Mona Vie

I've always been fascinated by motivational leaders and preachers. Tony Robbins and Joel Osteen are two in particular. I think Tom Cruise's finest acting moment was playing the character of self-help guru (be it misogynist) Frank T.J. Mackey in Magnolia. I find it amazing how regular people can become utterly captivated by the passion and catch phrases of a dynamic public speaker. A theory to the magnetism goes back to Maslow and his hiearchy of needs. The need to belong, is smack in the middle of the triangle, just above the basics of physiological and safety needs. Only after we succeed in feeling accepted can we move on to realizing esteem and self-actualization. Finding the right "group" is something we seem to be eternally searching for in big cities. Sounds like high school all over again.

Recently, I was invited to a 'tasting party' by a friend for a new product called Mona Vie. It's a super charged form of acai juice. Acai is now a household name since the Brazilian berry outpaced pomegranate as the new wonder fruit. In my marathon training mode, I've been open to anything remotely natural that might make me healthier hence, run a little bit faster so I decided to check it out. The tasting party actually was a selling party or rather a buying party, that is buying into the idea that Mona Vie was a surefire way for people to start a successful home business as a distributor of the brand. Anyone who has run a marathon will tell you that your life turns into Forrest Gump and you do nothing else it seems except run. There was no home business in my near future but I was genuinely curious about tasting it so I stuck around. The leader of the evening was a trained coach in motivational selling. He had a number of tactics to rally the other attendees into engaging with each other and he enticed with the idea of earning ten million dollars in three years.

Interestingly, the coach didn't dwell on the figures but rather on the WHY. Why did people want to earn ten million dollars in three years? (Does this sound familiar? hint: my post about the movie Office Space.) Apparently, when people focused on the why, that's where the motivation for the business came from. Interestingly, folks were fairly candid about their why; to travel more, spend more time with loved ones, help out family financially. Sure enough, the coach had his own catch phrase, "I CREATE WEALTH AND ABUNDANCE!" which people recited to their neighbor and punctuated with enthusiastic high-fives. The moral of the story: the WHY is also important to being DONE.COM.

So let's do a quick review:

1- DONE.COM isn't just about not working BUT, working everyday especially in America with two weeks vacation until retirement at 65 is definitely not for everyone.
2- DONE.COM may require a plan that takes into consideration aging parents for some.*
3- DONE.COM is about being realistic about quality of life in the future.
4- DONE.COM is about having an EXCELLENT grasp on personal finances and financial matters.
5- DONE.COM is about having smart or no debt (smart debt is debt that is paid off regularly at a low interest rate).
6- DONE.COM is about having goals and staying on top of the WHY.
7- DONE.COM is about realizing the need to belong.

The next phase of DONE.COM will involve doing some math and setting a timeline. Cooincidentally, I've started to track my running progress and have taken my training up a notch. This means I've started a combination of running and working out 7 days a week. I've come to terms with the fact I will have mostly bad hair days for the next two and a half months. I can only imagine what it will be like after the marathon, when I have all that time back, when I am DONE.COM with training. I also know that training will have to come before many things, even occasionally spending time with my manfriend. So far he's been extremely supportive. There's an expression something to the effect of, "If you want a challenge run a race, if you want a life changing experience, run a marathon." I'm ready for life changing experiences and I think he's starting to get that idea about me, too.

*I highly recommend the book, In the Checklist of Life for anyone anxious or unsure about how to handle personal affairs or the affairs of a spouse/parent in the event of sickness or death. http://aaippublishing.com/Books.html