Million Dollar Habits

Million Dollar Habits – Page 30 
story that you read, watch or hear about. When you continually immerse your mind 
in the stories of men and women who have accomplished wonderful things with 
their lives, you unconsciously identify with those characters and actually absorb 
their values, virtues and qualities into your own personality. 
Dr. David McClelland of Harvard, in his book 
The Achieving Society
explains how 
role models
have an inordinate effect on shaping the character and personality of 
the young. One of his conclusions was that the men and women who are the most 
admired, and held up as models in society during the formative years of the young 
person, have an inordinate influence on the character and the aspirations of that 
person when he or she grows to adulthood.
By the same token, young people who have positive role models around them 
when they are growing up are much more likely to become men and women of 
quality and character as adults than young people who have no role models, or 
even worse, negative role models, as often occurs today. 
With regard to the self-ideal, unhappy, unsuccessful men and women tend to be 
very fuzzy or unclear about their ideals. If you ask them what they consider to be 
the most valuable and important qualities in human character and personality, they 
have either unclear or contradictory answers. This lack of clarity or certainty about 
what constitutes an ideal person often causes an individual to go around in circles 
in life, to associate with negative influences and spent time with people who are 
equally unclear and unfocused about 
“the person they want to be when they grow 
up.” 

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Million Dollar Habits – Page 31 
Your Values Shape Your Personality 
The values you choose to live by, and the way you define those values, shape and 
influence your personality and your achievements as much or more than any other 
single factor. When you take the time to think through and develop absolute clarity 
about the key values and qualities that you admire the most, and wish the most to 
incorporate into yourself, you begin to shape and direct your whole personality, 
and determine the results you achieve in the future. 
As you think about your values, and reflect upon how you could incorporate them 
into your life and behaviors, you become a different person. As a result, you attract 
different people and opportunities into your life. Your outer world soon begins to 
mirror your inner world. You start to move more rapidly toward the achievement 
of your most important goals, and your goals begin to move rapidly toward you. It 
all begins with you taking complete control of the formation and development of 
your personal self-ideal.