To the average person, habits are a bad thing. To the extraordinary person, habits are a necessity of life. Being habitual is a must when you are performing at a high level. Most of us are prone to developing habits quickly, but we may choose to develop the wrong ones.
Everyone says they want to become a millionaire, yet very few are willing to do the research and the work it takes to get there. Proof of this lies in the amount of millionaires in the world. Less than six million people in the USA are considered millionaires. Not to overlook the fact that America has more millionaires than anywhere else on the planet.
In a country with over 300 million citizens, less than two percent bring home big money.
These five million millionaires have different habits than the other 295 million citizens. They run their life differently. The have figured out how to habitually perform at high levels. I know; I'm one of them and I have an addictive personality that used to do me more harm than good.
The same habits that got you where you are, most likely won't get you to the next level. The key to becoming a millionaire is to model and copy the habits of people who are millionaires. Today, I'm going to share five habits you must develop in order to become a millionaire.
1. Investing Your Money - Millionaires don't just have all their money laying around in a savings account. They invest their money. Money never sleeps and it needs to be put to work or it becomes worthless. If you don't make your money go work for you, it will only become worth less and less.
Investing your money is making it go to work.
No matter how much money you earn now, you need to start being disciplined and start investing your money. I invest 25 percent of my income and I have done so since 2005. I get paid every two weeks. Some of my check goes to my eTrade account and another portion goes to my real estate fund. Get used to investing now, and it will be that much easier to do when you earn big money.
Plus, let's be real, investments can make you a millionaire.
2. Delegating as Much as Possible - Millionaires aren't usually the do-it-yourself types. When you are performing at a high level, you can't afford to do everything yourself. Matter of fact, one of the biggest limiting factors in people's lives is that they believe they have to do everything themselves. As strange as it sounds, the less you do, the more you earn, if you are delegating properly.
No matter where you are in life right now, you need to start delegating. Even if it's to a virtual assistant overseas, you need to get used to telling other people what to do and how you want it done. The more of your tasks you can delegate out, and the faster you get used to delegating it out, the more time you'll have to strategize on earning more income. Millionaires have multiple people working for them, who do what they are told.
If you want to be a millionaire, get used to telling people what to do.
3. Working Hard at Getting Smarter - We've all heard the phrase "work smart not hard," and that's what lazy-ass people say. Truth is, you have to work hard at getting smarter. It's one thing to reach millionaire status, it's another to stay there. In order to continue to reign as the seven-figure champ, you need to improve everywhere you can. This means taking in information and putting it into action.
Millionaires are constantly looking to increase their intelligence. Through reading, workshops, seminars, consultants and any other way to learn something that improves their overall performance. In the beginning, you work hard gaining experience. When you start to make it in life you turn that experience into intelligence.
When you really start to make it, you convert intelligence into income.
4. Asking for the Business - This may seem obvious to you, but you'd be surprised by how many people won't ask for anything. These are the same people who bitch that nothing is ever given to them. Millionaires know what they want, and know who to ask for it. We face rejection over and over again in most cases, but we ask. You can't get what you want in life if the people in your life don't know what you want. You gotta ask in order to receive.
Asking for the business is scary as hell to a lot of people. Rejection is one of the top fears people have in America. Like anything else in life, you have to face fears and do it anyway. Millionaires have to ask clients, banks, investors, partners and contractors to do outside-the-box stuff all the time. Get used to asking people for help because getting rich all by yourself is hard.
5. Sticking To a Schedule - One thing millionaires do better than the rest of the public, is time management. When you control time instead of letting time control you, things change. One of the best ways to control time is to create a schedule and then stick to it. In my life, if it ain't on the schedule, it don't get done. The people in my life even add things to my schedule so I get it done. I live and die by the schedule on my phone. Without sticking to my schedule, I'd never be able to keep up with all the demands I need to meet.
I'm writing this article because it's on my schedule of things to do. Each Sunday night, my schedule says I must spend three hours writing. It's funny when I see someone who's not making much money tell me they are "too busy." No, you're not too busy, you just suck at managing your time. Learn to control time or it will control you.
When you are a slave to time, you can't create success.
Here's the thing: You're almost done reading this and I can feel you knocking the simplicity of these five habits. Think of this, if you can't handle the simple things, how are you going to manage the big things?
Start with these five habits. Develop and cultivate them into stronger habits. Work on these five habits and go from there. You must start somewhere, and this is the place.
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Original article appeared at Hardcore Closer. Reprinted with permission.