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TOM@RICHHABITS.NET
In my five-year Rich Habits study of 233 wealthy individuals and 128 people struggling financially, one finding kept repeating itself: the rich are masters of their emotions.
Ninety-four percent of the wealthy filter what they feel before they speak or act. Only six percent say whatever is on their mind.
Among the poor, 69% have the opposite habit—they say what’s on their mind. Even worse, they view this as a virtue and not what it it – a Poor Habit.
That gap is not personality. It is a daily habit.
Emotions are generated in the amygdala, the brain’s fear-and-anger center. When that region fires unchecked, it suppresses the prefrontal cortex—the command-and-control center that makes logical decisions. You literally lose half your brain when anger, fear, envy, or panic takes over. Poor decisions follow. Relationships fracture. Opportunities vanish. Life begins to spiral.
Successful people refuse to let that happen. They turn emotional control into a Rich Habit. They use a simple process I saw again and again: Think, Evaluate, React. They pause. They look at the situation objectively. They wait until they are calm, often after a good night’s sleep, which resets the emotional baseline. Only after this pause, do they respond.
The unsuccessful default to Ready, Fire, Aim. They react first and think later. Causing instantaneous damage to relationships, forged over many years.
Fear is the most destructive emotion to leave ungoverned. Change, mistakes, unexpected events and financial stress can trigger fear. The wealthy condition their minds to lean into the fear in order to learn or see opportunities. This helps build confidence and the ability to logically manage the thing that caused that fear.
Those who struggle financially surrender to fear and make decisions that impact their lives in the long-term.
When emotional control becomes automatic, it recruits the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and its inhibitory neurons—the brain’s braking system. This Control of Your Emotions Rich Habit shuts down panic while everyone around you is losing their heads.
That is a massive competitive advantage. It keeps you from making emotion-based decisions that destroy careers, marriages, and your financial life.
Uncontrolled emotion also wrecks the relationships that open doors. Not every thought needs to leave your mouth. Not every feeling needs to be expressed. The rich understand this. They stay humble in victory and steady in defeat because extreme highs and lows both shut down the thinking brain—the very brain you need most when life throws you a curve ball.
Unchecked emotions drive behavior. If you do not master your emotions, they will control your behavior. You become much like a leaf on a fall day, blown by whatever wind hits you that day.
When you forge the daily Rich Habit of Controlling Your Emotions, you control your behavior.
Logic, not emotional impulse, steers the ship.
Control your emotions and you control your life. Lose that control and your life will spiral out of control.
Tom Corley is an accountant, financial planner and author of “Rich Kids: How to Raise Our Children to Be Happy and Successful in Life”, “Effort-Less Wealth”, “Change Your Habits Change Your Life”, “Rich Habits Poor Habits”, “Rich Habits: The Routines Millionaires Use Daily to Build Wealth” and “Rich Habits Wealth Academy.”
