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If becoming rich is part of your dream, and there's no reason why
it shouldn't be, just be careful you don't confuse being rich
with living a rich life. I think we should all become rich
financially. We can give more to our families, our communities
and our world if we are. But it's living a rich life that should
be our primary objective.
A rich life is created by being more concerned with who you
become than what you acquire. It's created by clarity of
purpose. And clarity leads to power.
In my opinion, the most important thing you can do for yourself
is to invest the time and perhaps even money to become
absolutely clear on what you want out of life. I'm not talking
about goals here. I'm talking about the essence of what you
truly want--what you will feel good about when your life is
over. This is not an easy process. Perhaps that's why so few
people do it.
All the information is inside you. You need only to think
carefully and intuit deeply in order to gain this insight and
allow you to live with a keen focus and real clarity.
The old adage, "Know thyself," has become such a cliche that
its lost much of its meaning. But when you're completely clear on
who you are, what you want, where you're going and have a
plan to get there, you will not only be more effective, you will
experience better health and more fulfillment. You will lead a
rich life.
If we were sitting across from one another, here's what I'd ask
of you. "What's the most important goal/dream/mission in your
life?" I'd be looking for a description that shows your passion
for it--something where you have a sparkle in your eye and
emotion in your voice. I believe that everyone has a dream--and
that it's not something to be invented, but rather to be
discovered. It may take some time to uncover it, but living a
life filled with verve and excitement is certainly worth it.
Your plan, your vehicle to get there may change over time, but
the vision--the mission--will not.
The next question I would ask is, "Why do you want to accomplish
this dream?" Your reasons are critical to your success. When you
have sufficient reasons you can overcome any challenge. One of
the ways you can strengthen your reasons is to visualize what
your life will be like when you've accomplished your dream. The
more real it becomes, the more you can see it and feel it, the
more you'll believe it.
It's also a way to check out if this is really your dream.
Sometimes, after envisioning what we think is our dream, we find
that it's not really what we want. Better to find out now than
to spend our lives achieving something that will not provide
fulfillment in the process.
And it is that process that is the real value. Remember, it's
not so much what you accomplish, but rather what you become in
that process that's important. Which leads me to my next
question. "How will you have to grow and change in order to
accomplish your dream?" "What will you become on your journey?"
Any worthy goal involves change. If you don't think you'll have
to grow and change, then you don't have a very inspiring goal. A
worthy goal involves risk. It involves getting out of our
comfort zone. And that's where real growth occurs.
So the short version of our conversation goes like this: what do
you want, why do you want it and what are you willing to do to
get it? These are questions we need to constantly be asking
ourselves.
If we do--if we take the time to think and ponder the answers,
we'll gain greater clarity, more fulfillment, live longer and
feel better. We will live a rich life.
Copyright 2001 Michael Angier & Success Networks International.
Michael Angier is the founder and president of Success Networks.
Success Net's mission is to inform, inspire and empower people
to be their best--personally and professionally. Download their
free eBooklet, KEYS TO PERSONAL EFFECTIVENESS from
http://www.SuccessNet.org/keys.htm.
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