People enter into the field of network marketing for so many different reasons.

The most common motivations appear to be:

1. attraction of a potentially huge income
2. loss or impending loss of a job
3. a need to stay at home, yet continue to earn
4. a need to augment retirement

But there is another one, one that surfaces after the process is well underway, one completely unexpected. This one appears quietly, slipping into your awareness only after weeks, maybe months of effort and work, first as a side effect, but then quickly becoming a powerful motivation to keep moving forward, even on the days that feel like failure. That surprise is the experience of personal healing.

Two years ago I suffered a catastrophic loss that dismantled my life as I knew it. For months I sat on my sofa, wadded up in a blanket, utterly unable to crawl up out of my own personal black hole. Despair became a constant companion, and the spark of life dwindled to a pinpoint. I knew it was going to take something totally new to jump-start my heart, and I prayed daily for the light to return. And it did, but in an unexpected way. I got an invitation to attend one of Dani Johnson’s “First Steps To Success” seminars.

Some instinctual knowing that a door had opened drew me and I got myself moving,  pushing through the ravages of isolation to get that event. And once there, I was nearly overwhelmed with being in that room full of busy, active, vibrant people who were filled with purpose. It was exhausting and nearly beyond my strength, but I hung in, because I was alarmed to see to the vast contrast between my very low state, and the aliveness around  me. I saw I had help myself, or I would be lost!

The message Dani kept delivering over and over was that we all possess within us a God-given potential to do something great. All we need is commitment and persistence, and association with powerfully positive people. Something within, dormant for long dark months reawakened. Story after story was told by those who had hit their own rock bottom and risen up to triumph. It was a lifeline! Here was a group of people who were walking a path that anyone could step onto, a path of personal healing. I couldn’t see clearly at the time what I needed to do, but her message rang true – Move forward in faith!

One of the hardest challenges of grief is injury to the belief in the goodness of life, and in the value of our own spirit. But the community of successful network marketers directly refutes this. Loss can come in so many forms, different from my particular experience; loss of a job, home, break up of a marriage, illness, any difficult or unwelcome change, or perhaps the struggle against poverty.

The single most valuable advice given at the beginning of this journey was to create a mastermind group. Dani Johnson was my first mastermind mentor. At that early stage in her seminar, I did not even know the term, yet all were powerfully aware of the uplifting impact of being in her field of influence. A great spiritual maxim is, “The mind takes on the color of the company it keeps.”

There is an abundance of other leaders in this field who speak and publish and record and whose ideas are easily accessible: Jim Rohn, Darren Hardy, Napoleon Hill (Think And Grow Rich), Mike Dillard, Brian Fanale, Jim Chao, and Norbert Orlewicz.  And there are high quality inspirational movies such as “What the Bleep Do We Know,” and “The Secret.” Listening to the stories of others who just like us started out from a humble place, helped us to grasp we are not any different.

Though I did not personally know any self-made millionaires (well, I did meet Dani!), through books and the internet, studying and listening, I saturated my negative thinking and negative emotions with the positive counter thoughts of my mastermind group. Slowly over time, I am learning how to direct my thinking along the pathways of successful people. And through this, the grief begins to be replaced with hope. I have found purpose!

The year and a half journey since Dani’s first seminar  has taken many turns seeking out more teachers and skills. The sun shines so often now that I never doubt these choices, and always the movement is upward, even, when looking back, it did not seem so. Now and again grief washed in to muddy the light. Yet acquiring the skills of getting out there into the world has forged connections with and abundance of positive and committed people and they inspire us to find a voice and the courage  to be seen. These potent and supportive mastermind relationships steady the path and help me to keep singing my song, because now the darkness always passes.

If you are in the place of despair, there is hope, there is a remedy. Find your mentors, fbuild your own mastermind group, and allow their positivity to carry you along until you are on your feet again. And one day in turn, your words will uplift others. Click on this link to meet Masterminds who can powerfully transform your life. http://dvdall.mlmtoptraining.com

For three months now I have been completely immersed in learning the techniques of effective network marketing on the internet. It’s been a real high that felt like nothing less than a honeymoon. So relieved to find the mentors with the knowledge needed for my goal, I instantly manifested a one-pointed focus bordering on obsession.

I was advised for my first task to choose one of the main big social media sites and put all my efforts there to build an internet presence, create relationships, and learn how to be of value to others. I had something to do that took me away from the endless thinking, thinking, thinking about my sorrow, a welcome and much-needed medicine. I began the process of building the relationships that would help me branch out of what had become, due to events of the past two years, a diminished life.

Slowly I met people on the same path, connecting with other network marketers on Facebook, all reaching out to help and be helped, a heady antidote to the social isolation my time of grieving had fostered. New tasks presented, requiring new skills, so I increased my research savvy. Fresh terminology flooded in, as well as a deeper understanding of social media and all the sites facilitating this phenomena: Onlywire, Digg, Mixx, Tumbler, Twitter, and many, many more. I had never even heard of social bookmarking. Now I was using it! Added to that was article marketing and the extensive training that required. Many late nights found me doing keyword research and writing.

About a week ago I started to get crabby and tired, but just ignored it. Still, I was up and at my keyboard every morning, most of the day, and into the night. It was do or die! Just at this time my company sent me an email expressing concern and compassion for this time of feeling overwhelmed and confused, assuring me it happens to everyone who sticks with it – take a breather, relax and be patient along with persistent. Who me? Overwhelmed? Confused? Nooo….I was in the zone!

I heard from a fellow networker about going in circles and I gave him the advice I had gotten (for which he thanked me heartily), “This happens to everyone, take a breather and have faith, and hang in…it will pass.” Yesterday morning I felt awful when I awoke, drank some coffee, took headache pills and plowed back in, neither listening to nor taking my own advice.

It hit me square in the face last night – had a good crying spell, put on my pj’s and crawled into bed at 9 PM. I laid there, utterly burned out. But due to the wise counsel of the most excellent mentors in my company, I knew this was predictable enough for them to judge just when their letter should be sent. So I was able to take a deep breath and know, “This too shall pass.”

I had neglected an essential part of this process – balance! I had forgotten to feed my spirit. Things I used to do regularly to rejuvinate had become a casualty of a myopic focus on the logistical aspects of learning this business. And I recalled something the founders of my company said when talking about mindset – what they loved the most about their success was not the money but the people they had become in the process.

Some of us are healing from generations of poverty culture – not an easy thing, but persistence saves the day! The overwhelm and mental exhaustion are passed through using strength drawn from commitment to see the journey through – stepping back, but not giving up, knowing when to slow down and nurture the spirit, but not quit. The journey itself teaches a new delicacy of balance. I’m learning to ride this bike!

So today I spent the day refreshing my soul, reminding myself of why I am taking this journey in the first place…love and service to those precious young ones I promised a helping hand in starting their lives. I feel gratitude for the gift of finding this path, and the gift of the wisdom to choose it. I understand the pearl hidden in this struggle, and why I would never go for a “turnkey” operation, or why I would never seek get rich quick opportunities, and why lottery winners too often fail to hold onto their sudden wealth.

If you are on this path, perhaps you too are at that point of overwhelm, feeling there is simply too much to learn, and impatient for results. I encourage you to look to the experiences of our mentors, those who like us, started from a humble place, yet built an empire. They will tell you this is a journey of personal growth which cannot be rushed, nor are there short cuts. This process transforms us at a depth and of a substance such that we expand into a genuine capacity to offer something from ourselves of real value to others.

We are developing the millionaire mind, which emerges in everyone who sticks with this process of internal transformation into a leader. The journey toward success develops persistence, focus, self-reliance, ceaseless self-improvement, true interest in the well-being of others, gratitude, and the wisdom to return to the Self to recharge – balance.

Click here to meet mentors who can teach you to build a network marketing success in a balanced yet powerful way. http://dvdall.mlmtoptraining.com

The most difficult stage of labor is called transition. It is that moment when the life force totally has its way with the woman giving a new life to the world, when the emerging being moves from within the womb, down into the birth canal. The pain is at its most intense, and the mother is in the grip of a power than cannot be denied, or controlled. She must surrender herself to God, and to her helpers, and breathe this new life into the world.

We often find ourselves in transitions in life. The pain is near to unbearable, and nothing we do can stop the process. With no other options, we call out to God, and we lean on the helping hands around us. And somehow, we survive it, and the new self we are struggling to breathe life into, emerges.

I never believed that at my age I would be asked to endure such events, or face such radical life changes. But in this pain, and amidst these irretrievable losses, doors are opening.

I remember my grandmother, and the women her age. In that generation, I would be well on my way to becoming an old woman, settling in at home, and winding down my responsibilities. I look at my hands, and I see the physical signs of age. But I feel my spirit, and I know I am still…just me.

This last year I have lost much of what I loved best, much of what I drew on to define me. Some of those dearest to me in all the world are now gone. But I passed the test. I stood at the crossroads, and I chose to keep going forward, to redefine myself not by my losses, but by my choice to reclaim life. The Holy Mother has stood beside me through this transition whispering, that she too, lost.

I have understood, with God’s help, that the way to reclaim our life is to give our life away. I know I have much yet to give, much yet to receive. Last year, I had the great good fortune to spend six precious months in the amazing country of Romania. Little did I know then, that that time, and those dear people I met there, would prove to be God’s saving grace to get me through this dark time. Romania calls and I return, now at last to fulfill my dream of being a part of these amazing people’s lives. By August I should be back in my beloved Romania, sitting with my dear friend, and eating our dinner together…sharing the simple pleasures of mămăliga and goat cheese, and maybe if I am lucky, a little tuică.

I want to acknowledge my beloved son David, who walks the road less traveled, and who has been a brick in my foundation for his whole life. Dave you are a true heart, you have given me some of the purest, most honest, most powerful love any human being has ever received. You are a guiding light for me, now and for always. I could not have made it without you.

- First published April 4, 2008