A million dollars for making your bed? That sounds like the best game show ever, doesn’t it? Or maybe the best job ever, right? Nope. Apparently the difference between us and folks like Bill Gates, Richard Branson, and Mark Zuckerberg is smaller than we think. (click on Bill’s and Richard’s names. They’re linked to their blogs) A socio-economist, who made up the title socio-economist, named Randall Bell, Ph.D. spent the last twenty-five years studying the behaviors that successful people have in common, and good news, writing a blog might be one of those habits. So might reading my books.
Exercise: Successful people, including Oprah Winfrey, get up early to exercise every day. That’s nice, but there is also a correlation that says rich people have a gym in their house. If Oprah Winfrey gave me a home gym I’d exercise a lot more. You get a gym, and you get a gym, and you get a gym. Everybody gets a gym!
Make your bed! Bell writes. “For example, those who make their bed in the morning are up to 206.8 percent more likely to be millionaires.” If I made my bed everyday until I became a millionaire, the first thing I’d do when I became a millionaire would be to hire a housekeeper to make my bed. Would you go broke if you stopped making your bed?
Read! You’re doing it right now. Do you feel richer already? Those who read seven or more books per year are 122 percent more likely to be millionaires. If you read all my books this year you’d be more than halfway to a million dollars and I’d be about ten dollars closer. The study says that Bill Gates reads 50 books a year. Well no freaking kidding! If I had more money than several countries, I could sit on my ass and read books all day too.
Get Up Early! Successful people tend to get up three hours before their work day begins. Seriously, I’m a big proponent of this one. Me getting up at 5 a.m. is how #ThePhilFactor gets done five times a week. Of course, I’ve been writing The Phil Factor for twelve years and I’m not a millionaire yet, so blogging may not be the best use of your time.
Have Good Etiquette: Little things like remembering birthdays and sending thank you notes is another habit of highly successful people. Now if a highly successful person were to send me a birthday card with a million dollar check in it, I could get on board with this one.
Prioritize Your Relationships: Apparently enjoying your partner goes a long way towards getting rich. Yeah, maybe, or maybe rich people have a spouse who knows on which side their bread is buttered.
Plan Out Your Day and Write Things Down: People that maintain a calendar and a to-do list are 289 percent more likely to be a millionaire. Now I wish I still had my bad ass Trapper Keeper. Write your stuff down, maybe on a blog.
Well? What are you waiting for? Get reading, writing and be nice to people. That’s about it. Blog and read everyday. You’ve already done one of those today, now go do the other. Have a great Saturday! ~Phil