According to a study conducted by economists from the University of Padova, Italy, individuals who read for self-education earned 21% more, as adults, than those who did not.

In another study conducted by Daniel Belsky (Duke University), who studied 918 New Zealanders, he found that individuals who developed the reading to learn habit earned more income, had more assets and had better finances by age 38 then their peers.

In my five-year study on the daily habits of the rich:

• 86% of the rich loved reading vs. 26% of the poor.
• 63% of the rich listened to audio books during their commute to work vs. 5% of the poor.
• 85% of the rich read two or more self-improvement books every month vs. 15% of the poor.
• 88% of the rich read 30 minutes or more each day vs. 2% of the poor.

Parents who instill in their children the habit of daily educational reading set their children up to earn more during their lifetime. This habit, it turns out, follows them into their adult years.

A recent study by Brown University, in which nearly 50,000 families were surveyed, concluded that habits in children are unlikely to vary after age 9. Since most of those early years for kids are spent at home, the bulk of the habits children adopt, such as reading to learn, come primarily from their parents. As infants and toddlers, our brains are hard-wired by nature for “monkey see, monkey do” behavior.  As a result, children pick up the vast majority of their habits from their parents. Good or bad.

Are you a fast walker? Are you a slow walker? There’s a big difference.

There are many studies on individuals who walk fast vs. individuals who walk slow. These studies all seem to highlight the following characteristics of these diverse individuals:

FAST WALKER STRENGTHS

• Leaders (Rich Habit)
• Make Frequent Mistakes (Rich Habit if it = a learning experience)
• Value Time (Rich Habit)
• Confident (Rich Habit)
• Ambitious (Rich Habit)
• Risk Takers (Rich Habit if Calculated Risk)
• Decision Makers (Rich Habit)
• Strong Work Ethic (Rich Habit)

FAST WALKER WEAKNESSES

• Make Frequent Mistakes (Poor Habit if no learning experience)
• Too Many Toxic Relationships (Poor Habit)
• Spontaneous spenders (Poor Habit)
• Risk Takers (Poor Habit if Ignorant Risk)
• Say what’s on their mind (Poor Habit)
• Emotional (Poor Habit)
• Limited Willpower (Poor Habit)
• Impatient (Poor Habit)

SLOW WALKER STRENGTHS

• Strong Willpower (Rich Habit)
• Persistent (Rich Habit because success requires persistence)
• Gatherers of Knowledge (Rich Habit)
• Defer Gratification (Rich Habit)
• Pursue Dreams (Rich Habit)
• Goal-Driven (Rich Habit)
• Savers (Rich Habit)
• More Rich Relationships and Few Toxic Relationships (Rich Habits)
• Patient (Rich Habit)
• Make Few Mistakes (Rich Habit if mistake avoided is do to planning)

SLOW WALKER WEAKNESSES

• Risk Averse (Poor Habit)
• Miss Opportunities (Poor Habit driven by fear of action)
• Fearful (Poor Habit)
• Make Few Mistakes (Poor Habit if mistake avoided is do to fear of taking action)

The three most powerful Rich Habits Slow Walkers have over Fast Walkers are: Persistence, More Rich Relationships and Strong Willpower.

These three Rich Habits are fundamental to success. Without persistence, you will never succeed. Rich Relationships open doors and Toxic Relationships distract. And without strong willpower, you will never be able to change your habits.

So, in my view, Slow Walkers have the advantage in life, when it comes to success.

Are you a Fast Walker or a Slow Walker? How many of your friends and relationships are Fast Walkers or Slow Walkers? Just something to think about.

We often hear the phrase “born again” in the context of religion. Those who are “born again” go through a transformation, that almost always is significant and dramatic.

They learn new things, their beliefs change, their habits change, they associate with different people who share their views, etc.. In short, their life changes significantly.

When you are “born again” there is usually a wholesale change in your life, top to bottom.

Those who make the courageous decision to pursue a dream go through a similar process. You need to learn everything about your dream. You must become an expert in the industry your dream occupies.

Typically, this involves acquiring new knowledge by reading everything you can get your hands on related to your dream. It also requires that you learn new skills and practice those new skills over and over again until you become expert in those new skills.

It also requires that you eliminate old beliefs that hold you back from pursuing your dream. So, you acquire new beliefs; beliefs that fuel your ability to realize your dream.

Dreams also affect your habits. You must adopt the habits of those in your industry who are successful and get rid of old habits that hold you back from realizing your dream.

Lastly, you must change who you associate with. You must find those individuals who can help you open up doors in order to realize your dream.

If you want to succeed in realizing a dream, you cannot remain who you are. You cannot continue to do what you’ve been doing. You must change your knowledge base, your skills, your habits and who you associate with. You must be “born again” into the person who you need to be in order to realize your dream.

Life is like a seesaw. On one side of the seesaw are your Poor Habits and on the other side are your Rich Habits.

If you have more Poor Habits than Rich Habits you put yourself on the path towards poverty.

If you have more Rich Habits than Poor Habits you put yourself on the path towards becoming rich.

Adding just two or three Rich Habits is all it takes to change your life and get your seesaw tipping in the right direction. You don’t need to worry about getting rid of any of your old bad habits when you add new good habits.

The interesting thing is that Rich Habits are like dominoes. When you add one Rich Habit it changes your other habits. Adding Rich Habits actually makes it easier to eliminate your Poor Habits, which will go away automatically.

The poor believe that the only type of luck they have is random bad luck

The rich believe that they create their own type of luck which I call Opportunity Luck.

Either way you slice it, becoming rich or poor comes down to luck.

From my research, I have found that luck is a major factor in success:

• 79% of poor people in my study believed wealth came from random good luck and the reason they were poor was due to a lack of random good luck.
• 87% of the wealthy people in my study believed they created their own luck.

I found that the poor created their own bad luck in the form of Detrimental Luck. Their bad habits, bad behaviors, negative thinking and uncontrolled emotions are like apple seeds they plant every day. Eventually those apple seeds sprout, turn into trees and produce rotten fruit.

The rich also created their own form of good luck called Opportunity Luck, according to my research. Their good habits, good behaviors, positive thinking and under control emotions are like apple seeds they plant every day. Eventually those apple seeds sprout, turn into trees and produce delicious fruit.

Persistence is sustained effort toward a goal or your Chief Aim in life.

Most people lack persistence and it is the reason most are not wealthy. A lack of persistence is the main cause of failure in life.

Wealthy people have the Rich Habit of being persistent. They simply never give up. They are obsessed with their dreams, goals or main purpose in life and will not stop until they achieve their dreams, goals or Chief Aim in life.

• 62% of the wealthy are focused on their goals every day.
• 80% are focused on achieving at least one goal.
• 55% of the wealthy in my study spent a year or more working towards some goal.

Negative thinking is a Poor Habit.

When you make negative thinking a habit, negative things eventually will materialize in your life.

The brain, specifically the subconscious (Brain Stem and Limbic System), goes to work behind the scenes to bring about that which you are constantly thinking about.

It does this through intuition. Intuition is the way the conscious brain (Neo-Cortex) communicates to you what the subconscious wants you to do. If your thoughts are negative, the intuition you will receive will be destructive. It will nudge you to do something that will bring about the negative things you are constantly thinking about. When you are in a negative place, intuition can be destructive.

This is why it is so important to be aware of our thinking and stop all negative thoughts in their tracts. This is also why it is so important to consciously put positive thoughts in our minds through the use of daily affirmations and visualization techniques. The conscious mind cannot hold onto two thoughts at the same time. so, the key to getting rid of negative thoughts is to think about something positive. This pushes the negative thought out of the mind and prevents the subconscious from doing any damage.

Thoughts become things. 

Repetitive thoughts tied to any emotion, good or bad, creates neural pathways in the brain. The brain cannot distinguish between a repetitive thought that is based in reality or one that is a false reality. 

This is why it is so important to control your thoughts.

If your thoughts are positive, upbeat and focused on your ideal reality, the subconscious part of your brain (Brain Stem and Limbic System) will get to work to bring that new reality into existence. 

Daily affirmations, spoken with emotion, just after waking in the morning and just before bedtime, allow the subconscious part of the brain and the conscious part of the brain (Pre-Frontal Cortex) to communicate with one another. This is because when we are waking up or falling to sleep we are in the first phase of sleep, called Alpha phase.

Alpha phase opens the pathway between the subconscious mind and conscious mind via the Corpus Callosum, the mass of brain tissue that separates the right side of the brain from the left side of the brain. The Corpus Callosum also happens to be connected to the three major parts of the brain: Cortex, Limbic System and Brain Stem.

My Aunt Peg, one of my early mentors in life, used to brag about how she always spoke her mind. The problem was that my Aunt offended a lot of people. As kids, we’d get a laugh out of it because we loved seeing our Aunt Peg go to town on someone.

But at my Aunt Peg’s funeral, I noticed that only two friends showed up to pay their respects. Besides the family, the church was empty.

Speaking your mind turns out to be not such a good thing. Ninety-four percent of the wealthy in my study said it was a bad thing to say what’s on your mind. As a result, they made an effort to forge the habit of filtering every thought before it came out of their mouth.

The reason? The wealthy believed that saying what’s on your mind risks damaging valuable relationships. Imagine spending years building a strong relationship with someone you value, someone who could open doors for you, only to destroy that relationship overnight with a few off the cuff words.

Conversely, 69% of the poor people in my study believed it was a good thing to say what’s on your mind.

Saying what’s on your mind sounds noble, even admirable. Only, it’s not. Words can destroy relationships. Rich people figure this out long before they make their first million dollars. 

One of the strategies the wealthy use to build long-lasting, valuable relationships is the Life Event Call.

These calls are made to clients, customers, patients or any relationship you value and want to grow, in order to recognize a particular event that occurred in the contact’s life.

An example would be if a client or their spouse had a child. Make a call simply to congratulate them on the birth. Happiness emotions are running high and emotions, good or bad, hold the key to long-term potentiation (long-term memory formation).

When they get that call from you, it will stick in their memory banks and you will forever be associated with one of the happiest events of their lives.

Other examples of opportunities to make a Life Event Call are:

• Graduations
• Promotions
• New Job
• Death
• Illness
• Marriage
• New Home
• Relocation
• Any events in the lives of the children of your valuable relationships
• Awards
• Accomplishments

Life Event Calls put your relationships on steroids. They grow the roots to the relationship tree deeper and faster than any other relationship-building strategy.