The 4 Legs in the Chair of Success

I recently started reading James Altucher’s Choose Yourself Guide to Wealth, and an interesting theme has emerged that got me thinking about my own success.

James talks about four things throughout the book, and even drew the analogy that these four were like the four legs of a chair that you sit on. Take away one of the legs, and you’ll still probably be able to balance, but it’ll be difficult. Remove two of the legs, and you’ll have a heck of a time!

So, what are the four legs of this chair?

They are Physical, Emotional, Mental, and Spiritual health.

You might be the smartest, most well read man in a hundred miles. But if you’re physically out of shape, you’re not going to be able to contribute much to your success, nor that of anyone else!

While each of these things may be different for you, I’m going to share with you the ways I intend to work on the four legs of my success chair.

Physical

Physically, I’m going to do a set of push-ups and sit-ups each day. Just starting out, it’s only 5 each. And while that might seem minuscule or even pointless, it’s 100% better than doing nothing. Which is what I was doing before.

Each week I will increase each by one, until I reach 100 each. Then, I’ll re-examine the state of things.

Emotional

Emotionally, I’m going to begin each day by smiling at myself in the mirror for a minute. Many people have spoken on the varied benefits of this practice, and I have selected it to boost my mood and build my confidence for the day.

Mental

Mentally, I’m going to continue my daily reading practice. However, I’m adding a new twist. Starting soon, I’m going to begin writing out a list of 10 ideas each day. They don’t have to be good ideas. They don’t even have to make sense. But they absolutely need to be written out each day. Within 6 months, James says that a practitioner will be an idea machine. So, time will tell I suppose.

Spiritual

Spiritually, I’m going to continue my daily meditation practice. Just a few minutes a day, and I will increase that as I feel its needed. Incidentally, this will also help my mental and emotional health as well.

Kaizen

I’ve talked about Kaizen before. This is the practice of constant, never-ending improvement. It’s the idea that if you can improve yourself just 1% over a period of time, and continue doing that, then the compounded effects will be staggering. If you improve yourself 1% each week, then by the end of the year you won’t have improved a mere 52%, but 68%. While the difference might seem negligible at this level, suppose you kept this up for 10 or more years. The differences would be astronomical!

So it is my hope that by strengthening these four legs of my chair and committing myself to constant improvement, I will achieve my goal of being a game changer. That is, someone who can be introduced to any situation and environment, and immediately improve things for the better.

I’m interested in hearing how you intend to implement this program in your own life. Use the comments below to share your plan for success with me. And if you have a different way of going about it, I’d love to hear that as well!