Four Minutes In The Morning - Brad Feld

Amy and I created a tradition about a decade ago we call “four minutes in the morning.” We try to – fully clothed – spend four minutes together every morning 100% focused on each other.

I’m an early bird – usually getting up around 5am regardless of the time zone I’m in (except on the weekends – then I sleep until I wake up – sometimes 1pm.) Amy sleeps a little later (usually 6:30am). So – I often have around 90 minutes alone every morning, which I treasure. I have a well defined morning routine that includes a cup of coffee and 85 or so minutes in front of my computer.

When Amy gets up, I try to remember to jump up from my computer and start our four minutes. Sometimes I forget and notice it when she thumps me on my head or clears her throat loudly. But I eventually remember. We then leave the office area, go to our living room, or outside on our porch, and spend our “four minutes” together.

Of course, the “four minutes” is metaphorical. Sometimes it’s 15 minutes. A few times a year it turns into an hour when we end up in a discussion about something. But it’s always 100% bi-directional attention, except for our dogs who often want in on the discussion.

I travel a lot so this often translates into a phone call in the morning. We recently started using Skype instead and it makes an amazing difference. This morning, as Amy was in Keystone and I was in Boulder, we caught up with each other in our un-showered goodness. Now, if we only had smell-o-vision, the experience would have been complete.

I miss Amy a lot whenever we aren’t together. We’re lucky that we get to travel together a lot and that each of our work experiences have lots of location flexibility. Skype has helped in a surprisingly nice way with one of our routines.

My recommendation to all my guy friends out there – try the “four minutes in the morning” routine with your significant other. It’ll pay many dividends.

Stress To Success Secrets - John Demartini

On a daily basis:

1.Write and read your goals.
2.Clear away your goal's obstacles.
3.Prioritize your activities.
4.Act on top priorities.
5.Visualize your success.
6.Write and read your affirmations.
7.Practice deep breathing and stretching.
8.Do selective and collective reading.
9.Groom for success.
10.Dress for success.
11.Love what you do and do what you love.
12.Surround yourself with 'succeeders'.
13.Drink lots of water.
14.Eat light, moderate meals.
15.Reduce the four 'addictors' - coffee, cigarettes, alcohol and sugar.
16.Contract and then relax all muscles.
17.Help others fulfill their goals.
18.Save 5 to 10 percent of your earnings.
19.Write three thank-you letters.
20.Reward yourself for your accomplishments.
21.Express feelings of love.
22.Hug someone special.
23.Clean and organize your environment.
24.Eliminate low-priority 'non-necessities'.
25.Study the subject you'd love to master.
26.Spend time in total meditative silence.
27.Massage your body or scalp.
28.Take a hot bath before retiring.
29.Count your blessings with gratitude.
30.Get a good night's rest.
31.Follow a Stress-to Success Checklist.

How Your Self Image Determines Your Wealth - Siimon Reynolds

I’ve been reading an interesting book lately.

It’s called ‘Identity Economics : How Our Identities Shape Our Work, Wages, and Well Being.’

It raises some pertinent points for anyone who wants to achieve great wealth in their life.
The authors show that how you see yourself plays a huge part in how much you earn, and indeed how much wealth you believe you deserve.

Identity affects how you dress. What wages you ask for, or what prices you charge your clients.
Even how much money you save or spend.

With self identity being so critical to financial success, it is truly amazing that people don’t spend time daily developing their self image so that it supports them, rather than pulls them down.

Do you do anything at all to maintain a healthy self identity?

Most people don’t, for two reasons:
1. They have no idea that their identity is affecting how much they earn.
2. Even if they do know, they don’t know what they can do to change their identity.

In fact, changing your identity is relatively easy, although it takes some months to do it.

You just use the same technique taught to Olympic athletes to enhance their performance. Mental rehearsal.

That is, every day for at least ten minutes, close your eyes and mentally ‘see’ yourself performing superbly at work.

Earning large amounts of money. Being happy and healthy. Enjoying your ideal lifestyle.

At first it seems implausible that something so simple could affect your performance. But there are literally thousands of scientific studies that show that, over time, it does.

And remember this:

You’re visualising how things will go anyway, all day long. It’s just how the brain works. So you might as well take control of the process and visualise exactly what you want.

With regular daily practice you’ll find you will be more confident, more at ease, more effective.

You’ll also find your economic identity will have changed.

And soon after, your wealth.