You’ve no doubt heard about the power of positive thinking. The Power of Positive Thinking, by Norman Vincent Peale and Think and Grow Rich, by Napoleon Hill were two of the most famous books written on the subject of positive thinking. They are great books. While I am a big believer in the power of positive thinking, I learned from my five-year study of wealthy, successful people that action, not thinking, makes success happen. Rich Thinking is critical in preparing the mind for the action necessary to turn dreams into reality. More emphasis, however, is placed on the thinking and beliefs that are important to facilitating success than on the action that actually makes success a reality. Without action you will not become successful in life. It doesn’t matter how strong your beliefs or how positive your thinking might be.
Archives for March 2014
Just Because You Can Doesn’t Mean You Should
When you live in a free country you can, for the most part, do as you please in life with your free time. But with freedom comes responsibility. How you live your life determines how successful you will be in life. Just because you can say and do things, doesn’t mean you should. Here are some lessons I learned from my five-year study about wealthy, successful people: [Read more…]
Tip o’ the Morning to Ya – Sarcasm is a Poverty Habit
Rich Habits Word of the Day
Acrimony – Bitterness, mockery. John learned sarcasm from his parents but later realized that the acrimony created by his sarcastic wit only served to damage relationships.
Rich Habits Fact of the Day
In his vaudeville and theatre years, W.C. Fields developed the inimitable persona of a boozing, sarcastic misanthrope who somehow remains sympathetic. Probably because most of the time his character—a hen-pecked husband, abused neighbor, and badgered employee—seems to have every right to be a bit surly. Born in 1880, Fields is something of a Charles Dickens protagonist come to life—if the Dickens character grows up to become an irascible alcoholic and comic genius. Leaving his home in Pennsylvania as a teenager, Fields developed a comedic juggling act that ultimately took him to the top of vaudeville and Broadway. He appeared in the movies as early as 1915, but it was Fields’ highly-regarded short films in the early 1930s—many of which he also scripted—that led to the comedian starring in features. It’s a Gift, The Man on the Flying Trapeze, and The Bank Dick are among his best regarded works.
Rich Habits Lesson of the Day
Sarcasm is often disguised, like a halloween outfit, as humor. We all like humor, so masking sarcasm this way, makes the sarcasm more palatable. But at the end of the day, sarcasm is a Poverty Habit. Because most people have a thin skin, sarcasm damages relationships. If you want to be successful in life you need to build strong, valuable relationships. Since sarcasm damages relationships, you need to eliminate the sarcasm Poverty Habit.
Passion and Purpose – Transform Your Life From Trivial to Triumphant
When you lose your passion in life, at worse you spiral out of control; at best you become a zombie, sleepwalking through life. It doesn’t matter how smart, educated, hard-working, skilled, wealthy or successful you are. A loss of passion takes away all the advantages you have in life. A loss of passion eventually leads to depression, which can take weeks, months or even years to recover from. [Read more…]
Tip o’ the Morning to Ya – Make 1 Person Happy Today
Rich Habits Word of the Day
Chirpy – Happy. Tom’s chirpy attitude infected the entire office, making it a better workplace.
Rich Habits Fact of the Day
Psychologist Ed Diener, author of Happiness: Unlocking the Mysteries of Psychological Wealth, describes what psychologists call “subjective well-being” as a combination of life satisfaction and having more positive emotions than negative emotions.
Martin Seligman, one of the leading researchers in positive psychology and author of Authentic Happiness, describes happiness as having three parts: pleasure, engagement, and meaning. Pleasure is the “feel good” part of happiness. Engagement refers to living a “good life” of work, family, friends, and hobbies. Meaning refers to using our strengths to contribute to a larger purpose. Seligman says that all three are important, but that of the three, engagement and meaning make the most difference to living a happy life.
Rich Habits Lesson of the Day
Once we move beyond the need for food and shelter, we are all after one thing in life – happiness. Happiness, unfortunately, is elusive. Most people, unfortunately, are unhappy. You have the power within yourself to change that. If we can make just one person happy for just one day by saying something nice or by doing something nice, we elevate ourselves in the eyes of others. We turn ourselves into people magnets. People will flock to anyone who will make them happy, even if only temporarily. Become a people magnet by making it a daily habit to make just one person happy for one
How to Think Your Way to Happiness
Once we move beyond the need for food and shelter, we are all after one thing in life – happiness. Happiness, unfortunately, is elusive. Most people are, in fact, unhappy and most of those unhappy people will do anything to pursue happiness. [Read more…]
Turn Yourself into a People Magnet
Once we move beyond the basic needs for food and shelter, we are all after one thing in life – happiness. Happiness, unfortunately, is elusive. Most people are, in fact, unhappy and most of those unhappy people will do anything to pursue happiness. 
[Read more…]
Tip o’ the Morning to Ya – The Power of Persuasion
Rich Habits Word of the Day
Blarney – Exaggeration, overpraise. Tom considered his argument blarney but, somehow, it worked and he got what he wanted.
Rich Habits Fact of the Day
Kissing the Blarney Stone is said to give a person eloquent speech. How this Irish tradition came about is told in a variety of tales that have been passed down through the ages. The Blarney Stone has a legendary history that combines Celtic mythology with facts from the Middle Ages. It is a popular destination, attracting over 300,000 visitors a year come to receive the gift of flattering and persuasive speech.
Blarney Castle is in a small town of Blarney about five miles northwest of Cork, Ireland’s second largest city. The castle, that still stands today, was built in 1446 and is the third one on this site. The first was made of wood in the 10th century; the second was out of stone in 1210. Cormac McCarthy, the King of Munster, sent 4,000 men to help the Scottish defeat the English in 1314 at the Battle of Bannockburn. In appreciation for his help, he was given part of the “Stone of Scone,” also known as the “Stone of Destiny,” as a gift by Robert the Bruce. It was brought back to the McCarthy stronghold, Blarney Castle.
Rich Habits Lesson of the Day
The power of persuasion is not a gift but a skill. Persuasion is all about effective negotiation. There are really only two steps. The first step in persuading anyone to do anything is to understand their wants and needs. The next step is to trigger a positive or negative emotion about their wants and needs. “If you hire me as your salesman I will double your sales, which will double your income and allow you to buy a house by the beach for your family.” Once the emotion is triggered, the subconscious will go to work on the person you are trying to persuade and work its magic of reprogramming that person’s thinking and behavior. Triggering an emotion is a critical component because the subconscious only receives emotionalized thoughts. Emotion is the key that opens the door between the conscious and subconscious mind.
5 Tools That Will End Procrastination Forever
Procrastination is a Poverty Habit. It prevents, even the most talented individuals, from realizing success in life. Most people have this Poverty Habit, and it is not an accident that most people struggle financially in life. Success has many moving parts and procrastination is a big moving part. [Read more…]
Strategies to Help Parents Raise Children to be Happy and Successful in Life
Every parent wants their children to grow up to be happy and successful in life. For most it’s a wish. But for some parents, it’s a process they learned from their success-mentor parents. What if I told you it was possible to virtually guarantee that your children grow up to become happy and successful in life? And by happy and successful, I mean loving what they do for a living, having strong, valuable relationships and never, ever having to worry about money. [Read more…]
