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Thursday, March 12, 2009

Having Accountability To Yourself and To Your Growth

The journey to "awakening" began in 2004 when I had reached the lowest part of my life. Having been abandoned when I was three years old, leaving my home and out into the world when I was sixteen, I felt I have lived a pretty rebellious life. I was doing bad things to get attention from the world which makes me a pretty good candidate to becoming very successful in life. (and if your life has been pretty dysfunctional up to this point, then congratulations you make an awesome candidate as well)

I joined Herbalife in May of 2004 while I was working as a bartender. I had no direction in life, pretty miserable, was sick and tired of repeating the same mistakes, hanging out with wrong crowd, hated my relationships, I felt like a BIG LOSER. I was really good at hiding behind a beautiful face, bubbly personality and the I can take care of myself kind of attitude, I dressed well and for the most part had no problem attracting money.
My ego protected me well, but on the inside, I felt lost, hurt, pain, resentment, guilt, hatred, disgust, blame, anger, revenge and rage. I was crying for help on the inside. I needed to feel loved and I wanted to be loved. I WANTED TO CHANGE.

This desire to live a better life, to change, to love myself burned within me, almost like my spirit crying out for help to do something.

You may be asking yourself "So what does this have to do with the title Shannon?"
You see everyone who is awakening right now needs to see that we all begin with some kind of disaster in life or pain or something that really gets you to decide enough is enough.
I felt it would help to set a foundation for you because you must first accept that growth is "a process" not an overnight success. You must be willing to see your life as it is now, we must stop pretending that it's good and great when your inner voice or inner child is screaming for love and attention.

When I joined Herbalife I was introduced to personal development. The first book that was suggested to read was Maximum Achievement by Brian Tracy. It's almost like the book saved my life. For a whole year, yes a whole year I locked myself up in my house and worked on myself. I read and devoured personal development almost 24 hours a day. I was reading, listening, and de-cluttering my life from all "the noise." I'm not saying you have to do this, I needed to do this.

I'm sharing a simple concept. Some of you will do it and some of you won't. That is why the title of my blog is "Having accountability to yourself and to your growth."
In 2004, Kellie Hosaka, President's Team member, who later became one of my mentors and still is, created what we call a Personal Development Log.
It is an accountability habit that we found created "responsible" leaders. Leaders and people who no longer came upline or sideline or downline to complain. We found that this log developed people into taking responsibility for their actions and their words. It created "maturity" in the individual. If you are serious about growing, then we must not only digest a few quotes here and there and be able to spit em out when called on, but truly learning how to integrate growth as part of your life then you must be willing to commit to yourself.
I will be honest, it can be a painful process. Because when you decide to grow and be challenged, the mirror is always in your face. I've seen dozens of people quit because they can't handle the pain or the ugliness we first see when we begin. I know I've been there. I had to learn how to forgive all the ugliness and let it go.
See, it's easy to quote, but to actually "live, breath, and sleep" it is a whole new ballpark where your integrity will be tested.

Okay so back to the log. It's important to first start off with basic success principles. Maximum Achievement is the best in my opinion because they are exercises after each chapter that will guide you to do the work. If you've finished basic principles then great.

Everyday you spend at least 30 minutes to an hour reading or listening to personal development. When you're done, you create a journal. I have all my logs saved in my computer in a folder labeled pd logs from 2004. You will put the date, the name of the book and how long you've read. (pretty elementary but it works)
You will write a couple of sentences or paragraph what you learned without using the book. Now here is the "stickability" part. In the second paragraph, you will write a couple of sentences of "how" you will implement what you've just learned the next day and into your life and business.

This is a lifelong process until. The simplest way to keep yourself on track with your growth. It works. You are continuously expanding your mind into thinking about new ways to get better.
This has been one of the greatest secrets to my success.

With light & love to you always,
Shannon

2 comments:

  1. This post was so meaningful to me. Thank you for sharing. I learned something about you and I learned something about me. This is definitely my year to work on personal growth.

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  2. I started also in 2004 but it was in April. What I notice is that you are a head for me for what concern personal development. Thank you for sharing, learn a lot from you.

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