Archives for August 2014

You will only be as successful as the people you associate with on a regular basis. The people you allow into your life affect your thoughts, behaviors, thinking and the choices you make. They influence you in ways you probably never realized. The successful people in my study surrounded themselves with other successful people and made a concerted effort to distance themselves from individuals who did not share their success mindset. You need to evaluate who you associate with. Are your current relationships helping you move in the direction of success? Do they motivate and inspire you? Are they positive and uplifting? Do they have big goals they are pursuing? Are they working hard to achieve success in life? Are they pursuing self-education every day? Do they share your vision?

You need to analyze your relationships and decide if they are constructively helping you achieve your goals, dreams and main purpose in life or if they are holding you back. If they are holding you back you should distance yourself from them. They are weeds in your relationship garden.

There’s a vast difference between working hard and working smart. Workaholics alienate family, impair their health and are generally unhappy; thinking about work even when they are not working and not practicing the Rich Habit of living in the moment. Successful people do everything in moderation including work. They look for ways to multiply their productivity; they leverage their time by delegating unimportant, unproductive tasks to others. They work long hours, but only when absolutely necessary and focus their time on projects or tasks that are critical to accomplishing their big goals in life.

Poor people spend their money and save what’s left. Rich people save their money and spend what’s left. One is a poverty philosophy and the other is a wealth philosophy. Wealthy people learn to live off 80% of their net income and save 20%. They pay themselves first, before any bill gets paid. If you are not financially independent it means you have the wrong plan, the wrong philosophy. You need to make a course correction in your life. You need to change your plan and change your philosophy about money.

Every time you engage in a new activity and then practice it, you grow your brain. Every repeated activity requires the creation of a neural pathway. Neural pathways are a series of neurons (brain cells) called into action to communicate with each other. When we repeat new activities, these neurons communicating with each other begin to form a permanent neural pathway, thus growing the size of our brains. It is critical for older people to engage in new activities in order to keep their brains active and prevent shrinkage, which usually accompanies retirement. Those who want to grow their brains should engage in a new activity periodically and repeat it until it becomes a new skill. This can take anywhere from 18 days to 254 days. Each new activity that becomes a skill creates brain mass and keeps our minds active and our brains healthy.

Reading every day for self-education is a necessity for those who want to move forward in life and become successful. Those who do not make a daily habit of reading for self-education miss out on incredible opportunities because of a lack of knowledge. Reading forces you to become open-minded. It changes your thinking at many levels and allows you to expand as an individual. Daily growth, through reading, is a hallmark of the wealthiest, successful people. Since most people do not read every day for self-education, those who do read every day to learn stay far ahead of the competition and are able to see opportunities that are invisible to most everyone else.

Wealthy, successful people pursue their own individual main purpose in life. Because they are pursuing their own main purpose they are infused with a passion that allows them to focus persistently on realizing their dreams in life. They set and achieve specific goals that are linked to their main purpose. Most people are not following their own main purpose in life, however. They are following someone else’s. It may be a main purpose of a mother, father, spouse, or some other significant presence in their life. When you are not following your main purpose you are not happy. You do not look forward to Monday’s or any other work day. You see life as drudgery and anxiously await the weekends, holidays and vacation time. You pursue post-work activities that are often unhealthy, such as excessive alcohol consumption. You are often mired in negative, depressed thoughts. That’s not what life intended for you. Life intended that each of us pursue our own individual main purpose in life. Doing so awakens our inner genius and stimulates the creative parts of our brain that make humans so unique. You will not be happy and successful in life pursuing someone else’s agenda. You need to pursue your own agenda; you need to follow your own individual main purpose in life.

Parents are often the only shot any of us have at having a mentor in our lives. Mentors are critical to success in life. When parents embrace their roles as mentors they set their kids up for success in life; they lay the groundwork for their kids to be happy and live a fulfilling, meaningful life. When parents fail in this role, it is the responsibility of grandparents or teachers to step up and teach children the good habits, behaviors and thinking that will set them up for a happy and successful life.