Believe it or not, sleep is still little understood.

But that’s changing. In the last ten years there have been many studies on the purpose of sleep. Here’s some of their findings:

• Sleep Repairs Cell Damage – When we sleep, our cells repair themselves. Old, end of life cells, are replaced by new cells. Damaged cells are repaired. The Glymphatic System is called into action, sending lympatic fluid where it is needed in order to remove dead cells.
• Sleep Creates Memories – During the REM stage of sleep, new information we acquire during the day is looped back and forth, thousands of times, between the hippocampus and the neocortex.  Once stored it becomes part of our long-term memory. Long-term memory is also known as Long-Term Potentiation.
• Sleep Clears Out Waste Material Within Each Cell – Glucose or Ketones are the primary fuel source for every cell within our body. This fuel enters every cell. It is then converted to ATP, which the mitochondria (power plants within each cell) use to power the cell. During this conversion process, Free Radicals (free electrons) result. Free Radicals represent dangerous waste material. Unchecked, they will bounce around inside every cell and can damage the Nucleus (where our DNA and genes reside – causing cell mutations) or they can damage the inner lining of the cell wall. In order to prevent them from mutating or damaging the cell, these Free Radials must be removed. During sleep, oxygen is deployed to soak up these Free Radicals, carry them outside the cell wall and into our blood. Our blood then carries them to the lungs, converts the Free Radical-soaked oxygen into carbon dioxide, which is then exhaled into the environment. Goodbye waste.
• Sleep Helps Grow & Repair Muscles – During sleep, the pituitary gland releases a growth hormone, which stimulates muscle growth and repair. 
• Sleep Erases Memory – During sleep, the brain will do a self-diagnosis with respect to stored information. Information (memories) it deems irrelevant, are erased – forever.
• Sleep Grows & Distributes New Brain Cells – During sleep, new brain cells are created and dispersed to various parts of the brain, where they are most needed.
• Sleep Oxygenates the Eyes – The purpose of Rapid Eye Movement (one of the 5 sleep stages) is to oxygenate our eyes. This is the only way our eyes receive the oxygen they need to survive.
• Sleep Restores Willpower – When willpower is depleted, we become unable to focus and think clearly, causing us to be distracted and to make poor decisions. Sleep helps to restore our depleted reserves of willpower.
• Sleep Reduces Inflammation and Helps You Think Clearer – Sleep slows down your Sypathetic Nervous System, reducing stress. This not only helps you think clearer but also helps to reduce inflammation throughout the body. Chronic inflammation is associated with all sorts of diseases, including cancer and heart disease. Individuals who do not get enough sleep make poor decisions, suffer from chronic inflammation and are susceptible to disease.
• Sleep Cleans Brain Cells – Amaloid is a protein that builds up on the neural receptors of every brain cell. The uncontrolled build up of Amaloid is believed to result in Alzheimers. Sleep flushes away these Amaloids.

How much sleep do you need?

The average adult requires between four to six sleep cycles a night. Each sleep cycle is composed of five separate levels of sleep: alpha, theta, delta, rapid eye movement (REM) and then back to theta. The first three sleep levels last approximately 65 minutes. REM lasts 20 minutes and the final level of sleep, theta, lasts 5 minutes. So, each sleep cycle lasts about 90 minutes. Four sleep cycles is about six hours of sleep. Five sleep cycles is 7.5 hours of sleep and six sleep cycles is approximately nine hours of sleep.

The number of hours you sleep is less important than the number of complete sleep cycles your brain requires every night. Five sleep cycles a night, or 7.5 hours, is considered optimal.

This is why some individuals require more or less sleep than others. It all depends on how many sleep cycles your brain requires each night.

Prominent Psychologist, William Marsten, surveyed 3,000 people and found that 94% had no purpose in life.

In another study, called the 2015 UK Optimism Audit, 69% of the 2,000 study subjects said they were unhappy with their lives. The main reason?

Unfulfilled work.

When you do not have a main purpose in life, life becomes drudgery. The result is unhappiness.

According to my Rich Habits research, having a main purpose in life is critical to success, building wealth and happiness.

82% of the self-made millionaires in my study had pursued some big dream. This spurred them on to achieve great things in life.

Dreams give you a purpose in life. When you pursue a dream, it toggles on a number of success traits:

• Self-Motivation
• Intense Desire
• Hard Work Ethic
• Enthusiasm
• Positive Mental Outlook
• Self-Education – Desire to Learn
• Focus
• Emotional Control
• Patience
• Persistence
• Meaningful Goal-Setting
• Forging Success Relationships (Birds of a Feather)
• Financial Literacy
• Greater Risk Tolerance
• Increased Confidence
• Adopting Good Habits – Habits That Help You Achieve Your Dreams/Goals
• Self-Awareness
• Delayed Gratification
• Open Mind
• Team Building
• Efficient Time Management
• Expectations Management
• Leveraging Resources
• Fearlessness
• Seeking Feedback
• Asking for What You Need or Want
• Eliminate time Wasters
• Asking the Right Questions

All of these success traits reside inside each person. They are only revealed when you pursue a dream or some main purpose in life.

Put your ladder on your wall.

Don’t waste your life pursuing someone else’s dream or main purpose in life. It’s your life. Pursue your dreams. Find your main purpose.

Many believe the pursuit of wealth is wrong and that the wealthy are evil.

I know this because I have received thousands of very angry and abusive emails and comments over the years from individuals in response to one of the many media articles on me or my Rich Habits research. There is no shortage of hatred for rich people.

Many of those angry emails/comments, oftentimes referenced some Bible passage, as if their Bible knowledge somehow invalidated my research.

What my haters didn’t know, however, was that I knew a little bit about the Bible too. At one point, very early in my life, I was on the path to become a priest. So, for many years I had studied the Bible, almost on a daily basis.

The Bible is not black and white on the topic of wealth. In fact, within its pages are many passages that seem to shine a favorable light on wealth, especially the Book of Proverbs.

• Proverbs 13:11 – Whoever gathers money, little by little, makes it grow.
• Matthew 25: 14-30 – Parable of the Talents
• Proverbs 10:4 – Lazy hands make for poverty, but diligent hands bring wealth.
• Proverbs 22:7 – Just as the rich rule the poor, so the borrower is servant to the lender.
• Proverbs 21:20 – The wise have wealth and luxury but fools spend whatever they get.
• Luke 6:38 – Give and you shall receive. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back.
• Deuteronomy 16:17 – All must give as they are able, according to the blessings given to them by the Lord your God.
• Proverbs 10:15 – A rich man’s wealth is his strong city; the poverty of the poor is their ruin.
• Proverbs 28:20 – A faithful man will abound with blessings, but whoever hastens to be rich will not go unpunished.
• Proverbs 23:21 – For the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty; and slumber will clothe them with rags.
• Proverbs 21:5 – The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty.

Growing up, I was taught by my mother that the pursuit of wealth was a mortal sin. As a result, I was programmed into believing the wealthy were sinners.

And, almost daily, my belief was validated by the media and many politicians, who almost unanimously, vilified the rich.

My belief system came crashing down in 2009, however, after completing my five-year study on the daily habits of the rich and poor. That study opened my eyes for the first time. I discovered that wealthy individuals were not the evil people I had been brainwashed into believing them to be.

According to my data, 72% of the self-made millionaires in my study were involved in some charitable organization. And 61% were on the boards or committees of a charitable organization.

These charities they supported helped feed and shelter the poor, paid medical bills for the poor, built homes for the poor, helped educate the poor, bought wheel chairs for the disabled, and in many ways, helped improve the lives of those otherwise cast aside by society.

I also learned, from my Rich Habits research, that many of the self-made millionaires who ran their own companies were very generous to their employees. They loaned them money so they could purchase a home. They helped pay college costs for their children. They bought them cars. They co-signed loans. They paid for unexpected medical expenses. And they mentored them so they could also one day become successful.

My Mom was wrong. Wealthy people are not evil. In fact, they are among the finest human beings to walk the earth.

All seek happiness. Happiness is the ultimate goal in life.

But for the majority, happiness is elusive.

Why?

Because of unhappiness.

Unhappiness is far more prevalent than happiness and it throws a wrench into living a happy life.

There are certain things in life that create unhappiness:

1. Stress
2. Toxic Relationships
3. Boring, Unsatisfying Work
4. Being Ignored or Taken for Granted
5. Inactivity
6. Negative Beliefs
7. Personal Physical Illness
8. Illness of a Close Family Member
9. Illness of a Close Friend
10. Death of a Close Family Member
11. Death of a Close Friend
12. Anxiety and Worry
13. Sadness
14. Depression
15. Unhappy Family
16. Unhappy Friends
17. Hate
18. Anger
19. Unmet Expectations
20. Debt
21. Inability to Pay Bills
22. Poverty
23. Marital Problems
24. Divorce
25. Mistakes
26. Failure
27. Catastrophes Wrought by Nature (Hurricane’s, Earthquakes, etc.)
28. Economic Recessions or Depressions
29. Job Loss
30. Loss of Income

When you look at this list, how many are completely within your control?

Stress, Toxic Relationships, Boring, Unsatisfying Work, Negative Beliefs, Being Ignored or Taken for Granted, Distractions, Anxiety and Worry, Sadness, Hate, Anger, Debt, Inability to Pay Bills, Poverty, Mistakes and Failure.

If you do the math, that’s 53%.

53% of unhappiness is self-inflicted.

We are our own worst enemies.

Control what you can control and you will eliminate 53% of the unhappiness in your life.

Something to think about.

According to a 2012 survey conducted by “Big 4” accounting firm Deloitte, 80% of those surveyed did not like their jobs. In another survey conducted by Gallup in 2013, 63% of the 230,000 employees in the survey said they were unhappy with their jobs.

Job dissatisfaction is driven by a number of factors:

1. No Direction – You have no idea where you are going in life. Your job has no purpose other than to provide a paycheck. It does not lead anywhere. It’s a dead-end job. When you can visualize where you want to be in say five or ten year’s, you will eventually find a job that helps you get there.
2. No Plan – Because you have no direction, you have no plan. Without any plan you are floating around like leaves on a fall day. You allow the wind to blow you from job to job. The solution is to define what you want to do in life and then develop a plan that will get you there.
3. No Passion – You’re not good at what you do and you’re not good at what you do because you lack passion. As a result, you put in the bare minimum at work – enough to keep you from getting fired. When you do not do your best, when you don’t give it 100%, you feel dissatisfied. The solution is to find your innate talents or something you are passionate about. This requires experimentation – experimenting with different income-produing activities. Through experimentation, you will eventually find something you enjoy doing and you will devote significant hours to it, until you become expert in it.
4. Wrong Wall – Your Ladder is on Someone Else’s Wall – You only excel when you pursue your own goals and your own dreams. When you pursue the dreams and goals of your parents or some influencer in your life, you are pursuing their dreams and goals. Your dissatisfaction is the result of not doing what you should be doing in life. You need to put your own ladder on your own wall.

When you find your passion and purpose in life, work ceases to be work. It changes from drudgery to pleasure. Your mindset shifts from negative to positive. Your work-life takes on new meaning. You feel you are doing something you were born to do. And this leads to happiness, mastery and, in time, more money and the accumulation of wealth.

Successful people do certain things every day that act like a magnet, attracting luck into their lives:

1. Experiment With New Things – When you experiment with new things you are able to find some innate talent or passion you did not know you possessed.
2. Expect Success – A positive outlook enables you to see opportunities and solutions to problems.
3. Seek Out Silver Linings – Even in failure and after mistakes, there is always some new knowledge to be gained; knowledge that can lead to success. Successful people are constantly on the lookout for the good even in the bad.
4. Listen to Your Subconscious – Intuition is the means by which the subconscious mind communicates knowledge to the conscious mind.
5. Interact With Successful People – Interacting with those who are successful or who are pursuing success can help you uncover new knowledge or solutions to problems/obstacles that plague you. Seek out seminars, conferences, or any group whose members are success-minded.
6. Pursue Some Dream or Big Goal – You gain knowledge from pursuing a dream or big goal; knowledge that will help you succeed later in life.

Poor Habits destroy your life. They act as an anchor, holding you back from success and the accumulation of wealth. Poor Habits, like all habits, are invisible and, like all habits, their daily impact is imperceptible.

Each Poor Habit you engage in is seemingly harmless and of little affect. But, over time, Poor Habits, like snowflakes, accumulate. Eventually, that accumulation causes an avalanche – a job loss, a heart attack, bankruptcy, divorce, etc.

But that is an abstract. Abstract because it paints a picture that is far into the future. Too far to cause worry today. So, rather, let’s consider the more concrete, understandable impact of Poor Habits. Let’s consider the financial costs of some very common Poor Habits.

• Smoking Cigarettes – The average daily smoker, smokes approximately 15 cigarettes a day, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Depending on what state you live in, the average cost of one cigarette is between 30 cents to 60 cents. This Poor Habit costs the daily smoker between $4.50 – $9.00 a day. Annually, this amounts to $1,643 to $3,285 a year. Over a lifetime of say, fifty years, this one Poor Habit costs you between $82,150 to $164, 250. Had you, instead, invested that money, earning 6% a year, you would have accumulated between $521,000 – $1,040,000.
• Drinking Alcohol – If you were to consume on alcoholic beverage every day for say fifty years, this one Poor Habit would cost you approximately $100 a month. Had you, instead, invested that money, earning 6% a year, you would have accumulated $381,000 over fifty years.
• Buying Lunch – Buying lunch every day costs, on average, about $6 a day. The cost of bringing lunch in from home would be about $2.50 a day. Had you, instead, invested that $3.50 difference, earning 6% a year, you would have accumulated $140,000 over a forty-year work-life.

These are some common Poor Habits. Poor Habits have real, measurable financial costs. Before you blame some third party for your poverty, consider the cost of your Poor Habits on your life.

Your financial circumstances in life are dictated by your habits. Change your habits and you change those financial circumstances.

Accumulating wealth often requires the elimination of just one or two Poor Habits. Self-made millionaires know this little secret to success. They understand that if they forge good habits, success and wealth are inevitable. Stop blaming others and start taking responsibility for your financial circumstances. Blame does not change those circumstances. It only rationalizes them.

All human cells are powered by one of two fuel sources:

• Glucose or
• Ketones

In either case, glucose or ketones, once they enter the cell membrane they are converted to ATP by the mitochondria (fuel power plants that reside in every cell). ATP is then used to power every human cell.

Cells prefer glucose because glucose is easily mined. You can get glucose from just about any readily available food source.

Any excess glucose-based food source is then converted into glycogen and stored in our muscles, liver or our fat cells.

When food is scarce, glycogen is first released from the muscles and liver and converted into glucose. It is then sent around the body, via our blood, to where it is most needed.

When our muscles and livers run out of glycogen, the body then turns to fat. The fat is broken down, converted into ketones, and sent around the body, via our blood, to where it is most needed.

When you do not eat for four or more hours, you run out of glycogen stored in muscles and the liver.

The body then begins breaking down fat to produce ketones in order to keep the body fueled. This is known as the ketogenic state.

Thus, fasting for four hours or more, or abstaining from eating for four hours or more, forces you into a ketogenic state.

Why is this important?

• Fasting forces the body to rely on ketones. Ketones, when converted into ATP, produces 20% more energy for our cells to use. Ketones are, therefore, a much more efficient and powerful source of energy.
• Fasting has been shown to lower blood sugar levels by reducing the production of insulin and Insulinlike Growth Factor (IGF-1), a hormone that is linked to cancer and diabetes. So, fasting reduces blood sugar levels and the incidence of cancer and diabetes.
• Studies have shown that fasting also reduces the incidence of heart disease.
• Toxins are stored in fat. Those toxins play havoc with your body. Fasting reduces fat, thus reducing the inventory of toxins stored within the fat cells of the body.
• Fasting reduces bad cholesterol (LDL).
• Fasting reduces blood pressure.
• Studies have shown that fasting can reduce the incidence of strokes, Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease.
• Fasting has been shown to reduce epileptic seizures.
• Fasting has been shown to increase life spans by 30%.
• Fasting increases the production of proteins that protect brain cells.
• Fasting improves the ability of cells to repair damaged DNA.

Back in 2005, one of the self-made millionaires in my Rich Habits Study made a comment that I wrote down so I would never forget it:

Relationships are the currency of the wealthy.

The millionaire was doing his best to explain to me the importance of Rich Relationships in creating success and its corresponding wealth.

Rich Relationships are relationships you forge with other successful or success-minded individuals. The value of these Rich Relationships is that they are door openers – they open doors and short-cut the success process.

Just one Rich Relationship can reduce the amount of time it takes for you to realize a dream or some big goal, from years, to as long as it takes to dial a phone number.

The problem is, forging Rich Relationships is not easy. It requires an investment of your time.

You must invest time finding individuals who can open doors and move mountains. And then, once you find them, you must invest time in growing and maintaining each Rich Relationship.

Where Do You Find Rich Relationships?

According to my research, one of the most abundant places to find Rich Relationships is in local, community-based non-profits. Most of the individuals who run these non-profits are either board members or individuals who work on the various committees of these non-profits.

How Do You Grow Rich Relationships? 

Networking, Hello Calls, Happy Birthday Calls, Life Event Calls.

• Networking – You grow Rich Relationships by staying in constant contact with them. You network with them by joining a non-profit you truly believe in and work with the members in fundraising activities and the various events the non-profit employs for purposes of giving back to the community or the beneficiaries of their cause.
• Hello Calls, Happy Birthday Calls, Life Event Calls – Click on here to learn more about Hello Calls, Happy Birthday Calls and Life Event Calls.

Rich Relationships open doors that are otherwise closed. They introduce you to other Rich Relationships who can instantly turn a dream into a reality.

Of all of the Rich Habits, forging Rich Relationships is perhaps the most important and hardest thing to do. It’s not easy finding Rich Relationships and it’s not easy growing and maintaining them. It requires an investment in your time. But that investment will eventually help you in your quest to become successful.

When we think of poverty, invariably we think of money. But poverty of money is an effect for which there are many causes:

• Poverty of Knowledge
• Poverty of Awareness
• Poverty of Compassion
• Poverty of Habits
• Poverty of Work Ethic
• Poverty of Goals
• Poverty of Dreams
• Poverty of Vision
• Poverty of Charity
• Poverty of Generosity
• Poverty of Relationships
• Poverty of Kindness
• Poverty of Willpower
• Poverty of Discipline
• Poverty of Skills
• Poverty of Curiosity
• Poverty of Hope
• Poverty of Vocabulary
• Poverty of Health
• Poverty of Courage
• Poverty of Wisdom
• Poverty of Truth
• Poverty of Good
• Poverty of Humility

The goal should not be the pursuit of wealth. The greater goal should be the elimination of poverty in all its forms. Poverty has many tentacles, all of which lead to one place – Financial Poverty.