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TOM@RICHHABITS.NET
Habits don’t care how you feel. They don’t care if you’re tired, energetic, motivated, unmotivated, anxious, calm, happy or sad. Once formed, they simply run. You engage in your daily habits regardless of your emotional state—that is their power and their danger.
Here’s what I discovered from my 5-Year Study:
- The wealthy built Rich Habits – specific, productive daily habits and stuck to them with remarkable consistency over many years.
- The poor forged Poor Habits – unproductive, time-wasting habits and stuck with them with equal consistency.
Neither group waited for the “right” feeling before engaging in their Rich or Poor Habits.
Self-made millionaires in the study created daily habits around their goals and dreams.
Habits automate success because they force action even when motivation is absent.
Common Rich Habits – Reading for self-improvement, exercising, goal-setting, networking, and saving were not occasional activities reserved for high-energy days. They were non-negotiable routines. One of the foundational Rich Habits is simply this: assess your daily habits to determine if they are good or bad and then set about forming good daily habits, following them every single day.
My research and findings have been covered by media outlets including CBS Evening News, Fox News, CNN, the Dave Ramsey Show, USA Today, MSN, and many others across 27 countries. That coverage repeatedly highlighted the same theme: daily habits separated those who built wealth from those who struggled financially.
Consider exercise. Many of the wealthy exercised aerobically four or more days a week. They did not skip it because they felt tired or uninspired. The habit itself forced action. The same applied to reading: a large majority of the wealthy read 30 minutes or more each day for education or self-improvement. They did not require inspiration first. The habit operated independently of feeling.
Common Poor Habits = Spending impulsively, watching excessive television, or ignoring daily self-improvement also happens automatically once those Poor Habits are forged. Emotions may fluctuate, but the behavior continues.
Habits do not consult your mood; they simply execute.
The practical implication is straightforward. If you want different results, you must install different habits. Depending on the complexity of the habit, meaning how much effort is required, forging a habit can be instantaneous or take up to ninety days. The more effort involved, the more neural pathways that need to be connected. A typical complex habit, like daily exercise will take around 90 days of consistent practice.
However, once the habit is in place, it will carry you on the days when motivation is low.
Success is not primarily about willpower in the moment or waiting for perfect emotional conditions. It is about engineering your days so that productive actions occur by default.
Habits have no feelings. They are automatic. Choose the habits that help you create the life you want, then let the habits do all of the work—rain or shine, motivated or not.
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.”
