How to Upgrade Your Life in the Down Economy: Ten Ways to Become Rich

      

By Alexander Green

Be an inspirational leader. Business will always be about meeting the deadline, closing the deal, finishing the project, and growing the business. But if your work life is nothing more than the single-minded pursuit of wealth, recognition, and accomplishment, you will wake up one day and find that something is still missing. After all, it is people who matter most. True success is not just about achieving your dreams. It's about helping those around you reach theirs, too.

Challenge yourself. As we reach middle age and beyond, our tastes generally mature. They become more refined. We give up comic books and pulp fiction for history and literature. We play bridge, gin, or poker rather than Crazy Eights or Old Maid. We may prefer a single malt scotch or glass of Sauvignon Blanc to a Budweiser (unless, of course, there's a game on). In short, we begin to enjoy the challenge and mental exercise of more difficult pleasures. It's part of growing up, realizing your potential, and becoming who you are. Aside from the sheer enjoyment of tackling more challenging pastimes, studies show that exercising your mental faculties helps prevent the onset of mild depression, dementia, and other mental disabilities. So get those brain cells moving.

Become a self-actualizer. Maslow defined self-actualization when he said, "A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately happy. What a man can be, he must be. This need we call self-actualization." From his research, Maslow distilled 16 characteristics that epitomize the self-actualizing individual. They include openness to experience, empathy, creativity, resistance to enculturation, and awareness of imperfections. Self-actualization is not simply a goal. It is a philosophy of life, a continual striving, a process of development. You achieve this by shunning the safe, the comfortable, the routine-and instead seeking opportunities for growth.

Start crossing off things on your bucket list. We all have obligations, true. But life can't just be about pleasing your parents, your boss, your spouse, and your children. It has to be about more than meeting your quota, making the mortgage, picking up the kids, and socking something away for a rainy day. Of course, the reason for a bucket list is to get away from what someone else wants and finally do what you want. It helps you to set goals and put deadlines on achieving your dreams. It helps you focus your time and energy and shape and set your priorities. So what's the process? According to my research-which includes nearly 20 minutes of digging around online-here's how to create and manage your bucket list:

1. Make your goals realistic and achievable.

2. Put your list in writing and review it regularly.

3. Don't be reluctant to change or modify it.

4. Planning is not optional. After making your list, decide exactly how and when you intend to get there.

5. Cross off each item as you achieve it.

6. If you live long enough, repeat.

Become the best version of yourself. We all have weaknesses that need attention. But we also have personal strengths. Some of us are built to pursue excellence in athletics. Others have a great aptitude for science or mathematics. Maybe the important thing for you right now is to become the best parent, spouse, son, or daughter you can be. Whatever it is, embrace it. Find purpose, meaning, and direction in your life by committing to becoming the best version of yourself. Where your unique talents intersect with the world's needs, there you will find your mission.

Stop to smell the roses. Most of us promise ourselves that one day, not too long from now, we'll slow down. We'll spend more time with our family. Enjoy a lazy day out with friends. Or just take a walk alone on the seashore. If you're one of the millions who has often deluded himself this way, it's time, once and for all, to stop and smell the roses. Take that trip with your family. Read that book. Work less, play more. Enjoy life.

Don't trust your every snap judgment. In Blink, Malcolm Gladwell points out that our "adaptive unconscious" is constantly making assessments about people and situations in just a matter of seconds. He argues that these snap judgments are not just good, but extraordinary. For example, he cites a study showing that college students can watch short film clips of professors lecturing and rate them as accurately as students who spend an entire term with them, even when the clips are only two seconds long.

But based on my own experiences, I tend to disagree. How many times have you made a new acquaintance, thought you knew them, and then one day discovered they were not the person you thought they were? How many times have you been badgered, cajoled, or dragged to an event that turned out to be a lot more fun than you imagined? In making snap judgments, we often shortchange our friends, our family, our coworkers, even ourselves. We miss the opportunity for new experiences and relationships. And, more often than not, we are completely unaware of it.

Take the 21-Day "No Complaining" Challenge. We all complain. About the weather, about work, about family, about traffic, the list could go on and on. There's nothing wrong with expressing dissatisfaction. After all, dissatisfaction is the mother of progress. The key is how you express yourself. You can bellyache about how bad things are. Or you can motivate those around you by describing how much better things will be when a bad situation is improved.

That's why I invite you to take the 21-Day "No Complaining" Challenge. Visit the website, www.AComplaintFreeWorld.org, and order two purple "Complaint Free" bracelets, one for yourself and one for someone you love. Begin wearing the bracelet on either wrist. When you catch yourself complaining, gossiping, or criticizing, move the bracelet to the other wrist and begin again. Stay with it until you can go 21 days without a complaint. This is tougher than it sounds. So far, more than 5 million people have ordered the bracelets. The average person reports needing 4 to 8 months to go a full 21 days without complaining.

Get a prescription for the cheapest and best medicine...laughter. Laughter is a workout for your diaphragm, as well as your respiratory and facial muscles. Laughter relaxes us, connects us to others, and enhances our ability to fight disease. So lighten up. Yes, the economy is bad. And you may have more than your fair share of personal problems, too. But as George Bernard Shaw pointed out, "The world does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh."

Spend more time in the great outdoors. The typical American now spends 25 percent less time in nature than they did in 1987. This is unfortunate for a couple of reasons. Number one, it's hard to imagine people feeling strongly about conserving our natural heritage if they can't be bothered to get outside and enjoy it. Second, scientists say that getting out of our everyday artificial environment promotes mental health. And really, how can you put a value on a few hours in the woods with nothing pressing to do and nowhere in particular to be? The combination of exercise, fresh air, and solitude is unbeatable. And it's invigorating.

Alexander Green is the author of The Secret of Shelter Island: Money and What Matters (Wiley, 2009, ISBN: 978-0-470-48228-5)