by Dr John F. Demartini

When you're inspired, you embrace both pain and pleasure in the pursuit of your purpose. Professional football players know that they're going to spend the next 40 years living with the effects of broken knees and tissue damage. Astronauts know that going into space might bring muscle atrophy, bone-density loss, brain damage, and even death. I know that as I travel 300 days a year to speak around the world, I get three times the amount of radiation permitted for pilots, I'm away from my family, I live in hotels, and ... that's just the way it is.

I've never met a successful person who didn't have trials and tribulations and positive and negative feedback along the way. Wisdom is looking back at your life and realizing that every single event, person, place, and idea was part of the perfected experience you needed to build your dream. Not one was a mistake. Mrs. McLaughlin, the cowboys, the bum on the street, the lady at my tent, Paul Bragg -- even the people who gave me rides when I was hitchhiking -- were all part of a magnificent design. The same principle applies to you and the life of every human being: Everything serves, and the bigger the crisis, the larger the blessing.

If you look at the great leaders of the world, they were supremely focused on what they did. If you want to excel at something, then let no day go by without dedicating your life 100 percent to making it happen. Time is precious.

As a well-known real estate developer in New York City became increasingly successful, more and more people wanted to do business with him. They'd make a one-hour appointment and spend the first quarter-hour establishing rapport: the next quarter talking about themselves, their company, or his company: finally get down to business for the third 15 minutes: then finish by repeating it all over again. He realized he was getting through only a few proposals a day, and much of his time was spent on things of little or no value to him so he came up with a fantastic strategy to get to his priorities. He bought a 15-minute hourglass, and when someone walked into his office, he'd turn it over and say. "You've got 15 minutes to make your pitch. Go."' He made them get real, get clear. and get present. It they weren't focused enough to sell him in that time, he gave them a decision right away. His business and energy went way up as a result.

One of my wife's friends is a successful Australian businessman. She once asked him, "What is the key to success?" and he replied. "Try really working eight hours a clay. I mean be present eight hours a day."

What would happen if you were fully present eight hours a day? What if you knew exactly what you wanted and allowed nothing to distract you from your focus and your inspiration?' Successful people focus their attention on the gold medal, the Academy Award, the absolute mastery of their chosen field. To achieve their dreams, they practice between performances, and they develop the power of sustained attention.

Sustained attention demands clear consciousness, but Consciousness can be clouded by fear. Many years ago, I bad a major fear of public speaking. It was a daunting challenge for me to face, but conquering this fear changed my life.

In my very first class in professional school, the professor said, "You're all going to give a talk. You must select from one of the given topics. Choose a date and give your presentation before the class." My talk was about six weeks away, and I chose to speak on "Referred Pain: The Impact of Pain and Pleasure on the Human Psyche". Even the subject was part of life's perfection and my destiny; today I work with people who assume that there is pain without pleasure in this universe, which is both a myth and a mystery.

I hadn't spoken in public before, and from the moment I got the assignment, I started haying anxiety. It began with heart palpitations on the first day, and more symptoms developed with every day that passed. The day before my speech, I had diarrhea, a sore throat, memory loss, dizziness, itchy eyes, bumps on my tongue, and stomach cramps. The next morning, I got to class knowing that I'd have to speak. As the girl sitting in front of me got up to give her talk, she grabbed my band and said. "Wish me luck," but while she spoke, all I could think was, Oh my God. It's my time!

Sitting there awaiting my turn, I forgot the title of my talk, I forgot my topic. I forgot my name. I forgot everything -- I didn't know who I was! Finally, she finished, and the professor called ... the person behind me. He skipped right over me, and to this day, I have never given that talk. I was the only person in class who didn't speak.

That night I went home and cried, not from sorrow that I didn't get to talk, but sorrow that I had let six weeks of my life go by in paralyzing anxiety over something that never even occurred. Have you ever had perceived misery and anxiety over something that turned out to be nothing'? At that moment, I made a commitment. I said to myself, " I will do whatever it takes, travel whatever distance, and pay whatever price, to master this thing called speaking." The next day I signed up for every council in the school. I took on every opportunity to speak because I was determined to master it.

I faced my fears and set out to master public speaking, and years later I was asked to speak in Las Vegas before 8,000 people, where I got to meet author and lecturer Wayne Dyer. While he was getting ready for a photo session, I quickly said, "I would like to become an international professional speaker. Can you give me some advice and direction?"

Dyer is a very tall man, and he looked down at me and said quietly, "Just start telling people that you're an international professional speaker." The expression on my face was like, "Uh-uh, and what else?" so he repeated, "Just start telling people that." He kept it really simple.

I said, "Oka-a-a-y, I'm an international professional speaker."

That one idea changed what I said to myself and to others, and whenever anybody asked me what I did, I said, "I'm an international professional speaker." Only a few weeks later, I was asked to speak in Canada, to give a paid speech internationally, and I thought, My God, it works!

The masses wait to see it to believe it, but the master believes it and then sees it. The master affirms and believes it ahead of time. We create our lives with our thoughts, every minute of the day. I made a commitment to myself that one day I was going to speak on a program with Wayne Dyer, and last year I gave three presentations back-to-back with him. I made the commitment, and it happened. I wanted to set foot on every major country on Earth and be paid to do it, and now new countries constantly open up to me. This year it was Austria, Spain, and some in South America, and I really believe it's because I was clear about what I wanted. I took the time to decide exactly how I'd love my life, visualized as many details as I could imagine, wrote them all down, and then took action. Write it down! Things that aren't put down on paper get left in the mind, and a short pencil is better than a long memory when it comes to your dreams.

Are you clear about what you would love? Do you know exactly how you would love it? Do you see it in so much detail that when you close your eyes you can't see anything but your life the way you would love it? What would happen if you had no distractions or obstacles in your mind and couldn't imagine anything else? If you kept refining your dream until it was all you could see? When you can't imagine it any other way, that's the way it happens ... and is often when it begins to happen.

A gentleman who'd been a guest on Oprah came into my office some years ago and asked me, "How did you get your seminars happening around the world?"

I said, "Well, it's my vision," and I pulled out my dream book to show him my detailed visual master plan.

He said, "No, no, no, I want to see your brochures. I want to know how you marketed it."

"I don't have any brochures," I responded.

"But what was your marketing strategy?"

"I have a clear vision, and whenever and wherever I speak, I stay fully present and inspired."

"Yeah, I know, but what do you mail out to people? How do you reach them?"

He was stuck on the idea that the power was in a brochure or some slick marketing piece. I said, "You keep projecting artificial limits onto a successful strategy for building dreams. What I'm telling you is that if you truly become crystal clear on how you would love your life, to such a degree that you can't see anything but that, it's almost impossible for you not to get it." Absolute clarity adds vitality and enthusiasm to your actions.

I believe that this principle is worth repeating: If you get absolutely crystal clear on exactly what you would love, and you can't see anything but that, it's almost impossible for you not to get it. If you can say, "I am worth it, I deserve to have my dreams, I deserve to take the time to focus on the infinite details to create them, I have a human will, and I'll align it with divine will and allow it to fill me and inspire me to write out each dream in a specific fashion," and then you do it ... then it's yours.

I had the opportunity to work with a beautiful and talented young lady in Texas who wanted to win the Miss Houston beauty pageant -- it was her dream; it inspired her. She was a singer. She did pantomime and ventriloquism and other performance arts, and she was just beginning to expand her beauty career.

When she sat down with me, she said, "Dr. Demartini, I'd like to speak with you about my dream of becoming Miss Houston."

I asked her. "What do you see?"

"I see myself being Miss Houston."

"Yes, but what exactly do you see'? How do you see it?"

We found that the picture in her mind was a bit fragmented, and the holes in her vision matched the challenging obstacles she was attracting. As I worked with this aspiring young lady, I had her imagine how she would walk, how she'd carry the bouquet, how every part of her face and body would look, how the audience and the stage and the hall would look -- everything.

She thought about what she'd say in her speech, which questions they'd ask and how she'd respond, what she would sing, what she would wear, and how she'd present herself. We went through it in ever finer detail, clarifying everything she could see on stage, and we hit it from every angle until she couldn't see anything but winning Miss Houston. She started to tear up with inspiration because she was there. At that moment, she had certainty. She won Miss Houston because she couldn't see anything else.

How much energy do you spend on obstacles and distractions because you haven't taken the time to define your mission and your dreams? What would happen if you honored and disciplined yourself to define your destiny? What could you create? The universe is doing everything it can to wake you up and make sure you get your dreams. If you reframe your mind so that no matter what happens, no matter whom you meet, no matter what the situation or challenge or obstacle, you experience it as helping you to fulfill your dream, how can you fail?

You won't rise above and beyond anything you're charged and emotional about, so the best way to do what you love is to love what you're doing right now. State your dream clearly, and then ask your self how what you're doing right now is preparing you for your dreams. When you love and are grateful for what is, you get the power to turn it into what you love.

If you know that no matter what happens, your life is serving your dreams, then nothing can stop you. The minute you truly commit to your dream, watch the universe immediately bring you the sustenance and the challenges necessary to fulfill it. Positive or negative, supportive or challenging, peaceful or warlike, cooperative or competitive, pleasurable or painful -- no matter what happens, if you can see how it's serving you, how can you not succeed?

Living an inspired life requires mastering some skills, one of which is the ability to ask yourself inspirational, meaningful questions. The quality of your life is determined by the quality of the questions you ask. If you say to yourself, 1'd like to do that, but how can I when I don't have the money? You create a mind-set that assumes you can't and stops without even trying. If, instead, you ask yourself, How can I do what I love and be magnificently paid for it? and don't stop looking until you find the answer, you'll get an entirely different outcome and life. Reframing the questions you ask yourself offers tremendous power.

The second secret to an inspired life is the Law of Greatest Efficiency. This law tells us that anyone or anything that doesn't fulfill its purpose automatically decays. The matter that's utilized in this universe gets dissipated and redistributed to those who are willing to fulfill their divine design. That which becomes extinct gives rise to that which is ever greater, so it's vital to be clear about your purpose. That's why I say that there's nothing wrong with retirement as long as it doesn't get in the way of your work, because the second you stop growing, you automatically undergo entropy. But even when you're not inspired and consciously following your mission, you still play a part in the divine order. There's nothing wrong if you feel like you're off purpose. Just know that your resources, energy, and life will be given to somebody else who is inspired and feeling purposeful.

Here's one final secret: The purpose of The Breakthrough Experience, and probably why you were drawn to it, is to offer you a more efficient way to listen to your own heart and soul, the inner wisdom that is infinitely greater than any external teaching. It is the true teacher, and when you have access to it, you begin to pay more attention to its wise guidance. When you glimpse an understanding of the universal laws and divine order, when you awaken your sense of gratitude for the marvelous gift of life, you become inspired to live the dream you were created to fulfill.

Create the life you love:

l. Every day, sit for a moment in silent meditation and concentrate on exactly what you would love to create in your life. Imagine every detail you can, and then even more. See your life exactly the way you would love it to be. Let your imagination be real enough to come true, yet ideal enough to inspire and stretch you.

2. Write down all that you can imagine, and begin formulating your goals. Writing down your dreams helps them come true, so include all the details.

3. Every day, take at least one action step toward making your goals come true. What you move toward moves toward you.

4. Keep records of every synchronous, goal-aligned event that occurs; they fill your life when you stop to acknowledge them. Write down all the events that come true each day that demonstrate that you're moving in the direction of your dreams.

5. Keep refining your goals, becoming clearer with each passing day about what you would love to create.

6. As you begin to fulfill these goals, be sure to add new ones, all revolving around your chief aim or purpose in life.

7. Maintain an achievement and blessing journal. Be thankful for every supportive and challenging event that occurs to give you feedback and fulfillment on the road to your dreams.