Archives for December 2013

Rich Habits Word of the Day

Eulogy – Tribute. Tom wrote his own eulogy thirty years before his death as a way of helping him reinvent himself. 

Rich Habits Fact of the Day

With the new year just a day away, many around the world are focusing on resolutions for the new year. Before you pencil in your first resolution you might want to take a stab at writing your obituary. This exercise forces you to evaluate your current life and gives you an opportunity to re-write your script for the future. What would you like your perfect obituary to say? How would you like the world to remember you? Include all of the things you would like to accomplish in your life. Don’t skimp. List all of the Big Ass Dreams you realized in your life. Your obituary should make you in awe of yourself. Really lay it on. Let it pour forth your greatness and success and paint a picture of the person you would like to be. Let this obituary become the business plan of your life; your future you.

Rich Habits Word of the Day

Clarity – Certainty, clearness. Tom had a clarity about his life and where he was going.

Rich Habits Fact of the Day

Goals help us to focus on accomplishing our dreams. 70% of the wealthy in my study set long-term goals. Goals help bring clarity to what we are trying to accomplish in life. Goals work like a magnifying glass works in focusing the sunlight. Goals help focus our activities. Activities which are time wasters and do not get us closer to our goal become obvious, only when we set goals. The 80/20 Rule applies to goal-setting. 20% of our activities are responsible for 80% of goal achievement. The rest of our activities are time wasters. Only when we set clear, well-defined goals will we begin to see which activities get us closer to our goal and which do not.

Rich Habits Word of the Day

Sortie – Mission. A sortie is a commonly used to refer to a guided missile. Long-term goals are life’s sorties.

Rich Habits Fact of the Day

Finding your “Why” in life (Purpose) requires that you identify that one thing you are most passionate about in life. Once you find your “Why” the “How” magically appears. Never worry about the “How”.  Only focus on finding your main purpose in life. Finding your passion in life is the key to starting your success engine. Once you figure out your passion, your main purpose in life will be revealed to you and everything else starts to fall into place. You can find your passion in life by identifying what it is that brought you happiness in life.

This is not some mystical, spiritual law. But it is how your subconscious mind works. Your subconscious relentlessly pursues and brings into your life those things that you think about constantly. When you find your passion in life that means you have found your main purpose in life. You begin to think about your purpose constantly and your subconscious magically comes to life. It is like a GPS computer, constantly looking for things to help you make your main purpose a reality. Every brain is really two brains: the conscious and the subconscious. More than 80% of our brain is made up of our subconscious. Brain experts are only just beginning to realize the incredible potentials of the subconscious. It is all knowing and very powerful. It records every experience, every memory and every fact in life. It also has some powers we don’t yet understand. For most, the subconscious is significantly underutilized; relegated to performing those autonomic functions that keep us alive (breathing, heart beat, fighting viruses and bacteria etc). But it is so much more. Those who discover their main purpose in life intentionally or inadvertently, kickstart their subconscious and life rewards them with riches and happiness. Many are labeled “geniuses” by society. If you want to do something great in life, be something great in life, you must find your “Why”.

Rich Habits Word of the Day

Exemplar – Standard, epitome. Tom’s 4th grade teacher was an exemplar of a mentor who instilled in him a sense of purpose.

Rich Habits Fact of the Day

Famous Mentor-Mentee Pairs:

OPRAH WINFREY mentored by Mrs. Duncan (4th grade teacher)

GEN. COLIN POWELL mentored by his father Luther Powell

DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING mentored by Dr. Benjamin E. Mays

US PRESIDENT JOSIAH BARTLET mentored by Mrs. Landingham (The West Wing)

MARIAN WRIGHT EDELMAN mentored by Howard Zinn

LUKE SKYWALKER mentored by Obi-Wan Ben Kenobi (Star Wars)

HENRY DAVID THOREAU mentored by Ralph Waldo Emerson

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN mentored by William Ravenel (high school teacher/coach)

WALTER CRONKITE mentored by Fred Birney (high school journalism teacher)

SEN. HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON mentored by Rev. Donald James

GLORIA ESTEFAN mentored by her grandmother Consuelo Garcia

HELEN KELLER mentored by Anne Sullivan

BOB DYLAN mentored by Woody Guthrie

QUINCY JONES mentored by Ray Charles

MARTIN SHEEN mentored by Rev. Alfred Drapp

DENZEL WASHINGTON mentored by Sidney Poitier

HARRY POTTER mentored by Professor Dumbledore

ROSA PARKS mentored by Alice L. White (headmistress)

TOM BROKAW mentored by Frances Morrow (elementary school teacher)

MITCH ALBOM mentored by Morrie Schwartz (Tuesdays with Morrie)

ANTWONE FISHER mentored by Brenda Profitt (elementary school teacher)

GWEN IFILL mentored by Alden Poole (college professor)

LARRY KING mentored by Edward Bennett Williams

CAL RIPKEN, JR. mentored by his father

TIM RUSSERT mentored by Sister Mary Lucille

Rich Habit Lesson of the Day

1. In life, there are five ways to find a Success Mentor: Parents – Parents are often the only opportunity any of us have at having a mentor in life. This is why parenting is so important. Parents need to be success mentors to their children. They need to teach their children good daily success habits. If they don’t it is likely their children will struggle in life financially.
2. Teachers – Good teachers are good mentors. Teachers can reinforce the mentoring children receive at home from their parents, or step in to provide the much needed success mentoring absent at home.
3. Career Mentors – For those not fortunate enough to have had parents or teachers who provided success mentoring, finding someone at work who can act as a mentor will ensure success in life. Find someone at work who you admire, trust and respect and just ask them to be your mentor.
4. Reading – Many successful people attribute their success in life to self-help, success authors such as Dale Carnegie, Earl Nightingale, Og Mandino or Jack Canfield.
5. School of Hard Knocks – When you learn good daily success habits through the school of hard knocks you are essentially your own mentor. You teach yourself what not to do. You learn from your mistakes and failures. This is the hard way because those mistakes and failures cost you financially.

Rich Habits Word of the Day

Indiscriminate – Random. Random luck is indiscriminate; it favors the rich and the poor equally.

Rich Habits Fact of the Day

Random luck, good or bad, is fairly democratic; it happens to everyone, rich or poor. There are those few who are rich or poor simply by chance thanks to random luck. But there are two other types of luck that are not so democratic: Opportunity Luck and Detrimental Luck. Opportunity Luck is the type of luck wealthy people create when they have good daily habits (Rich Habits). Detrimental Luck is the type of luck poor people create when they have bad daily habits (Poverty Habits). These two types of luck separate the rich from the poor and are driven by cause and effect. Rich Habits are the cause, wealth is the effect. Poverty Habits are the cause, poverty is the effect. If you want to become wealthy you need to eliminate Detrimental Luck and create Opportunity Luck. You do this by following the Rich Habits. The Rich Habits were designed to be Keystone Habits. Keystone Habits are unique in the habit world because they are the only type of habits that can influence other, ordinary habits. One Rich Habit can eliminate two or more Poverty Habits. When you eliminate Poverty Habits you reduce Detrimental Luck in your life. When you add just one Rich Habit you introduce Opportunity Luck into your life. So the Rich Habits are like hitting a double or a triple in baseball. Just one Rich Habit can get you to third base in life and turn you into a slugger.

Rich Habits Word of the Day

Forge – Create. Tom forged a new understanding of the causes of income inequality and the wealth gap, with his research.

Rich Habits Fact of the Day

Rich Habit Lesson of the Day

Many books have been written about God. Perhaps the most famous book is the Bible. At the core of being God is one unique trait: the ability to create. This ability makes God unique. But God is not the only one who can create. Humans posses this trait. We are the only species on earth who have the innate ability to create tangible things from mere thought. We have the ability to dream and turn those dreams into reality. We are, in a sense, godlike.  Each of us is endowed with the God Gene. Those who create are actually tapping into the God Gene. Those individuals who do harness this God Gene, and create things of incredible value to society, are labeled “geniuses” and rewarded by society.

Only when we create are we truly being human. For some unknown reason, we were the only species on earth blessed with this unique gift to create. Those who spend their lives creating, are the happiest human beings. That is life’s reward for utilizing the God Gene. Happiness. Creating is our purpose in life. For most, unfortunately, the God Gene remains dormant. When we ignore our purpose in life we find ourselves unhappy, eking out a living, never reaching our full potential.  Making use of this God Gene is the path to happiness. Ignoring it is the path to unhappiness. If you want to be truly happy in life you must create. You must activate your God Gene.