Book Review: Rich Habits: The Daily Success Habits of Wealthy Individuals

by Thomas C. Corley 3 of 5 Stars

I’d taken a long hiatus from business and personal motivation books. This one caught my eye for some reason and, if only to refresh my memory or tune up some old hardware in the back of my mind, I decided to give this book a read.

It’s alright. It’s not bad advice. The price for the paperback is steep, considering that it weighs in at less than 90 pages. So, one star down for that.

And another star down for the fact that 50% of the content of the book is “storytelling.”

The author begins with a handful of stories of people down on their luck. Each of them somehow meets a stranger who, seeing a reflection of themselves, offers the person a free “Rich Habits” seminar with the mysterious J.C. Jobs. Later, we find out that J.C. Jobs was himself in dire straits at one point and had set out on a mission to discover why rich people are successful.

From there, the book launches into the ten daily habits that rich people practice.

The Ten Daily Habits are:

1. Form Good Daily Habits.
2. Set goals – daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, long-term
3. Work on Self-Improvement every day
4. Exercise every day
5. Build and nurture relationships
6. Moderation in all things
7. Do it now, no procrastination
8. Think richly
9. Save and invest
10. Exercise control over your thoughts and emotions

Each habit is covered in a few pages.

The book is a quick read, and quite honestly it’s not bad advice. None of the advice is outlandish or difficult to follow. It’s all true, if simplistically so, and will tend to lead someone to success if followed routinely. I enjoyed the author’s concept of “Situational Good Luck,” meaning the type of good luck someone gets when they open themselves up to opportunity and set themselves up for success.

I’d rank Daily Habit # 5 as the most critical or most important. In my experiencing, networking is the backbone of success.

Daily Habit # 6 has me perplexed, because it seems that the Daily Habits themselves are a kind of obsession and that, when it comes to working, successful people seem obsessed and not able to withdraw from the arena. Your average executive works 60 hours per week and often has plenty of engagements outside of work. Where’s the balance and moderation in this? Perhaps this is just living for them. I can completely get on board with moderation, but I suspect that you have to exempt success from the equation, because I don’t think you can be a moderate when it comes to work and be highly successful.

I’d also take issue with his advice for Daily Habit # 4, which is to spend most of your time running to get in shape. I’d place strength training on equal ground with cardiovascular exercise.

Overall, a good primer with a solid backbone for anyone looking to get someone in shape for taking a good ol’ stab at the American Dream.

Rules of Weight Loss: Accountability

Weight loss begins with extreme accountability, and by this I do not mean that you need to “blame” yourself or “feel” guilty for the overweight or obese situation you are in. Yes, it is in fact largely your fault and you need to own it (if for no other reason than no one else is), but we don’t want to focus on our past failures. Instead, we want to focus on future success and put in a framework that both eliminates the problem and prevents it from happening again.

Accountability simply means taking measurements (biometrics), recording them and watching them like hawk.

These are the biometrics you should watch and the interval at which you should take and record them:

• Weight (Daily)
• Waist Circumference (1 / week)
• Blood Pressure (1 / week)

Why not body fat %? Mostly because the simplistic machines for ascertaining body fat % aren’t very accurate and also because the three measurements are easy to attain and are all that are really necessary. (In other words, track body fat % if you can and want to, but not to the exclusion of any of the three biometrics listed above.)

Create an Excel spreadsheet. Track your progress. And create some simple charts to show your progress. Nothing looks more stellar than seeing these numbers fall, day after day, week after week.

Some notes about these biometrics:

• Weigh yourself daily and continue doing so even after you reach your goal weight. This is the strongest reinforcement possible as it makes you face every single day the consequences of following a reasonable diet or deciding not to.
• Belly circumference is the measurement of your belly at the belly button. Optimal measurements for men are less than 40 inches. Optimal measurements for women are less than 37 inches. Having a belly girth above these numbers increases your chance of mortality.
• Belly circumference measurement is also a buffer of sorts. Sometimes, if you are eating at or near the level of calories your body needs to operate and build muscle, your weight may not fluctuate much. However, if your belly is getting smaller, you can see that you are making progress in the battle against being overweight or obese.
• A simple blood pressure wrist cuff is inexpensive. It may not necessarily be the MOST accurate measurement of your blood pressure, but it gives you a baseline. Your blood pressure should be around or below 120/80. If you are consistently between 120 – 140 / 80 – 90, you should be concerned. If you are consistently 140+/90+, you should be very concerned (and probably on blood pressure medication and you should go see your doctor ASAP). As you lose weight and body fat (especially the body fat around your midsection), your blood pressure should start to head south too.
• Take these measurements at the same time of day. I prefer to take them in the morning, right when I wake up.

Consider weight loss as a kind of biological debt-repayment program. Not only are you going to have to suffer a bit to get out of the situation, you’re also going to have to develop a strategy to manage your biological finances going forward to ensure that you do not end up in the same mess again.

Rules of Iron: Protein Intake

Of the four macronutrients – alcohol, carbohydrates, fats and protein – protein is the most critical. Every meal you prepare should be done so with an emphasis on maximizing protein intake.

You should, of course, worry about the quality and amount of carbohydrates and fats you consume. But you should make absolutely certain that your meals contain 30+ (and probably even 40+) grams of protein.

Protein is critical to building muscle. It’s also more satiating than the other macronutrients and has a tendency to help control the appetite.

Some considerations for protein:

• Make sure you are consuming essential proteins (i.e., essential amino acids). Essential amino acids are the proteins that your body cannot manufacture by itself. Unfortunately, plant-based proteins may not contain the essential proteins that your body needs, or at least they may not contain the quantity of essential amino acids that your body needs. If you are vegetarian or vegan, you need to find ways to get more essential amino acids.
• Wait 3 – 4 hours between meals that contain protein. 30 – 45 minutes after consuming protein, your body begins the protein synthesis process, which takes between 2 and 3 hours. During this time, your body WILL NOT absorb or utilize any other protein. Consuming protein during this time is an exercise in futility.

It goes without saying, but great sources of essential protein:

• Meat
• Dairy products – milk, cheeses, yogurt
• Meal Replacement drinks and bars

(My condolences to vegans and vegetarians.)

Rules of Iron: Progressive Overload

The concept of progressive overload is quite simple:

In your weight training – and especially with your top-tier exercises – you should always seek to add weight.

This is especially true as you begin your weight training experience, or if you’re returning after a long layoff.

Each week, add a few pounds or more to your lifts. Continue doing this week after week until you can’t do it anymore. When this happens, you’ve reached the end of your beginner training phase. You’ve picked the low-hanging fruit, and you will now need to start looking into more serious training methods and variations to maximize your strength gains.

You may also at this point have reached the strength goals you wished to achieve and can continue lifting at this same level, maintaining a fairly high level of strength as the years roll on.

This is why the top-tier exercises are called such. They are the only exercises that can really accommodate long-term progressive overload. None of the other exercises, perhaps with the exception of leg press and some other leg machine exercises, can be loaded and progressed at a steady rate like the top-tier exercises.

Keep a training journal. Log your progress. You can record either your maximum lift (1RM) or the weight that you are using for your standard 3 to 5 sets of between 5 and twelve reps.

An Excel spreadsheet with a simple chart in it that shows you going from a 150 lb. squat to a 300 lb. squat over the course of 6 or 9 months is impressive and confidence boosting.

Rules of Iron: Top-Tier Exercises

The foundation of your workout should be the top-tier barbell exercises:

• Squat
• Deadlift
• Bench Press
• Overhead Press

Your workouts should be based around these movements, and each workout should begin with one of these exercises. They are complex, multi-joint exercises that give you the biggest bang for your buck – more strength, more muscle mass.

Keep these rules in mind:

• Squat twice per week
• Press twice per week
• Deadlift once or twice per week
• The best warmup for these exercises is to perform the exercise at a lower weight for a few sets – the heavier the weight, the more warmup sets you’ll require
• 3 – 5 sets per exercise
• 5 – 12 reps per set

If you are not training for competition, then you really don’t need much more than this information. Training for powerlifting or bodybuilding is going to require a different approach. But for those who just want to gain and maintain strength, a simple weight lifting program built upon these exercises will suffice.

Movie Review: Captain Marvel

2.5 of 5 Stars

Meh. Unfortunately, Captain Marvel is one of the weakest additions to the MCU.

A great amount of angst welled up from the fanboyz prior to the release of Captain Marvel. Aside from Brie Larson running her mouth about white men, there was great concern that Captain Marvel would be a Feminist soapbox and an SJW centerpiece that signaled the beginning of the inevitable decline of the MCU. While there are few overtly SJW or Feminist outbursts or preaching in the movie, the movie is built upon Feminist trappings and tropes that ultimately weaken Captain Marvel and turn her into a boring, un-compelling wooden mannequin

I find myself asking why I should care about Carol Danvers (aka Captain Marvel)?

Granted, Marvel movies are not grand explorations of human emotions that give us insight into the human condition. Nevertheless, relationships drive a good deal of the plot progression. There’s Thor’s family drama in Asgard – his relationship with Loki and Odin. There’s Iron Man’s daddy issues and his relationship with Pepper Potts, as well as a common theme about how his narcissism and self-centeredness impact and sabotage his relationships with his friends and fellow Avengers. There’s Captain America’s love of country, his contentious relationship with Tony Stark, and his willingness to sacrifice all to save his old friend, Bucky. Even in the Ant-Man movies, which are bottom tier for the MCU, you have interesting character dynamics and worthwhile relationships.

Brie has no friends to fight for. No relationships to die for. Nothing that would give me a compelling reason to care about her. This is “I don’t need nobody, and especially I don’t need no man” Feminism at it's heart. It’s a great object lesson in how Feminism isolates women by appealing to female self-interest and narcissism.

In this regard, it’s also a great Gen-X, 90s movie, conveying quite well the apathy and isolation of Generation X. (While I am Gen X myself, I have little fondness for the pop-culture of the 90s, having spent most of my formative teenage years cavorting in the fun, Grunge-less 80s. For me, the best nostalgic song in Captain Marvel was Lita Ford’s “Kiss Me Deadly,” an 80s hair metal song.)

So, Captain Marvel ends up being a character with little interpersonal drama, which makes her uninteresting. She's given so little to fight against and to fight for.

The takeaway here is that you can view Captain Marvel as a cautionary tale about Feminism, albeit I don’t think this was intentional message. The end result of “I don’t need nobody, and especially I don’t need no man” Feminism is isolation and lack of personal growth.

In Captain Marvel, this brand of Feminism hampers the character and turns her into a one-dimensional character with no hooks to really anchor the audience. It’s unfortunate, because I think Brie Larson probably did her best as an actress to work with what they gave her, but there is just nothing there.

Samuel Jackson turns in a decent performance. Our heartstrings are pulled at the personalized story of a group of Skrull refugees. But Brie is left to flounder alone in her heroism without any significant challenges to her ego (which is often time what character relationships are about) or to her latent superhero abilities.

I’m sorry, MCU fans, when you strip away the hype of this being the first female Marvel character to headline her own movie, this movie is just a bore.

Book Review: The Californios by Louis L'Amour

4 of 5 Stars

L’Amour novels are always a treat. They’re usually quick reads. You can count on solid, if not slightly underdeveloped characters, decent action sequences, and a straightforward narrative driving through the heart of the story. Good, old-fashioned, grounded storytelling.

The Californios centers on Sean Mulkerin and his Irish mother, the Senora, as they fight to save their land in Malibu, California and a runaway bride-to-be from a cadre of ruthless and unsavory characters. The story takes place in the 1840s. It involves a search for lost gold in the California mountains, a clever bait-and-switch plot to outwit the bad guys, and an overly quick (but typical for a western) climax.

What makes this story interesting is its descent into the mystical and the magical.The Mulkerins are aided in their quest by Juan, a Native American belonging to a now vanished people called the Old Ones. He may be hundreds or even thousands of years old, and his mysterious and magical ways help the Mulkerins outwit and stymie the bad guys. There’s more mystery to Juan’s magic than anything else, but it’s put to good effect and adds a fantastical flavor to the story. L’Amour doesn’t make any pretenses about or spend much time explaining Juan’s origin or powers, which is how any master writer should tackle magical or mystical powers. (Start to explain the origin of magic and you’ve got the thread by which your story will unravel.)

Overall a good, quick read, taking the reader on a mystical journey through the mountains of California.

Hammerstone

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