Saturday, January 8, 2011

How To Use Your Pain To Achieve Great Success

I know people don’t like pain.
       I know I don’t.
We avoid it at all costs.
That’s why many people avoid diets, doctors, and dentists. 
Because we don’t like pain.
But let me give you a startling fact.
You need pain to survive.
You need pain to succeed in life.
In fact, all permanent success comes from pain.
Any success that doesn’t come from pain will be short-lived.
Check out Lotto Winners.
Yesterday, I was reading the story of Michael, a garbage collector who won $15 Million from Lotto. But after just a few years, he lost all his money and is now trying to get his old job back as a garbage collector.
Another guy named Jack won a staggering $315 Million from Lotto. But he too lost everything after less than 10 years. But he didn’t only lose the money—he also lost his family.
They’re not alone. Go ahead, google “Lotto winners lose money” and you’ll get hundreds of true-to-life tragic stories. 
In fact, many Lotto winners say it was a nightmare and wish they never won. Because of winning, their marriages broke up, their families disintegrated, their children turned to drugs, and they lost all their happiness.
Easy come, easy go.
I repeat: Real success comes from pain.
If it didn’t come from pain, it isn’t real success.
Hypothermia
       Let me talk about Hypothermia.
Hypothermia is a physical condition whereby your body’s core temperature drops below 35 degrees Celsius and shuts down all functions.  Including your ability to feel pain.
Remember Titanic
Our hero Jack died of hypothermia.
And many people who escaped Titanic before it sank eventually died of hypothermia in the freezing waters of the Atlantic Ocean. Because they could no longer feel the pain, they just slept and drowned.
Mountain Climbers conquering in Mt. Everest, who get trapped in sub-zero temperature, try hard to wake themselves up. They intentionally give themselves pain to survive.
What does this have to do with you?
Let me explain.
Do You Suffer From Spiritual Hypothermia?
I know of people who have Spiritual Hypothermia. 
They’ve become so comfortable in life.
They’ve become soft. They’ve become lax. They’ve become sleepy. And their life has become meaningless.  They have no more burning dreams in their lives.  And they’ve started to die a slow death.
Why?
There’s no pain in their life.
I now realize that pain is essential to grow in any area of your life—spiritually, relationally, or financially.
How do you wake up from spiritual hypothermia? Pain.
       In fact, there are three sources of inner pain.
      
The 3 Sources Of Inner Pain
       The first pain comes from Grief.
       The second pain comes from Greed.
       And the third pain comes from Giving.
       Let me discuss grief first.
First Source Of Inner Pain: Grief
       I can’t prove this with a scientific research.
       But from the past 30+ years of meeting first-generation financially successful people, 90% of them went through intense pain before they achieved success. And they were able to use that inner pain to fuel their rise to the top.
Let me share with you 4 very successful people and how they used their pain to become successful in life.
Zig Ziglar
Zig Ziglar is a bestselling author and one of the most well-loved motivational speakers in the world.
Yet he grew in poverty. Zig was number 10 of 12 children. And to make things worse, his father died when he was 6 years old. 
And life was very hard. 
As a small child, he had to work. He worked in a grocery store from 4:30 in the morning to 11:00 near midnight everyday. In case you can’t do the math, that’s an 18-hour workday. For a kid!
Fast forward a few years later, poverty still followed him.
When Zig got married, he applied as a salesman. 
But for the first two years, he couldn’t sell his products.
So he had to sell his furniture just so he and his wife could eat. When his daughter was born, the hospital bill was $64. He didn’t even have $64—and had to go out and sell something so he could take his family home.
It was these hardships that fueled his desire to succeed in life. 
And succeed, he did. In one year, he became the number one salesman of his company. And later on, he set up his own company and became very successful in life.
Mary Kay Ash
When her marriage failed, Mary Kay was a single mother with 3 kids. And she could hardly make ends meet.
       At that time, she was working as a saleswoman inStanley Home Products, but she wasn’t doing too well in her job. When the company had an annual sales conference, she wanted so badly to go. But she had no money. 
So she borrowed money to go there. She also brought with her a bag of biscuits. That was what she ate for the three days conference.
       But in that conference, she saw a salesperson go up on stage to receive the Number One Salesperson of the Year Award. When she saw that, she went up to Mr. Stanley, the owner of the company, and told him that she’ll be the next person who will win that award. He smiled and said, “I believe you will.”
The following year, she did go up that stage to receive the Number One Salesperson of the Year award.
Later on, she built her own company, Mary Kay Cosmetics.
When she died in 2003, that single mother’s company had 800,000 saleswomen and making $2 Billion in annual sales.
Anthony Robbins
       Tony Robbins grew up in a poor family.
       He would steal food in grocery stores—just to be able to eat.
He couldn’t even pay for his rented room.
His electricity was always about to be cut off.
And he couldn’t answer the phone because he owed money from everyone he knew.
One of his most painful experiences was falling in love with a lady, but watching another suitor win her heart. The suitor picked her up in a very expensive car. Tony knew the girl loved him, but she also wanted to be comfortable. He knew he couldn’t provide this for her, and he felt totally worthless. 
All this pain became his driving force to get out of is hole.
Tony eventually started 15 companies and created phenomenal success. This once-upon-a-time janitor has become an advisor to three US Presidents, including President Clinton, and other heads of states, such as Mikhail Gorbachev, Margaret Thatcher, Francois Mitterrand, and Nelson Mandela.
Joe Girard
Joe Girard had one business failure after another.
One day, he found himself without a job, without money, without savings. He experienced a whole year of poverty. 
One morning, his wife told him, “Joe, we have no more food. And our kids are now out on the street begging.”
That day, Joe left the house, applied as a car salesman.
He resolved in his heart that he had to sell a car that day so he could feed his hungry kids.
Before the day was over, he sold a car. He borrowed $10 from his manager. He rushed home with a brown bag of groceries.  He was so happy that his family had food to eat that day.
All this pain became a burning fire in him to change his life.
In a few years, he became the Guiness Book of World Records’ greatest car salesman in the world. The typical car salesman sold 7 cars a month. Joe Girard sold 6 cars a day. Or 150 cars every single month.
Use Your Pain From Grief
       Pain is fuel.
But like real fuel, it can do two things.
Fuel can catch a spark and explode, destroying everything around it. Or it can be harnessed in an engine and power a rocket to the moon.
What am I saying? Pain can destroy you ordevelop you. 
It depends on how you respond to your pain.
If you respond with faith, pain can be the inner driving force that can change your life.  Pain can be your fuel to rocket your launch to success.
Right now, you may be experiencing a lot of pain.
Perhaps you’re family life is a mess.
Perhaps you’re job situation is very tough.
Perhaps you always have no money.
Friend, this is not the end of your story. 
You can overcome. 
You can rise above your problems. 
You can use your pain and make it fuel for you to succeed in life. You can rocket your way out of your pain and into prosperity.
       But just as a warning, let me talk about the second source of pain…
Second Source Of Pain: Greed
Greed is painful.
Greed will not let you sleep, rest, or become complacent.
Some rich people become rich because of greed.
Perhaps they started with grief. Perhaps they grew up poor and had so much pain making ends meet—and this started their journey to wealth.
But after awhile, greed took over.
No matter how much money they have, they want more and more and more. They’re never satisfied. Their greed keeps manufacturing pain. They want bigger homes and bigger cars and bigger yachts and bigger diamonds.
       But this kind of inner pain is deadly. It’s the pain that will ultimately kill.  Because greed leads to empty success.
       I compare Greed to Gluttony.
       I know someone who is obese.
       He weighs 340 pounds.
And yet every time I see him, I see him eating.
Every time we meet, I see him holding a hamburger, a cheesecake, a burrito, or a bag of chips.
I ask him, “Why are you still eating?”
While chewing, he says, “(Chomp) I can’t (Chomp) stop (Chomp) eating.”
“But it’s killing you!”
“I (Chomp) know (Chomp).”
In the same way, a greedy person is so obsessed with money, he doesn’t stop working even if his way of working is killing him.
       Thankfully, there is another kind of inner pain.
       A beautiful, liberating, and transformational pain.
Third Source Of Inner Pain: Giving
      
       Giving is self-imposed pain.
       Giving is voluntarily chosen.
By the way, when you give, and you don’t experience pain, you didn’t really give. Your giving is fake.
When you give, it must hurt you.
       When you give, it must shake you up.
       When you give, it must disturb your existence.
       When you give, it must wake you up from your complacency.
       When you give, it must rock your world so much, it creates a hunger in you to keep on earning money so that you can keep on giving.
       The Bible says, I will not sacrifice to the LORD my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing. (2 Samuel 24:24)
That is why this pain heals.
This pain gives joy. 
This pain blesses you. 
It’s a cheerful pain!
This pain comes when you give.
       Why?
Success Must Have A Reason
       Success must have a reason. 
       And I have found my reason for Success!
I’ve asked this question many times: Why do I keep working, striving, dreaming, growing, expanding, and increasing? 
I have enough. Really.
My family and I have clothes on our back.
We have a roof over our heads.
We’ve got food on our table three times a day.
       We even have family vacations.
I repeat: We’re okay.
Why do I keep working? Why do I keep expanding my businesses? Why do I try to earn more?
There’s only one answer: So I can give more.
So I can love more.
So I contribute more to God’s work.
So I can give more to God’s poor.
Oh believe me, I’ll never run out of dreams!
The dream of the Kingdom is like the burning bush in my heart—unquenchable and eternal.
       I pray that you find your reason for success.
       I pray you transform your pain—either from grief or giving—into fuel. Fuel to reach your dreams.
       May your dreams come true,
       Bo Sanchez

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