Life's a Beach

It's been a super summer. I can't complain about anything...not even the humidity in Houston :)

I woke up this morning to a beautiful Florida sunshine and enjoyed the soft, still morning and salty air.  We headed down to the beach and it felt so good to stick my feet in the sand and collect little momento's from the shore...on my way I played with a small crab, picked up a sand dollar and threw it back in to the ocean hoping to extend it's life just a little bit longer, and found a neat little rock that was shaped like a heart. All my favorite things God delivered today...seafood, dollars and love ;)

Bend with a Friend

To everyone who attended the m3 Private Wealth Group in the Dominican Republic...thank you for being part of our second m3 and I hope to see all of you in Las Vegas for the Wealth Conference in November! Every time I get the opportunity to mingle with our Members I am reminded about the amazing people that surround us and make up our WMI Family and I always look forward to "the next time."

Have you seen the photos from the event? Go check them out! Karl and I bent rebar together and I flew it home with me, and now it hangs up on the wall at the WMI Home Office. We made alot of memories and experienced a ton of breakthroughs. May this be one step along the journey to a life that is lived not ordinary, but amazing and full of love and adventure!

http://www.wmitoday.com/gallery/gallery.php?galleryName=140

Evenly Unwritten

I was on facebook last night and I took one of those infamous quizzes..."Which side of your brain is dominant?"  Result: I use both sides evenly. Go figure. Does that make me logically creative? Hmmm...

"What is the theme song of your life?" Result: Unwritten, by Natasha Beddingfield. I always knew I liked that song. Ironically MYspace page has her song "Pocket Full of Sunshine" as the theme song. (Note to self: must edit song preferences.)

Do you facebook? You should. It's fun. You get to see what everyone is up to. However, don't be one of those people who post every 5 minutes...we know you are breathing, it's not necessary to tell us. Once or twice a day should do! It's been nice reconnecting with old friends as well as new. In this day and age, I'm bound to read about what my nephew has done recently before I get a phone call about it. 

And hey, don't forget to add me!

All Dogs Go To Heaven

My husband (at the time) tried to give me diamond earrings for Valentine's day, but all I wanted was a puppy. He finally said, "Fine! Take back the earrings and go get yourself a dog."

And that's exactly what I did.

I still remember the first time I laid eyes on him in that cage. He was playing with 4 other puppies and he was the spunkiest one in there. I had predetermined that I was going to get a small dog, but give it a big name. The options were Zeus or Maximus (think Gladiator!). They explained to me that he wouldn't get very big and that he was a "long haired" chihuahua. Who knew? And I thought they all looked like the Taco Bell dog! He was such a good puppy.

Tough to houstrain, until I got a dog door put in...that was the key to potty training.  Before that, it was "treasures" under the bed until he was too big to slide under there anymore. I also purchased one of those super expensive vacuum/carpet cleaners from those door to door salesman because it got the pet stains out of the carpet.

 He favored me. He must have known my ex husband was my nemesis because he used to spray the corner of the bed skirt on the side where my ex slept. When we went to bed at night, Maximus slept in the middle, curled up in the small of my back. Once, he was walking on top of the couch and started to lift his leg on my ex's head. I look back now and chuckle. He was such a smart dog.

He made the drive out to California with me after my divorce and I remember pulling up to the rest stop and a lady next to me got all excited, pointed at him, and said "Hey, your dog is smiling at me. He's really smiling at me!"

My mom called him "Grandson-4-legs." Everyone loved him. He was sweet and playful and I'm pretty sure he thought he was just one of the kids. He was definitely one of the family.

I traveled alot and I had to drop him off at my Mom's for some long term babysitting one year. I returned from my trip abroad and phoned up my Mom to tell her I was coming to get him. In her cute little broken Asian accent she said "Ummm. You get another dog?" And then she convinced me that her and my dad had fallen in love with him and he was such a good fit for them, and they should keep him. She's my mom...of course I said okay :)

She walks him regularly, spoils him terribly and talks to him like he's just another person in the room. I remember visiting for Christmas one year and I could hear her from down the hall. She said "Would you like some toast?" Silence. "Would you like some jam on that too?" Silence. "Eat it all now." Silence. Who the heck was she talking to? I peek around the corner and I see her holding out the piece of toast to Maximus.

Toes. He loved to lick Stephen's feet. My nephew is a stinky footed kid- and Maximus would sit for hours under the covers licking his ingrown toenails. I know, gross, but hey, he liked it. It's no wonder that dog's sniff butts.

One time my Dad was really sick. Maximus crawled up in to bed with him for a couple of days. It's like he knew. He would lick my dad's face, as if to say "I can feel the heat of your fever, let me cool you down." Dogs really are little angels sent to make us feel better.

He knows my Dad gets home at 3:30 every day. So by 3, Maximus takes his place about 5 feet in front of the front door in the middle of the living room and he looks up at the glass window above the door. He waits. He knows Papa will be home soon. It must really screw him up on those days when my Dad doesn't come straight home.

My Mom comes to visit me often. My Dad would talk about how Maximus looks around the house for my Mom. He searches every room, every day, until she finally comes home.

Last Friday my flight was delayed out of New York and I missed my connecting flight to Houston in Dallas. I decided to spend the night at my Mom's and just fly home the following night (gratis American Airlines.) Maximus greeted me with his usual friendly tail wag. He curled up on my lap on the couch and put his head down on my arm. Later on, he crawled in to bed with me and stayed all night. Same old Max. My son-4-legs. I took pictures. He's so cute.

My parents called me last night from the vet hospital. It was late, around 10:30 p.m. Maximus was in the living room and he had collapsed. They rushed him to emergency, the vet ran tests and found that he had fluid around his heart, caused by a tumor combined with congenital heart failure. His tongue was blue and he was weezing. The vet said she could try to remove the fluid, but because it was so close to his heart, there was a likelihood that she could puncture the heart and kill him. He was suffering. My Mom was crying in the back ground. I heard her tears, and my own began to flow.  It was time to say good bye to my old buddy.

Thanks for 7 great years Maximus. Maxipoo. Mack-a-doo

You were faithful, you were true

It's so sad that now you're away

We keep looking around for you to play

You saw us through the ups and downs

The laughs the giggles

The weeps the frowns

Fly up to Heaven and wait at the gate

And I'll join you one day if you'll just wait

Howl with the angels, bark at St. Mark

Walk, run and play in God's dog park

My first companion, you knew unconditional love

And God must have wanted you for Himself up above

I can't say I blame Him, He knows a real friend

But let Him know it's just a loaner until I ascend!

R.I.P 06-01-09

Update on Tuesday, June 23, 2009 at 02:15PM by Mary Dee

Well, all is good in at Mom's house. The day before her birthday she went and picked out a new chihuahua and named him "Maximum."  He adores her, follows her everywhere, and is already using thd dog door. All calls from Mom this week have been giggles...

GREATER POSSIBILITIES

A few weeks ago on a Monday Morning Charge callI was listenig to Kip and Karl talk about dream stealers.  It dawned on me that this is seems to be one of the only industries where we really ever bring it up.  I don't ever remember going home and telling my spouse about a promotion and him saying "I hate that you're moving up the corporate ladder. Why don't you just stay where you are?"  It just goes to show you that people can be afraid of the possibilities, but only because they are thinking in the worst case scenario. If I quit my "steady" job (do those even exist in this economy, by the way?) to work for myself what can I lose?

• A consistent paycheck. I know exactly what to expect and when to expect it. 
• I get up by 7 and I'm in the office by 9.
• I work, I take a lunch break.
• And then I go home at 5.

There are problems with this scenario. They are called the other, GREATER possibilities. The ones we can create if we would just allow ourselves to let go of this false sense of control and wrong definitions of what "stability" mean.  What could be gained if we flipped the switch?

• Huge paychecks, that arrive all the time.
• Expecting it to always show up when it's supposed to, which is always the right time.
• I get up when I want to
• I eat when I want to
• I sleep when I want to
• And I do whatever I want in between!

I'm not sure which one sounds better to you, but I tend to gravitate to the GREATER possibilities.

I remember when I brought home my first check for my first sale in the direct sales industry. I was elated and I couldn't wait to show it to my doubting husband (ex-husband, that is).  He had ridiculed me, told me that I was involved with a scam and he would go on and on.  The odd thing is, that he was in one of the hardest sales industries out there- copiers.  And he was good at it. In my mind, I wanted him to teach me what he was doing so I could apply it to my new business.  He clearly did not envision that as a possibility.  I showed him the check, and he had nothing to say except "That's great. Now you feel free to go out and make the millions and I'll stay home and cook and clean."  In my mind I ingored his sarcasm and thought, "Okay!" 

Things got better for me, but not for him, and eventually we parted ways. His final words for me were "You'll never make it without me."  The empowered woman inside me rose right up and thought, "Oh, but I will. I will."

What if I had given up and given in and said he was right?  Where would I be today? None of us know, we can only speculate.  I'm just glad that I didn't buy in to his possiblities.

A couple years later I remember sitting out on the beach at a resort in the Dominican Republic.  I was sipping on a pina colada, enjoying the blue skies, the crystal clear water, and my financial independance.  I had to chuckle, because all I could think about was how he was the one missing out on this lifestyle because he could not see the GREATER POSSIBILITIES.

Give yourself the chance to succeed. Give yourself the chance to live a quality of life that the average person will never realize.  If you fail the first time, get right back up and do it again. If you fail the second time, dust yourself off, jump up and do it again.  Focus my friend.

Focus on the GREATER POSSIBILITIES and I believe that you will find they are in very close reach.

Update on Friday, May 22, 2009 at 02:19PM by Mary Dee

TJ and Denise...thanks so much for sharing! You are clearly both at a "turning point" in your lives. If you know WHY you want this new life, WHY you don't want to be bothered with debt, WHY you want to create financial success then your only option IS to succeed. The next question is...how long are you willing to see it through?

Some people want over night success...but over night success usually means a couple years of digging in to your business, investing your time in production versus playing, and focusing on revenue producing activities. It also means that you have to treat it like an investment...you put money in to it and you wait for the return, which in most cases is not instant. You have to be in it for the long run.

Here's one thing to not lose sight of either...the PRODUCT line at Wealth Masters is another way for you to start putting your financial house in order. Once you get the m1 in your hands,go sign up for the Wealth Acceleration Program (WAP). The WAP is a road map, created just for you, to show you the fastest ways out of debt, the best tips to retire early, etc. You may find ways to shave your budget and opportunities to grow your money in creative ways that never occurred to you before.

Lastly, thanks for the kudos Linda! I try to type like I speak, and other than that I guess I just really paid attention in English class! Or maybe it was all those silly 25 page term papers we had to develop in college? Or to reference an earlier blog...maybe I'm just that darn lucky :)