Guest Post:  Teresa Romain

Recently, I rediscovered a quote I first heard many years ago.   It hit me in my gut and my heart as much this time as it did when I first read it.

It’s an excerpt of a conversation between two of the characters in Trina Paulus’ book, Hope for the Flowers:

“How does one become a butterfly?” she asked.

And the response was…

“You must want to fly so much that you are willing to give up being a caterpillar”.

Bottom line, the key to growing and succeeding in your business and your life – especially financially – is desire.

You have to WANT it – more than you want the comfort and familiarity of what you have in your life right now.    You have to WANT it more than your desire to “look good” or “do things right”, i.e. to not make a mistake.  Your desire to grow and succeed needs to be stronger than your desire to be liked, to be just like everyone else, to “fit in”.

You have to want it enough to pick up the phone and make a phone call when you’d much rather “veg” and watch television.  You have to want it enough to ask someone if they’d be interested in your product and/or business despite your fear that they will say “no”.  You have to want it enough that you’re willing to feel rejected and disappointed and frustrated at times.

Your desire to grow and succeed in your business has to be strong enough that you’re willing to act on it despite any knots and nausea you may feel in your gut and despite the fears and challenges you encounter.

You have to want to FLYmore than you want to be a caterpillar.   You have to be willing to take the risk of letting go of what you have and what you know and who you know yourself to be.  Bottom line, you have to want to experience growth, success and abundance so much that you are willing to give up your thoughts of lack, limitation, “not enough” and scarcity – especially in terms of yourself!

If you want to access and experience greater success and abundance through your business, you need to be willing to let go of your need to be “right” about what life is like, what people are like, what your “reality” is, and all the reasons why you can’t or shouldn’t succeed or prosper.

You see, you have to want to be abundant so much that you are willing to give up your excuses, rationalizations, justifications, complaints and all the people or things you blame for the fact you do not have the success and abundance – especially financially – that you say you want.

You can be “right” about all the reasons why you can’t fly OR you can actually start flying.   You can be “right” about all of the reasons you don’t have the abundance and success you want OR you can begin experiencing abundance and success.

It’s a question of FOCUS.  Are you focused on flying and being a butterfly or are you focused on what you might have to give up, your fears, your challenges, and your comfort zone?

Are you focused on flying or on no longer being able to crawl?

It all comes down to this question, my friend…

What do you want – REALLY?  And – how strong is your desire?

Each moment you get to choose.   You can choose to take the next step and the next action toward flying as a butterfly or you can choose to remain a caterpillar – doing what you’ve always done or, at the least, what is relatively comfortable.  One is not better than the other – they are just different.  To a large degree, your results are a result of the CHOICE you make moment by moment.  You can continue to think the thoughts you’ve always thought and hang on to the judgments, beliefs and expectations you’ve always had or you can choose to think about flying in ways that support you to fly.

You must choose.  It’s impossible to move forward and stay in the same place at the same time.

Then you must choose again and again and again and again.  Then you must choose some more – again and again and again.

Remember, a caterpillar does not become a butterfly overnight.   It slowly stops being a caterpillar and enters its cocoon (technically, it’s called a chrysalis) – not unlike that transition period you and I go through, that “in between” place where you’re not where you used to be but you’re not yet where you want to be.

Even the process of emerging from the cocoon takes time – and is not without struggle.  But the struggle is what strengthens the emerging butterfly’s wings so that, when free of the confines of its cocoon, it can fly.

It’s all about the strength of your desire…to fly, to be abundant, to be free.

Perhaps we can rewrite Trina Paulus’ quote to say… 

“How does one become free?  How does one grow and succeed?  How does one access and experience abundance?” you ask.

The response is…

“You must want it so much that you are willing to give up being less than who you really are”.

Is your desire that strong?

Are you willing to give up being less than who you really are – and all of your excuses, limitations, and rationalizations that keep you “crawling” so that you can start to fly?

You cannot access and experience abundance by hanging onto scarcity.

Are you willing to let go… and start flying?

Teresa Romain is the President & Founder of www.AccessAbundance.com and has trained and coached thousands of individuals around the world access and experience greater freedom, fulfillment, well-being and abundance in their businesses and their lives. Unique in her approach and dynamic and passionate in her style, Teresa is known for making the transformational process of accessing abundance challenging, fun and powerful in its results.

 

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