Archives for June 2018

Some people love to read stories about lottery winners. Those stories offer an escape from life; a little excursion where you can fantasize about becoming an instant millionaire.

But when you peel the onion, the fantasy about winning the lottery is all about instant gratification, instant rewards and instant wealth, without any of the hardship.

Winning the lottery means no effort, no hard work and no adversity.

If you have ever read any of those lottery-winner stories, one common thread is that hardly any of the winners are CEOs, senior executives, entrepreneurs, professionals or other successful types.

Why?

Because successful people do not have a lottery mindset.

What is the lottery mindset?

It is the idea that there is a shortcut to wealth; that it is possible to become instantly wealthy by virtue of good luck.

The problem is, those who have the lottery mindset are not living in reality. The lottery mindset is a fantasy that very few realize.

In the 25-year history of the Iowa Lottery, for example, only 110 people won $1 million or more. That equates to about 4 millionaire-lottery winners a year. In 2006, there were 50,529 millionaires in Iowa. If you do the math, only about .0079% of all Iowa millionaires are, therefore, lottery winners. Not a very promising path to wealth.

But this lottery mindset is not just about the lottery. It’s about embracing uneducated risk or speculating with your money.

The recent masses jumping on the bitcoin bandwagon, have a lottery mindset. Those who regularly gamble, have a lottery mindset. Those who invest in start-ups they know little to nothing about, have a lottery mindset.

The lottery mindset brainwashes you into believing that there is an easier path towards wealth. One in which you are not required to do the heavy lifting, almost all success requires.

Those who embrace the lottery mindset do not pursue their dreams. They do not set goals. They do not step outside their comfort zone. They do not engage in self-improvement which results in expert knowledge or expert skills. Knowledge and skills which transforms you into a virtuoso at what you do, thus leading to success and wealth.

Those with a lottery mindset also do not understand the true path towards success.

What is the true path towards success?

Success requires work. Success requires effort. Success requires sacrifice. Success requires daily self-improvement. Success requires deliberate practice. Success requires relentless persistence.

But, ultimately, success requires adopting habits that lead to success. And those habits are always learned. They are learned either the easy way or the hard way.

They easy way is through success mentors. Success mentors teach you what to do and what not to do. They help smooth out the potholes along your chosen path. They help you avoid mistakes that can cost you time and money. They help you avoid failure. They help open doors that are closed to everyone else. They help direct you and guide you every step of the way, along your steady march towards success.

The hard way is in the white hot fires of grinding it out, reading to learn, daily practice, adversity, experimentation, mistakes and overcoming obstacles.

Those little things, my Rich Habits, are the byproduct of figuring out what to do and what not to do.

There are no shortcuts in life to accumulating wealth and realizing success. That’s the real secret to becoming rich, if there is one.

The lottery mindset is a dead end, a fantasy. It’s a cop-out for those who are simply unwilling to find success mentors or unwilling to do the heavy lifting success requires.

“Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.”― Oscar Wilde

One of the clear signs of a toxic person is stress. Toxic people distribute stress, infecting those they come into contact with.

Their lives are replete with drama, affecting everyone they come into contact with.

They are like mail carriers, except what they deliver is stress in the form of financial problems, relationship problems, anxiety, unhappiness, negativity, emergencies and, in general, problems.

Stress is one of the major contributors to disease. When you are infected with stress by a toxic person, that stress stays long after the toxic person has departed.

If you surround yourself with toxic, negative people, you are allowing yourself to swim in a pool of stress, negatively impacting your health.

Conversely, positive people are not carriers of stress. In fact, positive people help to remove or subdue stress, improving your outlook and your health.

This is one of the reasons why successful, happy, healthy and upbeat people avoid associating with toxic people – they know that toxic people are harmful.

Make a habit of only associating with upbeat, positive, success-minded people and you will be rewarded with a happy, healthy, stress-free live.

When you pursue a dream you will very quickly learn that every step of the way, especially in the early going, obstacles, challenges, pitfalls, mistakes, false assumptions, unexpected consequences and unmet expectations are constant bedfellows.

All of those things are known by one word – adversity.

Adversity exists for two core reasons:

#1 Reason: Adversity Forces You To Grow – Adversity requires that you become expert in your knowledge (reading to learn every day) and your actions (daily deliberate practice), which eventually transforms you into a Virtuoso in what you do. Through this growth, you become transformed into a new person – the person you need to be in order to realize your dream. When you realize your dream, you are a success. Wealth typically follows, but wealth is just a byproduct of realizing a dream.

#2 Reason: Adversity Tests Your Commitment – Dreamers who eventually succeed all share one thing in common – a fanatical commitment in pursuing and realizing their dream. This commitment often takes many years. It consumes you. You think about your dream and the goals behind your dream every waking moment and even, oftentimes, in your dreams. Those who are truly committed are able to shake off mistakes, failures, unmet expectations and unexpected consequences. The are able to power through pitfalls and obstacles. The truly committed simply refuse to quit, no matter how difficult the journey might be. Eventually, their unrelenting commitment results in good luck – the truly committed eventually get lucky. Opportunity good luck is a byproduct of the truly committed.

The truly committed overcome adversity. Adversity tests the commitment of dreamers.

So, how committed are you to your dream? Will you do whatever it takes to realize your dream? Will you pursue your dream every day?