12 Powerful Habits of the Super Successful and Wealthy

12 Powerful Habits of the Super Successful and Wealthy That You Need to Adopt

Learn the powerful secrets of the super successful and emulate them into habits

Success does not happen by luck, and wealth does not happen by accident--those who have built wealth and success have deliberate habits that make them more productive and effective. To emulate these habits, we must train ourselves and be focused; we must take our bad habits and replace them with new ones.

Here are 12 powerful habits that can help you build success and wealth. How many do you already have in place, and which ones do you need to pick up?

1. Be an early riser. Research shows that 44 percent of wealthy people wake up three hours before going to work, compared with just 3 percent of those who are not wealthy. Just the simple act of getting up early adds an hour a day to their lives. Imagine how much productive work you can get done early in the morning, with no interruptions or distractions. Or use this extra time to work on setting goals and exploring opportunities.

2. Network. Research says that 79 percent of wealthy people spend at least five hours a month networking--going to conferences, meeting new clients, attending webinars, meeting for coffee--while only 16 percent of the nonwealthy do. Spending time with like-minded people allows you to align yourself with others and learn from them. Whom you hang out with determines what you talk about and what you do about it; you can change your career outcome by being with successful people who will teach you, lift you, and support you.

3. Scratch the itch. The most successful people are those who felt an itch and began to scratch it--and from there, they became focused as a laser on what they wanted to achieve until they made it their reality. Follow their determination; ignore the noise and keep your FOCUS: Follow One Course Until Success.

4. Read to learn. According to research, 86 percent of wealthy people love to read, as opposed to 26 percent of those who are not wealthy. When you read, make sure you read to learn. Those who achieve wealth and success are constantly in a state of self-improvement; they read to learn and grow. As Dr. Seuss said so well, "The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go."

5. Make a list. To achieve an overarching goal, you need to list what you want to accomplish. The majority of wealthy people create daily to-do lists--81 percent of them, in fact, compared with 19 percent of those who are not wealthy. What's more, 67 percent of wealthy folks actually complete 70 percent or more of their to-do items every day. They have goals they focus on, and they work hard to achieve them.

6. Get off the couch. It's an hour or less of daily TV for 67 percent of wealthy people, while only 23 percent of the rest limit their TV intake. When it comes to reality shows, only 6 percent of the wealthy watch them, compared with 78 percent of the nonwealthy. Wealthy people choose more productive and meaningful activities.

7. Treat time as a precious resource. Wealthy people avoid wasting time on unimportant matters or distractions. They don't sit for hours at their computer on social media, because they know that time is a nonrenewable resource. Time wasted is not time you can get back.

8. Take intentional risks. Wealthy people understand that risks lead to rewards. As a result, they're more willing to take risks--not reckless risks but calculated ones. The very successful know what they stand to lose if a risk fails and they don't get the reward they are seeking. Most have a plan B in place to minimize the failure, and move forward with a new plan. If the current risk doesn't go your way, there's always another solution.

9. Work smarter, not harder. A smart approach to work, including taking breaks, makes people more productive. Hard work is critical, but that doesn't mean they can never enjoy personal time for relaxation and self-improvement. They have a good balance of work, personal tasks, and pleasure so they can be more creative and more productive--which, in turn, makes them more effective. Work hard, and then take a break. When you come back, you'll be refreshed and more productive.

10. Invest in your health. Wealthy people understand the importance of eating right and working out to stay healthy. Studies show that 76 percent of wealthy folks do aerobic exercise at least four days a week, compared with 23 percent of people who are not wealthy; 57 percent of wealthy people count calories every day, as opposed to 5 percent of the nonwealthy. Even more interesting, 70 percent of rich people eat fewer than 300 calories of junk food a day. Wealthy and successful people know the correlation between healthful eating and working out and their ability to accomplish the things they want to do.

11. Foster your emotional intelligence. Wealthy people know that having good relationships is crucial to success. They are tuned in to their own emotions, which also means they're perceptive at reading the emotions of others. Warren Buffett has stated that emotional intelligence, more than IQ or expertise, accounts for 85 to 90 percent of success. IQ is a threshold competence--you need it, but it does not make you a star. But emotional intelligence can.

12. Pay it forward. To be truly wealthy, you need to understand the importance of paying it forward. As Albert Einstein said, "Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile." What you have, you share. Help someone, because along the way someone helped you. And the truth is, life is always about giving what you get.

Wealth is not something that can solve our problems, and it doesn't always come to those who deserve it.

But it can be an indication that you have worked hard, stayed focused, and prioritized on what is important. Ultimately, though, wealth is not measured by how much you have but by how many hearts you have touched.

http://www.inc.com/lolly-daskal/12-powerful-habits-of-the-super-successful-and-wealthy-that-you-need-to-adopt.html?cid=sf01001

Adjust

“Life is an endless series of adjustments.  As you grow older, you adjust.  Think how lucky we are and how much worse off we could be.  Always look on the bright side of things”. - Lee Kuan Yew

Emotional Hygiene

Guy Winch:

Why we all need to practice emotional first aid

Watch laterRemoveDownloa

We'll go to the doctor when we feel flu-ish or a nagging pain. So why don’t we see a health professional when we feel emotional pain: guilt, loss, loneliness? Too many of us deal with common psychological-health issues on our own, says Guy Winch. But we don’t have to. He makes a compelling case to practice emotional hygiene — taking care of our emotions, our minds, with the same diligence we take care of our bodies.

http://www.ted.com/talks/guy_winch_the_case_for_emotional_hygiene

How to Engage an Audience During Your Next Presentation

Want to engage a crowd during your next presentation? Follow the advice of this expert.

  

The goal of every business presentation is to engage the audience. Sure, you might want to entertain the masses a little, maybe communicate some information and show a few charts, and then prompt people with a call to action. Yet, if the crowd is not engaged with what you're saying and if they aren't listening intently, nothing will get through to them and no fancy visuals will make them want to act. They will tune you out.

Thankfully, there are a few key techniques to make sure you do engage and communicate effectively with a crowd. Barbara Seymour Giordano is a communication strategist for StoryWorksLA.com and she knows all about the best techniques to engage an audience. I first noticed her engaging style when watching one of her online presentations. Here are a few words of wisdom to help you turn a boring business presentation into a crowd-pleasing communication session that will make people want to listen.

1. Start with the script

Many presenters start by making slides and adding the text and graphics afterward. Giordano says this is a bad idea because it means you won't be tempted to use old slides and old ideas from previous presentations. It's better to do the messaging first, then start assembling the slides. "Instead of creating the lazy man's presentation, first complete your script or outline and then build your slides," she says. "Your script will tell you which images will best support your message, point, or story. This approach will also facilitate a story that's fluid and easy to follow from beginning to end."

2. Identify the pain point

Good communicators know how to focus on the pain point of a crowd, not just present the facts and figures. Giordano says it's tempting for knowledge workers, experts in their field, and technical gurus to showcase what they know about a topic. Take, for example, someone who is making a new pacemaker--you might want to dive into the specs for battery life and features. But the best way to engage the audience is to understand their perspective. "As the presenter, it's your job to be the bridge between the product and the individual you're presenting it to," says Giordano. "Step into the audience's shoes, and you'll most likely find that the three things they care about most (in the example of the pacemaker) are ease of use, patient satisfaction, and affordability. Identify what's most important to your audience, and you'll give a presentation that they'll be sure to want to learn more about."

3. Keep it conversational

Giordano practices the art of conversational presentations to engage the audience, creating a free-flowing talk that's not overly structured or rote. I watched a few of her presentations, and they don't even seem like presentations at all--they seem more like a friend chatting with you over lunch. The key is to drop the jargon and the formal attitude and make it casual. "One of the fastest ways to lose your audience is to speak in terms that they are vaguely familiar with or that they flat out don't understand," she says. "Making your talk more accessible is by no means 'dumbing it down,' but it's about creating a space that strives to include everyone in the audience, versus excluding them through jargon."

4. Tell a story

Since the dawn of time, the oral or written story has proven to be the best way to engage an audience. We love them. We pay attention. We track with the speaker. We engage. To sync up better with a crowd during your next slideshow, tell a story with a beginning, middle, and end and augment it with helpful visuals. "Stories help break up the sterile nature of data, facts, and figures and put that information into a real-life context for the audience to better relate to, personalize, and understand," says Giordano.

5. Slides matter

Engagement is easier when the audience has a visual reference point--that is, something else to look at during the talk. Use simple charts and graphs, but make them easy to understand because, according to Giordano, the crowd won't know whether they are supposed to listen to you or study the chart and figure it out on their own. (We can't do both at the same time.) "Visuals can help reinforce the details of your talk, so it's for that reason I encourage my speakers to use only high resolution (larger than 640 x 480) photos on either a plain black or white background," she says. "And when it comes to animation, the only effect needed is the one to appear and disappear."

6. Rehearse

Giordano says the best way to make sure an audience is listening is to practice your talk over and over again, so the crowd doesn't even notice your delivery or style, they only notice what you are presenting. "Giving a presentation is much like hosting your own late-night talk show," she says. "It's your job to stay on topic and on time, and the only way to do that is to stick to your script and practice. All of your rehearsals should be standing with your laptop in front of you. Having your slides in front of you will prevent you from feeling the need to turn around and look at the screen behind you on delivery day. Frequently, turning around zaps your leadership credibility because it makes you look like you're unsure of what you're going to say next."

7. Get there early

Once you have rehearsed the presentation, you have your script down pat and your stories memorized, and you know exactly what you want to communicate, make sure you get to the presentation early and then stay on message. "Do not change any slides, since by this point you should be ready to stand and deliver," says Giordano. "Examine the layout of the room and see where the slideshow projection begins and ends--at all costs, avoid stepping in front of the projected image. Doing so makes you look like a rookie instead of an expert or a leader."

http://www.inc.com/john-brandon/how-to-engage-an-audience-during-your-next-presentation.html?cid=sf01001

15 Easily Forgotten Life Lessons

There are a collection of life lessons that guide us toward happiness and fullness. But the busier we get, the more we forget those lessons. Remembering these life lessons can help us engage in behavior that will bring forth positive feelings and improve our relationships with other people, so always keep them in mind. Let us remind you:

1. Small gestures can mean the most

Sometimes going out of the your way at the store, giving a small gift, or sharing a smile while walking by can make another person’s day. Spread positivity with small gestures and watch the world be positive in return.

2. Our self-worth determines how we perceive other’s actions

If you think negatively about yourself, you’re going to assume people are always being negative towards you. Having a self-worth that reflects well on yourself will stop that perception and help you view others’ actions as positive towards yourself.

3. Separating yourself from the situation makes the solution easier to see

When you’re head first in a situation and feeling backed up against a wall, finding a solution can be impossible. Moving yourself into a neutral corner of the arena can help you find a compromise that will make both parties happy in much better timing.

4. Don’t take anything for granted

When things are going good, and staying good, we forget that not everything is permanent. Never take anything for granted and appreciate what you have because it could be gone tomorrow.

5. Not everyone is going to like you

You could be the most likable person on the planet, but that doesn’t change that there is going to be someone who doesn’t like you. Once you accept that, it’s easy to move forward with life.

6. We accept the love we think we deserve

If you believe no one should love you, you won’t notice the love that comes towards you. If you believe you are worthy of lots of love, you will notice and accept that love that comes towards you.

7. Everything happens for a reason

Sometimes it can seem that the whole world is against you, but everything happens for a reason. There is a plan for each of us, and sometimes that plan has a few bumps.

8. Approach life with a smile

If you smile at the world, the world will smile back at you.

9. Mean people aren’t mean, they’re hurt

No one is born naturally mean. Those that act rudely towards others are trying to cope with their own hurt, so be kind to those who treat you horribly. They need it.

10. A step back is healthy in a relationship

When you’re in the early stages of a relationship (romantic or not) it’s all too easy to jump in and lose yourself. Take some time to clear your head and reflect on where the relationship is going. It will help your relationship in the long run.

11. Every success deserves celebration

It doesn’t matter whether you won the Nobel Peace Prize or just finished filing your taxes, take the time to celebrate all your successes.

12. Take negative people out of your life

In order to live a fulfilling life that makes you feel good you have to weed out the bad. Remove the people who bring you down and see how it improves your daily life.

13. Always do the thing that gives you the most out of life

If the option is to stay inside and watch Netflix or to go to a gallery opening, choose the option you believe will help you grow emotionally and in your knowledge. Always choose the option that gives you the most.

14. Be well rounded, but focus on what you love

It’s important to know a little bit of everything in order to be a well-rounded person. However, choose things that mean the most to you and focus on them (sailing, criminal law, etc.) — it’s important to have true interests, not just general knowledge.

15. Remind people how much they mean to you

Promote good relations with those in your life by reminding them how much they mean to you. Send them a note or even an email. Keeping those relations is important in having a well-rounded life.

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/15-easily-forgotten-life-lessons.html?mid=20150109&ref=mail&uid=340199&feq=daily

YOU ARE CO-CREATING WITHIN A MAGNIFICENTLY DIVERSE UNIVERSE

http://www.abraham-hicks.com/lawofattractionsource/askitisgiven_chapter_16.php

If you have the ability to imagine it, or even to think about it, this Universe has the ability and the resources to deliver it fully unto you, for this Universe is like a well-stocked kitchen with every ingredient imaginable at your disposal. And within every particle of this Universe is that which is wanted and the lack of it. This perspective of abundance, and the lack of it, is the environment in which focus is possible-and focus activates the Law of Attraction.

If you do not have the ability to know what you do want, you will not have the ability to know what you do not want. And without the ability to know what you do not want, you could not know what you do want. And so, it is through your exposure to life experience that your natural preferences are born. In fact, these preferences are exuding from you in all moments of every day, at many levels of your Being. Even the cells of your well-tended-to body are having their own experience and are emanating their own preferences-and every preference is recognized by Source and immediately answered, with no exceptions.

Unwanted Must Be Allowed, for Wanted to Be Received

Sometimes our physical friends express their desire for a less diverse Universe. They long for a place where there are not so many unwanted things, a place where more things are exactly as they prefer them to be. And we always explain that you did not come forth into this physical experience wanting to take all of the experiences that exist and whittle them down to a handful of good ideas upon which all of you agree, for that would lead to endedness, which cannot be. This is an expanding Universe, and all things must be allowed. In other words, for you to understand and experience what you desire, you must understand that which you do not desire, for, in order to be able to choose and focus, both must be present and understood.

You Did Not Come to Fix a Broken World

As Non-Physical Source Energy expressing through your physical experience, your physical experience is truly the Leading Edge of thought. And as you are fine-tuning your creative experience, you are taking thought beyond that which it has ever been before.

As you enthusiastically made the decision to come into this physical body and create in this way, you understood, from your Non-Physical vantage point, that this physical world was not broken and in need of repairÑand you did not come forth to fix it.

You saw this physical world as a creative environment in which you, and everyone else, could express yourselves creativelyÑyou did not come forth to try to get others to stop doing what they are doing and do something else. You came forth understanding the value in the contrast, and the balance in the variety.

Every physical Being on your planet is your partner in co-creation, and if you would accept that and appreciate the diversity of beliefs and desires-all of you would have more expansive, satisfying, and fulfilling experiences.

Do Not Put Those Unwanted Ingredients in Your Pie

Imagine yourself as a chef in an extremely well-stocked kitchen that contains every imaginable ingredient. Let us say that you have a clear idea of the culinary creation you desire, and you understand how to combine these easily accessible ingredients in order to fulfill your desire. And as you proceed, there are many ingredients that are not appropriate for your creation, so you do not utilize them, but you also feel no discomfort about their existence. You simply utilize the ingredients that will enhance your creation-and you leave the ingredients that are not appropriate for your creation out of your pie.

Some of the ingredients in this well-stocked kitchen are harmonious with your creation, and some of them are not. But even though adding some of these ingredients to your creation would absolutely ruin your pie, you do not feel the need to push against those ingredients, or to ban them from the kitchen, because you understand that there is no reason for them to end up in your pie unless you put them in it. And since you are clear about which ones enhance your creation and which ones do not enhance it, you feel no concern about the great variety of ingredients that exist.

There Is Enough Room for All Diverse Thoughts and Experiences

From your Non-Physical perspective of the enormous variety of experiences, beliefs, and desires that exist among the people of your world, you felt no need to omit or control some of them.You understood that there is room enough in this expansive Universe for all manner of thought and experience. You had every intention of being deliberate about your own creative control of your own life experience and your own creations-but you had no intentions of trying to control the creations of others.

The variety did not frighten you, but instead, inspired you, for you knew that you were each the creator of your own experience, and you understood that your exposure to the contrast would inspire specific directions within you, and that just because others may choose differently, it did not make you right and them wrong, or them right and you wrong. You understood the value of the diversity.

Here Is the Process by Which Your Universe Expands

So from the variety or contrast, your own preferences or desires are born. And in the moment that your preference begins to exist, it begins to draw to itself, through the Law of Attraction, the essence of that which matches it-and it then begins an immediate expansion.

And as you pay attention to the way you feel and continue to choose good-feeling thoughts regarding your newly born preference, you stay aligned with it, and now it gently and easily appears in your experienceÑ and you have now created your desire. But, along with this newly achieved physical manifestation of your desire comes an evolved perspective. And so, the vibrational characteristics of you and everything about you have shifted somewhat, and you have moved into a new set of contrasting circumstances that will again inspire new preferences within you - and now, new rockets of desire emanate from you.

And in the moment that this new desire exists, it too begins to vibrationally draw unto itself, and it too expands. So now, as you continue to pay attention to the way you feel, and you choose good-feeling thoughts regarding this newly born preference, you remain vibrationally aligned with it. Therefore, it gently and easily appears in your experience. And again, you have created your desire. And again, you have achieved a powerful place of clarity where another new set of contrasting factors surround you-which again will cause a new rocket of desire to be born.

This is how the Universe expands, and this is why you are on the Leading Edge of the expansion. The valuable contrast continues to provide the birthing of endless new desires, and as each desire is born, Source responds to the desire. It is a never-ending, always flowing, pure, positive Energy expansion.

You Will Never Get There, So Enjoy Your Journey

Once you consciously observe, from your own creative perspective, how each new achievement leads to another new desire, you will begin to personally understand your part in this expansive Universe. And, in time, you will come to remember that you never get it done because you never cease your awareness of the contrast out of which is always born a new idea or desire. The entire Universe is established in that way. And as you begin to relax into the idea that you are an eternal Being, that your desires will never cease to flow, and that any desire that is born has the power within it to attract (by Law of Attraction) all that is necessary for the expansion and fulfillment of itself, then you may remember the immense Well-Being upon which this Universe is established. And, you may then relax into the eternal nature of your own Being. It is then that you will begin to enjoy your journey.

If your goal is to, finally, once and for all, achieve all that you desire, you will find yourself unable to ever fulfill that goal, for the expanding nature of this Universe defies that idea. You cannot ever get it done because you cannot ever cease to be, and neither can you ever halt your awareness. Yet, out of your awareness will always be born another asking, and each asking always summons another answering.

Your eternal nature is one of expansion-and in that expansion is the potential for unspeakable joy.

Feel the Balance and Perfection of Your Environment

So, the contrast causes new desire to be born within you. The new desire radiates from you, and as you offer the vibration of your new desire, that desire is answered. Every time. When you ask, it is given.

Now think about the perfection of this process: Continuing new ideas for the improvement of your experience emanate from you constantly, and are answered constantly.

Consider the perfection of this Universal environment: Every point of Consciousness is improving its state of being in just the same way as you, where every desire is understood and answered, and every perspective is honored and responded to.

Feel the balance and perfection of your environment: Every point of Consciousness, even the Consciousness of a cell in your body, can request an improved state of being-and get it.

Since Every Request Is Granted, There Is No Competition

Each point of view matters; every request is granted; and as this amazing Universe unerringly expands, there is no end to the Universal resources that fulfill these requests. And there is no end to the answers to the never-ending stream of questions-and for that reason, there is no competition.

It is not possible for someone else to receive the resources that were meant for you, and you cannot selfishly squander resources that were intended for someone else. All desires are answered; all requests are granted, and no one is left unanswered, unloved, or unfulfilled. When you stay aligned with your Energy Stream, you always win, and somebody else does not have to lose for you to win. There is always enough.

Sometimes our physical friends have a difficult time remembering this truth because they may experience some shortage in their experience, or observe it in the experience of another. But what they are witnessing is not an evidence of shortage or a lack of resources, but instead the disallowance of the receiving of the resources that have been requested and answered. Step 1 has occurred: The asking is in place. Step 2has occurred: The answering is in place. But Step 3, the allowing, has not occurred.

If someone is not receiving what they are asking for, it is not because there is a shortage of resources; it can only be that the person holding the desire is out of alignment with their own request. There is no shortage. There is no lack. There is no competition for resources. There is only the allowing or the disallowing of that which you are asking for.

10 Opening Phrases to Use in Your Next Email

Well, maybe more than emails.. I think it's great to use for conversations too.

________________________________________________

http://www.inc.com/john-brandon/10-opening-phrases-to-use-in-your-next-e-mail.html?cid=sf01001

Need to get someone's attention by email? Try leading with one of these phrases. 

 

10 Opening Phrases to Use in Your Next Email

 BY JOHN BRANDON Need to get someone's attention by email? Try leading with one of these phrases.

I process email for a living, or at least it seems that way most of the time.

Hundreds of new messages arrive on a daily basis, some of them so dull and uninformative they make me want to go find a pencil and jam it into my spleen. Others start with something a little juicier, a little more attention-grabbing, and a little more helpful. And, when the message starts off with an interesting phrase it usually means the rest of the email is worth reading all the way to the end.

Try these lead-ins when what you really need is response, not a bunch of crickets chirping on the other end.

1. "Good news..."

Everyone likes to read about good news. Why not let your recipient know you are the bearer of it right away? As they say in journalism, don't bury the lead.

2. "I have an answer for you..."

Go ahead and lead with a confirmation that you have found the answer. Maybe it dates back to our days in grade school, but we all perk up a bit when someone has answers.

3. "I'll be honest with you..."

This phrase implies that you are going to get right to the point and won't hold anything back. It's helpful because too much opening chatter can confuse people.

4. "We have lift off..."

Apart from the fact that I like any space-related terminology, this opening phrase is positive and is a good precursor to any explanation about a project or business endeavor.

5. "Urgent..."

It's an old-school tactic, and make sure what you are about to say is actually a pressing matter, but leading with the word "urgent" can nudge someone into paying attention.

6. "Let me start with an apology..."

This one works on me because it's probably going to be a little juicy. It also lets the recipient know the message is not about his or her screw-up. It's about yours.

7. "Your day is about to improve..."

I'm guessing there are hundreds of ways to relay positive information, and this is one of my favorites. Work can be tedious, so if a message promises to improve it, that's a good thing.

8. "I've completed my research for you..."

If you use this phrase, I'll pay attention because I know the e-mail is going to give me good information, it will probably get right to the point, and it will be helpful.

9. "The rumors are true..."

You might think, what rumors? But that's a good thing. You are hinting that something special and worthwhile has spread around and now you are confirming it.

10. "Just getting back to you..."

It's a simple technique and maybe overused, but it works. My first thought is, getting back to me about what? Oh--that thing I was really waiting to hear about!

OK, now try using them on someone and let me know if they worked.