Archives for November 2019

Our names are one of the most important things to us. They are even more important than our birthdays.

When someone remembers your name, it feeds your ego. You feel important and valued.

Most people, however, make no effort to remember names.

It’s particularly embarrassing when someone remembers your name and you can’t recall their name. It’s more than just embarrassing, however. It impairs your ability to become successful in life.

If you want to be successful, you must forge a habit of remembering the names of those who matter to you or your business.

One of the main culprits behind forgetting someone’s name has to do with the frequency of contact. The less frequent the contact, the more likely you will forget someone’s name.

What can you do?

One trick I found very effective is the Grouping Strategy. With the Grouping Strategy you categorize each one of your relationships into a specific group.

For example, if you play tennis, you may meet many individuals from various tennis leagues. You may not see these people regularly and because of this you forget their names. So you group these infrequent tennis contacts into your Tennis Group category. Almost every contact management system allows you to categorize each of your contacts and some even allow you to link the database to your cell phone. Even better is attaching a picture to the name of the contact.

Prior to getting together with your Tennis Group group, you simply whip out your cell phone and review all those listed under the Tennis Group Category.

Here are the steps for creating your own specific groups:

Step #1: Write down the name of a new introduction immediately after the introduction. I keep a small pad and pen with me at all times just for this purpose.
Step #2: Associate their face with someone you know or some outstanding facial or bodily feature and write this association down in your pad. For example, “looks like Chris Rock”.
Step #3: Create group categories for all of your contacts and then assign each contact to a group category. Keep it simple. Not too many groups.
Step #4: Refer to your grouping category just prior to a function for one of your “Groups”.

This memory trick works great. People are amazed by my memory and I often receive compliments. I usually respond saying I always remember the names of people I like.

Their chest swells and their egos are satiated.

More importantly, they never forget my name ever again.

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!

The rich do not build relationships with just anybody. They focus like a laser on building something called Power Relationships.

Power Relationships are individuals who are:

• Centers of Influence
• Decision-Makers
• Upbeat, Optimistic, Positive
• Wealthy
• Successful
• Success-Minded
• Obsessed With Self-Improvement

Here’s some of my research from my Rich Habits Study, related to Power Relationships:

• 88% of the wealthy believed building Power Relationships was a key factor in their wealth. Only 17% of the poor made any effort to build Power Relationships.
• 67% of the rich believed promoting themselves to those who matter, other Power Relationships, was important to building their brand, which lead to success. Only 24% of the poor agree.
• 75% of the rich send thank you cards or notes or email their Power Relationships regularly. Only 13% of the poor have this Rich Habit.
• 72% of the wealthy volunteer five hours or more each month compared to only 12% for the poor. Many of the board members of non-profits happen to be Centers of Influence, decision-makers and successful or success-minded individuals – Power Relationships.

Building Power Relationships is fundamental to success and wealth creation. But building these relationships requires that you follow a process.

So how do you go about finding and building Power Relationships?

1. Become a Speaker – Speaking engagements are probably the most efficient and effective way to build Power Relationships. One speaking engagement can introduce you to numerous Power Relationships at one time. Since most individuals fear public speaking, overcoming that fear sets you apart from the masses. You’ll be viewed as an expert in the eyes of any Power Relationships listening to your talk.
2. Join a Non-Profit Group Board or Committee – You will find many Power Relationships sitting on the boards of local, community-based non-profit groups. Very often, Board members are successful, wealthy individuals who have very strong, powerful relationships. By becoming a member of a non-profit, you gain special access to these Power Relationships. You also are able to showcase your knowledge and skill. Referrals will eventually manifest themselves as your relationships grow stronger. When you join a non-profit, in time you will gain access to the Rolodex of the Power Relationships who reside on the board.
3. Write – Writing sets you apart from your competition. As you develop your content, your content will eventually reach the eyeballs of Power Relationships, because Power Relationships are voracious readers. Your content, if it is good, will create immediate gravitas with these Power Relationships. Writing forces you to really understand the topic you are writing about. As a result, it hones your technical knowledge and helps transform you into a Virtuoso in your field. Also, as a sidebar, every time you write about a subject, you increase your knowledge in that subject and this helps open your eyes to invisible opportunities that were there all along. Writing creates a type of good luck known as Opportunity Luck.
4. Hello Call – Make a habit of calling at least one Power Relationship every day for no other reason other then to say hello. This helps build the relationship and opens the door for opportunities.
5. Happy Birthday Call – Call your Power Relationships on their birthdays. Birthdays are very important to each one of us; second only to our names in terms of importance. When you take time out of your day to make a Happy Birthday Call it says to that person, “you are important to me.” Power Relationships remember those who call them on their birthday. They don’t remember those who wish them a happy birthday on social media sites – that’s just noise to them – you are just one of many and get lost in the crowd. When you make a Happy Birthday Call, you may be the only person who actually does so that day, which sets you apart from everyone else. Birthdays are happy, emotional events. Emotions create the strongest memories. So, when you make a Happy Birthday Call, that creates a strong, powerful favorable memory.
6. Life Event Call – Like Happy Birthday calls, Life Event Calls stir strong emotions for the recipient of that call. So, call your Power Relationships when something important or special happens to them or one of their family members. This could be a birth, death, newspaper mention, award, health issue, etc.
7. Breakfast/Lunch/Dinners/Bars – Periodically reach out to your Power Relationships and ask them to breakfast, lunch, dinner or buy them a few drinks at a bar. This casual get together is the perfect setting to casually grow these relationships in a relaxed environment.

No one succeeds on their own. Success does not happen in a vacuum. The most successful people in the world are part of an expansive and strong network or team of other successful people. Successful people have a large herd of Power Relationships.

Power Relationships don’t simply manifest themselves out of thin air. They are the byproduct of investing time and energy in growing and nurturing them. So, you have to process building these relationships on a daily basis. In other words, you need to make building Power Relationships a Rich Habit.

Not everyone you meet is worthy of your investment. You need to be selective. The wealthiest invest in upbeat, optimistic, enthusiastic individuals who are on or pursuing a path towards success.

Avoid toxic, negative people. If they are part of your inner circle, Power Relationships will pull away from you because Power Relationships avoid negative, toxic people as if they were a plague.

To the wealthy, Power Relationships are like gold. They are the currency of the wealthy.

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!

Many business owners and entrepreneurs were part of my Rich Habits Study (51%).

The information they shared with me about their daily habits, I consider revolutionary and invaluable. Interestingly, many of the mistakes they made in growing their business were critical to their future success.

Business mistakes stand out like missing teeth. They are so obvious, after the fact. You wonder how you could have ever been so dumb. But making mistakes is part of being a successful business. In fact, every successful business has a mouth full of missing teeth.

These mistakes offer a learning experience that can never be reproduced in a classroom. Mistakes are the real-life business MBA.

Because business mistakes cost you time and money, avoiding them means you can spend your time and money on things that help grow your business.

Below are some of the common business mistakes the self-made millionaires in my study made and, hopefully, you won’t:

1. Poor Quality
   High quality products or services are the cornerstone of every successful business. Quality keeps customers/clients coming back. Businesses that produce poor quality are perpetually in search for new customers/clients. New customer/client acquisition is a far more expensive proposition than than keeping the old ones satisfied and coming back. Businesses that produce poor quality are always just getting by. They eek out a living.
2. Lack of Customer/Client Feedback
   The most successful businesses are in a constant search for customer/client feedback. This feedback is crucial as it provides important information on what you are doing right and what you are doing wrong. Every business should ask for feedback on the products/services they provide. Ideally, this feedback is most valuable immediately following a product sale or a service provided. Timely customer/client feedback allows your business to make immediate course corrections to prevent loss of revenue.
3. Over-Staffing
   Successful businesses hire reluctantly. They keep employee staffing levels at the bare minimum, even during growth phases. Instead, they rely on a core group of highly competent and proven staff members for 80% of sales and fill the 20% gap with seasonal employees, part-time employees or outside contractors.
4. Procrastination
   Successful businesses adopt a “do it now” mindset. They don’t procrastinate on meeting customer/client needs. Procrastination results in a “put out the fire” response in meeting the needs of customers/clients. This “put out the fire” response results in poor quality, dissatisfied customers/clients, lost customers/clients and potential litigation, costing the business valuable time and money.
5. Lack of Vision
   Successful businesses know exactly where they are going. They have a very clear vision of their destination. The construction crew they use to turn that vision into a reality, are goals. These company-wide goals are in writing. They are regularly monitored and revised to meet an ever changing business environment. Successful businesses understand that goals tied to their vision, help move them forward towards that vision.
6. Failing to Keep Up With Your Competition
   Successful businesses are tuned in to their industry. They consistently read their industry periodicals or blogs for industry trends and opportunities. They adapt their business to industry changes. They are constantly in “self-improvement” mode; always improving/expanding their core products/services to match or exceed their competition. Successful businesses have their fingers on the pulse of their industry.
7. Your Product/Service is a Commodity
   Successful businesses have a unique brand that is the result of providing value-added products or services or that fills some niche. They offer something unique that helps them stand out from the competition. When your product or service becomes a commodity, it shows up in the bottom line.
8. Poor Marketing
   Successful businesses have a unique marketing strategy that helps them build their brand. They do not follow the heard in terms of marketing strategy. They create their own proprietary strategy through trial, error and brainstorming sessions with their staff and business partners.
9. Not Understanding Customer/Client Wants and Needs
   Successful businesses know their customers/clients wants and needs. They then create products or services to meet those wants and needs.
10. Failing to Meet Customer/Client Expectations
    Successful businesses exceed customer/client expectations. They always try to deliver on a promise. Customers/clients walk away satisfied because their expectations are either met or exceeded.

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!

In my Rich Habits Study, 88% of the wealthy read an average of 30 minutes each day, strictly to gain knowledge.

Their reading topics?

• Career/Industry-Related
• Self-Help
• Educational
• Biographies of Successful Historical Figures
• History
• Current Events Related to Their Career/Industry
• Anything Related to a Dream or Goals
• Hobbies/Interests

While reading is important, retaining what you read is even more important.

One Tool I picked up from one of the self-made millionaires in my Study is something I call the Fact Binder. The Fact Binder helps me retain facts or easily access facts that are critical to helping me grow, improve and make money.

In my big Fact Binder (it’s a 6 inch Binder), I separate important facts into alphabetical Topic Sections that are specific to all of the things I need to know for each of my five businesses. Here’s an example:

• Author Business
• Book Summaries – I summarize every book I read. Some summaries = 1 page, some are as long as 10 pages.
• Brain Science
• Economics
• Financial Planning
• Genetics
• Government
• Habits
• Health
• Rich Habits-Related Studies
• Speaker Business
• Taxes
• Training Business
• Wealth
• Writing

My Fact Binder is my go to resource for everything I learn from all of the reading I do. It helps me to easily access facts that my brain has not committed to long-term memory. I use my Fact Binder every day.

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!

Centers of Influence are individuals who, with one phone call, can make good things happen for you.

They can get you what you need. They can open doors for you, family or friends. They can introduce you to other Centers of Influence.

For example, the non-profit I help run, The Ashley Lauren Foundation, puts on a number of events specifically for families who are struggling with pediatric cancer. At one of our events, we were trying to get a restaurant to provide free food for the event. We were unsuccessful until we called one of our Centers of Influence. Within a few minutes, we received a call back from a restaurant, who happily provided us with all of the food we needed.

Another example is me. One of my friends went through a divorce and needed to find a job to make money in order to survive. I made a few phone calls and helped find her a job, which I am happy to say, she if flourishing in.

Who are your Centers of Influence?

Who would you like to have as your Centers of Influence?

What are you doing to pull Centers of Influence into your orbit?

When you have Centers of Influence, they make life much easier for you, your family and your friends. Consequently, building and maintaining relationships with Centers of Influence should be one of your top priorities.

Building relationships with Centers of Influence is a habit. Here’s a link to an article that tells you how to do that: Relationships Are The Currency of The Wealthy – https://richhabits.net/relationships-currency-wealthy/

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!

In my Rich Habits Study, I had the fortunate opportunity to peer into the lives of 128 individuals who struggled financially in life. My goal was to figure out the underlying causes of their financial struggles.

I learned many things. For instance, I learned that those who struggled financially had habits that, in many instances, were the polar opposite of the habits of the self-made millionaires in this same Study.

Certain habits I uncovered related to money. Those who struggle financially, I found, are just not very good with their money. There are numerous reasons for this, but I believe it boils down to 12 specific things:

1. Ego – Ego-driven money decisions prevent you from managing whatever money you do have in a prudent manner. Some of the specific examples of this from my Study included:
   • Buy Expensive Things – Ego-driven purchases intended to create the perception they were doing better financially then they actually were.
   • Invincible – This was one of the reasons they did not purchase adequate life insurance
   • Smarter Than They Actually Were – This was one of the reasons why they did not hire experts, seek feedback from experts or why they took Uneducated Risks (taking risks without doing your homework).
2. Emotions – Spending decisions that are based on spur of the moment emotions.
3. Bias – Making money decisions that are not fact-based but, instead, ideologically-based.
4. Ignorance – Not doing your homework. Taking uneducated risks could be Ego-based or Ignorance-based.
5. Overthinking – Simple solutions are usually the correct solutions. Seeking more complicated solutions leads to chaos.
6. Fear – Never make money decisions out of fear. Example would be liquidating investments during a downturn in the stock market.
7. Stress – Studies have shown that stress reduces your IQ by 13%. Never make money decisions when you are under stress.
8. Poor Decision-Making Habit – Making frequent poor decisions is a habit. There are a number of reasons why you make bad decisions: Ego, Emotions, Bias, Ignorance, Fear, Stress, Tired or Hungry (suffering from Decision Fatigue) and Impairment (drugs/alcohol).
9. Desperate Decisions – These are decisions that you make from a position of weakness. They are typically the result of prior bad decisions and always forced upon you by some third party, such as a lender, government agency, credit card company, employer, spouse, family or friends.
10. Impulse – Making spur of the moment purchases. Related to emotion-based spending mistakes but could also be caused by Decision Fatigue.
11. Externalities – Keep up with the Jonse’s spending decisions are an example. Other reasons for making bad money decisions can be due to pressure from spouse, family, friends, work colleagues, etc.
12. Impatience – Making poor money decisions, such as liquidating investments during a downturn in the market can be fear-based or driven by a lack of patience. Making any major purchase without wanting to spend the time in doing your homework, is another example.

As you can see, there are many reasons why we can make mistakes with our money. Being aware of these common pitfalls can help prevent you from making poor money decisions.

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!

One of many interesting revelations revealed to me in my Rich Habits Study was the importance of parenting with respect to your adult financial circumstances.

The impact parents had on the self-made millionaires and the poor people in my study was so profound, I decided to write my second book, Rich Kids, in an effort to shine a light on the right and wrong habits to teach children.

What’s most interesting is the fact that my self-made millionaires learned their wealth-building habits from parents who were either poor or middle-class. Somehow, later in life, their parents figured out what to do and what not to do. These Rich Parenting households did not want their children to make the same mistakes they made.

Those who are raised in Rich Parenting households wind up in the top 5% decile in America. This 5% do not struggle financially, have nice homes, vacation at the nicest places and are generally well educated. Having learned the Rich Habits from their parents, they pass along what they’ve learned to their children and their children, in turn, grow up to become happy, successful and wealthy. This generational cycle of wealth perpetuates itself from one generation to the next and it is the very reason why we have a growing wealth gap in America.

Until the rest of the 95% learn what to do and what not to do, with respect to habits, this wealth gap will continue to grow.

Those who are raised in Poor Parenting households represent about 30% of the population in America. They are one paycheck away from being homeless. This 30% struggles financially, rent small homes, are unable to vacation, do not place a high value on either formal or informal education, struggle with unemployment and generally have bad habits which they learned from their parents. Their children, by default, pick up the habits of their parents and, likewise, struggle financially as adults. This generational cycle of poverty perpetuates itself from one generation to the next and it is the reason most poor people remain poor, one generation after the other.

So, OK, it’s your parents fault that you’re poor. Now, what are you going to do about it?

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!

Your daily habits are the reason why you are rich, poor or stuck in the middle-class.

Daily habits are the cause, financial circumstances, the effect.

The Rich Habits are unique in the habit world in that they produce a Ripple Effect with respect to other habits.

One Rich Habit will give birth to numerous complementary Rich Habits. One Rich Habit will also eviscerate numerous bad habits, or conflicting habits, that get in the way.

According to a 2006 Willpower Study by Australian researchers Megan Oaten and Ken Chew, they found evidence that supports my findings. In their study on willpower, they introduced one study group to new habits, in an effort to measure willpower. After six months, they brought this study group back for some Q&A. To their great surprise, they discovered that the new habits these individuals were asked to adopt, gave birth to other habits that appeared to compliment or augment the new habits. They coined their habit discovery as the Ripple Effect.

According to various studies, 40% – 60% of all of your daily activities are habits. This means that 40% – 60% of the time you are on auto pilot.

This is a good thing if most of your habits are Rich Habits but this is a very bad thing if most of your habits are Poor Habits.

For example, adopting the Rich Habit of exercising 30 minutes a day aerobically will eventually cause the elimination of the Poor Habit of overeating, junk food eating, cigarette smoking, excessive drinking of alcohol and any other Poor Habit that conflicts with your new Rich Habit.

The Ten Keystone Rich Habits That Will Make Your Rich:

1. Wealthy individuals make themselves self-aware of their habits. This gives them the ability to alter their habits. So, rich Habit #1 is the Self-Awareness Habit.
2. Wealthy individuals set daily, monthly, annual and long-term goals, almost always tied to one or more dreams. This is why pursuing your dreams is so important. Your dreams force you to create goals because goals are the construction crew for your dreams.
3. Wealthy individuals engage in 30 minutes a day of daily career-related reading.
4. Wealthy people are healthy people. They exercise aerobically 30 minutes a day, four days a week and stay below their “caloric threshold” (This is the number of calories consumed each day that will neither make you gain weight nor lose weight). For men this ranges from 2,000 calories a day to 2,600 calories a day. For women this ranges from 1,500 calories a day to 2,100 calories a day.
5. Wealthy individuals manage their relationships every day. Strong relationships are the currency of the wealthy. They employ certain strategies to grow their relationships such as: “The Hello Call”, “The Happy Birthday Call” and “The Life Event Call”. They intentionally seek to add Rich Relationships to their inner circle and they intentionally seek to remove Toxic Relationships from their inner circle.
6. Wealthy individuals live each day in moderation.They eat in moderation, spend in moderation, work in moderation and play in moderation.
7. Wealthy individuals create to-do lists around their goals. In effect, they create daily to-do goals. These to-do goals are almost always tied to one or more dreams they are pursuing.
8. Wealthy individuals engage in “Rich Thinking”. They are upbeat, positive and focused on self-improvement, growth and achievement.
9. Certain Wealthy individuals become rich by saving a minimum of 10-20% of their income and live off of the remaining 80-90%. They then prudently invest their saving, thereby growing their wealth.
10. Wealthy individuals control their thoughts and emotions, every day. People like doing business with people who they feel comfortable around. They feel uncomfortable doing business with emotionally volatile individuals.

Poor Habits That Are Keeping You Poor

• You have too many time-wasting activities. TV, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, texting, etc.
• You eat more than 300 junk food calories a day. You can’t make money from a hospital bed. Eating unhealthy food will damage your health and shortens longevity. It’s hard to be productive when you have chronic health issues.
• You drink too much alcohol too frequently. Moderation means no more than two glasses of beer, wine or hard alcohol a night.
• You drink more than 12 ounces of sugary drinks. Numerous studies have shown that sugar increases the risk factors for cancer.
• You don’t exercise consistently. Lack of exercise can lead to chronic health issues. Once again, you can’t make money from a hospital bed.
• Your relationships are on an “as needed” basis. You only reach out to your family or friends to socialize or when you have problems and need their help. You don’t call them just to say hello, happy birthday or to congratulate them or console them when something happens in their lives. In other words, you ignore them unless you need them for something.
• Procrastination is the rule rather than the exception. You don’t pursue dreams, so you don’t set goals and, therefore, you don’t have a daily to-do goal list that you follow every day.
• You devote very little time to your career beyond working. You do not read to learn more about your career or industry. In most cases, this is due to the fact that you do not like your job.
• You don’t volunteer a minimum of 5 hours a month. Why is this important? Many of the people who run the boards and committees of community-based non-profits are some of the wealthiest and successful people in your community. These people can open doors for you or for your children.
• You talk more than you listen.
• Too often you put your foot in your mouth and saying inappropriate things.
• You are not generous with your time or money.
• You are a spender and not a saver. You don’t save 10% or more of your net income every month. You can’t invest unless you save.
• You spend more than you earn. Your standard of living is too high. You rely on debt to fund your standard of living. Eventually, you run out of debt.
• You don’t control your thoughts and emotions. You lose your temper too often and belittle others too much.

Experts continue to debate how to change a habit, how long it takes and even if it’s possible to get rid of habits.  I’m here to tell you to forget about trying to get rid of your Poor Habits. It’s a waste of time. Instead, forge Rich Habits and they will give birth to complimentary habits. They will also automatically eliminate bad contradictory habits.

The Rich Habits were intentionally designed to be Keystone Habits in order to maximize their effectiveness. Keystone Habits overpower other ordinary habits. Adopting just one Rich Habit will overpower numerous Poor Habits.

All you need to do is add one Rich Habits at a time. Your Poor Habits will begin to fade away all by themselves.

This is the power of the Rich Habits. No will power required in eliminating bad habits. The more Rich Habits you add to your life, over time, the more your life will improve.

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!

Habits have a purpose. They save the brain from extra work, which frees up glucose to be used to fuel higher brain functions, such as planning, decision-making, creativity, innovation, the pursuit of goals/dreams and many other things.

Habits are the byproduct of advanced human evolution. They are, in a very real sense, one of the primary reasons humans are at the top of the food chain.

By isolating certain repetitive functions to a very small, almost fractional area, the brain freed itself to expand and perform higher level functions. This expansion gave birth to tool-making, then speech and finally cooperation; humans working together for a single purpose.

Physiologically, habits are a series of interconnected neural pathways, connected along the neural fibers underneath the neocortex, to a central neural hub inside the Basal Ganglia. The moment a neural pathway becomes linked to the Basal Ganglia, it is magically transformed by the brain into a permanent habit.

According to a famous London study performed on 89 people, this process can take anywhere from 18 to 254 days, depending on the complexity of the behavior forming the habit. The more complex the behavior, such as washing your face verses swinging a golf club, the more time it takes for the habit to form.

In another study on habits (Duke University in 2006) it was determined that an average of 40% of all daily human activities are habits. Your daily habits unconsciously control your life. Habits, as boring as they may be, are the secret to success, failure or mediocrity.

Our behaviors, the choices we make, our thinking and our habits create wealth or poverty. Those who were fortunate enough to learn good daily habits from their parents or a mentor, get a head start and this allows them to excel in life.

Others learn good daily habits through the school of hard knocks, pivot into those habits and excel in life.

Those who have forged good daily habits have outstanding lives. They command respect, make most of the money in this world, and control the lives of the millions who have bad habits.

Thanks to my Rich Habits research, I can say unequivocally that your daily habits create your financial circumstances. They are the reason you live in a beach house or a slum.

Your daily habits are the reason you make millions of dollars a year or eke out a living, living paycheck to paycheck.

Your daily habits are the reason you are happy or unhappy.

Your daily habits are the reason your children go to the best colleges or struggle to graduate from high school.

The blueprint of your life and the lives of your children are determined by your daily habits.

That’s how important habits are. If you want to change your life you must change your daily 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!

In my five year Rich Habits Study, aerobic exercise kept showing up on the rich person side of the ledger. In fact, 76% of the wealthy in my study said that they exercised aerobically 30 minutes a day, four days a week.

On the non-rich side of the ledger, only 23% did this.

To be honest, I was confused. I was raised to hate the wealthy and one of the “truths” I was spoon fed as a child was that the rich were fat, overweight, smoked cigars, drank in excess and did not exercise, except if you considered golf exercise.

My Rich Habits Study destroyed almost all of the “truths” about the rich, so many poor people, like myself, wrapped around themselves like a sacred blanket.

The fact is, the rich become rich because they forge good habits and those good habits help them to grow and improve, raise their IQs and allow them to be highly productive by staying healthy and energetic. Smarter, healthier, more energetic people have fewer sick days and can work more hours. They can also continue working, well into their 70’s, which only helps to grow their wealth.

Below are five benefits of aerobic exercise that explains why aerobic exercise is a common habit among the rich:

#1 Aerobic Exercise Improves Mental Functioning and Boosts Your IQ

• Aerobic exercise floods the bloodstream with oxygen. This oxygen eventually makes its way to the brain. Since the brain uses 20% of our oxygen reserves, increased oxygen flow into the brain soaks up more free radical waste inside the brain, making it cleaner and healthier.
• Twenty to thirty minutes of aerobic exercise every day has been proven to stimulate the growth of axon branches on each neuron. The number of axon branches you have is directly related to how intelligent you are. So aerobic exercise makes you more intelligent.

#2 Aerobic Exercise Makes You Healthier

• Aerobic exercise increases blood flow, feeds the body with oxygen and strengthens the heart.
• Weight-bearing aerobic exercises, such as walking or jogging, reduce the risk of osteoporosis.
• Aerobic exercise helps lower high blood pressure and control blood sugar.
• If you’ve had a heart attack, aerobic exercise helps prevent subsequent heart attacks.
• Aerobic exercise boosts your high-density lipoprotein (HDL or “good”) cholesterol and lowers your low-density lipoprotein (LDL or “bad”) cholesterol. This results in less buildup of plaques in your arteries.
• Studies show that people who participate in regular aerobic exercise live longer than those who don’t exercise regularly.
• Healthier people have fewer sick days, more energy and this translates into more productivity at work. More productivity makes you more valuable to your organization, customers or clients, which translates into more value and ultimately more money.

#3 Aerobic Exercise Prevents Disease

• Oxygen is like a sponge. It soaks up free radicals (cancer causing, DNA mutating, roaming electrons) and converts these free radicals to carbon dioxide. The blood carries this carbon dioxide to the lungs, which then removes the carbon dioxide from our bodies by exhaling it into the environment.
• Aerobic exercise reduces the risk of many chronic conditions, including obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke and certain types of cancer.

#4 Aerobic Exercise Reduces the Effects of Stress Which Boosts Your Immune System

• When we feel stress, there is a domino effect of physiology that takes place inside our bodies. When we think negative thoughts that create stress the hypothalamus increases the release of epinephrine and norepinephrine. These hormones make the heart beat faster and prepare the body for fight or flight. If the stress lingers, a gene on chromosome 10, called CYP17, is activated. This gene goes to work to convert cholesterol to cortisol.
• Cortisol is used in virtually every part of the body and it’s purpose is to integrate the body and the mind. The body and mind then work in harmony to escape the external threat that triggered the stress response. One of cortisol’s side effects, unfortunately, is that it depresses the immune system by reducing the production of lymphocytes – white blood cells. The gene CYP17 also turns on another gene called TCF, which suppresses the the creation of a protein called interleukin 2.
• Interleukin 2′s purpose is to put white blood cells on high alert. White blood cells are our main defense against viruses, diseases, germs and any parasites that infect the body. Long-term stress, therefore, impairs our immune system’s ability to fight off these viruses, diseases, germs and parasites.

#5 Aerobic Exercise Makes You Feel Happier

• Aerobic exercise contributes to an overall feeling of well-being through the release of certain happiness neuro-chemicals, such as endorphins and dopamine.
• According to recent studies on happiness, 40% of happiness is activity-driven, 10% is circumstantial and 50% is genetic. Aerobic exercise is considered a happiness activity because of the happiness chemicals released during and after exercise.

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