These are the keys that you have read about before, yet have not made changes in your life yet. The interesting thing about success is that there are so many people that have come before us that have shown us the way. They write books and present their findings, but we are too stubborn to change.
Beware, the points below may seem obvious. That’s because they are. You’ve heard multiple people tell you these things over and over again. The problem is that these are being ignored, and if you want to be successful, you can’t afford to do that. I am going to jam these points down your throat one more time:
1. Reading Non-Fiction Books Regularly
If you go into a library or book shop, all the fiction books are at the front, and the self-development/education books are right at the back. People want to escape reality. Never in my life have I finished reading multiple books and said: “Man I wish I did not read so much.” Reading gives us life, it gives us ideas, it helps us grow, and it works the imagination and keeps our minds sharp.
Bill Gates often talks about how he reads 50 books a year. If a billionaire is reading 50 books a year then why are we not trying to read 50 books a year? Here is why: It requires discipline; it means that when you would rather watch TV, a movie, or YouTube, you need to resist and pick up a book instead. It is not a hard thing to follow yet we struggle with this.
I used to consider myself not to be a “numbers guy” but I quickly realized that to be successful, I had to shake this notion. To do this, I started reading everything I possibly could about finance and numbers. I bought books on investing, learned about real estate, and stocks downloaded apps and took courses, I just got excited about the topic. I would not stop until I felt like I understood money and investing well. It all came from deciding to read.
2. Seeking Mentorship
We learn from imitating those around us at an early age. Here is the problem, when we get older we get stubborn and stop simulating. We try and create our path by learning on our own, but trial and error is slow and often the most costly way of learning. I quickly learned this when I was learning about numbers. I was lucky enough to be mentored by the CEO of Group Home Riches.
Not only did he teach me about numbers and real estate in a way that I understood, but he mentored me as a CEO as well. He introduced me to ideas that I would have never learned about without him. I always thought investing in real estate only consisted of buying houses and renting them out to others. My mentor taught me about specialty real estate like investing in group homes.
Group homes rent out by the bed, and you can stack two or three people in one room. That means that a 3-bed room house that would rent for $1300 to a family could rent for $600 per bed making $3600 a month instead. I realized the power of mentorship that day. Some people are playing the game at a higher level. I was able to enter this business pretty quickly because I had someone showing me the way.
3. Regular & Consistent Workouts
I don’t think anyone would argue that there is value in working out. The problem is that we look for the motivation to come from somewhere other than ourselves. We make excuses to not have to work out, I have struggled with this. I was an Olympic sprinter, and after retiring, I struggled to find any motivation to work out. All I desired to do was grind on my business because I thought extra work was better.
Look at any high-stage performer in any field, and they will all say they often work out. If we need to be high-level performers then why will we not make time to do this? There isn’t any excuse good enough! My mentor knew that I was an Olympian, so during our first communication I came to learn from him, but he started asking me questions about what I do for workouts. That was outstanding and a reminder that high performers are always learning.
4. Eating Your Veggies
I am not a nutritionist in any way but when people get into arguments about what we should consume it can become such a pointless discussion. I try not to stick to any extreme; I simply look for commonalities among all the different systems. There are advantages to being vegan or paleo or many different diets, but they do not work for everyone. The one factor that they all have in common is to eat a lot of leafy green veggies. Veggies simply make us feel right, and they help us to live healthily. I don’t want to get into any more specifics because you already know this. It is time you go and do it!
5. Waking Up Early
You rarely hear successful people say they regularly sleep into 9 AM due to the fact they have the freedom to do so. The real story is the opposite. They are often up earlier than 6 AM and dive right into a morning routine to begin their day off right. When I started understanding this truth, it become a bit easier for me to make a change because I usually loved the morning. I started getting up at 3:10 because I desired to make a statement and show people how my life would change by changing that habit.
If you’re telling yourself, you’re a night person, or you don’t like the morning then you higher grind at night. You can’t say that you are not a morning person but at night you slightly put in any work either.
6. You Need a Clear Vision
Most people wander through life lost without a concept of what they want. We ought to be 100% direct about what we want, and we can’t ever worry about how we can get it. Great things are often done by identifying exactly what. Once you recognize what you want, it isn’t difficult to construct a map of it. You can never get a how without a what! We realize this, though! Almost every single successful man or woman has told us this.
Every book we read on success asks us what we want? Why won’t we say what we want? Why do we refuse to come up with the answer to this question? We will get nowhere until we get a concrete answer. I knew for years that I wanted to get into real estate, but I was never clear about it. I simply form of mentioned it and performed with how the concept might be cool. That is not having clarity of purpose in life. Once I got clear about what my real estate business would look like, things started moving forward. I found a mentor, and he directed me to a course I could take, and I invested in myself.
7. Let Go of Fear
We realize that fear does not produce a healthy mind or life but we still base actions on fear. We have become so used to this that we think we are acting in faith when we are acting in fear. The only way to be able to walk in faith is to let go of fear. Some may say well they don’t consider the Bible. Well then look at the words of those who may not consider in the bible, when it comes to fear they are saying the same message. We can create nothing of magnitude riding on fear.
I was an Olympic sprinter, and after retiring, I struggled to find any motivation to work out. All I desired to do was grind on my business because I thought extra work was better. Look at any high-stage performer in any field, and they will all say they often work out. If we need to be high-level performers then why will we not make time to do this? There isn’t any excuse good enough! My mentor knew that I was an Olympian, so during our first communication I came to learn from him, but he started asking me questions about what I do for workouts. That was outstanding and a reminder that high performers are always learning.