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The key to becoming world-class in your endeavors is to build your performance around world-class routines. It can be difficult, even futile, to predict or control what will show up in the middle of your workday. But you can almost always control how your day starts and ends.

Personally, I'm always happy when something is hard. Why? Because I know that most people won't do what it takes; therefore, it will be easier for me to step in front of the pack and take the lead. I love what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said so eloquently: "The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge." When you press on despite difficulty, tedium, and hardship, that's when you earn your improvement and gain strides on the competition. If it's hard, awkward, or tedious, so be it. Just do it. And keep doing it, and the magic of the Compound Effect will reward you handsomely.

Every Sunday night, also at 6 p.m., we have our RR (Relationship Review). This is a practice I picked up from relationship experts Linda and Richard Eyre during an interview I did with them for our October 2009 SUCCESS Audio Series. During this time, we discuss the previous week's wins, losses, as well as the adjustments we need to make in our relationship. We start the conversation by telling each other a few things we have appreciated about the other during the previous week--it's helpful to start with the good stuff. Then, using an idea I picked up from my interview with Jack Canfield, we ask each other, "On a scale of one to ten (ten being the best), how would you rate our relationship this week?" This gets the discussion of wins and losses flowing--oh, boy! Then we discuss the adjustments that need to be made through this follow-up question: "What would it take to make your experience a ten?"

The Compound Effect is based on a principle I've used in my own life and training; that is, your decisions shape your destiny. The future is what you make of it. Little, everyday decisions will either take you to the life you desire or to disaster by default.

nothing fails like success. Once-dominant empires have failed for this very reason. People get to a certain level of success and get too comfortable.

This man wasn't an economist or a commodities trader, or in any profession that lived or died by the latest news. The time he spent with the paper and news programs on radio and TV greatly exceeded what he needed to be a knowledgeable voter and contributing member of society, or even to enhance his own personal interests. In fact, he was getting very little valuable information through his programming choices--or, rather, his lack of choices. So why did he spend nearly four hours a day consuming it? It was a habit.

"It doesn't matter how smart you are or aren't, you need to make up in hard work what you lack in experience, skill, intelligence, or innate ability. If your competitor is smarter, more talented, or experienced, you just need to work three or four times as hard. You can still beat them!"

Leadership expert John C. Maxwell said, "You will never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret of your success is found in your daily routine."

We become like the frog in the boiling water that doesn't jump to his freedom because the warming is so incremental and insidious that he doesn't notice he's getting cooked!

Each and every incomplete thing in your life exerts a draining force on you, sucking the energy of accomplishment and success out of you as surely as a vampire stealing your blood. Every incomplete promise, commitment, and agreement saps your strength because it blocks your momentum and inhibits your ability to move forward. Incomplete tasks keep calling you back to the past to take care of them. So think about what you can complete today.

About every three months, I pick one vice and abstain for thirty days (this probably stems from my Catholic Lent upbringing). I love proving to myself that I'm still in charge.

There's nothing like a friendly contest to whet your competitive spirit and immerse yourself in a new habit with a bang.

The first step toward change is awareness. If you want to get from where you are to where you want to be, you have to start by becoming aware of the choices that lead you away from your desired destination. Become very conscious of every choice you make today so you can begin to make smarter choices moving forward.

It's interesting that wealth tends to skip a generation. Overwhelming abundance often leads to a lackadaisical mentality, which brings about a sedentary lifestyle. Children of the wealthy are especially susceptible. They weren't the ones who developed the discipline and character to create the wealth in the first place, so it makes sense that they may not have the same sense of value for wealth or understand what's necessary to keep it. We frequently see this entitlement mentality in children of royalty, movie stars, and corporate executives--and to a lesser degree, in children and adults everywhere.

You've heard psychologists say that something doesn't become a habit until you practice it for three weeks. It's not an exact science, but it's a good benchmark, and it has worked for me. So, ideally, I want you to stick with your choice to track your behaviors for twenty-one days.

Tracking is my go-to transformation model for everything that ails me. Over the years I've tracked what I eat and drink, how much I exercise, how much time I spend improving a skill, my number of sales calls, even the improvement of my relationships with family, friends, or my spouse. The results have been no less profound than my money-tracking wake-up call.

When you define your goals, you give your brain something new to look for and focus on. It's as if you're giving your mind a new set of eyes from which to see all the people, circumstances, conversations, resources, ideas, and creativity surrounding you. With this new perspective (an inner itinerary), your mind proceeds to match up on the outside what you want most on the inside--your goal. It's that simple. The difference in how you experience the world and draw ideas, people, and opportunities into your life after you have clearly defined your goals is profound.

If you want your brain to perform at its peak, you've got to be even more vigilant about what you feed it. Are you feeding it news summaries or mind-numbing sitcoms?

Our habits and routines allow us to use minimal conscious energy for everyday tasks. They help keep us sane and enable us to handle most situations reasonably well. And because we don't have to think about the mundane, we can focus our mental energy on more creative and enriching thoughts. Habits can be helpful--as long as they're good habits, that is.

Right now I'm working on adding more adventure into my life. I set weekly, monthly, and yearly goals to do something I wouldn't normally do. Most of the time it's nothing earth-shattering, but things such as eating different kinds of foods, taking a class, visiting a new destination, or joining a club to meet new people. This change of pace makes me feel alive, helps recapture my passion, and offers me opportunities for fresh perspectives.