatic crew and the cerebrospinal fluid crew go to work to clean all of the cells in the body. If you do not get enough sleep, your janitorial crew is unable to complete the job.

Maintaining good health is one of the few things you have absolute control over. You maintain your good health by forging good health habits. You destroy your health by adopting bad health habits.

As I found in my research, habits dictate the circumstances of your life, health and otherwise.

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!

When you think about the word “wealth”, what immediately comes to mind?

Money, or investments right?

When I began writing my first book, Rich Habits, it occurred to me that there were many habits of the rich (see Rich Habits Study) that seemed completely unrelated to the accumulation of money.

There were things like exercising aerobically every day – 76% of the rich in my study exercised 30 minutes or more every day, aerobically.

I found many other habits that seemed unrelated to the accumulation of money, but that nonetheless, had beneficial effects on the lives of the rich.

Thanks to my study, I now understand that there are numerous types of wealth.

In fact, I’ve identified seven types, which I’d like to share with you.

#1 Financial Wealth – Having more money than you need to live the life you want to live.

#2 Health Wealth – Lean, healthy, physically fit and the absence of disease.

#3 Relationship Wealth – Surrounded by an abundance of upbeat, optimistic, happy people who love you, care about you and who encourage and support everything you do.

#4 Time Wealth – Having enough free, non-work time to spend with family and friends and to do the things you like to do.

#5 Intellectual Wealth – Possessing expert knowledge that you put to use in providing an income for you and your family.

#6 Talent Wealth – Possessing unique talents that you put to use in providing an income for you and your family.

#7 Peace of Mind Wealth – Low levels of day to day stress. Mentally calm and relaxed.

Wealth isn’t always about money. There are many ways you can be rich.

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!

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 am very fortunate. I was able to find 177 heroes to worship. They are the self-made millionaires in my Rich Habits Study who taught me right from wrong, good habits from bad habits and the right path vs. the wrong path. They were my success mentors, teaching me what to do and what not to do in life.

Once I was able to quantify the Rich Habits most of the self-made millionaires had in common, I began to adopt many of those habits myself. Within five years I began to see significant changes in my life, financially, physically and mentally.

It was only then that I realized how important having heroes in your life can be. They help transform your life.

Each success hero you find can inspire you, motivate you, direct you. They force you to self-evaluate and can help you identify your strengths and weaknesses.

You can have multiple heroes. As I discovered in my study, the more the better. By better, I mean, the faster the changes will be in your life.

Where can you find your success heroes?

The good news is that they are all around you.

You can find them by volunteering – they are on the boards and committees of non-profit groups.

You can find them at the workplace, those exceptional employees, bosses or clients/customers doing exceptional work.

You can find them in classrooms, teaching.

They’re alive in biographies and autobiographies.

They can be found at seminars, webinars, podcasts, YouTube videos and TEDx videos.

Anyone working hard to grow and improve can be your hero.

When you find one, study how they live their lives, how they manage their lives, their work ethic, who they surround themselves with, their habits, etc. Get to know them and make them a part of your inner circle.

It’s never too late. Find your success heroes today. Follow their breadcrumbs. Those breadcrumbs will steer you in the right direction and help you find success in your life.

And wealth will follow.

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!

A paper published by the University of Cologne in Germany in the May 2015 Journal of Personality and Psychology, in which more than 68,000 Americans and Europeans were studied, found that pessimism causes poverty.

The study noted that pessimism makes you wary of trusting others. It went on to argue that when you see people in a pessimistic light – untrustworthy, self-interested and deceitful – you are less likely and less willing to rely on others.

Those in the study who were the most pessimistic, also happened to be the poorest. If you are wary about trusting others, you’re likely to have a lower income now and in the future, the study concluded.

Conversely, those in the study who were optimistic, had a more trusting view of others and a higher income than the pessimists. Pessimists miss out on opportunities because they are less likely to ask for help and less likely to collaborate with others.

No one succeeds on their own. I’ve written about this often. You need apostles to your cause. You need others who believe in your cause in order to succeed. It is virtually impossible to succeed on your own.

The most successful self-made millionaires in my Rich Habits Study had a dedicated team behind them. They also happened to be the most optimistic people to work with. Their unbridled optimism was like a magnet, attracting like-minded, optimists to their cause.

If you’re a pessimist, you are literally sabotaging your life. You are pushing away the very people you need in order to succeed.

The good news is that pessimism is just a habit. You can change your mindset from negative to positive.

Here’s how: Detox Your Brain

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!

Building a wealthy, healthy and happy life is just a process.

The process always begins with a vision of the ideal, future life you desire. This could be ten, fifteen or twenty years into the future.

That future life is actually the realization of a collage of dreams that forms the picture of your ideal, perfect, future life. Each dream is something very personal that you desire – the ideal job, $1 million in your investment accounts, a vacation home, no debt, good health, etc.

Your dreams must be what You want. Not what others want for you. Putting your ladder on someone else’s wall will eventually lead to unhappiness and a life of drudgery. As Steve Jobs said in the 2005 Stanford commencement address: “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living some Else’s life.”

Pursue YOUR dreams. Not those of your parents, teachers or some other significant influence in your life.

In order to make that ideal life a reality, you need to follow a process I call Dream-Setting:

1. Create a Script of Your Ideal Future Life – Pretend it is ten years into the future and you are writing in your journal. Describe in detail every amazing thing about this ideal, future life of yours. Also, describe your journey over the past ten years – Exactly what happened over the past ten years? Shoot for 500-1,000 words.
2. Identify Each Dream – Define each specific dream that is a component of your ideal, future life,
3. Create Goals Around Each Dream – Build individual goals around each dream. In order to realize a given dream, it may require that you accomplish numerous goals. Once you accomplish those goals, your dream will be realized. Think of each dream as a rung on a ladder. Every time you realize a dream, you climb that ladder, dream by dream, until you reach the top. At that top sits your ideal, future life.
4. Create Habits Around Your Goals – The final step requires that you forge daily habits (goal habits) that, when accomplished each day, brings you closer to achieving each individual goal.

Building new daily habits isn’t difficult if you know what to do. It simply takes time and consistency. Consistency is the key.

There is an easy trick that you can use in order to forge new daily habits to help you accomplish the goals behind the dreams that make up your ideal, future life. This habit shortcut virtually guarantees they stick. It’s called the 20 Minute Habit Shortcut.

The 20 Minute Habit Shortcut involves a simple three-step process:
1. Define a daily activity that will help you accomplish a specific goal.
2. Devote 20 minutes a day to that new activity.
3. Repeat that activity every day for 30 days.

The new activity could be:

• 20 minutes a day of reading to expand your knowledge in a particular area that you need to become more proficient in, in order accomplish an individual goal (i.e. getting some license or certification).
• 20 minutes a day of making phone calls to various influencers with whom you would like to develop a relationship. These influencers can open doors that will help you accomplish your goals and realize your dreams.
• 20 minutes of listening to a podcast related to one or more of your goals. This provides knowledge and insight you need in order to achieve your goals.
• 20 minutes of watching a TEDx video on a topic you need to become more knowledgeable in, in order for you to realize your goals.
• 20 minutes a day of watching a YouTube video on a topic you need to become more knowledgeable in, in order for you to realize your goals.
• 20 minutes of developing a side-business you hope to one day devote yourself to full-time.
• 20 minutes focused on achieving one singular goal.
• 20 minutes of jogging, if an active, healthy life is part of your ideal future vision.
• 20 minutes of lifting weights, if having strong muscles is part of your ideal future life vision.
• 20 minutes of developing a new skill, if this new skill is needed in order to give you the skill-set to even begin pursuing a goal.
• 20 minutes of thinking positive thoughts. Positivity is a common characteristic of all successful people. A positive mindset keeps you optimistic, motivated and focused on overcoming obstacles rather than being stopped by them.
• 20 minutes of helping your spouse with home chores (laundry, dish washer, make the bed, clean the house, etc.), if a happy home life is part of your future ideal life.
• 20 minutes engaged in some hobby that you are passionate about and would like to eventually transform into a money-making business.
• 20 minutes of doing home-improvement projects, if your ideal future life includes remodeling your home.

Thirty days gets your brain cells talking to one another, forming a synapse. Once the synapse is formed, the tracks are laid for habit formation to occur. Over time, it will become easier and easier to engage in the activity. At some point, between 66 – 256 days, according to the latest science on habits change, the daily activity will become an automatic, unconscious behavior, also known as a habit.

The brain loves habits. Habits conserve brain fuel and free up the prefrontal cortex by shifting control of the habit to the limbic system. Once freed up, the prefrontal cortex can now focus on other important things. But it does take repetition and time in order to get brain cells talking to each other. Thirty days gets the conversation going inside the brain.

Once your new habit sticks, then you can move on to your next new habit, following the same three-step process.

In the course of a year you will add three or more new habits using this three-step process. In a few years you will have created dozens of new habits and your life will begin to improve as you accomplish one goal after another and realize one dream after another.

Habits are like snowflakes on the side of a steep mountain. You hardly notice, on a daily basis, the snow accumulating. But after many months, that accumulation is so significant, it causes an avalanche.

Like snowflakes on a steep mountain, the effects of Rich Habits and Poor Habits, on a daily basis, are hard to see. However, after many years, the cumulative effect of those habits are readily noticed. Rich Habits produce an avalanche of positive consequences and Poor Habits produce an avalanche of negative consequences.

This invisibility of the effects of habits is why, when success hits, it appears to the outside observer as if that person became an overnight success. They only see the avalanche of success event. What they are unable to see is the daily devotion to Rich Habits, those years of engaging in certain constructive daily routines, that created the avalanche of success event.

Define your ideal, future life today – a clear vision of who you want to be ten years into the future. Then start your success journey by pursuing just one goal and build daily activities around that one goal. Stick with it until those activities become habits. Then move on to the next goal. Baby step your way to success, goal by goal, dream by dream.

Each dream you realize is another rung on your ladder. Your ideal, future life awaits you at the top of that ladder.

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!

A picture of Bill Gates recently went viral. It showed him standing in line at a local fast food restaurant patiently waiting for his burger and fries. The picture drew a lot of favorable comments on social media.

What made the picture go viral was the modesty it projected of one of the world’s wealthiest individuals. It defied the perception so many have of wealthy people.

Most would write off Bill Gates’ humility as an exception to the rule.

But is it?

Well, according to my Rich Habits Study, the only study of its kind, the answer depends on the type of millionaire you happen to be.

The self-made millionaires in my study who struck gold before the age of 40 (about 1%), were more likely to embrace the millionaire lifestyle by supersizing their lives with expensive homes, luxury cars, Rolex watches and exotic travel. Humility, unfortunately, is not a word I would use to describe them.

Conversely, the other 99% of my self-made millionaires took twenty years or more to accumulate their millions and these millionaires retained their humble ways throughout their millionaire years.

Most eschewed country clubs, golf course memberships, exotic vacations and expensive toys. They kept their homes, their old cars and their modest mindset. Old friends and neighbors didn’t change.

The only common “luxury” these millionaires seemed to indulge in was a vacation home.

Otherwise, their lives, to outside observers, is very ordinary. What some might call, a humble life.

My humble Rich Habits millionaires and Bill Gates are not an aberration, however. As you’ll see, there are many humble millionaires out there.

Warren Buffet lives a very ordinary, humble life for a billionaire. Besides the fact he’s lived in the same home for over 55 years and drives himself to work, he’s more than a littl frugal with his money. Every morning his significant other, Astrid, lays out the exact amount of money he needs to buy his morning breakfast – a McDonald’s breakfast sandwich (CNBC: Warren Buffett eats the same thing for breakfast every day and it never costs more than $3.17).

Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, lives in a 2,400 square foot modest condo in Palo Alto, California. A self-professed “workaholic”, when Cook isn’t working, he spends the rest of his time working out (Inc: Tim Cook buys his department-store underwear on sale).

Buffy the Vampire actress, Sarah Michelle Gellar, is a self-professed, discount shopper. And, when she is not spending time with her family or acting, she’s volunteering at local, community-based charitable organizations.

Rob Gronkowski, tight end for the New England Patriots, invests 100% of his salary and spends his non-salary money very frugally. He claims the only luxury item he owns is diamond necklace he bought himself after the 2017 football season ended (CNBC: Rob Gronkowski, who hasn’t touched his NFL money in 8 years, finally splurged on his first ‘luxury’).

Billionaire, David Cheriton, was one of the early investors in Google. Despite his enormous wealth, he continues to teach at Stanford University, drives a modest car and cuts his own hair, to save money.

Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh, lives in a $1,200 a month trailer park. He considers himself a minimalist and finds serenity in his simple, humble life.

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!

There are many reasons individuals seek wealth.

When the reasons are driven by the desire to acquire things, then the WHY isn’t usually powerful enough, and wealth is elusive or fleeting.

When your WHY is powerful, however, than the likelihood you will accumulate the wealth you desire increases ten-fold.

What makes a WHY powerful?

• Your WHY is to Do What You Love – When whatever you do to make money is something you love doing, something that makes your heart sing, your WHY is Powerful.
• Your WHY is to Perfect Your Talents – When your endeavors put into service your unique, innate talents – skills which come easier to you than to others, then your WHY is Powerful.
• Your WHY is to Provide Added Value  – When the products or services you provide adds value to the lives of others, your WHY is Powerful.
• Your WHY is to Help Others – When you intend to use the wealth you seek to improve the lives of others, your WHY is Powerful.
• Your WHY is to End Your Poverty – When your desire for wealth is to set you free from a life of poverty for you and your family, your WHY is Powerful.

What is Your WHY for being rich?

Is it a Powerful WHY?

When your WHY is powerful, it will stimulate you to take action. That initial action becomes a catalyst, generating more action by feeding you with a never-ending supply of motivation and persistence – two common traits of ALL self-made millionaires.

Self-motivation and persistence are formidable allies in the pursuit of wealth. They enable you to overcome obstacles. They help you to grow in knowledge. They allow you to acquire and perfect skills, until you become a Virtuoso at what you do.

Finding a powerful WHY is where it all begins. It sets everything in motion.

Don’t wait, however, for that WHY to find you. It won’t. You must go out and find it yourself. It’s out there, waiting to be discovered.

Each morning, find a quiet place. Close your eyes, silence your mind and focus your thoughts on one singular thing: Help me find a WHY that really matters to me?

This directs your subconscious to go to work, behind the scenes, in search for the answer.

It won’t happen overnight. It takes time. But eventually your subconscious, through intuition, will answer. And when it does, you will find yourself unable to ignore it.

Your WHY will forever haunt you, night and day, until you have no choice but to surrender to that voice and take action.