Good Habits: 7 that Successful People Embrace
& Broke People Ignore- PART 2
5. Multilayered Thinking
Good habits come from proper thinking. There are many ways to think.
- Horizontal thinking
- Vertical thinking
- Convergent thinking
- Divergent thinking
- Critical thinking
- Counterfactual thinking
- Systems thinking
- etc.
To be successful, people have to creatively bounce back and forth between different ways of thinking. One of the fastest ways to do this is to expose yourself to the thoughts of other people.
Specifically, if you expose yourself to different ways of framing ideas, you’ll become more resourceful and able to juggle different ways of thinking.
Some ways to improve your multi-layered thinking abilities are to:
- learn a another language.
- live in a different place (“you should live in New York once, but leave before it makes you hard. Live in California once, but leave before it makes you soft.”)
- learn a new physical skill that forces you to use your current skills to understand it (i.e., a wrestler becoming a dancer or a marksman learning to golf)
- read books and study subjects not directly related to your field
- learn to think visually, auditorily, kinesthetically, gustatorily, and olfactorily; by learning how to draw, sell, punch, cook, etc.
6. Health and Fitness Habits
According to several studies, there is a correlation between income and fitness. The following quote is from here.
An individual who exercises only one to three times per month earns on average 5.2 percent more than a sedentary individual. To put this result in context, it is equal to slightly less than one additional year of schooling (which raises earnings by six percent) or a roughly 13.2 point increase in the AFQT score percentile (a little under one half of a standard deviation).
It’s simple: if you notice the people in life that are successful – celebrities, politicians, entrepreneurs, athletes, and professionals- you’ll, likely, notice that they look healthy and they maintain good habits of fitness.
If you exercise your body, your mind is bound to follow some of those habits.
Recommended Reading:
7. Successful People Invest in Exponential Return
How do you spend your money (those dollars you exchange for your valuable time and skill-sets?)
Average people spend it
- at bars, the movies, and distracting entertainments.
- on food, restaurants, and mind numbing sensory exploration.
- on things that don’t create a return past a one time experience.
Those that follow good habits spend their money on
- self-educational-material.
- networking.
- experiences that influence growth.
- life enhancing tools.
- exponential habits.
The Mastermind Group
You don’t get to the top of your aspiring industry by hanging out with people at the bottom. You are the average of the people you surround yourself with.
Think and Grow Rich, by Napoleon Hill, explains this concept very well. I’ll insert a snippet here.
But first…
You’ve probably heard the idiom, “jack of all trades, specialist of none.” Well, that’s actually bullshit.
But, to be a specialist in many trades (a Richard Branson, Tim Ferriss, Michelangelo, or an Emerson) takes a lot of concentrated effort.
Davinci was an artist, a philosopher, musician, engineer, inventor, and even a botanist. He was a genius in the sense that he could connect dots faster, because he spent all his time connecting dots (read: he spent all his time creating good habits.) You can learn to be a specialist in several (related) trades, but it will take more work.
Why not follow the path of least resistance.
Enter a story of Henry Ford on trial:
During the world war, a Chicago newspaper published certain editorials in which, among other statements, Henry Ford was called “an ignorant pacifist.” Mr. Ford objected to the statements, and brought suit against the paper for libeling him.
When the suit was tried in the Courts, the attorneys for the paper pleaded justification, and placed Mr. Ford, himself, on the witness stand, for the purpose of proving to the jury that he was ignorant. The attorneys asked Mr. Ford a great variety of questions, all of them intended to prove, by his own evidence, that, while he might possess considerable specialized knowledge pertaining to the manufacture of automobiles, he was, in the main, ignorant.
Mr. Ford was plied with such questions as the following: “Who was Benedict Arnold?” and “How many soldiers did the British send over to America to put down the Rebellion of 1776?” In answer to the last question, Mr. Ford replied, “I do not know the exact number of soldiers the British sent over, but I have heard that it was a considerably larger number than ever went back.”
Finally, Mr. Ford became tired of this line of questioning, and in reply to a particularly offensive question, he leaned over, pointed his finger at the lawyer who had asked the question, and said, “If I should really WANT to answer the foolish question you have just asked, or any of the other questions you have been asking me, let me remind you that I have a row of electric push-buttons on my desk, and by pushing the right button, I can summon to my aid men who can answer ANY question I desire to ask concerning the business to which I am devoting most of my efforts. Now, will you kindly tell me, WHY I should clutter up my mind with general knowledge, for the purpose of being able to answer questions, when I have men around me who can supply any knowledge I require?”
There certainly was good logic to that reply.
That answer floored the lawyer. Every person in the courtroom realized it was the answer, not of an ignorant man, but of a man of EDUCATION. Any man is educated who knows where to get knowledge when he needs it, and how to organize that knowledge into definite plans of action. Through the assistance of his “Master Mind” group, Henry Ford had at his command all the specialized knowledge he needed to enable him to become one of the wealthiest men in America. It was not essential that he have this knowledge in his own mind. Surely no person who has sufficient inclination and intelligence.
One major lesson from that story?
Choose your associations wisely.
Or don’t…
and live a life bathed in mediocrity.
Here is the typical conclusion section- but is it really?
This is just the beginning- for me, you, and Bill Gates.
Life is a composite of habits and experiences and goals. YOU CHOOSE HOW SUCCESSFUL YOU WILL BE.
It’s simple: adapt the good habits of those before you (don’t reinvent the wheel) and you will, undoubtedly, succeed or die trying, and as Jay Z once said, “I would rather die enormous than live dormant.”
So, write down your next step. A life lived passively, isn’t a life worth the shoes you walk in.
Walk in the right goddamn shoes.
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