Archives for August 2015

Most average people are bored to death of their job. Boredom for most is a daily occurrence. But boredom is not necessarily a bad thing. It’s your brain’s way of telling you that “we’re not doing what we should be doing in life”. It’s a wake up call that what you’re doing is not challenging enough and not creative enough.

Our brain loves creativity. It craves to solve problems. It’s hard wired for creativity and problem solving. When you are not being creative or solving problems, the brain lets you know by sending you the boredom signal. In two studies on boredom (Creativity Research Center: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10400419.2014.901073#preview and Journal of Experimental Social Psychology: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022103113002205http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022103113002205) it was determined that being bored is a brain trigger intended to nudge you into doing something creative and challenging.

If you were lucky enough to spend time picking the brains of self-made millionaires, you’d find out that they just don’t get bored. They are constantly moving and thinking and planning and pivoting. They’re too busy overcoming obstacles, too busy coming up with creative solutions and too busy doing what they like or love to do. If you’re bored it’s because you’re not doing what you were intended to do in life, which is to be creative, to pursue challenging goals, to overcome obstacles and to push your individual envelope as much as you can. When you’re not living up to your potential, your brain lets you know – with a yawn.

One of the many habits of the self-made millionaires in my study was daily learning. Some of the millionaires learned by doing and others learned by reading and then applied that knowledge to their job, business, or in some side revenue stream they were investing their time and money in and trying to grow. The key here is putting knowledge to use. Knowledge without action is eventually forgotten and of little use. Many of those millionaires engaged in certain extracurricular activities that helped them maintain or grow their knowledge. Some of those activities included: teaching, writing (articles, blogs, books, etc.), speaking engagements, webinars, seminars, podcasts, etc.  Teaching others knowledge that you have helps commit that knowledge to working memory, making you more effective and making access to that knowledge more efficient. When you know more than your competition, you add value to yourself. This translates into more clients, customers, promotions and ultimately more money. Increasing your working knowledge sets you apart from your competition. Clients, customers and employers don’t fire the best. They do everything to retain them.

All self-made millionaires have one thing in common – they are all disruptors. They disrupt their industry, disrupt the status quo and disrupt society. They cause individuals to alter their behavior and thinking.

Disruptors change the way each industry does business. They are all around you:

• Donald Trump is disrupting the political establishment.
• Elon Musk is disrupting three industries (rocket, automobile and solar energy).
• Steve Jobs also disrupted three industries (computer, music and the movie industry).
• Jeff Bezos is another disrupting numerous industries (traditional book publishing industry, book seller industry and the retail industry).

Most self-made millionaire disruptors fly below the radar and you’ve probably never heard of them. But they are out there disrupting their industry locally. I know a few of them intimately thanks to my research on the daily habits of the rich.

If you want to change your life financially, become a disruptor. Disruptors pursue some big dream as their main purpose in life. They change the world we live in for the better and make millions when they succeed. Who and what are you disrupting? Find a worthwhile dream to pursue that will disrupt a local industry and pursue it as your main purpose in life. It takes time to succeed but when you do, it will change your life and those around you for the better.