Key # 1: Desire

From the "10 Keys to Create Wealth To Fulfill Your Life's Purposes"
by Michael R. Ellison


KEY #1 DESIRE
Reading about the first key helped me identify the life purposes that drive me and rediscover the innermost desires that propel and sustain me in my Wealth Journey.
Or as we often say in network marketing, "Discover my Why"

Often, I find myself jumping ahead to the how and the when in my business goals:
How can I generate more leads?
How do I get my new business affiliate started?
When will I quit my job?
But none of these questions matter unless I figure out
Why I'm doing this in the first place.

Why? Because the road to success is paved with obstacles, setbacks and disappointments , and unless I have a real and strong desire anchored by meaningful purposes, I will find thousands of reasons along the way to give up and give in.

Desire gives us focus and energy to pursue our life's passions.

Sometimes it's difficult to see beyond the day to day obligations and challenges of our everyday life, to imagine a world beyond our current reality.
Most adults have forgotten how to dream.
I have to admit that before starting my network marketing business,
I had lost my ability to dream as well.
Sad to say, but at 28 I was living a life of quiet desperation and I was blissfully unaware of it.
Don't get me wrong, there was nothing wrong with my life back then:
I had just gotten married, was expecting my first child, had a good job, good friends, what else was there to dream about?
There was no need to venture pass the 4 little walls of my life until...
That's a story for another time.

To make a long story short, starting a business "awakened the giant in me".
It broadened my horizon, gave me new goals to aspire to.

My desire for wealth is not greed based , it's purpose based.
It's not about the money itself, it's about the freedom and opportunities that money brings about.
Freedom to set your own hours, live where you want, do the things that are important to you; Opportunities for your children to attend better schools, to travel and experience new cultures, to help the less fortunate.

There is an unforgettable scene in one of Steve Martin's movies "Parenthood"
After his wife announces that they are expecting their unexpected 4Th child just
after he quit his job in a pretty dramatic fashion; Steve in a moment of quiet desperation says "My whole life is have to."
I don't know about you, but I want to live the life I want to live, not the one I have to live.
Money is just a means to an end not the end itself.

Think about this for a little bit:
If Money was not an issue in your life what would you do with the extra time and money?

Here's to dreaming again!

Pushing Through the Fear

I don't know about you but when I started with this business I was determined to succeed. I can still remember the sleepless nights thinking about all the records I was going to break, all the money I was about to make. Then overtime, reality stepped in, doubth creeped in; I got in a rut, got stuck and have no idea why. That thing stopping me has a name and it's called FEAR. What am I really afraid of and how can I get over it? I heard Jim Edwards say in one of his conferences that: "Fear comes from this one question you ask yourself" : "What will happen if it doesn't work out the way I want it to?" The questions I ask myself control my thoughts and therefore my attitude and my actions. I read a book called, "Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway" by Susan Jeffers. Here are my action notes: 1. Trust myself. Confidence is not the naive notion that everything will be OK, rather it's the certainty, that whatever happens in my life I can handle it. Handling it means that I'll work my way through it, I'll learn from it and ultimately I'll be OK. 2. Do my best and let go of the outcome. I can't control other people actions or reactions, I can't control unforeseen events, so why worry about them. 3. Stop Complaining. If I'm complaining, I'm not taking ownership of my actions; I'm giving control of my life to other people and outside circumstances. 4. I'll do it anyway. Rather than being afraid of rejection or of what people will think of me, I'm just taking action and worry about it later 5. Adopting the "no-lose" philosophy: "I can't lose regardless of the outcome of the decision I make". Why? because there are no such thing as mistakes and failures. In the Slight Edge, Jeff Olson says: "the secret to success is failure". "you have to go through something to get somewhere". Did you know that : * Michael Jordan, missed more than 9,000 shots in his carreer and lost almost 300 games.? 26 times, he missed the game-winning shot! * Thomas Edison, the inventor of the electric bulb, tried out thousands of different versions of it and every single one failed before he got it right. what did the great man have to say about it? "I have not failed. I've simply discovered ten thousand ways that don't work" It's time to get over myself and start asking different questions: - How will I grow and become a better person just by making the attempt? - What will I discover or learn that I can use the rest of my life? - Who else has overcome this obstacle and how can I model their beliefs and behavior? - How many lives can I impact by taking action in spite of my fear? From now on, I will act as if what I do makes a difference and commit to giving 100% to all areas in my life. Warmest Regards, Carmina Carmina Blaise Enlighten, Empower, Enrich www.WhoIsCarminaBlaise.com 908-998-1723

The Most Important Relationship

Did you go through the yearly ritual of setting your goals?

My resolution for 2009:
Improving The most important relationship in my life; The one I have with myself.
Not for selfish reasons but for the simple fact that if I can't get along with myself, I can't have good relationships with the people in my life: family, friends, business partners and clients.
Even since "The Secret" came out most of us have been aware of the control our thoughts have over our lives. But "All too often, we reserve our harshest criticisms and our most negative thoughts for ourselves." says Robert Stubert in an article in Success Magazine.
Robert points out that "the first step in managing your relationship with yourself is to determine what you actually think about yourself".

I'm ahead of the game, I've read "The Slight Edge" by Jeff Olson last year and went through the journey of discovering what Jeff calls "My Philosophy" or how I see things which in turn determines my attittudes and actions. It has a surprising journey to say the least, one that I'm grateful to have been on.
I've discovered that I have an Olympics Game Philosophy. Let me explain...
I see the world as a non ending competition field: you either win or lose, no in
between. Second place is for the first loser. I have to bring the "Gold" home every time. This is exhausting! The worse is that I never give myself permission to enjoy my accomplishments. No matter what I do , I never feel I've done enough.
Do you sometimes feel that way?
This "stinking thinking" has held me back in my business, career and personal life.
This is why I've decided to work on me this year.

What stands between success and me, is just me.
Edmund Hillary who was one of the first man to reach the top of Mount Everest, the highest spot on Earth said "It's not the mountain we conquer but ourselves".
The problem is not with the company, products ,compensation plan or other people, the problem is getting out of our own way and going for it as if we knew for sure we couldn't fail.

As Zig Ziglar says, "Success is the doing, not the getting; in the trying, not the
triumph".