| Saturday - November 14, 2009 There's nothing wrong with feeling tired. It's your body's way of telling you "Give me some rest." But staying tired -- week after week -- is a health problem, one you don't have to live with and shouldn't. If you have been feeling tired for a while, answer these three questions: - Are you getting seven to eight hours of quality sleep at night?
- Are you eating a high-protein, low-carbohydrate diet?
- Are you getting enough B vitamins?
If you answered "yes" or "I don't know" to any one of these questions, you need to know this: Most people understand the relationship between sleep and fatigue, but few realize the huge effect diet has on energy levels. There is an easy fix. Reduce or eliminate sugars and high-carb starches -- bread, rice, pasta, etc. They strip your body of stored energy and turn it into a fat-storing machine. And eat lots of protein -- eggs, fish, and meat. That kind of diet will keep you lean, supercharged, and focused all day long. It works because it not only delivers quality proteins, it's loaded with vitamins B12 and B6. You need B vitamins to be able to fall asleep easily, wake up refreshed, and zip through the day. And as you age, your ability to absorb these nutrients from food decreases. So if you are over 40 -- to be on the safe side -- consider taking a good B complex supplement every day. For more advice on defeating fatigue, check out this book from THB.
Some former athletes (including you if you used to work out regularly) consider themselves "bulletproof." Since they were in superb shape for so many years, they assume their health will always be better than average. They eat and drink like they have a free pass to longevity. But studies show that too much food and too little exercise -- after years of intense activity -- can quickly erase a history of perfect fitness. Greek researchers, for example, found that overweight ex-athletes have no better protection against heart disease than anyone else. As their waistlines increased, two factors associated with heart disease -- C-reactive protein and triglycerides -- increased. And that means their risk also increased. Here's the deal. When it comes to your health today, your body doesn't care how fit you used to be. If you want to stay healthy, stay active.
Sharks are said to be the most efficient eating machines on the planet. They are perfectly equipped to hunt and kill. The shape of their bodies... the way they propel themselves through the water... the sensitivity of their hearing and smell... and the construction of their jaws. Perhaps most important, scientists say, is that they never stop moving. Think of that in relation to your lifetime objectives. How often are you actively moving toward your goals? How many of today's important-but-not-urgent tasks have you accomplished so far? Most days, I wake up brimming with expectation. And I carry that energy throughout the day. How are you doing? Have you let your inner shark out today?
Do you depend on the major media for your health information? If so, you may think osteoporosis affects only women. In fact, it's a health problem for men too. And because most men don't know they're at risk, they're far less likely to take action to prevent it. Men get one-third of all osteoporosis-related bone fractures. But their chances of complications are dramatically higher than they are for women. Men with prostate cancer are especially vulnerable. Both the disease and a common treatment -- androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) -- contribute to bone loss. Here's how to lower your risk: -
Maintain adequate levels of vitamin D. All it takes is two or three hours per week of exposure to sunlight. If you can't spend that much time in the sun, take a vitamin D supplement or cod liver oil. -
Get at least 1,000 mg of calcium per day, preferably from your diet. A high-protein diet makes more calcium available for building bone density. Just one more reason to make healthy protein part of every meal.
"I don't have your attitude," Jeff said to me. "I just don't have the mindset of someone who can make a lot of money." "Do you want to make a lot of money?" I asked him. "That's the sad thing," he said, smiling wryly. "I do." "Well then," I said, "why don't you forget about your attitude and focus on your behavior?" "What do you mean?" "Why don't you stop thinking about why you can't make a lot of money and do something to make it happen?" "Such as?" I handed him a piece of paper. "Start by writing down how much you'd like to be worth in 20 years." He did it. "Now," I said, "let's talk about how you can build up to that number, year by year." By the end of an hour, he had net worth goals for 20 years running. His target for the current year was very achievable. He was motivated. "This is great!" he said. "How do you feel about it?" "I think I can do it." Attitude can change behavior, but it is much more common for behavior to change attitude.
To put it another way: Getting wealthy doesn't depend as much on whether you are a positive person or a negative one as it does on the specific actions you take -- or fail to take. There is so much misinformation on this subject in the self-help industry. The wannabes out there want to believe there is a mental switch inside them that, if they could find it, would instantly transform them from couch potatoes to human money machines. "The switch is somewhere in your brain," they argue. "Find it, trip it, and the rest is easy." Yes, it is easy to become wealthy... if you follow the practical, action-oriented wealth-building advice you'll find in Early to Rise. But if the only thing you are willing to do is think about getting richer, you are going to be disappointed. You may not like what I'm saying, but you need to hear it. Please trust me on that. I am not saying that I don't believe in positive thinking. I absolutely believe that it helps in many ways. When I brush my teeth every morning, I smile at myself in the mirror at least a dozen times to give me energy and put me in a productive mood. And when I'm going to give a speech, participate in a wrestling match, or make a presentation, I use visualization to mentally prepare myself to do well. But those things are not going to turn me into a money magnet. To develop the power to create wealth, you need to take certain very specific wealth-building actions. And each time you complete one of those actions, you will feel a deep change inside you. That's what you really need -- a change in your wealth-building habits and behaviors. Read ETR and you'll find out what those habits and behaviors are.
When you are going to be interviewed for a job, try to be the last one they see. Studies show, and my experience confirms, that the people who do best in multiple interviews are those who are first or last. And that's regardless of how good they actually are. First is good. But last is better. If you are scheduled somewhere in the middle of the pack, give a reason for getting the earliest or latest slot instead. It doesn't hurt to ask.
Kendra Pearsall is eager to find a mentor and/or business partner. But she works at home, alone. "How do I find someone to work with?" she asks. Kendra, there are plenty of ways to do it. The most important thing to know is this: Don't look for a "forever" business partner like you would look for a spouse. Look, instead, for people you can partner with for specific projects -- people who have expertise in areas where you are weak. If you are a writer, look for marketers, graphic artists, and technical people. If you are a numbers person, team up with creative talent. Go to chat rooms and chat. There are so many ways to connect with people via the Internet, there is absolutely no excuse for not doing so. Go to trade shows and seminars and smile a lot. Don't give out business cards. Take them. Make follow-up phone calls or e-mails. Ask, "What can I do for you?" Building business relationships begins with you. You have to demonstrate that you are someone who is willing to give, not just take. In all likelihood, you know how the people whose cards you take can help you. But they might not know what you can do to help them. As I said, the goal is not to find someone who will be your long-term business mate. It is to find people who can help you build your business in the short run. If you have a dozen such relationships, one or two of them are likely to have the potential for something longer-term and more rewarding. Brian Edmondson, Director of ETR's Internet Money Club and Internet Power Coaching programs, was a budding online entrepreneur when he met the Early to Rise team at an Info-Marketing Bootcamp. That informal meeting led to a valuable partnership that is mutually beneficial. Brian provides content and services. And ETR provides marketing expertise and an audience of buyers. Several years ago, Monica Day and Krista Jones met at the American Writers & Artists Inc. yearly conference in Florida. They became fast friends and did a few writing jobs together. Before long, they were partners in a business. My high school friend Eddie and I re-met in a bank lobby 25 years ago. He was a real estate attorney and I was buying real estate. He helped me close several deals. In return, I invested in a few of his limited partnerships. Gradually, we became full-fledged partners in several very substantial developments overseas. This has been a sideline business for me over the years, but it has made me millions and millions of dollars. These are just three stories -- three examples of how you can find great partners if you simply devote some time to meeting people and then starting some sort of relationship with them, even if it is to become a customer or client.
THB Managing Editor Jon Herring blew the lid off the low-fat diet myth on Wednesday -- and reader comments came fast and furious. Here are just a few: "In my opinion, low-fat diets were the biggest nutritional disaster of the 20th Century, and that's where they should stay, in the 20th Century. They promoted large-scale consumption of sugar, wheat, and corn, to which people developed food sensitivities & became fat. People missed out on essential fats, like omega 3s, which are needed to make cell membranes. The low-fat generation is now developing Alzheimer's because they were deficient in good fats." - Fenella "Having grown up on a dairy farm in Minnesota surrounded by a family of British ancestry and neighbors of German ancestry, it was obvious that high-fat, even saturated fat, as in fatty meats and dairy products, was contrary to the no-high-fat philosophy of the health industry. "The healthiest people I have ever known were those Minnesota farmers who ate large quantities of fat -- remembering that they also ate organically grown food, including lots of fruit and vegetables." - Elaine "When I was growing up un the 50s in England, my mother always said to me that bread, potatoes, and sugar would make me fat!! How right she was. I now live in a very rural area of Northwest Spain (Galicia). In this area, we have the oldest population in the whole of Spain. People regularly live till over 90, and often well over 100. The diet is based around good food naturally grown with (until recently) no thought to the amount of fat. The pig is king here, home grown and butchered at home, with home grown fruit and vegetables and hens, for eggs and meat." - Penelope
[Ed. Note: Michael Masterson welcomes your questions and comments. Send him a message at AskMichael@ETRFeedback.com.] | 
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