I cannot believe that for three years I let fear hold me back. How unenlightened IS that? I have known what I wanted to do, all that time. Well, not fully, but an inkling. "What if?" "People think I'm weird. I fail. I succeed." Well, people think I'm weird anyway. Who cares? Or people probably aren't even thinking of me.

I wish I'd known I was going to have this much fun; learning, growing, serving, helping, expanding. Even if at some point it doesn't turn out how I imagined, I have never been this happy. I am so grateful!

I made a huge leap of faith today. I booked airline tickets to Texas for a seminar I planned that right now has no guests. Wonder if I can manifest that. Totally fast. Less than three weeks. But, even so. If no one shows, I get to spend the weekend at my friend's bed and breakfast. Not just any friend. One of the dearest friends of my life, who I lost for several years and we were recently reunited by facebook and phone. That's a funny story too.

But, I digress. I am envisioning six guests at my Healing Hands/Abundance retreat. One is a video person, and one is a website person. Still planning it, but that's ok. I love working with new clients, being successful at it, and just being free to do what I want to do. My future feels so much better. Feel the fear, ignore it, and go for it. What do you get? FREEdom.

quote:

I cannot believe that for three years I let fear hold me back. How unenlightened IS that?

I would say how enlightened it is that you recognize it now You have inspired me thanks!

Life is one 'big playground', and we can just choose to go out and play, everyday. I remember when I was a kid, wishing for day when I would have the freedom to go out and 'play', whenever I wanted. I also wondered, 'why most of the adults around me seemed to be so serious, when they were so lucky, why didn't they have fun, instead of sitting around 'talking' so much, about serious stuff'. I remember asking them on a few different occasions:"Why don't you all come out and play with us sometimes?" My answer was a big laugh, and then the standard adult reply of, 'we can't do that, we have work to do, we are doing adult stuff...however, there was one 'uncle' who would jump in and help us form a 'sport team', give us the rules of the game, get us all revved up, act like the silliest and funniest adult I had ever met and he just was one of the highlights of my youthful day. What a teacher! He was a very happy and beloved man, all his life, and remembered as such, he died recently, peacefully and with an amazing and successful loving family,friends and associates, who remember him with such joy, and always a chuckle and much warmth.
He sure 'got it'!
I can hear the 'fun' in your post, and in the sense of adventure and excitement and openeness to opportunity that you convey in your endeavor.
I would come myself, bring that seminar to BC.
I figure it this way, you are already a success, the rest is 'icing on the cake'. You have already gained/found so much.
It sounds like you are going to have a great time in your 'playground', and so will anybody who gets to join in.
Fear? What the hell is that! Sweet success is already yours.
Bea

Thanks Bea, for giving me the image of a playground. I think I will keep that metaphor. And since I still have children 6-17 at home, it's also a good reminder to remember to play with them. I could be convinced to bring the seminar to BC. I love to play at home and abroad.

Hi Dawn;

Thanks for sharing! Sounds exciting! Keep us posted!

I like it, Dawn! Freedom as the opposite of fear. Certainly there can't be any real freedom in the presence of that kind of fear we've all experienced -- not the physical, inborn kind that's a gift to get us to take action immediately to move from danger, but that nagging kind that tells us we can't, it'll never work, we aren't enough. Yeah, when that stuff goes, freedom is what's left.

I read this story this morning and have put in bold the paragraph that I think is most important and applies to this thread.

Alvin the Vacuum Cleaner Salesman
I want to tell you about my friend Alvin who used one of the best wealth secrets ever to double his income in his field. He worked selling vacuum cleaners door to door, but you can apply this to whatever field you're in.

He wasn't doing as well as the good salespeople in his local office. In fact, he was one of the worst vacuum salesperson on his whole crew!

The only thing that separated him from all the ones who came in and stayed for a week or two was his tenacity, that and his ingenuity.

So he went and interviewed his boss about what made the best and the worst sales people. He asked what qualities the best salespeople all had in common. He asked what habits they all shared in common. Best of all, he got it all on video.

Then he went and talked to the three best sales people on his crew. He asked what habits they had, what they did to get themselves psyched up in the morning. He asked how they handled common objections, and asked how they knew when they'd make the sale.

He got their permission to tape them-they were all happy to oblige. Generally speaking, successful people are happy to share the secrets to their success.

It's usually the under-successful that have a scarcity mentality, with their work methods and everything else.

(There is also the matter of pride here-who doesn't want to be acknowledged for how well they do things, get listened to, and seen as an expert or authority?)

Then, he went to the district manager and found out the best salespeople in the district. He interviewed them and got many of the same answers.

But he didn't stop there. He wanted to find out what the worst sales people had in common, too. Neither his local nor his district manager wanted to be rude and name the worst sales people by name. He was disappointed but not daunted.

Alvin knew where to find some of the people who didn't last very long. Several of them hung out at th e same bar. So he went there with camera in hand and told them he was making a video covering the vacuum sales experience. He said he was interviewing the people who'd been around the longest and the people who decided it just wasn't for them.

A couple of rounds later, he had four interviews from some of the worst salespeople his local office had seen. (Some traits they all shared, if you're wondering, was a lack of confidence in their abilities, negative thinking, and the unwillingness to keep trying--at least when it came to that specific job.)

He went and talked to the few people he'd made sales to. He asked them what their favorite things about the vacuums were. There were three common answers and he integrated those into his sales pitch.

He also asked when it was they decided to buy. He was a little surprised at the answer. None of the answers involved a feature or even a benefit of the vacuum. Every answer started with something like, "You really had me sold when you..."

Something clicked and Alvin learned what is perhaps one of the most important parts of salesmanship: nobody will ever buy from you if they don't like you. You can rarely if ever sell someone on your product or service, if you don't sell them on you first.

Alvin then rolled up his sleeves and went to the people that DIDN'T buy from him. Some were pretty vague and non-committal (he figured maybe he just hadn't made a good connection with those prospects.)

A handful of people, however, told him something they didn't like about the vacuum or his sales pitch. He came up with answers to objects about the vacuums and also modified his sales pitch. He even sold a vacuum to one of the people he'd missed selling the first time!

Alvin more than doubled his sales income. And then he doubled THAT income by selling the videos and teaching seminars on how to double your income! Most importantly, this is a strategy that can work in any fie ld--not just vacuum sales.

In fact, you don't have to be in sales to use this strategy. Just learn your field from every angle possible and apply the knowledge and you can double your income just like my friend Alvin.
Raymond Aaron

Oh, and I am currently reading Happy For No Reason, by Marci Shimoff. In it, she quotes scientific research that shows that negative thoughts activate depression centers in the brain. And I cannot remember what positive thoughts stimulate but it's basically happiness. It proves that our thoughts do absolutely affect our emotions.

I love this story, Dawn. Thanks!

Now, as always, would you please also post your permission to share/distribute/publish this article so that we're absolutely respecting the author or publisher's rights to their own work? Thanks again!

I absolutely believe the opposite of fear is freedom. I am working my way through the program for the second time - I know now I wasn't ready to accept a good deal of the information the first time around. But this time I am ready! Ready to let go of the fear that up 'til now has been holding me back. I have already learned much more about myself, and I am only halfway into lesson 3! I look forward to sharing everyone's journey.

Susan

Oops. I am very sorry about that. Here is the direct link to it:

http://www.insightoftheday.com...etext.asp?msgid=1488

and I have emailed the newsletter I get it from, to see if it is all right that I shared.