Tag Archives: Habits

REWIRING YOUR SUCCESS

Posted on by
BOOK TITLE : REWIRING YOUR SUCCESS:  |  AUTHOR : JOHN QURESHI
Success is not a matter of luck.
Successful people are not just lucky; they make their luck by taking action and persevering through setbacks.
Success is a journey, not a destination.
There is no one-size-fits-all formula for success. What works for one person may only work for one person. The important thing is to find your path to success and to be willing to make the necessary sacrifices along the way.
Success is not about money.
Money is important, but it is not the only measure of success. Successful people also find fulfillment in their work and make a positive impact on the world.
Success is a habit.
Successful people have developed habits that help them achieve their goals. These habits include setting goals, taking action, and never giving up.
Success is a choice.
You choose to be successful or not. It is not something that happens to you; it is something you create.
Success is a mindset.
Successful people have a positive mindset that allows them to see possibilities instead of obstacles.
Success is about personal growth.
Successful people are constantly learning and growing. They are unafraid to step outside their comfort zones and try new things.
Success is about giving back.
Successful people use their success to help others. They know they are not alone and feel responsible for giving back to the community.
Success is about leaving a legacy.
Successful people want to make a difference and be remembered for their positive contributions.
Success is possible for everyone.
You can achieve your dreams no matter where you come from or your circumstances. It takes hard work, dedication, and perseverance, but you can reach your full potential.

10 Lessons from The 80/20 Principle: The Secret to Success by Achieving More with Less
  1. Identify the critical 20% of activities or efforts that yield 80% of the desired outcomes and prioritize them over less important tasks.
  2. Work smarter, not harder. Focus on maximizing efficiency in the tasks that deliver the most significant results rather than trying to do everything.
  3. Streamline processes and eliminate unnecessary complexity to increase effectiveness and productivity.
  4. Develop a strategic mindset by focusing on high-leverage activities that align with long-term goals and objectives.
  5. Recognize that not all decisions are equally important. Focus your time and energy on decisions that have the most significant impact on your goals and outcomes.
  6. Identify and leverage resources, talents, and opportunities that contribute the most to your success.
  7. Embrace a continuous improvement mindset by regularly evaluating and refining your strategies and processes.
  8. Remain flexible and adaptable in the face of changing circumstances. Be willing to adjust your approach as needed to stay aligned with your objectives.
  9. Recognize and mitigate potential risks that could derail your progress toward your goals.
  10. Seek balance and harmony in your life by focusing on what truly matters and letting go of unnecessary distractions or obligations.

Create The Life You Want

Posted on by

How To Create The Life You Want in 2024:

You can make excuses all you want, try to escape reality through whatever makes you forget it for a while, and keep delaying achieving your goals and creating the life you want.

But sooner or later, you’ll realize that You will need to change yourself to get what you want. The longer you stay in denial, the lower your odds are of achieving your goals and creating the life you want.

Source:  Psyche Wizard https://x.com/psychewizard/status/1740995700052431228?s=46&t=mF_tsrQnjgviyl62GYfJjw

Measure Your Life

Posted on by

7 Powerful Lessons from “How Will You Measure Your Life?”

1. Define your “yardsticks”: Instead of chasing external metrics like wealth or fame, the book encourages identifying your values and defining metrics that reflect your true priorities. These “yardsticks” become the foundation for measuring your life’s progress and satisfaction.

2. Invest in relationships: The book emphasizes the importance of nurturing strong, meaningful relationships with family, friends, and loved ones. These relationships are the source of true happiness and fulfillment, and investing time and effort in them is crucial for a successful life.

3. Focus on the “becoming” over the “doing”: The book challenges the conventional focus on achievements and results. Instead, it encourages prioritizing growth and learning, the journey of becoming a better person. Continuous improvement and self-development are critical to a fulfilling life.

4. Manage your time like a CEO: Time is your most valuable resource. The book teaches you to manage it effectively, prioritize tasks that align with your values, and avoid distractions that hinder your progress toward your goals.

5. Say no to protect your “yes”: The book emphasizes the importance of setting boundaries and saying “no” to commitments that don’t align with your values or priorities. Setting boundaries allows you to focus your energy on the things that truly matter and maximize the impact of your “yeses.”

6. Embrace the power of “deep love”: The book differentiates between “shallow love” based on external factors and “deep love” rooted in shared values and commitment. Deep love provides a strong foundation for lasting relationships and contributes significantly to a fulfilling life.

7. Remember, it’s never too late to change: The book offers hope and encouragement to individuals at any stage of their lives. It emphasizes that it’s never too late to re-evaluate your priorities, adjust your course, and start living a life that reflects your values and aspirations.

BOOK: https://amzn.to/48DCGPl

Source:

Habits Matter

Posted on by

“The real reason that habits matter is that your habits are how you embody a particular identity. So every action you take is like a vote for the type of person you wish to become.” ~ James Clear, Entrepreneur and bestselling author of Atomic Habits

James Clear, New York Times bestselling author of Atomic Habits, has inspired readers to change their health behaviors for the better. He puts it simply:

“Who we are reflects our habits.”

With his helpful metaphors and refreshingly straightforward and sustainable mindset techniques inspired by psychology greats, he contends that we can all build habits that make us shine.

“Look at a stone cutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred-and-first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not the last blow that did it, but all that had gone before.” ~ Jacob Riis

The boulder did not crack just because the one hundred and first hit, but the accumulative effects of the previous hits. Thus, you must have the mindset of patience and wait for the results that will come.  Be patient and let things accumulate.

Habits matter are how you habit are how you embody a particular identity.

Building Wealth ‘One Brick at a Time’

Posted on by

“Rome wasn’t built in a day, but they were laying bricks every hour.” – James Clear

Laying bricks systematically to build a city works similarly well for building wealth. Building wealth is a slow systematic process of investing over the long term and compounding returns over time for most savers and investors. Successfully building wealth is not an overnight success.

“Goals are good for setting a direction, but systems [habits] are best for making progress.” ~ James Clear

More Than One in Four Americans Say Their Debt is Unmanageable

Posted on by

Nearly one in five Americans are feeling bad or very bad about their financial circumstances. ~ OppFi’s 2022 Personal Finance Study

The FinTech company, OppFi, surveyed nearly 1,100 Americans to learn more about Americans’ financial situations,.

Respondents had mixed and uncertain feelings about where they stood financially, with nearly one in five feeling bad or very bad about their circumstances.

Key takeaways

  • Half of respondents to the survey are currently in debt, and 52% of those in debt say their debt is not manageable.
  • Just over 1 in 3 respondents have frequently experienced stress or anxiety about their finances since the COVID-19 pandemic started.
  • 1 in 4 took out a personal loan during the COVID-19 pandemic, most often to cover basic necessities such as food, clothing, and housing and credit card debt.

Americans’ financial health is often measured by benchmarks such as debt, savings, spending habits, and the ability to pay their monthly bills, writes Ashley Altus, CFC, a personal finance writer for OppU. OppFi survey respondents reported having difficulty with many of these things. Half said they’re in debt, and nearly half said they can’t pay their bills on time. Almost 2 in 5 live paycheck to paycheck, and 1 in 5 said they spend more than what they earn.

Budgeting is widely considered an important aspect of personal finance, but 1 in 10 said they didn’t have a budget at all.

Fewer than half (47%) said they have a savings account or emergency fund. Of those who did, nearly 1 in 5 said they could live off it for three weeks at the most.

How COVID-19 impacted Americans’ financial situations

The COVID-19 pandemic threw the American economy into chaos, with numerous businesses closing. In April 2020, the unemployment rate reached a level not seen since the 1930s. Near the end of 2021, 10 million households were behind on rent despite three rounds of stimulus checks.

More than half the people we surveyed said the pandemic worsened their financial situation. The biggest reason? Employment – more than 1 in 5 were working fewer hours and 15% lost their job. Others cited their own illness (17%), and 15% said their credit score decreased.

Financial stressors

One result of financial difficulty may be stress. Just over 1 in 3 respondents said they have frequently experienced stress or anxiety related to their finances since COVID started, with the most common stressor being paying bills other than mortgage or rent (cited by 35%). Debt was identified as a source of stress by 28% and 26% were stressed about not having enough savings.

Other stressors included basics like having enough food, high energy or gasoline prices, and paying mortgage or rent. Financial anxieties also reach as far as retirement, with more than 1 in 10 saying they’re worried they won’t have enough to retire on.

References:

  1. https://www.opploans.com/oppu/articles/personal-finance-study-2022/

Atomic Wealth Building Habits

Posted on by

“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.” James Clear, a core philosophy of Atomic Habits:

“An atomic habit is a little habit that is part of a larger system. Just as atoms are the building blocks of molecules, atomic habits are the building blocks of remarkable results,” writes James Clear, author of the best selling book, Atomic Habits.

Applying the principles and philosophies of Atomic Habits to your wealth building, money management and achievement of financial freedom can grow into life-altering outcomes.

Focusing on little habits repeated over a long period of time is how to create good habits, break bad ones, and get 1 percent better every day.

Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement. Getting 1 percent better every day counts for a lot in the long-run. “It is only when looking back two, five, or perhaps ten years later that the value of good habits and the cost of bad ones becomes strikingly apparent,” writes Clear.

Thus, habits are a double-edged sword. They can work for you or against you, which is why understanding the details is essential.

Small changes often appear to make no discernible difference in the short term until you cross a critical threshold. The most powerful outcomes of any compounding process are delayed. You need to be patient. “Many of the choices you make today will not benefit you immediately,” Clear explains.

If you want better results, then forget about setting goals. Focus on your system instead. “You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems,” stresses James Clear. “Goals are good for setting a direction, but systems are best for making progress,”

Habits Shape Your Identity (and Vice Versa) There are three levels of change: outcome change, process change, and identity change.

Focus on who you wish to become

The most effective way to change your habits is to focus not on what you want to achieve, but on who you wish to become, writes Clear. Your identity emerges out of your habits. Every action is a vote for the type of person you wish to become.

Becoming the best version of yourself requires you to continuously edit your beliefs, and to upgrade and expand your identity. Your behaviours are usually a reflection of your identity. “What you do is an indication of the type of person you believe that you are either consciously or non consciously.,” Clear says.

The real reason habits matter is not because they can get you better results (although they can do that), but because they can change your beliefs about yourself.

A habit is a behavior that has been repeated enough times to become automatic. “Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become. No single instance will transform your beliefs, but as the votes build up, so does the evidence of your new identity,” said James Clear.

The ultimate purpose of habits is to resolve the routines, challenges and problems of daily life with as little conscious energy and effort as possible.

References:

  1. https://jamesclear.com/atomic-habits
  2. https://waymakerfinance.com.au/blog/applying-atomic-habits-to-your-finances

How to Invest for Beginners: Peter Lynch

Posted on by

Investing can be for anybody, but is certainly not for everybody.

Only a handful of professional investors can compare to the legendary Peter Lynch. He rose to investing stardom in 1977 when he was appointed the fund manager of Fidelity’s Magellan Fund.

When Lynch took over, the fund had around $18 million in assets under management. After 13 years at the helm, Lynch increased the fund’s size by almost a thousand-fold.

In 1990, the Magellan Fund, and its over $14 billion in assets under management, became the biggest mutual fund in the world. At times, the fund held over 1,000 different stocks in its portfolio. Also, there was a period when it had an average annual return of 29.9%.

It doesn’t matter if you don’t know anything about investing, since there are actions a beginning investor can take to learn how to invest and how to manage their money and finances. One of the most important actions for new investors is to get started early.

Investing doesn’t have to be hard. Yet, it’s important to learn the basics of investing and what type of investments are the best depending on your financial situation and the amount of money you want to make. 

When you make it a point to save money, you are protecting yourself against life’s unforeseen difficulties. And when you invest, if you choose to do so, you will have a chance to earn much more than you would have expected to, growing your money exponentially.

Time Period

Long-term investing is one of the key concepts in Lynch’s and many of the most successful investor’s investment philosophy. Lynch argued that the value of stocks was rather easy to predict over a 10 to 20-year period, while short term predictions were pretty much useless and effectively impossible to make accurately due to market volatility.

Source: Brian Feroldi

Therefore, he strongly urged investors to always select stocks of companies that they understand, believe in and be patient to wait for them to go up over a long period of time rather than selling for profits.

According to research, if you invest a $1,000 every year on the highest day for a period of 30 years, you can expect a 10.6% annualized return. On the other hand, if you invest the same sum on the lowest day of the year, you can expect an 11.7% compounded return over the same period.

Peter Lynch also encouraged the reader to look for the tenbagger stocks.

A tenbagger is a stock that rises in value 10-fold or 1,000%. He advises against selling when the stock goes up 40% or even 100%. Instead, he urges investors to hold onto them for the long-term, despite the common trend of many investors to take profits by selling appreciated stocks.

References:

  1. https://finmasters.com/one-up-on-wall-street-review/
  2. https://www.benzinga.com/money/peter-lynch-books

Life Purpose in Five Minutes

Posted on by

Adam Leipzig gave a TED talk regarding discovering your Life Purpose in 5 minutes. In his talk, he discusses a five step process to find meaning and purpose in your life.

In a non-scientific survey of Yale University classmates attending a college reunion, Adam Leipzig discovered to his dismay — despite financial, material and career success — that:

  • The majority of attendees, eighty percent (80%), were unhappy with their lives, and
  • A minority of attendees, twenty percent (20%), were happy

He explained that the people who were happy with their lives knew their life purpose.  For this to take 5 minutes, you need to already know the answers to these 5 things or questions:

  1. Who you are
  2. What you do
  3. Who you do it for
  4. What those people want or need to better their lives
  5. How the people you serve change or transform as a result of what you gave or did for them.

The most successful and happy people in almost every field and walk of life  are outward focus and focus on the people they serve first and foremost.

So, when people ask you, “what do you do”, just respond how what you do changes the lives of people. For example: “I help people build wealth, better manage their money, and achieve financial freedom”.  In a way, this can become your personal brand and elevator pitch. And it can be that simplite.

Adam Leipzig is a producer, executive and distributor. and has produced more than 300 stage plays and live events, and one of the founders of the Los Angeles Theatre Center.

Your Life Purpose comes down to what you really want to do to serve others and what you really enjoy doing to serve other, in the end. What you feel the most alive and happy doing while serving others.

References:

  1. https://www.transcendyourlimits.com/find-life-purpose

The Elephant Rope

Posted on by

“Whatever Your Mind Can Conceive and Believe, It Can Achieve.” – Napoleon Hill, “Think and Grow Rich”

A gentleman was walking through an elephant camp, and he spotted that the elephants weren’t being kept in cages or held by the use of chains.

All that was holding them back from escaping the camp, was a small piece of rope tied to one of their legs and secured to a stake.

As the man gazed upon the elephants, he was completely confused as to why the elephants didn’t just use their strength to break the rope and escape the camp. They could easily have done so, but instead, they didn’t try to at all.

Curious and wanting to know the answer, he asked a trainer nearby why the elephants were just standing there and never tried to escape.

The trainer replied;

“when they are very young and much smaller we use the same size rope to tie them and, at that age, it’s enough to hold them. As they grow up, they are conditioned to believe they cannot break away. They believe the rope can still hold them, so they never try to break free.”

The only reason that the elephants weren’t breaking free and escaping from the camp was that over time they adopted the belief that it just wasn’t possible.

Moral of the story:

No matter how much the world tries to hold you back, always believe that you can achieve your goals and realize your purpose. Believing you can become successful and a your purpose is the most important step in actually achieving the prize.

Believing is achieving!

The Wright brothers, Wilbur and Orville, believed in their flying machine when the majority said it was impossible. Their unwavering belief was based on thousands of hours of research and experiments. And, the underlying secret ingredients were action and perseverance, also known as hard work and pressing on.

References:

  1. https://wealthygorilla.com/10-most-inspirational-short-stories/