Rich Habits vs. Poor Habits

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 savings, 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.