Facebook is such a great resource for positive people. I absolutely love being surrounded by such optimistic, ambitious people. It makes my journey in life so much easier, as I am sure most of you can agree. Here recently I asked “Which one word would you use to describe your life right now?” and I received some great responses. Honestly, I wasn’t sure of the answers I would get to that question. I thought the majority of the answers would have been average answers, such as, “crappy, monotonous, stagnant, interesting, lame…etc,” I think you get the point. But I was positively surprised  at the response. As you can see to the right, most of the words are positive and motivating.

In fact, most of the people that responded to my question are Entrepreneurs in some way, shape or form. I have worked with many of them. I have seen their lifestyle and they speak truth in their “one word.”

Describe your life in one word

In the past I have asked that same question to people and could tell they were lying through their teeth as they told me their life was wonderful. That’s the worst thing anyone could do. It’s not the fact that they lied to me….the true damage is that they actually only lied to themselves. If your life is a wreck, admit it. Accept the truth…and after you do, set course to change it. One of my mentors, Jim Rohn, spoke about affirmations being a joke. It doesn’t do anyone any good to tell yourself that you are “Skinny and beautiful” when you are 600 lbs and can’t remember the last time you took a shower or brushed your teeth. There must be action behind the belief. To say your life is “Fantastic” when it is truly in shambles is more damaging then not.

Now what you can do is affirm the actions you are taking. That’s a true affirmation. As you are exercising, eating healthy, practicing regular hygiene and learning how to put on make-up, you can definitely affirm that you are “becoming thinner and more beautiful.”

As the common phrase puts it,”Keep it Real!”…..and as Shakespeare put it, just a bit more elegantly, “To thine own self be true.”

Question: Does it ever feel like no matter what you do, everything seems to be trying to pull you or keep you doing the same thing everyone else is doing? At times do you feel like the herd is calling you, begging you to come back and trying everything in its power to make sure you do come back? Eventually, most do. Everyday for me…and every time I think of what my life would be like should I choose to submit, I just want to start “mooooing.” That’s the role I would play.

I read a quote the other day that would motivate anyone with a true entrepreneur spirit:

“To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best day and night to make you everybody else, means to fight the hardest battle any human being can fight; and never
stop fighting.”  – E.E. Cummings

Just by being an entrepreneur, you are at war. This isn’t a violent war or a war that is even noticed by most, but is in the here and the now. It’s imminent and you are the Brigadier General. Your thoughts, your ambitions, your individuality, your goals and everything you desire in life is the “cause” you are fighting for.

It’s seems that every corner I turn, there’s a loved one, a stranger or a friend encouraging me to fit back into the mold of what the world has taught them to be normal. My life isn’t in alignment with theirs and it’s difficult for them to understand why. It’s not their fault. That’s just the way they were taught, and they accepted that. I didn’t. I’ve never been the guy who wants to hang out with the crowd or do what everyone else is doing. It never got me excited. I always did my own thing, no matter what, and was I always successful in that? No….but at least it was my idea, my choice.

For those of you who love the popular “mold,” none of this may make any sense to you.

Life is way too short to waste it wishing instead of just doing. It takes guts. It takes ambition….but is so dang rewarding. It’s liberating, exciting and extremely fulfilling to know that you have your own compass and are charting your own course by doing something that nobody else on the planet has done.

So yes, in order to do just this, it’s a constant battle against all that is common and normally accepted. To be the best YOU possible, you must declare war, make your strategy and then…..STRIKE!! I’m with you and support you. Don’t wait. Timing is everything….and the time is NOW!

Recently I have had many thoughts and conversations and what it truly takes to create success in a home based business. If we were to look at the statistics of successful home business owners versus unsuccessful ones, I am pretty sure the majority of the numbers would point towards those who have failed, given up or have not yet experienced the success they had expected. In fact, if we look at any business or industry, not singling out just network marketing, the statistics would be in favor of the unsuccessful.

It’s a sad thing, I know…..but in my industry, network marketing, there’s a significant difference between those who succeed and those who don’t. That difference is contained in the word “Expert!” That’s the secret. In order to truly succeed in your home business, you MUST become an expert in your field. There’s no way around it.

Now, I know there are success stories of people who have zero experience that come into a home business and make a ton of money really quickly…..but where’s the rest of the story? Someone can make a quarter million dollars with a good home business opportunity simply by pursuing their warm market….the people they know. But what happens when that warm market is all spent. They are stuck in the mud without  four wheel drive and the momentum they had once before because they have run out of people to talk to about their amazing home business. And guys, I’m not making this up! I have seen it happen over and over again. They come, they have an awesome first year, they halt in income, and they check out. This is one of the reasons you see people doing what we call “Opportunity Jumping.”

The secret to true, prolonged consistent success in a home business, is to become an Expert. And what I mean by that, is to become really, really good at whatever it is you do. To give you an example: You can obviously see my blog, since you are reading it at this very moment. I have some decent traffic coming into this site through the marketing I have done for it. I rank first page on Google, Yahoo and Bing for some of the most competitive keyphrases in my industry. I have a presence on the internet and have generated hundreds of thousands of dollars because of it. Now, a year and a half after starting this business, I had no clue about marketing. I was having someone else do it all for me and was paying them to do it. I distinctly remember not even knowing what a URL was or that it needed an http://. I was clueless.

But you know what happened? The paid marketing fell through and I was forced to learn it all. I studied, I Googled,  I did everything I needed to do to learn how to market. I became and expert in my field. I became really good at what I do and in order to create prolonged success, that’s what it takes. Sure, you may make money by paying someone else to do it all for you, but what happens when that falls through? What happens when your new distributor gets started and your marketing guy can’t take any more clients? Then what? You must become a marketing expert! It’s all about duplication…..and that is able to be duplicated.

When all the smoke and mirrors are gone, the excitement of starting that new business wears off and your warm market is exhausted, your success really teeters on how good you really are in your niche. If you are actively engaged in your self education, you’ll excel and create the success that you deserve…..and you’ll keep it going for a really long time. Become an expert marketer and success will follow you like it has never done before. I promise you that!

To close off the 5 Categories of Success, let’s talk a little about Recreational Success. Sure, I know…you are probably thinking, “What in the #$#@ is recreational success?” Well, we know that recreation is doing something recreational, or something fun. A recreational act is an act designed to amuse, refresh or enjoy.

The Fifth Category of Success – Recreational

I like to consider it as a recharging of the batteries….and for those of you who recharge batteries often, you know a few things. You know that if you don’t charge them long enough, they won’t have full power and if you charge them too long, they become weak. There has to be a balance.

The same applies in life. There must be a balance of work and play, otherwise, what’s the point. There has to be those moments where you don’t want to do a dang thing but watch a movie. The times where you just sit to watch the sun go up or go down is healthy for your mind, your body and your soul. Taking that new car down the highway just to see how fast it can go is more of a positive influence on your well being than it is negative….even if you get a huge speeding ticket. As human beings, we thrive on excitement, fulfillment and even a degree of danger, as long as it is calculated danger, posed in our favor. We want to smile and laugh out loud. The healthiest and happiest people in the world are those who work hard and laugh often.

What’s the point of working hard all your life if you can’t enjoy all that you have worked to create. A life lived without some leisure and laughter is a life missed. And in my line of business, Network Marketing, those who can integrate their work into their recreation make the most money and experience the most success. Living your life out loud, the way you want to live it, attracts those who desire what you have. Nobody enjoys hanging around the guy who works all the time. He’s the guy without any friends or in most cases, the guy without a family. Nobody wants to be that guy.

Recreational success makes all that you have been able to accomplish, more fun, and motivates you to achieve more. I know that by doing my work today, I can take time off tomorrow. In most cases, that’s why I work so hard. I work hard so that I can play hard. What a great philosophy. Work Hard, Play Hard.

Next up to bat in the 5 Categories of Success is the fourth and most sought after category, Financial! I don’t really know anyone, anywhere, that would say “no” to making a little more money. Some pursue money as if it is the very thing they depend on to sustain life, money being the very air they breathe. Success to many means having lots and lots of money and plenty of time to spend and enjoy having all that money. It’s all about being the P.I.M.P. with the 20 inch rims, the huge mansion and money all over the place. It’s amazing to see someone rise to the top and become wealthier than they have ever been, become the high roller they had always wanted to be, spend all of their money, and end up broke, depressed and out of luck.

The Fourth Category of Success – Financial

Having a mansion, cars, boats, ATV’s, planes, maids, employees, nice clothes and all that can dress up your appearance is NOT financial success. Financial success is about having assets. An asset is something of value, or something that can bring your more income…consistent income. The only thing in the list I just mentioned that may be an asset is the mansion. Everything else is a depreciating deficit…..things that cost you more money. Having the cars, boats, atv’s, planes, maids and nice clothes are results of having assets, if you so choose to accumulate those things.

Now, I know many people think that once they achieve financial success that all the other categories will fall into place. They will then have the time and money to improve themselves, their families and their spirituality. To most people, the money fixes everything and makes everything possible. Not the case! If you were a broke, miserable person before falling into financial success, you will eventually become a broke, miserable person again unless you change you! The financial success comes and STAYS because of who you are being. If you have not become the millionaire in your mind first, then you will not remain a millionaire for long, because your money thermostat is set much, much lower than that. To learn more about how to reset your thermostat, read “Secrets of a Millionaire Mind” by T. Harv Ecker. Great read!

Now, financial success to me, is after all of my expenses (ie bills, groceries, mortgage etc) I still have plenty of money to put a portion away for savings, donate a portion for a good cause, invest some back into strengthening my assets and to live an abundant lifestyle. That’s financial success. It’s not about having  just enough to get by. That’s three months away from homeless should tragedy strike. It’s true. How many people have lost homes because they were making just enough to get by and tragedy struck, they lost their job? Too many! I apologize, but I have to recommend another book here. It’s “The Richest Man in Babylon” by George S. Clason. That short, little book will teach you a bit more about what to do with the money you make.

The portal to creating financial success is Entrepreneurship. You must become an entrepreneur. By doing so, you are in control of how much or how little you earn, and the cool thing about entrepreneurship, is you can make a lot of money doing exactly what you love to do. If that is eating donuts all day, you can own a donut shop. If you enjoy teaching kids how to play basketball, you can organize basketball camps and three on three tournaments. If you enjoy it, chances are, you will do well. It’s about finding a way to make it happen. Most likely, things won’t be laid out perfectly for you with ABC instructions on how to create success. To me, that’s the exciting part of it all. You get to take ALL the credit for what you create!

If I can give you a few tips of advice in creating your financial success, it would be this:

1. Know what you want. Get very clear. Be creative with your ideas. Be different.
2. Mastermind with those people who have the results you desire to have.
3. Persist without exception until you get what you want. Learn that “The Buck Stops Here!” To learn more about that you can read “The Travelers Gift” by Andy Andrews.
4. Burn your boats, meaning, leave no escape routes or back doors. Play with all out MASSIVE action. Play small, get small results. Play big, get big results.
5. Be extremely consistent.

Anyone and everyone that has a desire to succeed and the willpower to pursue their dreams has to potential to achieve them. One of the most important concepts that I have learned on the path of financial success, is to simply “Enjoy the Journey!” Life is good and because of you, it will become better and better. Money isn’t everything. Money is a tool, or a gateway to achieving greater things in life. Use it to bless your life, the life of your family and the lives of others in a positive way…….and guys, there’s plenty to go around!

So we’ve covered success categories Self and Family,  I hope you are able to see how each one builds upon the other. Success is all about the whole package. It’s a series of smaller events gone right spread throughout all main categories of life. To achieve extreme success in business yet fail in your family is merely partial success. Given that no single person on this planet is absolutely perfect in every category, the ones I consider truly successful are the ones that have experienced and continue to work on each of the 5 Categories of Success.

The Third Category of Success – Spiritual

The next category on the triangle of success is the Spiritual category. Most people are religious and believe in a higher being or higher power. That higher power is this being who we call God, our Heavenly Father, the Universe, Allah and so forth and is the origin of our creation. We are literal offspring of this all-powerful being, and just like any child who is born into this world inherits traits and abilities from his or her parents, in addition, we also inherit traits and abilities from our Heavenly Father. With that in mind, we must understand that we are spiritual, heavenly beings having a physical, earthly experience. Not the other way around and for a great reference and in depth discussion on this topic, read “You’ll see it when you believe it” by author Dr. Wayne Dyer. Great book!

Now, how do we know, for ourselves, that we are a heavenly beings having an earthly experience? I think you all know the answer to that question. We certainly can’t prove it. Scientists sure try to discredit it. It’s through faith. Faith is our own personal evidence of something we believe in which cannot be seen. Faith is our connection to our Heavenly selves.

Now, let’s look a little deeper into the word faith. Faith is evidence of things we cannot touch, see or smell, at least not with our physical traits. If you have faith, you are a natural optimist. Faith is used for things which are to come, not things which already are. A good example to illustrate this is past versus future. A faithful person is always focused on the future, the things he has not yet been able to touch, see and smell physically. An unfaithful person may dwell in the past because that is real to him. He has been able to touch, see and smell it. He doesn’t need to have faith because he has a perfect knowledge of all his experiences. Faith is knowing just enough of where we come from in order to see where we are going.

My point is….if our faith is sufficient, we will truly understand who we are and where we come from. And in understanding that, and truly believing we are heavenly beings having an earthly experience, we also will understand our potential. Our Heavenly Father isn’t a being of suppression or pride. He wants us to fulfill the the true measure of our creation. In English, He wants us to be successful by achieving our full potential here on earth…..a potential, by the way, that is partially limited by our physical existence. Imagine all that we will be able to achieve after this earthly experience, when we no longer have that physical limitation!

Now don’t get any crazy ideas of trying to reach the afterlife quicker! Just know who you are and where you come from. Have a desire to know why you are here, where you come from and what that means for you in this life. We’ve all seen the movies where the main character gets amnesia and can’t remember who he is. “Bourne Identity, Bourne Supremacy and Bourne Ultimatum” is a series of movies that explains this perfectly. Jason Bourne uses all of his energy, knowledge and abilities to discover who he truly is, and until he finds out, he can’t rest. We all come into this world with heavenly amnesia, forgetting who we truly are. Just as Jason Bourne would not rest until he discovered his true identity, I encourage all of you to do the same. If you don’t already know, discover who you truly are. You are a powerful, Heavenly being simply having an earthly experience.

How might that change your way of thinking today and how will that change in thought, effect your actions? Suddenly all the the smaller, physical problems won’t have as much of an effect on you. If you truly understand who you are, the effect is tremendous!