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Believe In Yourself And Your Dreams
Submitted by: Adam M
Sydney, AustraliaI'm a businessman who sold my business to follow a dream.
My story starts in July 2003. My son was a few months old and I was at a personal development retreat. My dream had always been to start and have a successful business and build it up into something special. In the years that would follow I would achieve this, but I’m not going to get too ahead in the story just yet.
At this retreat I was introduced to a program called “You Were Born Rich’. I had no idea about the program, who wrote it (Bob Proctor) or anything else about it for that matter. Throughout the program we went through many concepts and ideas which kept building over several days. At night we would continue to expand on the teachings, and what we thought about ourselves as people, as well as what could be possible for us.
There came a moment during the retreat where we went through a deep meditative process aimed at helping us define our purpose. The facilitator guided us through the meditation and when we got to the end of it, he said we were to sit quietly, and when we felt that the moment had come, we were to open our eyes and write down what came to us. What happened next was a complete surprise! When I came out of that meditation, I opened my eyes and just started writing. What I wrote was short, sharp and succinct. This is what I wrote: “My purpose in life is to help others to believe in themselves, to love, accept and be themselves, but most importantly to believe in themselves.”. I wrote this down on a 3×5 card.
I remember looking at what I wrote in total surprise. This wasn’t what I would have consciously thought of in a million years. Not only that, I had no idea of how I would do this or even where to start. So naturally I wrote it off and forgot about it, instead focussing on business, where I would eventually build a successful financial planning business from the ground up.
Then in 2009 things changed. I was a member of a mastermind group that met regularly. We were all like-minded business people wanting to improve ourselves and our businesses. About 6 to 9 months after we had started the meetings we were having a discussion about what we felt our fellow mastermind members strengths were. When I got to hear what the others thought my strengths were, I was completely blown away. They all said that I should be helping and teaching people, not about business, but about life and personal development. One of the members, Glenn, said that he had a strong sense that I should be working with kids, teaching them the soft skills they needed to succeed in life. By soft skills he meant self-confidence, self-worth and so on.
Totally surprised, I went home and told my wife what the group had said. She then looked at me and said, “I know. You should.” This blew me away even more! Interestingly, a few days later I was rummaging through some old boxes when I found the 3×5 card with my purpose written on it. I took it out and just stared at it. In that moment I KNEW.
Over the next year or so I made the decision to sell my business, which I eventually did. I was fortunate that the sale enabled me to still provide for my family, whilst allowing me to focus on how to make my purpose happen. I ended up going to the US, meeting Bob Proctor and being mentored by him. I also came up with a few ways to try and make my purpose happen and had some moderate success, but nothing great or spectacular. I ended up going into business with a gentleman who also similarly wanted to help people to believe in themselves, however, this business venture fell over.
Over the last few years I have continued to speak and teach, working in the area of sales training and personal development. Again, I’ve done well out of it but deep down I knew that this was never really quite right for me.
Then in 2014 my mother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and wasn’t given long to live. I made the decision to literally stop what I was doing and to spend more time with mum. I also did some soul searching. Watching what was happening to mum made me really realize that life is precious, that family is precious, as are friends and health. I knew I had to make some changes.
Mum passed in January this year.
I made the decision to take my time during 2015 to re-evaluate exactly what I should be doing in terms of fulfilling my purpose. I’ve had opportunities come my way, but in truth, they didn’t truly resonate with me at my core. I kept trying to force the issue and I became frustrated. So I picked up my copy of The Secret and began reading it again. I actually read it a few times. I didn’t receive any great insights at first, but as I kept reading it I came to the realization that ‘the how’ was not my domain. So I made the promise to myself that I would ‘let go and let God’ and let it happen rather than force it to happen.
One morning I had the inspiration to go to the beach near my home. When I got there I just stared out at the ocean for a while, watching the waves roll in and the effortless way it just all happened. “This is how it’s got to be for me, effortless, like I’m in the flow,” I thought to myself. I got out my notepad and wrote the question, “What should I be doing?” The answer instantly came, “Helping people to believe in themselves.” So I wrote “What people?” and this answer came to me, “Kids and youth.” As soon as I had written it I felt a sense of immense peace and knowing; this was ‘my effortless’. I made my decision.
What happened since has been amazing. I have met people who have told me about their youth and how they wished there was a program to help the kids of today to believe in themselves. I’ve met with child counsellors and psychologists who have said exactly the same thing. This is the Universe leading the way. So I have been busy putting together a personal development program that will help youth with the soft skills they need to succeed. As it’s evolved the more fabulous it’s become. I use my son, who’s now in high school, as well as my daughter as sounding boards. If they didn’t like something I would ditch it. The thing is, writing the program has been effortless and there have only been a few very minor things that have been ditched. Mostly they both have said that the program is really good, it’s different, it’s how kids like to learn, kids will like it and ‘get it’, and that it will work. At its core it teaches self-belief, self-worth and self-respect, as well as a whole lot more. As part of the program, each of the kids will be introduced to The Secret (I won’t reveal just how though!!!) and how they can take responsibility for their lives and results. When I came up with the name for the program I knew instantly it was the right name because it was effortless. When I told my kids the name they said that it’s the perfect name for it. Perfect!
I recently said to a lady that this program will save lives, and it will. It will give people back to themselves. The program will be kicking off in 2016.