What is the definition of success?
success -noun
1. the favorable or prosperous termination of attempts or endeavors.
2. the attainment of wealth, position, honors, or the like.
3. a successful performance or achievement: The play was an instant success.
4. a person or thing that is successful: She was a great success on the talk show.

All of the above definitions seem to be right on point of what success is about. Everyone wants to be “successful”. But in everyone’s mind success is something different. Success to me isn’t about money and is not measured by money either. It’s about achieving certain goals and completing certain projects. If they bring in money, good, if not, then at least I completed what I set out to do. After all, everything IS testing right? Obviously, money plays a big role in what everyone thinks of as success, and I do have monetary goals tied to my projects, but it is NOT the most important factor.

So what are you doing to achieve success? What are your goals? What are your 1 month, 3 month, 6 month, 1 year, 5 year goals? Do you even know?

That would be Step 1 – writing all those down and reviewing it EVERY day.

The next step would be to PICTURE those goals. Picture exactly how it would feel, where you’ll be, what you’ll be eating, what you’ll be wearing, and what you’ll be hearing. Picture those goals intensely. Concentrate on them and you CAN make them happen. I even encourage everyone I know to build a vision board. There’s a pretty good tutorial on what a vision board is here – http://christinekane.com/blog/how-to-make-a-vision-board/.

I know this may sound hokey pokey, but honestly “the secret” is not a joke. I’ve been practicing manifesting even before “the secret” came out. The truth is, the law of attraction works. Now it doesn’t work by sitting back and just thinking it will come to you. You got to put in some work. But if you believe something enough and always be positive, it will come to you. You can achieve anything you want and get anything you want, as long as you can see it, eat it, shit it, sleep it, breathe it, live it, hear it and feel it. If you can’t, then you’ll have some major trouble getting what you want in life.

The key is, you HAVE to believe that it already happened. You literally have to brainwash yourself to make yourself think that it already happened. You were already there. It already happened.

Who says you can’t create your own future? And it’s set in stone? You can do anything you put your mind to.

Reminds me of a story I tell a lot of people when they see my “success”. They just don’t get how I was able to achieve all this in such a short period of time. Including my parents! But it all comes down to the law of attraction.

So the story goes like this –

When I was around 19 years old I was working at Compaq (in the dirty jerz) doing desktop support and keeping track of all our computer equipment. We used a software called Peregrine. Now for me to learn this software I had to fly out to San Diego and get trained. I remember going to San Diego and was like “HOLY SHIT, this place is insane.” Between the weather, the beaches, the cars, and the wealth that seemed to be around San Diego, I was floored. It seemed like paradise. I told myself maybe one day I would live here. Just “maybe”.

About three years go by and I was working for Campbell Soup. At Campbell Soup, I was working with data management and the tracking of computer/software equipment. They flew me back out to San Diego for some more training on the same software. This time I stayed in La Jolla and was absolutely stunned by how beautiful the place was. I remember going out for dinner one day and I saw Ferrari’s and Lambo’s pretty much everywhere I went (or at least I thought so). I couldn’t believe it. I was like “where the fuck am i ??!” But again, I told myself that one day I would live here and have a nice car. I didn’t really think too hard about it, just kind of wishful thinking at that time. I was working a dead end 9 to 5 and wasn’t making enough to move out to La Jolla.

So a couple years go by, and San Diego was always in my memories. The palm trees, the beach, the cars, the weather. Just perfect.

Around 2004 I started my online journey. Destined to make it out to San Diego. Destined to quit my job and get the hell out of “corporate america”. I busted my ass for far too long and could not picture myself doing this for the rest of my life. At the time, I was working at America Online doing campaign optimization and data analysis and that is what really made me think about how big this online advertising world is. Once you get in, it kind of sucks you in. I spent 9 hours at work and then would come back to my hotel (since I was consulting) and work another 6 hours on online stuff. I was making decent money, but not as much as my salary. Just enough to make a heftier down payment on the new house I bought. I told myself I would quit once I doubled my salary.

A couple months later an opportunity came my way to work for Morgan Stanley and I took it ASAP. It was only 30 minutes away from my new house and I didn’t have to commute to DC anymore for America Online. At Morgan Stanley I worked with the trading desk and did a lot of data analysis and data mining. It was fun, but again, not my style. I was SO determined to make it on my own and I saw results coming in pretty fast. I was almost doubling my salary doing online marketing stuff and then the big day hit. I found a small niche and just caked out in a couple months. I made QUADRUPLE my salary in 2 months.

The day I got that check was the day I quit my job.

But here’s the thing. I was DETERMINED. I was focused. I knew where I wanted to be, how much money I was going to make and what my life would be like after I quit. I pictured all of it. I dreamed it, I lived it, I breathed it.

About 7 months after I quit my job, I decided to head out to San Diego. Why? Because an opportunity came to work with David Wolfe and manage his online marketing. So I packed up some stuff in a car and decided to drive out in my G35. I told a friend of mine to join me in the car and we spent about 4 days driving out to the west coast.

I made it out to La Jolla and moved into my new crib. It was a block from the beach and life was good. A couple months go by and I realized that I lost my vision. I lost my drive for what I wanted this all for. I was helping another company with their online marketing, but in that time, I lost my own vision of who I wanted to be. To me it was just another day on the beach. Sure the money was coming in, but it slowed down. Eventually, about 2-3 months later, my income went down the whole. I was working around the clock and couldn’t really achieve anything. It’s like I was just spinning my wheels and nothing positive would come out of it.

And that’s when it hit me – I wasn’t really concentrating on any new goals. I didn’t really have a vision of what I wanted and when I wanted it.

So I sat down, wrote down my goals and started living those goals everyday. I already knew where I would be. I already knew how much I would be making. I already saw my projects being completed. Sure enough, 5 months later, I hit all those goals and was doing insane numbers. Beyond my wildest dreams actually. BUT, these are the numbers I asked the universe for. This is what I envisioned. Next thing I knew I bought a pimp ride and was sportin’ it everywhere I went. (Maserati GranTurismo S for all you car fans…)

Here I was – a full 9 years after I went to San Diego for the first time. Living on the water with a nice car. It hit me MUCH later that this is actually what I wanted for 9 years. Subconsciously!

3 months after that, I had an office downtown and was running a company with my biz partner with 10 employees.

Since then, my vision has expanded and my goals have broadened. It’s NOT about the money. It’s about what I want to do with my life and what I want to accomplish with the money I earn. I’ll save that for another post since this one is getting long as hell. But it’s pretty crazy stuff, from helping the poor, to building libraries in 3rd world countries, to buying an island, to starting an archeological mission and much more.

The human brain works off success and the completion of tasks. You are satisfied when you complete something. You have a sense of happiness and joy when something is finished. Endorphins and serotonin get released when you accomplish something! Whether your idea makes money or not is a different story. That just means, you didn’t map out the whole vision in your head before hand!

What is the moral of this story? Who the hell knows. But what I do know is that if you believe in something and picture everything around it, you can accomplish anything you want. The universe works in mysterious ways and it’s all about the energy that you put out. The more positive energy you put out, the more you’ll get back in the same form. If you envision and believe something you want to accomplish and always put out positive energy towards THAT, you WILL get it.

When you put out negative energy, you can be assured you’ll get the same back. Whether it be a parking ticket, sickness, or whatever. I remember thinking SO negatively in the past. I remember this one particular thing that I use to think so negatively about and almost thought that it actually happened, and then it did. It killed me inside. I still have not mastered not thinking negatively. Everyone does it.

Here’s a perfect example -

Think about all the bad times in your life. Now try and think of all the good times in your life. It’s pretty hard to think about all the good times, but very easy to think of the bad times. That’s human nature. The key is to catch yourself every time you think negatively and reverse your thoughts. I always have random negative thoughts pop in my head. Especially when I’m driving! But lately, I just try to think positively and instead of bashing the other person, place, or thing, I just think about how that moment was a good moment and there WAS a reason for that.

So don’t put it off any longer. Figure out what you want in life and figure out your goals. What is the perfect day for you? How do you want to live that perfect day? Now, how can you get it? After you figure that out, breathe it, sleep it, shit it, eat it, see it, live it, feel it. It will come.

Wow this post is long. I’ll have to continue it again some other day!