Archives for May 2018

Your body is amazing. It has an intuitive ability to heal itself. However, when the body is overwhelmed with toxins, it enters a state of imbalance. Once this imbalance becomes too great, disease results.

The world’s leading health organizations have stated that 95% of all cancer is diet and environment-related.

There is growing scientific and medical evidence that the rise in cancer and other diseases is the result of certain manufactured toxins and the side effects of prescription and non-prescription drugs.

A book titled The Rain Barrel Effect, by Dr. Stephen Cabral, does an excellent job opening your eyes to the omnipresence of toxins that we consume or are exposed to every day. I highly recommend this book. Dr. Cabral is medical doctor with a second Doctorate in Naturopathy (aka Alternative Medicine).

I spent five years studying the habits of 361 people in and learned that there are habits that create wealth, cause poverty, improve relationships, damage relationships, improve health, damage your health and also discovered habits that increase or decrease happiness. I documented over 340 habits in my Rich Habits Study and I’ve shared many of the most important habits in my books: Rich Habits, Rich Kids, Change Your Habits Change Your Life and Rich Habits Poor Habits.

Now I’d like to share with you a list of habit changes that will remove toxins and disease from your body:

• Short Showers – Chlorine is added to water by water treatment facilities to reduce the presence of bacteria in water. That water then comes out of our tap and shower. While chlorine does help eliminate bacteria from the water, which is good, it also, once consumed, wipes out the good bacteria in our gut. Chlorine has also been linked to low thyroid, which weakens the immune system. Worse, chlorine becomes a vapor as the hot water evaporates from your shower. As a gas, chlorine is more dangerous, since it can then enter directly into your bloodstream through your lungs, as you breath it in while taking a shower. The solution is to reduce the amount of chlorine you are exposed to by taking short showers. Habit Solution: Take short showers
• Filtered Water and Non-Fluoride Toothpaste – In 1914 Fluoride was added to toothpaste and water to help in reducing cavities. Fluoride is a recognized poison. At 4 mg per liter of water, Fluoride will cause death. The U.S. Government, therefore limits the amount of Fluoride that can be added to water to 0.7 mg per liter of water. The problem is that, over time, we are slowly poisoning our bodies and, thus, damaging our bodies, causing various diseases. Fluoride is toxic to thyroid cells by causing your thyroid gland to replace iodine with Fluoride. Iodine nourishes your thyroid gland. the presence of Fluoride confuses the thyroid gland, which misinterprets it for iodine, thus blocking the need for iodine, which ultimately damages the thyroid gland, over time. Habit Solutions: Drink filtered water with filters that remove Fluoride and use toothpaste that does not include Fluoride. 
• Avoid Mercury – Heavy metals, such as mercury, are found in common items such as contact lens solutions, nasal sprays, pesticides, fertilizers, cavity fillings and fish you eat (bad fish:tuna, swordfish, shark, tilefish and bluefish). Mercury damages the brain, immune system and is toxic to the body. Habit Solutions: Use contact lens solutions and nasal sprays that do not include mercury. Avoid contact with pesticides and fertilizers that contain mercury. Find a dentist who does not use metal filings for cavities or who can remove and replace the metal filings you have. Avoid eating bad fish and consume good fish. 
• Avoid Aluminum – Aluminum damages the nervous system which can cause Multiple Sclerosis, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Parkinson’s, Alzheimers and it also damages DNA, which can result in cancer. Aluminum is found in antiperspirants, cosmetics, antacids, cans, aluminum foil, and cookware. Habit Solutions: Do not cook your food in aluminum foil, use antiperspirants, cosmetics, antacids and cookware that does not include aluminum.
• Avoid Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) – GMO foods are man-made in a laboratory by inserting new genes into the DNA of current food crops and farm-raised fish. Their purpose is to withstand high levels of pesticide spray. GMO foods lead to prostrate, colon and other types of cancer. GMOs are prevalent in corn, beets, canola oil, zucchini, squash, flax, corn syrup, certain sweeteners, vegetable oil, butter and salmon. Habit Solutions: Eat non-GMO organic food and engage in intermittent fasting. Intermittent fasting means not eating for 16 hours. This is not as impossible as it seems. All you have to do is not eat anything from 8pm until lunchtime the following day. Thirty percent of all of the energy we take in every day is used for digestion. Intermittent fasting allows your body to utilize 100% of its available energy stores during this 16 hour period, to remove toxins from the body.
  
• Avoid Foods With Preservatives – Preservative are added to meat and other processed foods in order to prevent rotting and extend shelf-life. Preservatives cause cancer, asthma, allergies, nausea, diarrhea, premature births, hyperactivity, headaches, weight gain and neurological problems. Commonly-used preservatives that are added to foods include sulfites, nitrates, MSG, sodium benzoate, propyl gallate, aspartame, butylated hydroxytoluene and phosphoric acid. Habit Solution: Avoid foods that contain preservatives, cut back on meats or eat grass-fed beef and engage in intermittent fasting for the reasons stated above.
  
• Do Not Microwave With Plastic or Drink From Plastic Water Bottles – Plastics are considered the #1 toxin in the body. Plastic causes cancer, birth defects, genetic changes, chronic bronchitis, ulcers, skin diseases, deafness, vision failure, indigestion, and liver dysfunction. Habit Solutions: It’s hard to avoid plastic but at least you can try. Avoid microwaving your food in plastics and do not drink water out of any plastic containers. Use glass or ceramic containers instead.
  

There is much more. I am merely scratching the surface. That is why I recommend you read The Rain Barrel Effect. It will inform and educate. That newfound wisdom will give you and your family a fighting chance to live a healthy, long, disease-free life.

Most diseases are merely your body’s response to imbalance – an overload of toxins that it is desperately trying to fight and eliminate. When your rain barrel gets overloaded, however, disease happens.

What you can do is simply try your best to empty your rain barrel of as many toxins as possible by forging certain Rich Habits. This will give your body a fighting chance to remove toxins and keep you and your loved-ones healthy.

Richard Branson is a nice guy. His employees enjoy working with him. He is a pleasure to be around.

Steve Jobs, not so much. He wasn’t a nice person and his employees, while in awe of him, found him difficult to work with.

Peter McKay, a well-known multi-millionaire in New Jersey, was generous to everyone he met.

Andrew Carnegie, at one time the wealthiest person in America, was tight-fisted and frugal with everyone.

Woodrow Wilson was the only President of the United States with a Phd.

Abraham Lincoln, another American President, grew up very poor, was raised in a log cabin built by his father and had less than twelve months of formal education.

There is no boilerplate when it comes to success. And this is a good thing. It’s a good thing because it means success is possible for anyone who wants it, no matter your personality, education, lack of education or economic upbringing.

If a poor boy raised in a log cabin, with very limited formal education can grow up to become President of the United States, well, pretty much anything is possible.

All that is required is the ability to dream and then taking action on your dreams. Do not let fear, doubt or any limiting beliefs stop you from pursuing your dream. You are much more than you ever imagined yourself to be.

Why pursue goals? What benefits will you derive from realizing a goal?

Every goal you decide to pursue must have tangible rewards. Rewards are the fruits of your labors. Rewards create clarity of vision.

When you can visualize the rewards for every goal, you emotionalize the goal. You engage your limbic system, the command and control center of your emotions.

Emotionalized goals empower you. They give you the motivation and energy to overcome adversity. When you are able to emotionalize a goal, obstacles, pitfalls and mistakes will not stand in your way of achieving your goals.

Emotionalized goals create persistence. Persistence creates consistency of action. Consistency of action creates progress. Progress = self-improvement and changes who you are.

Why are you pursuing any of your goals?

Visualizing the rewards unleashes the innate powers of achievement that reside inside each one of us, making us unstoppable.

In 2013 I began something called a Victory Log. I learned about the Victory Log from the legendary author and success guru, Jack Canfield at a 2013 Break Through Success week-long event I attended.

A Victory Log is a listing of all of your wins.

Since I began my Victory Log, I have compiled 70 wins. I use my Victory Log as a tool to help keep me motivated and on course in achieving my goals and realizing my dreams.

The Victory Log can also be a tool to help you define the wins, the victories, you desire. This Dreamer Victory Log will then become a blueprint for becoming the future you.

Here’s how it works – On your Dreamer Victory Log list as many hypothetical wins (future desired wins) as you can. Let your imagination run wild. The more audacious, the better. Shoot for 100 Dream Victories.

At the beginning of every week review your Dreamer Victory Log. The Dreamer Victory Log does a couple of things:

• It will help re-program your subconscious (limbic system and brain stem) with new instructions and put your subconscious to work. Through intuition, your subconscious will communicate to you the new behaviors and habits that you will need to engage in in order to accomplish each hypothetical win.
• It will toggle on your Reticular Activating System (RAS) and Thalmus. Your RAS, through your five senses and your Thalmus, will act like a radar, seeking out clues within your environment that will help you to realize each hypothetical win. These clues represent opportunities that were previously invisible to you. These opportunities are like bread crumbs that lead you along the correct path – the path that will help you accomplish each win.
• It will help you focus like a laser on the activities, behaviors and habits that will turn each hypothetical win into reality.
• It will turn on or off certain genes, essentially re-wiring your DNA, in an effort to help you accomplish each win. This is called epigenetics.
• It will supercharge your brain by shifting your mindset from negative to positive. Studies have shown that optimism and positivity amp up your pre-frontal cortex and turn down your amygdala. Your pre-frontal cortex is the font of creativity, good decision-making and is the command and control center of the brain. You amygdala is the command and control center of negative emotions like fear. Your pre-frontal cortex will send out commands to the rest of the brain, including the amygdala, to help coordinate all of the activities that you will need to engage in in order to create a win. The Dreamer Victory Log gets your entire brain working together like a symphony to help you realize each win.

The Dreamer Victory Log re-wires your brain for success. It is a powerful tool that will help transform your life.

You are what you are because of the many people in your life. These people helped you form your habits, they helped you form your beliefs, they helped you forge your work ethic and they helped to direct and guide you in choosing what to do with your life.

Good or bad, the people who were a part of your life were a major factor in determining the circumstances of your current life.

If your circumstances are very good, meaning you are financially well off, happy and successful, chances are you were and are surrounded by good role models.

If your circumstances are not very good, meaning you are struggling financially, unhappy and not successful, chances are you were and are surrounded by bad role models.

But, no matter your current circumstances, you and you alone have the power and ability to alter your current circumstances.

If you are among the many who are struggling financially, unhappy and not successful, what do you do? Is it too late for you to change your circumstances?

The answer is – it is never too late to change. There are many examples of individuals, well into the twilight of their lives, who completely changed the circumstances of their lives. Grandma Moses began painting at age 80. Colonel Sanders was in his early 60’s when KFC was born. Ray Kroc was 55 when he founded McDonalds.

So, what can you do to change the circumstances of your life? How do you change your collage?

You must change your relationships. You must surround yourself with individuals who possess the following attributes:

• Good Money Habits – Surround yourself with individuals who are good with money. These individuals possess good savings habits, frugal spending habits and prudent investment habits.
• Success-Minded – Surround yourself with individuals who are pursuing success, a dream, big goals, etc.
• Resilient – Surround yourself with individuals with a positive, can-do belief system.
• Optimists – Surround yourself with individuals who are upbeat, positive, and enthusiastic about life.
• Health Obsessed – Surround yourself with individuals who take care of their bodies – who exercise every day and eat healthy.
• Self-Help Fanatics – Surround yourself with individuals who are self-improvement fanatics. These individuals are constantly reading and seeking to improve themselves.
• Generous – Surround yourself with individuals who are generous with their time and money. You’ll find them sitting on boards of local, community non-profits.

You are a collage of many people. If you want to change your life, you must change who you associate with. The right people will infect you with their good habits and, in time, their collage will become your collage.

The Bible is replete with self-help advice. One of my favorites is Mathew 7:7:

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.

Holly Branson is doctor and the oldest child of billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson. In her book, WEconomy, Holly shares some of the most profound mentoring advice she received from her father.

One of the pearls of wisdom passed down to Holly by her father was to develop the habit of seeking advice by asking questions of everyone you come into contact with in life, no matter their standing.

Rich or poor, we all have lessons to share. Some of those lessons are ones that create wealth and some of those lessons are ones that create poverty.

Knowing what to do puts you in the race

Seeking wisdom from those who have succeeded in life, have accumulated wealth or who have realized their dreams helps you to identify the habits, decision-making and processes that led to their success.

Knowing what not to do gets you to the finish line

Seeking wisdom from those who have failed in life, who struggle with poverty or who were unable to realize their dreams helps you to identify the habits, decision-making and missteps that led to their failure.

Both are equally important – It’s important to know what to do, and it’s equally important to know what not to do.

By asking questions of everyone you come into contact with, rich, poor or stuck in the middle-class, you are able to capture the full spectrum of wisdom that is needed in order to succeed. Wisdom is everywhere. Sometimes it resides inside the minds of the most unlikely of sources.

Always seek wisdom from others. Ask questions of everyone you meet. Here are some of Holly’s ideas of questions to ask in order to gain wisdom:

• I am a (fill in the blank – CPA, Author, Doctor, Mechanic, etc.) – Do you have any advice for me?
• What would you do differently if you could begin your adult life all over again?
• What would you change in your life?
• What can I change?
• What mistakes have you made that shaped your life?
• What should I do differently?
• What was the best advice you every received in life?
• What was the worst advice?
• Do you know any rich, successful people? What did they do to become wealthy?
• Do you know anyone who failed? What did they do wrong?
• What do you love about your life?
• What do you hate about your life?

Ask and you shall receive.

You are perceived by others in a certain way.

Sometimes that perception is favorable, unfavorable or one of indifference.

When you succeed at something, however, all perceptions of you change. People admire success. People envy success. So, if you succeed, you will be both admired and envied.

Success acts like a magnet. It attracts all sorts of people. It will attract the kind of people you want to include in your inner circle – positive, upbeat, enthusiastic, success-minded individuals. It will also attract the kind of people you want to disassociate yourself with – the negative, toxic types. If you follow me, you already know how to identify both types.

Success changes your life, forever. Unique opportunities manifest out of thin air. Doors, previously closed to you, swing wide open. Devotees or apostles are easy to find. Money problems disappear. You have increased freedom to do what you want, when you want, with whom you want.

The fruits of success are plentiful. That is why the pursuit of success, no matter how hard the climb, is worth it.

Not many are willing to make that climb, however. The sacrifices, the adversity, the stress, the risks and the investment in time frighten most away from the pursuit. That is why there are so few at the top of the mountain.

It’s always smart to remove weeds. Left unchecked, weeds will quickly take over any garden.

The same holds true for negative thoughts, which act like weeds inside the mind. Left unchecked, negative thinking will take over, altering your behavior, emotions and decision-making.

Studies have shown that positivity increases focus, cognitive ability (IQ) and risk tolerance. Since you need all three of these to succeed, you can not allow one weed of negativity to grow in the garden that is your mind.

Negative thinking also suppresses your prefrontal cortex, which is critical for creativity, decision-making and acts as the command and control center of the brain.

What are the weeds of negativity that must be removed?

• Envy
• Greed
• Fear
• Hatred
• Self-Pity
• Sadness
• Anger
• Doubt

How do you remove these weeds? By replacing every negative thought with its counterpart. The moment a negative thought arises, replace it immediately with a positive thought:

• Replace Envy with Gratitude – Express gratitude for something good in your life.
• Replace Greed with Generosity – Think back to when you did something good for someone or donated money to some worthy cause.
• Replace Fear with Courage – Think back to when you did something you were afraid to do and succeeded. This is why I encourage you to maintain a Victory Log. Victory Logs are real-life proof that you conquered some fear.
• Replace Hatred with Love – The moment hatred for something or someone enters your mind replace it by thinking about the things and people you love.
• Replace Self-Pity with Confidence – Think back to a time when you took on a challenge and succeeded. It will renew your confidence in yourself. Again, this is why you should maintain a Victory Log.
• Replace Sadness with Happiness – The moment sadness enters your mind, think back to moment you were truly happy.
• Replace Anger with Kindness – Remember a specific moment in which you showed someone kindness.
• Replace Doubt with Certainty – Once again, a Victory Log comes to the rescue. Look at your Victory Log every time you doubt yourself.

Do not allow negative thoughts a moment of life. They are not your friends. They are the enemy. Treat them like an enemy and immediately destroy them with positive thoughts.

Ben Hogan is considered one of the greatest golfers of all time. But, in the winter of 1938, Hogan was on the verge of quitting golf.

After a very disappointing second round of golf, Hogan was in last place in the Oakland Open. There was one day and two rounds of golf left to play. When he got back to his hotel room, he told his wife, “that’s all, that’s enough.”

They were down to their last $50 and Hogan had had enough. He was going to quit golf.

His wife, Valerie, very calmly told him he was a great golfer and he would eventually begin to make money playing golf. The very next day, feeding off of Valerie’s strength, Hogan tore up the golf course and finished in the top 16. He received the largest check of his life, $285.

His success at Oakland broke the dam. He received a job at the Century Club as an assistant pro, which ended his financial woes. Just two years later, Hogan would tie the course record at the North and South Championship in Pinehurst. After Pinehurst, he won the next two PGA events in succession. Lucrative endorsement deals followed as did lucrative offers to play in exhibitions.

Initial success is hard. It’s a hard climb. But here’s the thing – you only need to succeed once. Once you experience success, that initial success breaks the dam wide open. That is when opportunities for more success come pouring in.

So, you must stick with your dream. Never quit on your dreams. You only need to be right once.