Archives for June 2015

5 Step Process to Daily Growth

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“Success is not a destination, it’s a journey.” John Wooden

Achieving success requires that you pursue and realize your dream. In order to realize your dream you need to gain new knowledge and develop new skills. You must evolve into the person you need to become in order to realize your dream. The key to realizing your dream is daily growth. The key to daily growth is daily learning. You need to make growth a daily habit. But how? By processing growth into your daily schedule. Each day commit to reading at least 30 minutes about something that helps you gain more knowledge. That’s step one. You then need to document what you’ve learned each day. Writing down new information helps reinforce that knowledge. Many of the self-made millionaires in my study maintained a binder that they filled with new information and then separated that new knowledge into topics. That’s step two. Once a week they would review their “fact binder”. That’s step three. The fourth step requires that you use that new information. Knowledge, without action will not stick. Finding ways to act on what you’ve learned creates a synapse, or neural pathway in the brain. Repetition moves your new knowledge into long term memory. That’s step five.

The Ladder of Success is More Like a Jungle Gym

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The pursuit of success is never a straight climb. You have to navigate many obstacles, recover from mistakes and overcome rejection or simply being ignored. The impediments to success require you to constantly pivot and make adjustments in order to deal with the impediments you will face. It requires flexibility, revising your expectations or taking a new, unchartered path. You must be nimble and adroit. You must acquire new skills and knowledge.

Because success is never a lateral ascent, you will often feel as if you are not making progress; that your efforts are not getting you closer to the top. At times you must pivot sideways or retreat or force yourself into the unknown. In this sense, the pursuit of success is not a ladder you climb; it’s more like climbing a jungle gym.

Quoting Your Way to Success

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Successful people seem to be obsessed with success quotes. They love to throw them around wherever and whenever they can. Successful speakers love to use quotes as do successful authors. Success and quotes go together like beer and pretzels. So, I thought I’d share some of the quotes I’ve accumulated from interviewing self-made millionaires, from some of my favorite books/blogs and from some of the best speakers I’ve come in contact with. I haven’t taken the time to uncover the original source of some of these quotes. If you do know the authors shoot me an email. Here’s some of my favorites:

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Little Things Make Big things Happen

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Massive immediate change doesn’t work for most people. Massive changes in your habits, behaviors or thinking won”t last long if you attempt too much change in a short time frame. You’ll run out of will power. Massive change only works with little changes over the long term. It’s the little things done every day for many years that makes massive change possible.

 

 

Emotion is Your Enemy

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Spock and the Vulcans were on to something. Emotions that run too high or low play havoc with your mindset and your health. Extreme fluctuation in emotions is, predominantly, too great a fluctuation in your dopamine level, the happiness neurotransmitter. This is often caused by mismanaged expectations. The key in keeping your emotions in check on a daily basis is expectations management. Keep your expectations for outcomes or the timeframe for those outcomes as realistic as possible. This keeps your emotions in check because your dopamine level will not oscillate very much if you moderate your expectations.

 

 

What’s Your 4 Minute Mile?

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On May 6, 1954, Roger Bannister became the first person to run a mile in under 4 minutes. Most thought it was impossible. Roger didn’t. It became his obsession. He literally thought of nothing else. He had limited training time, due to his medical studies, but according to Bannister, when he wasn’t studying he was thinking non-stop about breaking the 4 minute mile.

Successful people all have one thing in common – some huge goal that occupies their thinking to the point of becoming an obsession. Obsession is the key to unlocking your unlimited potential. What’s your 4 minute mile?

 

 

Fast Tracking Success

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For the average self-made millionaire in my study, it took 32 years to get there. The exceptions to this long waiting period were the 7% who had found that thing they loved to do in life. This group not only achieved success in one third the time, they also accumulated nearly twice the average wealth of the other wealthy individuals in my study.

When you find that thing you love to do, a purpose that infuses you with passion, you accelerate and accentuate your success in life. You work twice as hard because you love what you are doing. You learn twice as much because you love what you are doing. Mondays are no different from Saturdays or Sundays. Each day, you look forward to waking up and pursuing your purpose. Work is no longer “work”, it’s fun. You think about your “work” 24/7. You become obsessed.

Life rewards those who love what they do for a living. Enormous wealth accumulation is not the real reward, it’s just a byproduct. The real reward is happiness.

How Many Books Does the Average Self-Made Millionaire Read?

According to my research, it takes the average self-made millionaire 32 years to become rich. Those who achieve this status have adopted the daily habit of reading for self-improvement every day. According to my study, 85% read two or more books every month. If you do the math, that’s 768 books. But these millionaires don’t read just any old books. They read books that will help them grow and learn. Here’s a list of the types of books self-made millionaires read:

  • Career-related books.
  • How-to books.
  • History books.
  • Biographies of successful people.
  • Self-help books.
  • Health-related books.
  • Current events books.
  • Books on memory improvement and learning.
  • Psychology books.
  • Leadership books.
  • Science books.
  • New age books that offer inspiration and create a positive mental outlook.

The key to success in life is growing your knowledge base and skills. Devote 30 minutes or more each day to learning by reading books. If you do, it will set you apart from the competition, as most people do not read. Reading every day puts you in the top 5% of the crowd.

Everything You’ve Been Led to Believe About the Rich is a Myth

Tom Corley boats - cropBack in 2004, when I began my research to find out why the rich were rich and why the poor were poor, I’ll confess, I hated rich people. I had some entrenched negative beliefs about the wealthy that I inherited from my upbringing. As I uncovered more and more about the causes of wealth and poverty, however, my hatred of rich people began to fade. When I finally completed my research in 2009, this hatred had transformed into admiration. Almost everything I had been led to believe about the wealthy was a myth. I thought I’d share some of those revelations with you and dispel the myths I embraced for much of my adult life. Let’s begin. [Read more…]

Exercise Your Way to Greater Confidence

tip-o-the-morning

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We all know that exercise is good for your health, but did you know exercise is also a confidence booster? Exercise elevates your testosterone level and reduces your cortisol level. Testosterone is a hormone that not only accelerates muscle recovery, it also elevates your confidence, making you feel more in control of your life. Cortisol is a stress hormone that not only reduces your immune system’s ability to fight off diseases, viruses, bacteria and infections, it also impairs your risk tolerance, making you feel less confident.

When you feel more confident, you are more inclined to pursue opportunities that challenge you, enabling you to grow as an individual. Confidence boosts your desire to take on those new challenges and learn new things, important qualities inherent in great leaders and self-made millionaires.