Crystal Andrus | Author | International Motivational Speaker | Women’s Health Advocate | Fitness Expert | Nutritionist

In the must-have book Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill writes that “the root of all achievement is desire”—specifically, a burning desire!

I used to think this meant that if I “thought about something a lot”—that if I really focused on it—the roots of achievement would just take hold and my “wantings” would be satisfied.

I’ve come to know that success is only realized once you, personally, possess the true essence of desire in every cell of your being. (And no, that isn’t just wanting something badly enough).

Desire is when something takes over you—something very primitive and unmistakeable—that drives you to do whatever it takes in order to achieve your dream or goal—without exception, without compromise, without anger, without regret, without fear, blame, guilt or shame.

Take losing weight, for example. There were times in my life that I really wanted to lose my extra body fat, and I truly believed that I desired it with every ounce of my being! In fact, most of the time, it was all I thought about! But my actions were still fuelled by self-loathing, shame, and frustration. Sure, I’d do my best to eat well but it was an effort! I’d drag my butt out of bed early to exercise but I felt angry that I had to. I struggled and white-knuckled it when it came to skipping on dessert or passing up a glass of wine. “Why did some women get to eat whatever they wanted and still be thin?” It really bugged me!

And then a shift happened. I can only compare it to falling in love. If you don’t really desire the person you’re with than being loving, understanding, giving, willing, patient, trusting, even staying faithful, can be challenging. You, literally, have to white-knuckle it. On the contrary, if you’ve ever fallen “head over heels” you’ll know that all those qualities come effortlessly—happily, willingly!

So if you find yourself struggling in any area of your life—especially over this holiday season—ask yourself “Why am I doing this?”

Truth be told, you don’t really want what you think you want!

Something in you isn’t ready, or doesn’t feel safe, for success. You may think you want to lose weight . . . You may think you want to fall in love . . . You may think you are ready for big money . . . but if you’re not able to, naturally, be good to yourself then you’re still stuck in sorrow, self-pity, fear, blame, guilt or shame. You’re pissed off that you have to do “the work” . . . and, for you, it is work, isn’t it??

Why?

Because you aren’t in love with yourself and so just like dating someone who you don’t really “dig”, it’s really challenging to be good to yourself. It’s hard to eat well, it’s tough to fit in workouts, it’s unfair to have to skip on dessert!

Does this make sense?

You don’t really desire it because you don’t really feel desirable . . . loveable . . . important enough . . . worthy! You don’t “dig” yourself!

So your task this holiday season isn’t to pass up on the shortbread cookies or say no to your company’s Christmas party. It’s to find ways to fall back in love with yourself, to remember who you really are, and to reclaim the parts of yourself you tucked away years ago (probably because someone made you think you weren’t good enough. You are!)

I hope to see you in January at my next home retreat! Have a beautiful holiday season and be good to yourself!

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Tags: Desire, Success, Think and Grow Rich

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 1st, 2009 at 12:47 pm and is filed under Body, Finances, Fitness, Success. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.