Archives for October 2016

The Power of the Pivot

October 19, 2016 by Leave a Comment

tip-o-the-morning

Tom Corley boats - crop

“All airplanes are off course 99% of the time. The purpose and role of the pilot and the avionics is to continually bring the plane back on course so that it arrives on schedule at its destination.” Brian Tracy

There are too many variables in life to devise a perfect, flawless plan. Unexpected consequences, good or bad, are the byproduct of taking action. No matter how well thought out a plan is, something invariably will happen that you did not and could not expect.

The self-made millionaires in my study all experienced unexpected consequences. They even learned to expect unexpected consequences. It’s just the nature of taking action. What makes these individuals so special is their ability to pivot when something unexpected happens. They don’t panic, they don’t go negative and they don’t respond reflexively.

They stop and think. Then they think some more. They keep thinking until they believe they have come up with a solid plan to respond to their changing circumstances. In other words, they make a habit out of pivoting.

Pivoting is the act of changing what you’re doing in light of new facts or new realities. It is the secret sauce to success. The most successful individuals are the ones who are able to pivot over and over again, while staying focused on their ultimate destination – realizing their dream.

You are the pilot of your life. Pivoting is all about changing what you’re doing in order to get to where you want to go. When you fail to pivot, your life will continue to be off course and you’ll never realize your dreams or goals.

Embrace those unexpected consequences and make a habit out of pivoting. That’s where learning happens. That’s where growth happens. Unexpected consequences force you to think, learn and grow. That thinking, learning and growth changes you. It transforms you into the person you need to be in order to realize your dreams and achieve your goals. Plan, take action and pivot. That’s the formula for success.

 

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Daily Success Tips

Your Values Shape Your Life and the Lives of Those Around You

October 18, 2016 by Leave a Comment

tip-o-the-morning

Tom Corley boats - crop

Values are things in life you decide are your priorities.

For me, being a caring, loving and mentoring Dad was my #1 priority.

Even though my kids are adults now, I still devote time every day checking in with them, staying connected and doing what I can to help steer them in the right direction – values that matter.

Instead of school issues, now it’s work-related issues for my kids. I do what I can to help clear away the fog and complication of life, reminding them to focus on their priorities, or values. What are those values?

“Keep focused on reading and learning everything about your industry,” I tell them.

“Save 20% of your income,” I tell them.

“Be honest,” I tell them.

“Find a mentor at work,” I tell them.

“Be a mentor to others at work,” I tell them.

“Treat everyone you meet with respect, until they prove they no longer deserve your respect,” I tell them.

My values, my priorities, have trickled down to my kids and their lives are reflecting back those values. All are doing well in life, not because I was an amazing Dad, but because I figured out which values in life produce a happy and successful life.

What do you value? What’s important to you?

Values should represent the best you can possibly be.

They’re real, true, deep down important things about what’s really important in life.

Filed Under: Daily Success Tips

There is no Sin in Success

October 17, 2016 by 3 Comments

tip-o-the-morning

Tom Corley boats - crop

I grew up in a very religious family. Every Sunday, we attended mass. Every Saturday, was confession. I said the rosary every night before I went to sleep. At a very early age I truly believed my calling in life was the priesthood.

But things changed and, instead, I became a CPA. Most CPA’s I know are very moral and honest individuals. I suppose those not cut out for the priesthood, become CPA’s.

One of the things my mother would often recite to me was a biblical scripture in Matthew 19:24:

It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.

As a result, I grew up convinced that the pursuit and acquisition of wealth was a mortal sin and saw all wealthy individuals as sinners. Almost daily, this belief was validated by the media and politicians, who almost unanimously, vilified the rich as individuals who did not pay their fair share in taxes, who paid employees far too little and who were, well, just plain corrupt.

That all changed in 2009, after completing my analysis of my five-year study on the daily habits of the rich and poor. That study opened my eyes. I learned that wealthy individuals were not bad people. So many of the self-made millionaires I studied devoted their time and money, funding and running charitable organizations that helped poor people, disabled people, homeless people, and those otherwise cast aside by society. They also valued their employees, loaning them money to help them purchase a home, paying for unexpected medical expenses and mentoring them so they too could succeed. Wealthy people, I found, were among the finest human beings to walk the earth.

No, it’s not a sin to pursue and acquire wealth. In fact, I have come to believe that those who pursue and realize their dreams, and become wealthy in the process, are actually closer to God than those who sit in condemnation of them.

Don’t let ignorant ideologies hold you back from the pursuit of success. Unshackle yourself from them. Those who embrace the notion that the pursuit and acquisition of wealth is bad, are, in my opinion, the real sinners.

 

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Daily Success Tips

Good Debt vs Bad Debt

October 17, 2016 by Leave a Comment

You can become rich by living below your means or by pursuing a dream. Pursing a dream almost always requires that you take on risk in the form of debt.

 

Filed Under: Tip of the Week

Rich Habits Poor Habits Episode 12 | Rich Beliefs part 5

October 15, 2016 by 1 Comment

If you want to succeed in life, if you want to become rich, you need to understand the success beliefs of the Rich and develop more of these and drop the beliefs of the Middle Class or Poor.
Business People Corporate Success Concept

Beliefs represent the acceptance of something without any proof to back up what we accept as fact.

They are inherited unconscious programming.

In Tom Corley’s five-year Rich Habits study of 233 rich people and 128 poor people he discovered that your beliefs dictate your circumstances in life.

Those who are wealthy have different beliefs than those who are poor or stuck in the middle class.

We adopt the beliefs our parent, family, mentors, culture, and environment.

Most who were raised in poverty inherited limiting beliefs that hold them back in life.

Those who are able to rise from poverty and become wealthy found mentors who possessed success beliefs or employed certain strategies that enabled them to remove their limiting beliefs and implant success beliefs, effectively re-programming their entire belief system.

In this week’s video we discuss how the wealthy adopt certain beliefs that promote success:

These include:

  • Birds of a feather flock together.
  • I will avoid toxic people and surround myself with success-minded people.
  • If I help others succeed, I will succeed.
  • No one succeeds on their own.
  • I can only succeed if I surround myself with other success-minded people.

You can catch up with past episodes of this weekly webcast here – Rich Habit, Poor Habits – Tom Corley & Michael Yardney

You may also be interested in viewing:

RICH HABITS POOR HABITS EPISODE 11 | RICH BELIEFS PART 4

RICH HABITS POOR HABITS EPISODE 10 | RICH BELIEFS PART 3

RICH HABITS POOR HABITS EPISODE 9 | RICH BELIEFS PART 2

RICH HABITS POOR HABITS EPISODE 8 | RICH BELIEFS PART 1

 

 

Filed Under: Featured Articles

4 Tricks to Forging New Habits

October 14, 2016 by Leave a Comment

tip-o-the-morning

Tom Corley boats - crop

Good habits put you on autopilot for success. When actions become habits, the need for motivation (external or internal) is eliminated. You don’t need to pump yourself up to engage in a habit. This is one of the main things that separates successful individuals from everyone else – successful people habitualize good behavior.

So, fine, but how do you actually forge a new good habit?

There are 4 tricks to forging habits:

  1. Change Your Trigger – Your doctor tells you that if you want to prevent urinary track infections you must drink at least two glasses of water every day. But you find it difficult to turn that into a habit. You keep forgetting to drink water. One of the shortcuts to habit change is to find an existing habit you have, good or bad, and add a new habit to it. What other habits do you have? List them. One habit on your list is coffee. Every day you drink two cups of coffee. To forge the new habit of drinking water, simply put your coffee cup next to the sink, your water filter or the water cooler. When you go searching for the coffee cup you will have to remember where you put it. Ah yes, by the water cooler. That coffee cup then becomes your new trigger. It will remind you to drink a glass of water.
  2. Start Small – New habits are hard to forge. The trick is to make the new habit so easy to perform that you will not require any willpower to get you started. The brain does not like new habits because new habits, in the very beginning, require conscious effort. Any conscious thinking requires the use of brain fuel (primarily oxygen and glucose). The brain is unable to store oxygen and glucose, so it must send a message to the peripheral nervous system, which then notifies the liver to produce more glucose. This is a pain in the neck for the brain. So, instead, it sends back a message to you that essentially says – don’t engage in the activity. If the activity requires very little brain fuel, however, the brain will not fight you on the activity. It doesn’t send the message – don’t engage in the activity. As an example, let’s say that you want to begin jogging so you can lose weight and be healthy. If you decide to run for, say 30 minutes, the brain will tell you not to. If, however, you commit to only 10 minutes, the brain will not put up a fight. After a few weeks of running for 10 minutes every day, the jogging habit begins to form. Once that habit takes root, that is when you can increase the jog to 15 minutes, then 20 minutes and eventually 30 minutes.
  3. Create Reminders – Most of us have computers and cell phones that have reminder systems that automatically remind you about something. A trick to help you forge a new habit is to put it on one of your reminder systems. Once you set the reminder task, it will go off and remind you to engage in the habit.
  4. Associate With Others Who Have Your Desired Habit – Habits are like a virus. We adopt the habits of those within our inner social circle. Find friends who have the habit you want to adopt, such as jogging, and ask them if you can run with them. You new running partner will become your accountability partner. You asked them to run with you, they said yes and now you find yourself committed to jogging with your friend.

 

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Daily Success Tips

NO is a Rich Habit

October 13, 2016 by Leave a Comment

tip-o-the-morning

Tom Corley boats - crop

Time is our most valuable resource and it is a valuable resource that is given to us for free. Because it is free we tend to not value our time until it starts to run out. Time becomes a valuable resource at around age 50. This is when we realize time is running out.

One of the Rich Habits I found in my Rich Habits study was the habit of learning to say NO. Rich people, specifically self-made rich people, made a habit of saying NO to certain individuals. The rich learned, at some point during their wealth accumulation journey, that there are three groups of people who ask for help:

  1. Down & Out – Those who are reluctant to ask for help but truly need your help and
  2. Users – Those who are continuously looking for a handout but never reciprocate and
  3. Reciprocators – Those who look for opportunities to help first or repay the debt.

The Down and Out are individuals who have experienced random bad luck in life. These are individuals who would otherwise never ask for help. Life circumstances forced their hand.

Users are individuals who are self-centered and focused only on their needs. They don’t value your time. Their lives are usually a mess and they forged this nasty habit of continuously seeking favors from others. What makes them toxic is that they never reciprocate and pay off the debt of your services. They are like locusts and should be avoided at all costs.

Reciprocators are individuals who seek your help but, unlike the users, they value your time and feel compelled to reciprocate your kindness.

It’s often difficult to initially separate the Users from the Reciprocators. This is the fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me scenario. Users will seek out your help, never reciprocate and then come back to the well over and over again until you say NO. When you say NO, they discard you like yesterday’s trash and move on.

The Reciprocators, however, have two character traits.

  1. They are always there for you when you need their help or
  2. They never go back to the well before repaying the original debt – the help you provided to them the first time.

Avoid Users at all costs. Learn to say NO to them. They will use up your most valuable resource and never pay back their debts. Keep them out of your inner social circle. Always embrace the Reciprocators. They value your time and will always pay off their debt. Make Reciprocators permanent members of your inner social circle.

When you make a habit of saying NO, except to those truly in need, that is a Rich Habit. Users will disappear in your life. Reciprocators value your time and will be there when you need them.

 

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Daily Success Tips

Positive Mind Abundant Life

October 12, 2016 by 1 Comment

tip-o-the-morning

Tom Corley boats - crop

It is impossible to become rich with a negative mindset. Negativity puts the brakes on success and wealth accumulation. It acts like an anchor, dragging you down into the abyss of poverty and poor health.

It is virtually impossible to become wealthy without a positive mental outlook. Why? I’ve accumulated a treasure trove of studies on the benefits of positivity. Let’s take a look at a few of those studies:

Positivity Strengthens Your Immune System

Researchers at Harvard Health found that having an optimistic attitude reduces blood pressure, prevents heart disease and increases your immune system’s ability to fight off diseases, viruses and parasites. As one self-made millionaire from my study told me, “you can’t make money from a hospital bed”. Good health is critical to success because without it, success is impossible. So, good health at least gives you the ability to pursue wealth.

Positivity Increases Focus and Risk Tolerance

B. L. Fredrickson (1998/2001 Broaden and Build Theory) found that positive emotions increase your concentration abilities and increase your risk tolerance. According to my Rich Habits study data, focus and risk tolerance were two common traits all self-made millionaires had. The self-made millionaires in my study had a laser-like focus. They were able to focus on their dreams and goals for years and even decades. Also, these same millionaires pursued dreams and goals that required that they take enormous financial risks. If you have a negative mindset you will avoid risk because you believe you will fail. Those with a  positive mindset are able to take risks because they believe they will succeed.

Positivity increases Your Earnings

Diener, Nickerson, Lucas and Sandvik (2002) found that those with a positive mindset had higher incomes than those with a negative mindset. People want to do business with people they like and those with an optimistic mindset are more likable.

Positivity Doubles Brain Power

In one study on negativity, two neurologists found that when you have a negative mindset your prefrontal cortex is not functioning properly. The prefrontal cortex is the seat of decision making and creativity. When you are negative, you literally shut down half of your brain.

Positivity Increases Life Span

Moskowitz (2003), Ostir, Markides, Black and Goodwin (2000) found that those with a positive mindset lived longer than those with a negative mindset.

Positive People Are More Successful

Union College Psychlogy Professors Joshua Hart and Christopher Chabris found that success was correlated to individuals with a positive mindset.

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Daily Success Tips

How Self-Made Millionaires Make Their Money

October 11, 2016 by 2 Comments

Tom Corley boats - crop

It seems to me that you could save a lot of time, aggravation, money and also limit your risk if you knew what professions, industries or businesses millionaires were in and just focused your energy in those areas. So, what should I do to make money and become rich? [Read more…]

Filed Under: Featured Articles

The Truth About Happiness

October 10, 2016 by 3 Comments

Long-term happiness is an impossibility and should never be your goal in life.

 

Filed Under: Tip of the Week
« Previous Page
Next Page »