10 Life Lessons On How To Find Your Why NOW & Achieve Ultimate Success – Lesson 4 (part 3)

Getting Beyond Security

I was introduced to a vehicle that enabled my Why to finally come alive. I listened to a woman speak about a business and a vehicle – Network Marketing. I’ll never forget her words. She said, “If you work hard, if you work smart, if you follow a system, you will achieve success.”

She also said that I could achieve these three magical words – time, freedom and wealth. That’s when I saw the possibility that even I could do what I wanted to do, when I wanted to do it and with whom I wanted to do it with. Within seven years of hearing her speak those words of power into my life, I created a very successful business and semi-retired to South Florida.

Yes! I grabbed those words that created the possibility that I could succeed like a drowning man grabbing a life preserver. I said to myself, “I want to empower people. I want to help people realize that they can do whatever they want to do in life.” For the first time in my life, I was able to move beyond the comfort zone of security. I realized that my security of working behind the scenes at the art gallery had allowed my stuttering to control me and my life. Security will make you complacent. It will control you and ultimately destroy you. If you’re secure right now in your job, you could be in the process of demolishing your future success. Let me ask you a question, if you didn’t have to go out and earn money to pay your bills, what would you do? That’s right; if every bill was paid and you had enough money in the bank for the rest of your life, what would you be doing? Take a second and write down your answer. Now, that is your Why! I will come back to that later, but let me tell you what happened when I went home that night from the event. I arrived home to my parent’s house about 11:30pm, and I just started crying. Why? Because I found a way out! I found the actual vehicle that would allow me to achieve my dreams. I could build a business, set myself free and be able to go out and speak to people. I could tell others that it is possible to achieve success, and it is okay to have dreams. That’s the night my life and my world changed. Then, I was introduced to personal development through the classic book, “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill. If you don’t have that book, then invest in yourself and go buy it. Personal development and the industry of Network Marketing opened my eyes to opportunities that I never knew existed or were possible for even me to achieve.

I woke up the next morning and was on my way to the gym at 5:30am. As I was driving to my health club I thought to myself, “I truly don’t understand yet how I’m going to do this. I don’t know this business. I don’t know the system. I don’t know anything”, but what I did know was that someone told me I could do it and I was willing to listen to that person. I was willing to be become success-driven and listen to people that could and would help me become successful and achieve my Why. To do that meant leaving the comfortable and complacent nest of security. You will never fly, and you will never become a success maniac if you remain in the nest.

10 Life Lessons On How To Find Your Why NOW & Achieve Ultimate Success – Lesson 4 (part 2)

I graduated as an elite business student from an accredited college, but it got me absolutely nowhere. I respect education, but most of the time education only teaches you about a certain subject. It doesn’t train you to achieve success. That is part of what makes my teachings and this book so different. My goal is to train people and motivate them to become successful no matter their level of education, where they came from or any other factor that society uses to determine success. EVERYONE can do it!

As you know, I was a stutterer. But, worse than that, I was labeled a stutterer. People would tell me, “John, just stay with your family. That’s all you’re gonna do. You’ll work for your family. Don’t worry about becoming successful, forget your college degree. You can’t even say your name! Who do you think you are? How can you get a regular job? How can you take your college degree and go out and change the world?” I was labeled by society and destined to fail if I listened to them. If you have been labeled, I want you to tear that label off of yourself right now! A label is a lie. Labels box people into groups. As I wrote in Lesson One, we are not a group. We are individuals. When people called Helen Keller deaf and dumb, they were labeling her as part of a group of handicapped people. As a strong individual with a miracle inside, she blew through that group label like a bullet through a bed sheet. That so-called handicapped lady is one of the most successful people in history.

No one deserves to be labeled no matter the challenges that they face in life. The miracle inside is larger than the label, and inside you are seeds of greatness. The famous and wise Oliver Wendell Holmes said, “What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are small matters compared to what lies within us.”

10 Life Lessons On How To Find Your Why NOW & Achieve Ultimate Success – Lesson 4 (part 1)

It is All About the “WHY”
Yes, you read it right. It is all about the WHY! A strong enough Why will pull you through every situation and will make you a true conqueror and victor in every occasion. It will lift you far above the average. It makes you go where others stop. It pulls you though the swamps of life when others get stuck, lost or drowned.

I can almost hear what many readers are thinking…“Is this it? How can these words bring all the lofty promises you just made? How can it be that simple? This sounds too simple to be true.” I agree that it’s simple, but it’s not too simple to be true. In fact, I’ve learned that most of life’s secrets of success are simple. Too often a false intellectualism makes things too complicated to ever succeed. Yes, it’s simply all about the Why.

The Miracle Inside
You’re Why is your biggest, most significant, result-creating force in life! Goals are great, but a Why separates a goal-setter from a goal-achiever and a person that truly changes people’s lives. Another way of looking at your Why in life is to think of it as your ultimate reason or purpose for living.

Your Why makes all the difference in your life. It separates you from the crowd. A strong Why will not only make you get up in the morning, but it will make you happy, passionate and want to live your life to the fullest! My goal is for you to “Find Your Why.” Discover that driving force inside of you and feed it with the right words, the right people, the right books, the right motivation and the right inspirational messages. If you do that, then the force – your Why – will emerge and drive you to success. Do you realize that you have a miracle inside you? We just have to extract it and enable you to fly. As I say, you’ve got to Find Your WHY and Fly!

Let me tell you my story. At the age of twenty-four, I was working seven days a week, more than twelve hours a day, in my family business, an art gallery. My grandfather, who I truly loved and adored, gave me two of the most powerful values that I still possess today – honesty and hard work.

10 Life Lessons On How To Find Your Why NOW & Achieve Ultimate Success – Lesson 3 (part 3)

Anyone Can Give
Some of you will say, “You know what John? I just can’t give right now because I have nothing to give.” You’re wrong. A smile is a gift. A handshake or an embrace is a gift. Being there with a shoulder to cry on is a gift. Being accountable to your business partner is a gift. Being a daily giver and planting seeds in the lives of others will change the face of your future.
Always remember, seasons come and seasons go, but seed time and harvest will not cease no matter what we do. Think of it this way. If you plant a seed in the summer, then you will reap its fruits in the fall. If you fail to plant a seed in the summer, then in the fall you will have no harvest. The great Jim Rohn says, “Everyone must be good at sowing in the spring or will be begging in the fall.” The habit of giving is like insurance for the achievement of your ultimate Why in life. For example, if you have a car accident then your insurance guarantees that your damages will be covered based on the amount that you provided in your policy. It’s the same with giving. Your habit of giving determines your level of success in your future; it is based on what you have given away. Many people think that they will wait until they are a multi-millionaire to give. That is not the way to start. The sad reality is that if you can’t bring yourself to give now, then you sure won’t make yourself give when you are financially secure and wealthy.

Remember, giving is an attitude; it is not based on the amount of money in your bank account. It’s a heart issue. That’s why I say that anyone can give. You Can Only Keep What You Give Away I heard an incredible true story that I want to pass on to you. A young couple had not been married very long when the husband began to feel a strong sense that they should give away their household possessions. Furniture. Appliances. Even wedding gifts. Everything! After a few days, he reluctantly shared his feelings with his young wife only to discover that she had a very strong sense of the same thing. She had been struggling with how to tell him.

Confident that God was directing them, they began the process of giving everything away. Within a few days, everything was gone. The husband recalls, “Even the original painting that my grandmother had painted, a family heirloom, was given away.” Although somewhat perplexed as they slept on the floor amidst nothing, they felt peace and assurance that they had done the right thing.

10 Life Lessons On How To Find Your Why NOW & Achieve Ultimate Success – Lesson 3 (part 2)

Here are a few ways you can start to cultivate this new habit:

•Donate your time to your favorite organization or a friend in need.
•Offer your wisdom to person that may be starting a new life for himself/herself.
•Smile and say hello to someone that looks like they really need something positive to happen to them.
•Take some of your old clothes that you never wear to the Salvation Army. Cook a hot meal for an elderly shut-in.
•Repair an automobile for someone that can’t afford the repairs.

I would say that the first rule of giving is very simple – give what you have. If you don’t have wealth, you may not be able to give money, but you can still be a giver. You can still cultivate the habit of giving.

First, give whatever you have been blessed with or whatever talent you have. You have to sow these seeds today in order to design your future. You design and predict your future by planting seeds in the lives of others. If you plant seeds of hope in others, then you will reap a bountiful harvest (a successful future). Of course, there’s a flip side to that. If you are selfish and only think of getting what you want out of life, then you will reap what you sow – selfishness. Your failure to plant seeds in the lives of others will result in nothing but dried up soil not to mention a very lonely and unfulfilled life. There’s nothing better than the feeling you have after you have blessed the life of another person. For instance, my wife and I decided five years ago not to give Christmas gifts to each other and even asked our family/friends not to give us Christmas gifts. Instead, we take the money that everyone would have spent on those gifts and provide a great Christmas for families in need. Christmas is our favorite time of the year not because of what we receive, but because of what we give away and the joy that our giving brings to others.

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