So I’m a huge fan of the business consultant and podcaster Amy Porterfield (another system lover), and during one of her podcast episodes, she was discussing something that really struck her as she was listening to the audio version of the book Atomic Habits. The book is about what habits are in place for the results you want and how to examine your current habits and implement the ones you want and the question that she asked herself was “What habits [does] a person who was making $10 million in their business … have every day?” Well, I’m not at that level yet but I did ask myself what are the habits of millionaires? Thankfully I have some wealthy mentors in my life so I asked them that very same question. What are millionaire habits?
What I got in response is discipline. See, often we think huge financial success comes from hitting the jackpot like the lottery but it does not have to be so rare or extreme. There are everyday millionaires all around us who lead basic lives and have huge financial success. However, no one becomes a millionaire without discipline. It is absolutely required for huge and long-lasting financial success. Unfortunately, discipline has become a dirty word… It brings up memories of childhood or makes people feel restricted from “having fun.” But none of that is true. You can be disciplined to whatever you want and most of us are, we’re just not disciplined in the habits for success.
So how does one get started in being more disciplined? Easy start with one area of your life and one habit in that area. Again as the book discusses he uses the word atomic habits because they are small changes that over time make huge impacts. When I heard the episode I chose to start becoming more disciplined in my health and to start the habit of walking. And what I realized is discipline begets discipline. If you master one area of your life you can master them all and vice versa. And you will not master financial success without some level of discipline in all areas of your life. So chose your atomic habit and get to work!