The Most Important Question to Ask Yourself

We arrived in Bergen, Norway at 11 p.m. at night and still the sun had yet to set. As the plane descended you could see thousands of tiny islands dotting the crest of the Atlantic Ocean as well as the beautiful fjords. The red sun poured into the airplane. No one said a word. Instead, we just sat in awe of nature’s beauty.

After posting my arrival to Bergen on my Facebook page, readers provided many recommendations of things to do, including the hikes that we should take. But there was also one comment that stood out. “Wow, you are a lucky dude, wish I could do what you do!” exclaimed Reuben Perkins of Bethesda, Ohio.

Now here’s the simple truth. He could. You could. Anyone could. It all starts with owning an information marketing business that practically gives you a license to print money – provided you create value for your clients. Do that and you can go where you want when you want to do what you want. You can visit world heritage locations like Bergen, Norway, or teach Liberty and Entrepreneurship to college students each summer like my friend, Simon Black and I do.

Whatever it is that you are dreaming about, you can make those dreams come true. You can, as I have, achieve exactly what you want in life. It’s possible. And yes, it takes hard work, dedication to a mission and your vision, a supporting cast of positive people (like the ones you’ll find in our Virtual Mastermind forum and at the 1-Day ETR event coming up in October). But you can do it. This issue is dedicated to showing you how.

It all starts with…The Most Important Question to Ask Yourself…

If you’ve done the vision exercise described at ANewAmericanDream.com then you know where you want to go in life. But if you are struggling to get there then you need to do “The Exercise” that I first learned from Dan Kennedy in the summer of 2009.

He told the audience to write down “Where you would like to be and have known you would like to be for some time but aren’t.” The more specific the better. And then came the hard part…

Now you need to make a list of all the reasons you are NOT there. What are you doing that sabotages your efforts? Are you hanging around the wrong people? Are you talking a big game but refusing to take action? Do you have big goals but small priorities? Are you keeping all of your goals and dreams to yourself, so that no one else knows what they could be helping you with?

Make this list. It’s not fun. You’ll need to be brutally honest. You’ll need to be politically incorrect. You’ll need to be willing to put your ego aside for the moment.

You must ask yourself, “Why do I want to succeed? And what am I doing NOT to achieve the success I desire? Why am I acting incongruent with my goals, rather than in congruence with my dreams? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?”

My friend, Dax Moy, a former British paratrooper and the author of The Magic Hundred, once told me this exercise is called “Peeling the Onion”. For each layer of excuses we give ourselves, we must ask why and peel back the real reason. Each time we go a little deeper to get to the raw truth of what is holding us back from success.

And just like in the peeling of a real onion, there may be tears, and certainly discomfort. But in doing so, you’ll have breakthroughs. Big breakthroughs.

You are in fact, superior and deserving of great success, and ironically, it is probably YOU that is standing in the way of this, not anybody else. It’s not the government to blame, or the economy, or even the people around you. Instead, it all comes down to internal resistance. Are you ready to overcome it?

Kennedy concluded in his presentation, directed at over 150 men and women that had traveled all the way to Independence, Ohio, to hear him speak on the topic of the 7-figure mindset, by leaving us with one last challenge.

“Either say “NO” to achievement, OR dig in and get to the bottom of the persistent incongruence between what you say and what you do. It is OK to admit you are not willing to pay the price – and by doing so, that will stop self-sabotage.”

But if you ARE willing to pay the price, and I know you are, then start peeling the onion. Identify where you want to be and then list why you aren’t there. Then take that list of “Why’s” and methodically eliminate them as sources of internal resistance.

Soon people will be saying to you, “Wow, you are so lucky, I wish I could do what you do!” And they could, if they only had the strength to do the same exercise that you’re going to do, and to get out of their own way on the path to success.

You CAN do it. It all starts with believing in yourself. You’ve made it this far. There’s no turning back. You cannot have self-doubt.

And when you’ve taken control of your future, made your first sale, and achieved your financial independence, we want to hear from you in the comments section below.

[Ed. Note. Craig Ballantyne is the author of Financial Independence Monthly, a complete blueprint to helping you take control of your financial future with a web-based business that you can operate from anywhere in the world – including a coffee shop, your kitchen table, or anywhere around the world where there is Internet access. Discover how you can achieve the American Dream and your financial independence here. You’ve never seen anything like this before.]