Adversity pushes you, challenges you, tests you.

It can make you better, sharper, stronger, more resilient and bursting with confidence.

Or, it can break you.

Adversity stops the vast majority of people in their tracks. This is because adversity tests your commitment and your desire to succeed. It pushes you to the very limits of your capabilities and endurance level.

The fact is, without adversity, there would be no growth and without growth, there would be no success. Adversity forces you to grow into the person you need to be in order for success to visit you.

If your reasons for pursuing success are not powerful enough, adversity will almost certainly cause you to quit on yourself. You must have a powerful WHY that keeps you motivated and focused on a daily basis. Your WHY creates the passion that carries you through adversity.

Adversity is really a series of tests to determine the power of your WHY. Individuals who relentlessly overcome adversity, without quitting on themselves, have a bigger WHY than those who throw in the towel.

How do you know if your WHY is powerful enough?

Your WHY is powerful enough if it infiltrates your thoughts during the day and your dreams at night. Your WHY is powerful enough when the dream you are pursuing occupies your thoughts on weekends, vacations, holidays, family events, etc.

When the dream you’re pursuing is with you 24/7, then your WHY is powerful enough.

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!

How you prioritize what you do with the money you earn, dictates whether or not you will be sound financially. As I learned from my Rich Habits research, Saver-Investor Millionaires do things very differently from non-millionaires, when it comes to prioritizing their spending.

For the average non-millionaires out there, this is how they prioritize their spending:

#1 Priority – Short-Term Needs/Wants

• Pay bills to meet standard of living – paid for out of earnings
• Schooling for children (Includes college costs, if children are in college) – paid for out of earnings
• Buy home-related things, with any excess earnings

#2 Priority – Long-Term Needs/Wants

• General Savings
• Retirement Savings
• College Savings

For the average Saver-Investor Millionaire in my Rich Habits Study, this is how they prioritize their spending:

#1 Priority – Long-Term Needs/Wants

• General Savings
• Retirement Savings
• School Savings (this includes college savings)

#2 Priority – Short-Term Needs/Wants

• Pay bills to meet standard of living – paid for out of earnings. If unable to meet their expenses, they will reduce their standard of living or seek to earn more money by creating a second stream of income (2nd job or side business)
• Schooling for children – paid for out of School Savings
• Buy home-related things – paid for with any excess earnings

Because the spending priorities for non-millionaires is backwards and focused on the short-term, they never adjust their standard of living and wind up saving very little for their future.

Because Saver-Investor millionaires focus their spending on the long-term, they are able to pivot and make adjustments to their standard of living in order to continue to create savings, which they are able to invest for the long-term.

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!

Choices and decisions can make or break a business, career or relationship.

One or two bad decisions can, and often are, forgiven.

But those who make poor choices and decisions too frequently either go out of business or find themselves on the unemployment line.

I’ve learned from my Rich Habits research that frequent bad decisions are actually habits.

What are some of those bad decision habits?

Impulsiveness

Twenty-seven percent of the entrepreneurs in my Rich Habits Study failed at least once in business. The top three reasons given for their failure were:

#1 Ran Out of Money

#2 Made Poor Decisions

#3 Had Bad Habits

One cause of poor decision-making is impulsiveness – meaning, making decisions before gathering all of the facts needed in order to make an informed decision.

If you are too lazy to do the heavy lifting good decisions require, delegate the heavy lifting to others.

Going with your gut can put you in bankruptcy court.

Taking Uneducated Risks

Taking risks without understanding all of the potential downsides, is another recipe for failure. Good decisions require that you take Educated Risks. One of the hallmarks of the self-made millionaires in my study was the Rich Habit of taking Educated Risks.

What is an Educated Risk?

• Doing Your Homework – Studying everything about investments that require your time or money, before committing to the investment, minimizes the risk of failure and increases your chances for success.
• Seek Expert Feedback – Seeking feedback from experts, helps open your eyes to pitfalls and opportunities.

Giving in to Immediate Needs or Wants

Sometimes you box yourself in and must make decisions in order to meet an immediate need. In effect, you are making decisions from a position of weakness in order to meet some short-term need.

Other times, you make decisions in order to satisfy some immediate want.

According to my Rich Habits research, every decision you make should create a long-term benefit. If it doesn’t, then it’s going to end up being a bad decision. So, as a rule, never make decisions in order to satisfy short-term needs or wants.

Lack of Adequate Sleep

The worst time to make a decision is when you are tired. The prefrontal cortex, the decision-making command and control center of the brain, clogs up and slows down when it is tired and needs rest. Also, when you are tired your willpower reserve will be very low.

The best time to make a decision is after a good night’s rest. So, the old adage, let me sleep on it, is smart thinking.

Making Decisions at the Wrong Time of the Day

In a recent University of Dundee Study, lead author Benjamin Vincent, PhD, found that individuals in one study group who made decisions after ten hours of fasting, consistently made the wrong decisions.

Conversely, the study group who made decisions within two hours of eating healthy food, consistently made the right decisions.

This disparity in decision-making was due to a loss of willpower reserve, also known as Decision Fatigue, which is a fancy term for lack of energy.

Never make a decision when you are hungry.

Also, never attend an important meeting, in which decisions will be made, when you are hungry.

Addictions/Excesses

If you have drug or alcohol addictions, or regularly drink or take drugs in excess, your prefrontal cortex will be impaired.

Do not make any decision while impaired and don’t let anyone you depend on make decisions on your behalf, while they are impaired.

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!

Values are the things that truly matter most to you. They are fundamental to who you are and what is most important to you.

Many people try to mask or hide their values when those values are inconsistent with the false image they present to others.

For example, if money is your #1 priority, you may not want others to know this. You may not want them to know that your true priority is making money, even at the expense of others. Instead, you may want them to perceive you as someone with more noble, socially conscious motives.

And that may work for a time.

But, you cannot turn your values on or off. They are not LEGOs – something that can be easily added or removed. Your true values will eventually reveal themselves through your actions, especially when you are under some type of duress or pressure from outside forces.

Individuals whose god is money, may realize their dream of becoming wealthy, but often their lives are shallow, hollow and insignificant due to their flawed values.

Conversely, there are individuals whose #1 priority is not built around money, but upon a value system focused on improving the lives of others.

And yes, they too may become rich. But their wealth is the byproduct of providing products and services that add value to the lives of others. They live lives of significance. They are revered by others. And their legacy lasts many generations.

Your true character is revealed by your values. Those values reveal themselves, not when times are easy, but when times are hard.

Your actions, especially under duress, pulls away the curtain to reveal your true values – the things that are most important to you.

What are your true values?

Are they what you profess them to be?

I don’t need any answers. All I need to do is watch what you do.

Under pressure, your actions always reveal your true values.

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’s a right way and a wrong way to pursue goals.

The wrong way is to wing it by setting random goals for a year. This doesn’t work because these types or goals are actually wishes or things you would like to happen. They aren’t actually goals at all.

You see, goals are your construction crew for your dreams. So, the right way to set goals is to start by defining a dream you would like to realize. Once you have your dream defined, then you can build specific goals around that dream.

Think of a dream as a picture of something you desire. Maybe it’s an additional $2,000 in income a month. Now, take that dream and define what specific actions you would need to take in order to generate an additional $2,000 a month.

Do you have the knowledge and/or skills to take those actions? Do you have the right training, licenses, degree, etc.? If no, then you need to first develop the knowledge and/or skills necessary before you even attempt to pursue those goals.

Once you have the knowledge and/or skills, that it is time to mobilize your construction crew and engage in the daily activities that will allow you to achieve each goal.

Think of each goal as a rung on a ladder. As you achieve each goal, you climb your ladder. You realize each dream when you reach the top of the ladder.

Then you move on to the next dream and repeat this goal-setting process.

Dream by dream, you build the life of your dreams, using goals as your construction crew.

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!

“They’re just lucky. Everything they touch turns to gold.”

How many times have you heard someone say that?

Those who realize consistent success in life are perceived to be endowed by the gods with some magical power or some type of perpetual good luck. Everything they do just seems to work out in their favor all the time, over and over again.

But, when you peel the onion, as I have been doing since 2004, you begin to understand there is something much more fundamental at work – habits.

Habits are repetitive routines. Often repetitive daily routines.

When those habits are the right habits, meaning, habits that give you the Midas Touch, guess what? Those repetitive habits are going to produce repetitive success.

So, what type of habits give you the Midas Touch?

Calculated/Educated Risk Habits

• Doing Your Homework – Studying everything about investments that require your time or money, before comitting to the investment, minimizes the risk of failure and increases your chances for success.
• Seek Expert Feedback – Seeking feedback from experts helps open you eyes to pitfalls and opportunities.

Persuasion Habits

• Enthusiastic Optimism – Optimism is is infectious. It acts like a magnet, attracting others to your cause or mission.
• Speaking – Speaking engagements enable you to get out in front of many people at one time in order to get your message out.
• Writing – Writing a blog or contributing to the media helps attract the “right” individuals to you.
• Hello Calls – Making regular Hello Calls to people who matter is a very powerful way to build relationships with the right people.

Growth Habits

• Read to Learn – Focused reading every day for 30 minutes or more on topics directly related to what you do for a living improves your knowledge-base, transforming you into a Virtuoso in your field. Virtuosos receive a premium for their service or products.
• Practice – Deliberate and Analytical Practice of two or more hours every day perfects and improves your skills, transforming you into a Virtuoso in your field.

Charity/Networking Habits

• Volunteering – Many community-based non-profits are run by influencers – successful people in the community. These influencers can put you in touch with other influencers: celebrities, CEOs, leaders in finance, politics, etc. These influencers can open doors with one email, one text, or one phone call, fast-tracking success. Volunteering for one of these local non-profits allows you to meet and forge relationships with the successful people running these organizations.
• Networking- You can also find successful people on local, community-based business organizations. typically, the individuals who run these organizations are successful local business leaders. Joining one of these organizations puts you directly in touch with these successful people.

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 of self-made millionaires, what immediately pops into your mind?

Do you see a well-dressed individual surrounded by a posse, jet-setting from one exciting place to the next in private planes, exotic cars and yachts?

Or do you see someone sitting all alone in boxer shorts and a tee shirt behind a desk, computer or stack of books at 5 am in the morning?

I’ve been studying entrepreneurs since 2004. The Dreamer-Entrepreneur path to building wealth happens to be the fastest and most rewarding of the four paths to riches. The average Dreamer-Entrepreneur in my Rich Habits Study accumulated $7.4 million over a twelve year period.

While it may be the fastest and most rewarding path to accumulating wealth, it also happens to be the hardest, riskiest, most stressful path.

At best, the entrepreneurial journey towards success is insanely frustrating, where nothing seems to move the needle, despite superhuman efforts.

At worst, it’s a daily walk through hell – one riddled with hurdles, let downs, mistakes, failures, problems, disappointments, rejections and financial struggle. Every day the entrepreneur must pivot in order to survive. It takes enormous physical and mental endurance.

It’s not a life you would wish on your worst enemy.

What keeps the entrepreneur in the game is their belief that what they’re doing will pay huge dividends down the road. It’s believing, with unfailing faith, that there will eventually be a light at the end of the tunnel; that one day they will turn the corner.

While passion and a love for what they do is the source of every entrepreneur’s energy, motivation and enthusiasm, belief and hope is what enables entrepreneurs, and their loved ones, to survive the journey of nothingness, hardship and struggle.

So, the next time you see a self-made millionaire, don’t envy them for what they have. Envy them for their ability to endure the hardship.

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 is only one entitlement we are given in life – time. We are all entitled to the same amount of time every day – 24 hours.

What separates those who achieve and succeed from those who struggle in life is how each group uses those 24 hours. Which group do you fall into?

“Yes” to the following questions means you’re on the path to success in life. “No’s” are the equivalent to a yield sign – they slow you down during your journey:

• Are you reading to learn every day, 30 minutes or more?
• Are you exercising 30 minutes or more every day?
• Are you pursuing at least one big dream every day?
• Are you pursuing goals every day?
• Are you minimizing “Time Wasting Habits” to one hour or less every day? TV, Non-Dream-related Facebook, Twitter, Internet use = a Time Waster.
• Are you getting at least 7 hours of sleep each day? Sleep deprivation impairs the brain, creativity and decision-making.
• Do you get up early every day to pursue your dreams and goals? Make the first three hours of the day your Growth Time. That’s when you pursue your dreams, goals, reading, exercise, etc.
• Are you building strong relationships with other success-minded people every day? One influencer can open up doors that are closed to everyone else. Devote time to building relationships with influencers. They are not only the fast track to success, they also make success possible.
• Do you accomplish 70% or more of your to-dos every day?
• Do you express gratitude every day? Gratitude is the gateway to a positive mental outlook. Most of the millionaires in my Rich Habits Study had a positive mental outlook. Positivity expands your ability to focus. It also increases creativity, enabling you to solve seemingly intractable problems.
• Do you practice good etiquette every day? Poor etiquette can derail relationships with influencers. It can also become a stop sign to opportunities.
• Do you seek feedback every day? Feedback is critical in learning what to do and what not to do. Those who consistently seek feedback are able to pivot, making success possible.

You’ve got 24 hours. How will you invest the next 24 hours? Are you processing success or failure into your life on a daily basis through your habits?

The greatest risk we all take is not how we invest our money. It’s how we invest our time. Make a habit of investing your time wisely.

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!

While it’s true that 86% of the self-made millionaires in my study either liked or loved what they did for a living, the more interesting statistic is how much of their work they were passionate about.

Surprisingly, this 86% indicated that they were only passionate about 25% of their job. The other 75% of their job, was a grind. But that 25% enabled them to tolerate that 75% of the job they did not like.

When you pursue a dream, passion is almost always the thing that spurs you into action. What keeps you going, however, are habits.

Habits put you on autopilot in the pursuit of success and this is critical because the pursuit is always a grind. That small, fractional 25% of passion keeps you motivated long enough in order for you to create the habits that will take you the rest of the way along your journey.

This is an important statistic because it shines a light on just how powerful passion can be.

Having passion for what you do allows you to persist through other aspects of your job that are not that exciting and interesting.

That 25% is a small amount but it’s a small amount that goes a long way.

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!

One very important by-product of my Rich Habits research has been the effect it has had on my children. As I’ve written many times, when parents forge Rich Habits, those Rich Habits consciously or subconsciously infect your children.

Well, my youngest has taken the Goal-Setting Rich Habit to another level.

My youngest informed me the other day that she is pursuing a specific job-related goal. In an effort to keep her stay focused on the achievement of the goal, she came up with a novel incentive. She is refraining from SnapChat until she reaches her goal.

By depriving herself of SnapChat, something she very much enjoys, she has created a powerful incentive to help her focus on the achievement of her goal.

We don’t truly appreciate what we have until it is taken away.

A Deprivation Incentive involves making a very specific sacrifice until you achieve a very specific goal. The reward for achieving the goal is the reinstatement of the thing you sacrificed.

The deprivation could be SnapChat, food, beer, TV, Facebook, candy, etc.

Deprivation Incentives only work when the thing you’re sacrificing is important to you or something you enjoy doing on a daily basis.

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!