Archives for October 2019

According to the Tax Foundation, only 5% of America’s households make enough money to be considered “wealthy”.  And this 5%, according to the Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finance, controls 60% of America’s wealth.

According to my Rich Habits research, this 5% share 4 common traits:

#1 The Rich Don’t Follow the Herd

Human beings so desire to blend in, to be a part of the herd, that they will do almost anything to avoid standing out in a crowd. It’s not theory. It’s science (http://www.nature.com/srep/2013/131009/srep02905/full/srep02905.html). Many years ago Candid Camera decided to test this science in their famous Elevator Prank. As funny as that Candid Camera prank was, it highlighted the lengths people will go to blend in and be part of the herd

The problem is, in order to become successful and wealthy, in order to become part of the top 5%, you must separate yourself from the herd – the other 95%. Separation from the herd is a prerequisite for achieving success. Consequently, successful people must become outliers by pursuing various paths towards accumulating their wealth:

• The herd does not save and invest 20% or more of their income – Saver-Investor millionaires, do.
• The herd does not devote hours every day to Deliberate and Analytical Practice or in growing their knowledge-base – Virtuoso millionaires, do.
• The herd does not devote time to forging strong relationships with Powerful Influencers – Big Company Senior Executive Climbers, do.
• The herd is risk averse. They do not put everything they own on the line in pursuit of a dream – Dreamer-Entrepreneurs, do.

If you do what everyone else is doing, you’ll wind up being part of the 95% herd. If you want to be rich and successful, you must separate yourself from the herd.

#2 The Rich Have Growth Habits

Greatness is an evolution. It is the byproduct of daily growth. Growth Habits are daily habits that enable you to grow and improve – to become the person you need to be in order for success to visit you:

• Reading to learn 30 minutes or more every day in order to grow your knowledge-base.
• Thirty minutes a day of daily study of new or important facts you learned from your daily educational reading.
• Perfecting your skills through Deliberate and Analytical Practice in an effort to become a Virtuoso in what you do for a living.
• Focused study in specific niche areas – niche-building helps separate you from everyone else in your field.
• Pursuing dreams forces you out of your comfort zone and into the growth zone. Every dream you pursue exposes you to new information and may also require that you develop new valuable skills.

#3 The Rich Are Persistent and Relentless – They Never Quit

Success takes a long time. How long it takes to become wealthy depends on the path you’ve chosen ( 4 Paths to Becoming a Self-Made Millionaire – http://richhabits.net/4-paths-becoming-self-made-millionaire/). Nonetheless, each path requires a different type of persistence:

• The Saver-Investor Path requires persistence in the form of saving and investing your income, year in and year out.
• The Big Company Senior Executive Climber Path requires persistence in doing excellent work and in building alliances with powerful influencers within your company.
• The Virtuoso Path requires persistence in gaining Virtuoso Knowledge or developing Virtuoso Skills. The persistence part involves a daily commitment to growing your knowledge or perfecting your skills. It takes many years to become a Virtuoso. Only the persistent reach Virtuoso levels.
• The Dreamer-Entrepreneur Path requires persistence in overcoming obstacles, pitfalls, mistakes, poor decisions and failure. Entrepreneurs who never quit, never fail. We call them self-made millionaires.

#4 The Rich Have More Good Habits Than Bad Habits

Most habits are below the radar – most, the 95%, are generally unaware of the habits they have. Those who succeed, on the other hand, are totally aware of their habits. They are obsessed with their habits. They proactively alter their habits – eliminating bad habits that can undermine everything they are trying to achieve and adopting good habits that help them automate their success.

My mission is to share my unique research in order to help others realize their dreams and achieve their goals. If you find value in these articles, please share them with your inner circle and encourage them to Subscribe. Thank You!

Time, depending on how you use it, can be your greatest asset or greatest liability.

Self-made millionaire turn time into their greatest asset by continuously investing their time. They invest their time by daily educational reading. They invest time by constantly meeting with or communicating with certain Rich Relationships. They invest their time through Deliberate and Analytical Practice, in order to become Virtuoso’s at what they do.

Those who Invest their time, create assets that generate future benefits, typically in the form of multiple streams of income. Those income streams take many years of sacrifice to create. But self-made millionaires are willing to make the sacrifice, in the hopes their income stream assets will produce an abundance of cash flow well into their retirement years.

Those who Spend their time are not interested in sacrificing their today time in exchange for future benefits. Their hedonistic approach to life is intentional and regretted only when they are older and wallowing in poverty, dependent on their children or friends.

When you invest your time in the hopes of a better future, that investment becomes an asset that pays dividends until you die.

Investing your time is a Rich Habit. Any investment you make should pay dividends down the road in the form of happiness events, financially security, a legacy or adding value to the lives of others.

When you see time as the greatest risk of all, it will force you to become more aware of exactly how you use the limited time you have.

Invest it wisely today, because you will never get it back.

My mission is to share my unique research in order to help others realize their dreams and achieve their goals. If you find value in these articles, please share them with your inner circle and encourage them to Subscribe. Thank You!

If you try to make massive habit changes immediately you’re going to fail.  Your new habits will only last a few weeks and your brain will force you back into old habit patterns.

Creating new habits is a brain energy hog. It sucks up a lot of the glucose and oxygen (brain fuel) that the brain desperately needs for other vital tasks.

Eventually the prefrontal cortex will send a directive to the basal ganglia (habit command and control center and energy efficiency manager for the brain) that this new massive habit change is consuming too much brain fuel and the basal ganglia will hen peck you until it succeeds in forcing you back to your old ways.

Therefore, the key to lasting habit change is to prevent the prefrontal cortex from putting the basal ganglia on high alert. In other words, you’ve got to keep your habit change below the radar, so to speak.

There are two ways to change a habit without going to war with your prefrontal cortex:

1. Make The New Habit Easy – If your new habit consumes very little time and effort, your prefrontal cortex won’t take notice. For example, if you want to read 30 minutes a day to learn, so that you can become more successful, don’t. Instead, read ten minutes a day. Do this for about a month. Why one month? After one month, a new neural pathway will form. Only a few neurons will be involved, too few to get the attention of the prefrontal cortex or basal ganglia. The following month increase your reading to fifteen minutes a day. This will force the brain to add a few more new neurons, too few to create a fuss. After five months you will have forged a new, powerful habit. You can use this example for forging other new daily habits, such as exercise.
2. Habit Stack – Habit Stacking occurs when you add a new habit to an existing habit. Think of an existing habit as a train on a track, except it’s inside your brain. If you add your new habit to that same train, as if it were a new passenger, the brain won’t put up a fight because you’re not trying to take control of the train or the track. You’re just taking a ride. When an old habit does not perceive a new habit as a threat, the prefrontal cortex does not wage war against the formation of that new habit.

My mission is to share my unique research in order to help others realize their dreams and achieve their goals. If you find value in these articles, please share them with your inner circle and encourage them to Subscribe. Thank You!

Successful individuals are copy cats.

They seek to mimic or model themselves after other successful people they admire. Typically, these are individuals within their same industry. Benchmarking forces you to work harder, improve your knowledge or skills and to constantly self-assess your progress.

It forces you set the bar higher, which necessitates that you grow and improve to meet that bar.

Not having someone to model yourself after can leave you drifting in the wind, like a leaf on a fall day.

If you want to increase your chances for success exponentially, find someone in your field who you admire and use them as your benchmark. This will allow you to grow into the person you need to be in order for success to visit you.

How do I know it works?

Since 2009, I have been on a journey to become the best self-improvement expert in the world. My journey started small – writing one book, Rich Habits.

JC was the main character in Rich Habits. He possesses amazing qualities and is wildly successful. He represents the ideal, future version of Tom Corley.

So, I modeled myself after JC. I did everything I thought JC would do. I made decisions I thought JC would make. I took risks I thought JC would take. And, most importantly, I never quit on my dreams because JC never quit on his dreams.

With JC as my benchmark, all of my books have become international bestsellers – I have people from every corner of the globe now reading my books.

I also have a big following on my blog/website and social media. And many of my media articles have gone viral. On one article I got as many as 11 million hits.

Like JC, I am frequently asked to speak at big events, some in very exotic places.

Everything JC would do, I am now doing. And, it works!

Find your benchmark – someone you can relate to and who can help push you to become the person you need to be in order for success to visit you.

The only regret will be that you didn’t do it sooner.

My mission is to share my unique research in order to help others realize their dreams and achieve their goals. If you find value in these articles, please share them with your inner circle and encourage them to Subscribe. Thank You!

Multitasking is a myth.

It is physically impossible to perform two conscious acts at one time. Neurologically, the human brain is only capable of performing one conscious task at a time. When you switch to another task, one set of neurons turns off and a new set of neurons are are turned on. If you continuously switch from one set of neurons to the another set of neurons, you lose efficiency and tax your brain.

This is known as “multitasking”.

Multitasking consumes too much brain fuel (oxygen and glucose or ketones) and wears out your brain. Those who pride themselves as great at multitasking are actually burning much more brain fuel and using their brains inefficiently.

Don’t believe me? Here’s a little exercise to prove that those who multitask are far more inefficient than those who focus on one task at a time:

EXERCISE #1

1. Take out a piece of paper and draw a horizontal line across the middle of the page. On the top portion of the page I will ask you to write the words: I AM A GREAT MULTITASKER.
2. On the bottom portion of the page, write the numbers 1 through 20. Example, 1, 2, 3, 4, etc.

It should have taken you about 15 seconds to write out the words: I AM A GREAT MULTITASKER.

It should have taken you about 35 seconds to write out the numbers 1 through 20.

EXERCISE #2

Now, I would like you to turn the page over and draw the same horizontal line across the middle of the page. This time I would like you to time yourself as you perform both tasks simultaneously (at the same time). For example, write the letter I and then write the number 1. Then write the letter A and write the number 2. Then write the letter M and write the number 3. Keep doing this until you have completed the words: I AM A GREAT MULTITASKER and you have completed writing all of the numbers from 1 through 20.

It should have taken you about two minutes, or twice as long, to perform EXERCISE #2  as it did to perform EXERCISE #1.

Self-made millionaires do not multitask. They focus like a laser on completing one task at a time.

Focusing on one task at a time, until you complete the task, is a Rich Habit. Multitasking is a Poverty Habit.

If you want to be successful in life, you must walk in the footsteps of the wealthy. And, the yellow brick road, self-made millionaires walk, is paved with Rich Habits.

My mission is to share my unique research in order to help others realize their dreams and achieve their goals. If you find value in these articles, please share them with your inner circle and encourage them to Subscribe. Thank You!

World traveler, famous musician, CEO of Big Company XYZ, professional tennis player, top expert in your field – so many youthful dreams. What the hell happened?

School happened, people happened, life happened, obstacles happened.

We are given this great capacity to dream. It’s genetically hard coded into each one of us. Yet, somewhere along the way, we cast our dreams aside.

School prepares us to be the best employees; to work for others. Our parents, family, family friends, our neighbors and our guidance counselors steer us along a path of practicality. Rung by rung, we climb our ladder, firmly ensconced on someone else’s wall.

Fast forward 20 years later and we are all wondering where it went wrong. Why aren’t we happy? We wake, shower, dress and commute 45 minutes to a job we do not like and have no passion for, but need because we have children and a mortgage.

It’s not the life we ever imagined and we feel so lost.

That lost feeling is a good thing. It’s your brain’s way of telling you that you’re pursuing the wrong path in life.

It’s never too late to dream.

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.

The ability to pursue your dreams never dies, until you do. You are never too old to reinvent yourself. People are living well into their 90’s. At age 70, you could be looking at 25 more years ahead of you.

Take an hour out of your frustrating existence and script out your ideal life. In 1,000 words or less, paint a picture, with words, of the ideal, perfect life you desire. This exercise will rejuvenate you, inspire you and rekindle the long-dead fire from which dreams are born.

You can baby step your way into a dream. An hour a day is all you need. Side gig it – keep your zombie job, which you need to survive, and start experimenting with different paths. The time is going to march on no matter what. You might as well use that time to pursue your dreams.

Don’t let life pass you by without pursuing your dreams.

We are infinitely greater than we ever imagined.

My mission is to share my unique research in order to help others realize their dreams and achieve their goals. If you find value in these articles, please share them with your inner circle and encourage them to Subscribe. Thank You!

Adversity pushes you, challenges you, tests you.

It can make you better, sharper, stronger, more resilient and bursting with confidence.

Or, it can break you.

Adversity stops the vast majority of people in their tracks. This is because adversity tests your commitment and your desire to succeed. It pushes you to the very limits of your capabilities and endurance level.

The fact is, without adversity, there would be no growth and without growth, there would be no success. Adversity forces you to grow into the person you need to be in order for success to visit you.

If your reasons for pursuing success are not powerful enough, adversity will almost certainly cause you to quit on yourself. You must have a powerful WHY that keeps you motivated and focused on a daily basis. Your WHY creates the passion that carries you through adversity.

Adversity is really a series of tests to determine the power of your WHY. Individuals who relentlessly overcome adversity, without quitting on themselves, have a bigger WHY than those who throw in the towel.

How do you know if your WHY is powerful enough?

Your WHY is powerful enough if it infiltrates your thoughts during the day and your dreams at night. Your WHY is powerful enough when the dream you are pursuing occupies your thoughts on weekends, vacations, holidays, family events, etc.

When the dream you’re pursuing is with you 24/7, then your WHY is powerful enough.

My mission is to share my unique research in order to help others realize their dreams and achieve their goals. If you find value in these articles, please share them with your inner circle and encourage them to Subscribe. Thank You!

How you prioritize what you do with the money you earn, dictates whether or not you will be sound financially. As I learned from my Rich Habits research, Saver-Investor Millionaires do things very differently from non-millionaires, when it comes to prioritizing their spending.

For the average non-millionaires out there, this is how they prioritize their spending:

#1 Priority – Short-Term Needs/Wants

• Pay bills to meet standard of living – paid for out of earnings
• Schooling for children (Includes college costs, if children are in college) – paid for out of earnings
• Buy home-related things, with any excess earnings

#2 Priority – Long-Term Needs/Wants

• General Savings
• Retirement Savings
• College Savings

For the average Saver-Investor Millionaire in my Rich Habits Study, this is how they prioritize their spending:

#1 Priority – Long-Term Needs/Wants

• General Savings
• Retirement Savings
• School Savings (this includes college savings)

#2 Priority – Short-Term Needs/Wants

• Pay bills to meet standard of living – paid for out of earnings. If unable to meet their expenses, they will reduce their standard of living or seek to earn more money by creating a second stream of income (2nd job or side business)
• Schooling for children – paid for out of School Savings
• Buy home-related things – paid for with any excess earnings

Because the spending priorities for non-millionaires is backwards and focused on the short-term, they never adjust their standard of living and wind up saving very little for their future.

Because Saver-Investor millionaires focus their spending on the long-term, they are able to pivot and make adjustments to their standard of living in order to continue to create savings, which they are able to invest for the long-term.

My mission is to share my unique research in order to help others realize their dreams and achieve their goals. If you find value in these articles, please share them with your inner circle and encourage them to Subscribe. Thank You!

Choices and decisions can make or break a business, career or relationship.

One or two bad decisions can, and often are, forgiven.

But those who make poor choices and decisions too frequently either go out of business or find themselves on the unemployment line.

I’ve learned from my Rich Habits research that frequent bad decisions are actually habits.

What are some of those bad decision habits?

Impulsiveness

Twenty-seven percent of the entrepreneurs in my Rich Habits Study failed at least once in business. The top three reasons given for their failure were:

#1 Ran Out of Money

#2 Made Poor Decisions

#3 Had Bad Habits

One cause of poor decision-making is impulsiveness – meaning, making decisions before gathering all of the facts needed in order to make an informed decision.

If you are too lazy to do the heavy lifting good decisions require, delegate the heavy lifting to others.

Going with your gut can put you in bankruptcy court.

Taking Uneducated Risks

Taking risks without understanding all of the potential downsides, is another recipe for failure. Good decisions require that you take Educated Risks. One of the hallmarks of the self-made millionaires in my study was the Rich Habit of taking Educated Risks.

What is an Educated Risk?

• Doing Your Homework – Studying everything about investments that require your time or money, before committing to the investment, minimizes the risk of failure and increases your chances for success.
• Seek Expert Feedback – Seeking feedback from experts, helps open your eyes to pitfalls and opportunities.

Giving in to Immediate Needs or Wants

Sometimes you box yourself in and must make decisions in order to meet an immediate need. In effect, you are making decisions from a position of weakness in order to meet some short-term need.

Other times, you make decisions in order to satisfy some immediate want.

According to my Rich Habits research, every decision you make should create a long-term benefit. If it doesn’t, then it’s going to end up being a bad decision. So, as a rule, never make decisions in order to satisfy short-term needs or wants.

Lack of Adequate Sleep

The worst time to make a decision is when you are tired. The prefrontal cortex, the decision-making command and control center of the brain, clogs up and slows down when it is tired and needs rest. Also, when you are tired your willpower reserve will be very low.

The best time to make a decision is after a good night’s rest. So, the old adage, let me sleep on it, is smart thinking.

Making Decisions at the Wrong Time of the Day

In a recent University of Dundee Study, lead author Benjamin Vincent, PhD, found that individuals in one study group who made decisions after ten hours of fasting, consistently made the wrong decisions.

Conversely, the study group who made decisions within two hours of eating healthy food, consistently made the right decisions.

This disparity in decision-making was due to a loss of willpower reserve, also known as Decision Fatigue, which is a fancy term for lack of energy.

Never make a decision when you are hungry.

Also, never attend an important meeting, in which decisions will be made, when you are hungry.

Addictions/Excesses

If you have drug or alcohol addictions, or regularly drink or take drugs in excess, your prefrontal cortex will be impaired.

Do not make any decision while impaired and don’t let anyone you depend on make decisions on your behalf, while they are impaired.

My mission is to share my unique research in order to help others realize their dreams and achieve their goals. If you find value in these articles, please share them with your inner circle and encourage them to Subscribe. Thank You!

Values are the things that truly matter most to you. They are fundamental to who you are and what is most important to you.

Many people try to mask or hide their values when those values are inconsistent with the false image they present to others.

For example, if money is your #1 priority, you may not want others to know this. You may not want them to know that your true priority is making money, even at the expense of others. Instead, you may want them to perceive you as someone with more noble, socially conscious motives.

And that may work for a time.

But, you cannot turn your values on or off. They are not LEGOs – something that can be easily added or removed. Your true values will eventually reveal themselves through your actions, especially when you are under some type of duress or pressure from outside forces.

Individuals whose god is money, may realize their dream of becoming wealthy, but often their lives are shallow, hollow and insignificant due to their flawed values.

Conversely, there are individuals whose #1 priority is not built around money, but upon a value system focused on improving the lives of others.

And yes, they too may become rich. But their wealth is the byproduct of providing products and services that add value to the lives of others. They live lives of significance. They are revered by others. And their legacy lasts many generations.

Your true character is revealed by your values. Those values reveal themselves, not when times are easy, but when times are hard.

Your actions, especially under duress, pulls away the curtain to reveal your true values – the things that are most important to you.

What are your true values?

Are they what you profess them to be?

I don’t need any answers. All I need to do is watch what you do.

Under pressure, your actions always reveal your true values.

My mission is to share my unique research in order to help others realize their dreams and achieve their goals. If you find value in these articles, please share them with your inner circle and encourage them to Subscribe. Thank You!