This article is a written adaptation of the video that you can find on our YouTube channel, LIFE180.

I'm not a big believer in trying to chase money. If you follow my content, you know the idea of trying to become a millionaire to me is kind of a laughable topic because I just don't believe we should be chasing these statuses.

I think we need to be chasing a lifestyle and use money as a tool to create our lifestyle. But that said, I think the premise of utilizing money as a tool to create your life is really what it's all about.

These 13 habits are essential for shaping you into the person you need to be in order to lead the life you desire. While it's highly probable that you'll achieve millionaire status along the way, even if you don't, you'll still craft a life far more fulfilling than merely chasing wealth. True fulfillment comes from living your purpose. So, without delay, let's delve into these habits.

Millionaires Read More Than Non Millionaires - Have a DAILY READING PRACTICE

So the first thing I suggest everyone do is read. As I always say, "Change your actions, change your thinking, change your life." It's because everyone has a life they want to live.

The life we live currently and the life we aspire to are directly shaped by the actions we take. Our actions, in turn, are influenced by our mindset. And let me tell you, the thoughts you entertain are significantly influenced by the literature you immerse yourself in.

Whether it's business development books, self-improvement literature, relationship guides, communication manuals, industry publications, or even biographies of successful individuals, cultivating a daily reading habit is crucial.

This practice has been validated by the most successful people worldwide. No matter what they have going on or how little free time they have in the day, they always prioritize reading as a crucial part of their routine.

Prioritize Your Health - Fitness & Diet

The second habit you need to focus on is staying healthy. The old saying goes, "Health is wealth," and this is especially true when it comes to creating the energy levels you need. Whether it's your exercise routine, your diet, or your sleep schedule, it's all about transforming your body into the machine it needs to be so you can perform at high levels.

Successful people prioritize their health. At the end of the day, let's be real: we're all on this path to achieve financial freedom. Does it make any sense to grind endlessly to reach a place where you have a million dollars, financial freedom, and the lifestyle you desire, but at the cost of your health?

How many people do you know who reach retirement financially secure, only for their health to deteriorate? They might get cancer or their bodies start to fail, preventing them from enjoying the life they had planned. That's a serious problem. So, staying healthy is habit number two.

Find The Right Mentors

Habit number three is finding the right mentors. Now, I'm not talking about just going out and finding random mentors. One of my first mentors shared an old adage with me: “Success is very simple. Find the people who are living the life you want, those you resonate with, and whose lifestyle you admire. Then, emulate what they do until you achieve the life you desire.”

What it comes down to is not just looking at their financial success. Consider their relationships, lifestyle, freedom, and how they live their day-to-day life. Ask yourself, "Is that what I want?"

I've seen so many people, once again, it goes back to the fact that it's not about Ferraris, cars, houses, boats, and private jets. Maybe those are part of the equation for you, maybe they're not.

But also look beyond that and delve into their relationships: with their spouses, kids, business colleagues, friends, and inner circle. Ask yourself, 'Is that the life I want to live?' If the answer is yes, then spend as much time with them as you possibly can. Don't be afraid to invest in mentorship, even if it means paying for it.

Ideally, find someone who's in the space that you're drawn to. For instance, I'm in the life insurance space, and I coach a lot of life insurance agents. Many people come to me for mentorship. Seek out individuals in your specific industry or field who are in a position to help you accomplish your goals.

Follow The Law Of Reciprocity

Habit number four: Be generous. Give money away. Donate to causes. This creates a cycle of abundance in your world. It triggers the law of reciprocity, where giving without expectation allows energy to flow back to us.

We may not always know how it's going to come back to us, and sometimes it comes in ways we don't expect. But by giving and donating, whether it's time or money, without expectation, we set in motion the laws of attraction, abundance, and reciprocity. These are principles you can't negotiate with, they operate whether we acknowledge them or not.

So by following habit number four and being generous, giving money to causes that matter to you, you're paving the way to get to where you want to go.

Spend Time With People Who Are Just Ahead of You On Your Path

Habit number five is somewhat similar to having a mentor, but it's a little different. It's about spending time with other millionaires. However, for me, I don't just see it as spending time with other millionaires. I see it as spending time with people who have the life I want to live, who are on the same path as I am, and who have achieved success in areas that I value.

Now, one thing I want to caution you about is spending time with others like this. The people you surround yourself with should align with your core values, beliefs, and the vision you have for your life.

These should indeed be the foundation of every decision you make. It's the filter through which you assess the people you spend your time with. It's not just about money; it's about your core values, your vision, and what you want your life to look like.

Run that through and ask yourself: Are these people in alignment with me on core values, vision, and mission? Do they have fruit on the tree? Are they successful? Are they a little bit ahead of where I want to be?

That's ultimately what you want to be doing. It's okay that as you go through life, you may not spend as much time with the same people. It's very common. I've experienced it many times myself, where I've spent periods of time with certain individuals to learn and grow, and then sometimes I outgrow them.

It happens a lot, and if you're doing this the right way, you're probably going to outgrow some people. It's not that the relationship dies, but rather that you grow to a level where you need something different. The time you spend with them might remain, or perhaps they don't keep growing on the same path as you, or maybe life changes and your goals change.

For different seasons, ensure you're spending time with people who will help you reach that next level. Remember, you are going to be the average of the five people you spend the most time with. That's the reality. So take that very seriously and be intentional about where you invest your time.

Be Intentional About Setting Goals & Checking In With Where You Are NOW

Habit number six is goal setting and visualization. I'm really passionate about this one. Living life intentionally for excellence is what life stands for in the LIFE180. Live intentionally for excellence. And this has to be, you can't be intentional if you don't have a goal. You can't be intentional if you don't know what you're after.

Goal setting and visualization require us to think deeply about what we're after. This goes back to being really clear about our core values, which we can use to create our vision and understand our purpose on this earth. From there, we can reverse engineer a plan to get there.

But this is where it gets really important to ensure that we're spending time on a regular basis checking our goals, seeing if they're in alignment with who we are right now.

I think too often, we go too long and too far without checking in with our own goals, objectives, and where we are right now in comparison to where we want to be. Are we on the right ladder or the right path at this very moment in our lives?

When was the last time you took the time to really check in with yourself and perhaps your spouse? Are you on the path you want to be on right now? Perhaps it was right when you got married, the last time you both sat down and reaffirmed your agreement.

When was the last time you got together with your business partners and checked in on the business? Did you discuss the vision and path you set when you started the business? Are you still aligned with those goals, or have you updated your goals, objectives, and visualization since then?

I was told once to make your goals and dreams so big that when you accomplish them, you can't take credit for them. That's a big one, because it's scary, it has to be bigger than what you think you can do right now.

You have to break it down and create a business plan in bite-size increments. If your visualization is for something so big that it seems impossible, you need to break it down and ask yourself, "How do I eat an elephant? One bite at a time, right?"

The human brain will only allow you to put 100% effort into something that you believe with 100% certainty you have the potential to be successful with. So, make sure that whatever your big visualizations and goals are, break them down into small, bite-sized chunks that you can work on bit by bit.

Become A Master At Managing Your Time - LIFE180 Success Planner

That leads me to habit number seven, which is mastering your schedule. This is an extension of the last habit, emphasizing the importance of managing your time effectively. My buddy, Richie Norton, wrote a book called "Anti-Time Management," which highlights the idea that if you don't manage your time, your time will manage you. You need to align your day-to-day activities with intentional use of your time, as it's the most valuable resource you have to create the life you want to live.

The organization of our time must be in alignment with our goals and objectives. You're probably noticing a pattern forming here: we need to begin with the end in mind and be very clear about our purpose in the first place. Being intentional about that is crucial, and managing your time and being intentional about how you spend your day is key.

At the beginning of every day, I use a planner called the LIFE180 Agent Success Planner. It guides me through daily morning routines, setting a positive morning mindset, focusing on physical health, planning out my day, tracking points for success, and reflecting in the evening. These tools help me be intentional about what matters most to me. That level of intentionality is crucial for reaching high performance levels in your day.

Wake Up Early To Get Ahead of the Competition

Habit number eight is waking up early. I know this can be challenging for many night owls, but the truth is, there's often less distraction in the morning. Personally, I find that I get a lot of my good, creative work done in the morning.

I'm able to wake up, get my exercise in, handle emails, and even write email copy. Sometimes, as I'm working on books, I get a lot of my creative copywriting done. I organize my content and tackle various tasks that I know I need to get done because as the day progresses, I know this is the kind of stuff that can easily slip away from me.

By the time the world typically gets going around eight o'clock, I've usually already put in a couple of hours of work. I've accomplished a lot, and it feels like a 25% bonus on productivity for the day just by waking up early.

You'll be amazed if you commit to this process and utilize that early morning time to frame out your day and take control of your time, as we discussed in habit seven. It's going to be a game changer for you.

Focus On Mastery NOT Diversification

Habit nine might be a little controversial. We're talking about the myth of millionaires having multiple streams of income. I know there's this old statement out there that the average millionaire has seven streams of income.

Well, I've got news for you. The average millionaire didn't become a millionaire because of seven streams of income. What's really going to happen is you'll grow in your capacity to handle things.

Instead of spreading yourself thin, you need to focus on mastery. When you master something, reaching seven figures shouldn't require more than one, two, or three maximum streams of income. I would argue that it's going to be harder for you to reach seven figures and attain that freedom if you're spreading yourself too thin.

When you haven't built up the mental and muscle ability to manage all those different tasks and requirements that come with running multiple businesses, you're going to be spread too thin. Trying to do too much will prevent you from doing any of them with excellence, and that's going to hold you back.

What you need to focus on is mastery, taking one or two things, maybe three at most if you're exceptional, and getting better and better at those things. That's when you'll reach the level of income necessary to achieve the financial freedom you're after and become a millionaire.

Ultimately, once you hit that level, if you choose to, you'll be a different person. I promise you, by the time you become a millionaire, you'll be someone completely different than you are right now. Maybe then you'll diversify, perhaps add other streams of income and leverage relationships and successes, but make no mistake about it: doing it too early will be the biggest mistake you ever make.

Help Other People Succeed & Reach their Goals

Habit number 10 is probably my favorite: helping other people succeed. Zig Ziglar always said, "You can have everything in life that you want if you just help enough other people get everything in life that they want."

And that's the truth. It's one of the reasons I created my LIFE180 YouTube channel. It's one of the reasons I have so much passion for helping people with their money. There's nothing more fulfilling.

Think about it: nothing in life is more fulfilling than helping others. That's where we get our most fulfillment, through contribution to others. And that's not just an opinion; it's a scientific fact. It's been measured that we feel more fulfilled when we contribute to the success and well-being of others.

Helping other people puts you in a high-vibration state, which enables you to succeed at a level far beyond what you could achieve by keeping everything to yourself and adopting a scarcity mindset. When you operate from a scarcity mindset, you're thinking in a red ocean mindset, where there's no abundance, and it's all about getting your piece of the pie.

I've got news for you: give the pie away, because the pie is big. By opening up more opportunities, the world becomes your oyster. Just go out and get it, and don't think from a scarcity perspective at all.

Always think from a place of abundance. Always prioritize helping others. Doing so, whether there's anything in it for you monetarily or not, will elevate you to an energetic level that will help you get to where you want to be.

Practice Positivity - You Can't Get Where You Want Without Gratitude For Where You Are

Habit number 11 is practicing positivity. Now, this can be difficult for some people, especially when going through challenges. Being positive about tough situations can be challenging, right? I heard my wife say this the other day during a conversation: you can't get to where you want to be when you're angry and not grateful for what you currently have.

And that's just an energetic thing, once again. When you put out anger, disdain, and hatred for the situation and circumstances you're in, it's going to be virtually impossible for you to attract the life and things you want to have.

So as part of the journey of life, you're going to face challenges. You're going to be held down, experience failures, and go through tough times.

But remember, it's not what happens to you. You can either take it and say, "Alright, this happened to me," or you could say, "It happened for me." It's not what happens to us, it's how we interpret what happens to us that matters the most.

Remaining positive and doing your best to find the silver lining in every situation will make a world of difference in whether you achieve success faster or struggle along.

And I promise you, I've seen so many people struggle with this one little thing. When you change your mindset, when you change the emotional framework you have and pivot to positivity, it's going to help accelerate the growth curve you're on.

Dedicate Time for Introspection & Planning - Plan, Do, Check, Adjust

So habit 12 is making dedicated time to just think, contemplate, and be introspective. Dedicate at least a couple of hours a week where you just journal, contemplate, think about your business, evaluate your relationships, and really go internal about everything you're doing in life.

This is where the best creativity comes from, where the best thinking occurs, and where the best ideas are created. It's where you might have some of your biggest epiphanies and "aha" moments.

By ensuring you take time and dedicate it to your growth and being intentional about the path you're on, you're going to increase your success significantly.

Every successful person in the world makes sure to take dedicated time so they can be intentional. This is all about the process of being intentional and proactive about the path you're on and what you're trying to accomplish. You're probably noticing a pattern here once again.

If you don't do that, it's almost inevitable that over time, you're going to become reactive in everything you do. Eventually, when you do that, the wheels start falling off. While you may have had some momentum and traction, you end up losing that momentum and traction because you become inefficient. You put yourself in a situation where, as you become reactive, you lose momentum and fall down.

Make sure you take time every single week, at a minimum, if not a little bit every single day, to be intentional and to be alone with yourself, to go introspective, and to think about the future.

One of the things I used to talk about is a concept called PDCA: plan, do, check, adjust. Make a plan, take action, check the results, and adjust where necessary. Going introspective allows you to go through that process with everything in life, so I really encourage you to adopt some sort of process like that for yourself.

Allow Your Mentors To Give Open Feedback

Finally, habit 13 is don't shy away from criticism. In fact, seek criticism, seek feedback, seek input from other people that you respect. Now, I'm not saying listen to all the trolls out there. God knows I get a lot of them.

I am saying find people whom you know, respect, and love, and whose opinions you would take very seriously. Empower them to give you honest, authentic, open feedback, and don't be defensive. Make sure you take it in, and make sure you grow from it.

And I promise you, if you implement the 13 habits that I just talked about here, not only will you have more financial success, but you'll also be more fulfilled along the way, and you'll likely achieve results much faster than you would following the traditional model.

So hopefully you found value in that. If you did, please share it and get it out there. Have a blessed, inspirational day.