If you read this post before doing the exercise, you’ll lose all benefit of it. It only takes 5 minutes and can give you tremendous insight – so please go do it NOW!

Keep reading ONLY IF YOU’VE DONE THE EXERCISE…

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Okay, so as I mentioned, Eben mentioned that Joe Polish taught him this exercise, and it’s supposed to reveal your life purpose.

The top 3 things are things you need to accept and develop, and the bottom 3 are your shadows – things that exist in yourself but you don’t yet want to recognize.

If you write “liar” for example, remember that it doesn’t necessarily mean you’re lying to others (though that could be true) – it could also mean you lie to yourself.

Here Were My Results:

The 3 people I admired were:

Mother Teresa – unwavering faith, dedication to goal

Albert Einstein – open-mindedness and intelligence

Piperlyne (my mentor) – not accepting fear, being OK in the face of anything

I thought and thought and could only come up with 2 people I didn’t like:

A popular “guru” that I’ll leave nameless – scammy, willing to do anything for money, doesn’t care about people

A copywriting client I once worked with  – unnecessarily aggressive, liar

After I Saw My “Shadows”, I Had To Do A Double Take.

I thought, “I care about people! How could that make sense?”

Then it hit me. Hard.

I’ve been telling people I want to get out of internet marketing for years now. Being totally transparent, the whole “make-money” market kind of disgusts me most of the time.

My pattern has been that I’ll want to get out, think of a new idea that can make a good amount of money and “help people”, and convince myself that if I’m helping people, it’s OK.

Don’t get me wrong here – I believe in the products I put out, knew they worked, etc… but still – those products are NOT my greatest gift to the world. At all.

After doing the exercise I realized that putting out 99% of my make-money products is not coming from my heart. A factor is helping people, yes, but there’s also the factor of wanting instant money without having to do that much work. It’s amazing how so many people just automatically buy products without even thinking about it, and it’s beyond easy to make 5-6 figures with a good information product.

Then I started thinking…

How Can I Feel Good In A Market That Disgusts Me So Much?

My first thought was, “I know I can still help people with some of my products.  How can I do it from a heart-centered place? Or do I even WANT to?”

The first thing I thought of was to do more webinars and teleseminars so I could follow up with people to ensure their success. After thinking about that though, I realized I really don’t want to tie myself down to any weekly commitments.

Then I started thinking… why do I make products in the make-money niche?

I had a few answers:

• Good money
• Helping people
• I love when people tell me they quit their jobs
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And I asked, why do I hate the make-money niche?

• Feels sleazy often
• Many people hand me money they need in order to get something they’ll never use
• I would hate if someone I just met were to Google me and see long-form sales letters that just scream of “Scam” (even though they’re not.)
• Making money is important when you’re in survival mode, sure… but it’s not that big of a deal once you’re “comfortable”. There are a lot more important (in my mind) things that could be done to help the world – such as having people do nice things for others, inspiring people to push themselves, and really pushing their SPIRIT.
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I also realized I usually put out the make-money products when I’m in survival mode (bank account getting low, want to pay for something, whatever). Sure, I could do the offline tactics that I teach, and they work – but internet marketing is pushbutton. Put out a product, put a price tag on it, send it to the list, and bam – tons of instant money.

Again I want to be clear here that I NEVER put out crap and really worked hard to ensure quality – but still – the point is, it wasn’t coming from a super-heart-centered place, no matter how hard I tried to convince myself otherwise.

So if I ever do internet marketing again…

Here’s My Commitment To You:

I don’t even know if I will make a “make-money” product ever again.

If I do, though, it will be different.

Every product I have will have an application process with a few questions people need to answer in order to get the product. I feel this step alone will knock off 50% of people who just buy on autopilot without even thinking about what they’re doing.

If my assistant and I approve the application, I will give access to the product for free and then the customer will pay what they feel it’s worth.

If they pay nothing, it means they never went through the product. That bans them for life on all my other products.

I may also allow people to do nice things for other people as payment.

This makes me a lot happier to do internet marketing products, *IF* I ever do them, because I work with only qualified people and will only hear from those who are actually going to do something with the information I teach.

I want to mention 2 things with this:

1. Nobody has this model yet. I may continue to recommend other people’s products that ask for a set price, and they will only be products I have used and 100% believe in. I will find these ON MY OWN, so marketers… please don’t send me joint venture requests any more.

2. I have already committed to an event series with several marketers to give in-person conferences. I will continue to do that, and those conferences will have a set price. I am continuing to do this because:

a) I already committed to it
b) The price is very inexpensive compared to the value
c) I will speak about outsourcing, which is something that I could believe in, since I know outsourcing gives people the power to live a more fun-filled life. It’s just not just about make-money rubbish.

I am also not sure if I plan on changing my old products out or not. As I think about it I will continue to keep the old prices up. Most of them are with partners and I don’t want to shove this down other people’s throats.

That being said, I don’t think I’ll be doing a lot of marketing any more. It’s just not that stellar to me.

My True Goal Is This:

I want to get 5,000 people (short-term) to post on my blog with something nice they did for the world.

THAT is something that gets me jazzed and pumped. It comes from my heart and aligns with the exercise.

For the next few weeks I need to focus full time on a specific short term goal I have, and when I’m done, I’ll be doing a ton of work on this blog.

I want to get it redesigned and have it tracking people who do nice things. There will be prize giveaways and other awesome motivations, and I’m super-excited to get those rolling out.

I feel it’s high-time I started doing what my heart and spirit want again, and NOT what my bank account feels good about.

Now that I’m slightly halfway through, things are interesting.

It seems like some of what I wanted just a few weeks ago is not as important to me any more, and new goals are taking the place of those. Things have been changing REALLY rapidly.

That being said, I’m still working on lots of stuff.

Here’s a play by play on what’s going on for each goal:

1. 7 days of juicing only.

I did this!! It went extremely well, I had no detox pains and had phenomenal energy throughout the entire thing. It was a much better experience than the last time and I’ll definitely be doing it again.

2. Connecting one on one with people.

This has been going great too. I have made several new friends and keep getting confirmation that this is the right thing for me to do. Take a look at this super-nice post Tim Castleman made after he visited me.

I am actually thinking of opening up my home to “x” amount of people per month. I think it could be a fun way to meet new people and do whatever I can to serve. Otto says I should charge for it and make it a business type thing, which could be a LOT of fun.

3. 1762 clients for Burn Your To Do List.

Well, as I posted in the initial challenge, that number is dependent upon a lot of factors. I can tell you that we’re converting like CRAZY right now. 19.6% of the people who find our page sign up to become a member, so it’s just a matter of getting traffic to the site. 19.6% conversions are pretty much unheard of, especially on COLD TRAFFIC to a MEMBERSHIP SITE.

Proof of conversions is right here.

4-7. Flight ticket home, to London, to Kenya, and to Dominican Republic.

I haven’t gotten any tickets yet, moreso because I’m trying to decide on the best times to go than anything else. Some of those places lose their sizzle to me depending on when I’m thinking about it, but at the time of this writing, I’m excited to go again.

8. 500 sales per month of this delicious chocolate drink I’ve been drinking.

I made a rubbish sales letter right here for it, and then lost a little bit of interest. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to continue promoting it, but as of this moment I’m interested again. Oy oy oy…

9. Tons and tons of energy as if I was drinking the chocolate drink every single moment.

My energy levels have been AWESOME! After some blood testing I realized some things I could do to make it even BETTER, which is even more fantastic.

(Some of those things include getting a cellerciser and doing rhythmic breathing)

10. Will weigh 142 pounds.

I AM SO OVER THIS ONE! That was a goal I no longer believe in, and I threw my scale in the dumpster. I’m not allowing my happiness to be dictated by a number on the scale any more. I will continue to eat healthily, exercise, and respect and honor my body. I am sure whatever I’m supposed to look like, I will look like. I’m at a super-healthy weight for a 5’8 female and I’m not putting any more tension around this.

11. A hair cut and color. This is a smaller one, but I’m overdue.

Will schedule soon

12. Starting up belly dancing again. I miss it!

Belly dancing classes are on Wednesdays, and because I haven’t been around every Wednesday, I started following along with some YouTube videos.

13. Keeping a super-happy relationship with Otto.

Our relationship is at an all-time high. We just spent the week together and had a WONDERFUL time, and we’re both looking forward to living near each other again. I can safely say we’re both more in love with each other than ever before. I know this is corny, but every time I look at him, all I want to do is hug him, kiss him, and tell him how much I love him!

Here’s a picture of us from our week:

We were walking around Santa Monica and got asked to go to the front of an audience for People’s Court (remember that TV show where they supposedly have people in the audience and they ask them their opinions on the case?). It was a lot of fun. The host just reads out the gist of each case to the audience and we give our opinions. This is a picture from between takes.

14. My income being passive again.

I barely worked while in California and the money just flowed in. I’m continuing to work on this. My amazing business manager has also just volunteered to do all my SEO on sites for a cut of the first few month’s profits, which is a no-brainer considering I haven’t done a thing on them.

All in all, I guess the major things I’ve been hemming and hawing on are the flights and Chocolate Jump. Even with those though, I’ve made great strides. I’m happy to be where I am at this stage of the game.

I’ve been taking lots of actions in getting things done and have already seen some great results.

In order of what I’m choosing:

1. 7 days of juicing only.

I’m on Day 3 of juicing now and it’s going WONDERFULLY! It’s a completely different experience than I had last time. I still have a ton of energy, have wanted to keep drinking (last time I couldn’t even look at juice), and am feeling really really good. I feel awesome about doing this for my body and I’m super excited for all the healing going on in my body as we speak.

To make it inevitable that it happened, I enrolled everyone who reads my blog in it , put it on each day of my calendar (“Day 3 of Juice Fast!” Day 4 of Juice Fast!”), and have been making juice every night before I go to bed so I have something when I wake up in the morning (when I’m the hungriest).

2. Connecting one on one with people. I feel best when I’m off my computer and in front of people, and I’ve felt really inspired to start letting people know what I know. I don’t necessarily want to do it in a “let me teach you” authoritative style, but I do want to work with people on a friend-to-friend basis. People constantly tell me how I inspire them, and I want to do that more often.

I put an ad on Craigslist under the “strictly platonic” section , and already had 2 people respond. I also met 3 REALLY AWESOME people yesterday. I met the one guy from Twitter, and he brought his wife and mother-in-law along. I didn’t necessarily connect with them to inspire them – but it does help me in my goals of connecting more with people.

3. 1762 clients for Burn Your To Do List. This is the one that might take longer than 30 days – not because I don’t believe I can do it, but because I need to make sure we have the appropriate number of staff first. I don’t want to take on too many clients and then end up making them all upset. We’re in an awesome place with the site as far as making clients happy and I have no desire to jeopardize that.

I started on my sales letter the day I made this post.

4 – 7. Flight tickets to home, London, Kenya, and Dominican Republic.

Coming soon! The day I made my post though, my friend Steph (one of the people moving to Dominican Republic) randomly called me and said she’d be happy to host me for as long as I want when I go to the DR… and she didn’t even see this post!

8. 500 sales per month of this delicious chocolate drink I’ve been drinking. I haven’t even created a website or ordered my first batch for sale yet, but I want to start selling this super-amazing drink I’ve really been loving. It’s not part of an MLM or anything – just a delicious raw vegan drink that has tons of superfoods and antioxidants in it, and gives an INSANE amount of energy. It can be made into ice cream or in a shake, and I actually have to ration down my amounts because sometimes it gives me so much energy that I can’t even sit down. I have been really excited about selling this because it’s something I could feel awesome about. It’s a super-healthy product that really helps people… and everyone loves chocolate!

I made a tentative site last night at ChocolateJUMP.com! I haven’t edited the letter yet and still need to work out shipping costs (figured if anyone orders now, because I’m still waiting on my initial order to come in, they’ll get free shipping as a thank you for waiting)… but I finished the rough draft at 8pm last night, and when I woke up at 5:30 am this morning, I already had a sale!!

9. Tons and tons of energy as if I was drinking the chocolate drink every single moment. Thanks to both the chocolate and my juice recipes I have been feeling super-high 80% of the time, and now I’d like to up it even more.

I’m still feeling AWESOME and energetic. That being said, I’m OK if I need some downtime with the juicing. Up until now though, I’ve had endless reserves of energy.

10. Will weigh 142 pounds. At 5’8 I’m already at a healthy weight but I think 142 would be a superb goal. Your outer body reflects your inside body and with all the work I’ve been doing, it’s high time I showed it and got rid of the flab.

I didn’t weigh myself at the start of juicing so I don’t know how much I’ve released, but I know I’ve already released some. Obviously this is in large part due to the juicing. I know 6 pounds will come back no matter what (because my intestine is going to be empty after I juice for a while, and when I eat again, that will no longer be the case), but I plan on staying high raw and still juicing a ton throughout the month. This is going to happen.

11. A hair cut and color. This is a smaller one, but I’m overdue.

Will happen.

12. Starting up belly dancing again. I miss it!

I’m waiting until my juicing is over so that I don’t push my body too much, but I’ve already lined up where I’ll be taking classes (there’s a place within walking distance from my house! Yee-hah!).

13. Keeping a super-happy relationship with Otto.

Things have been wonderful with us. I can easily say we’re both happier than we’ve ever been with each other and I feel more and more in love with him every day.

14. My income being passive again. This has been happening more and more but I’d like to get it to the point where it used to be – where I could just stop working for months and months at a time and not have concern about one single email coming in to me. I drew a picture of my business bank account showing $106,817.63, and my personal account at $95,242.76. I know this isn’t millions of dollars but I want more than I could ever want or need, and I can’t see needing more than that right now. I might in the future… like I said, I’ll probably make what I choose bigger and bigger as I start making it happen.

Can you say Burn Your To Do List? Chocolate JUMP? Looking at fulfillment companies now for the latter, and I am getting less and less emails about BYTDL daily. Our management team there is just phenomenal. Jamie (my online business manager) = the highlight of my life.

So that’s it! It’s the early morning of Day 3 and I’m so excited to see what happens come May 22 when I’ve met all of these!! Can’t wait to see what my next set of choices will look like

My coach also gave me the assignment to choose 10 things that I want in my life every morning when I wake up (“choosing” is a lot more powerful than “wanting”). She said I’d be surprised at how quickly those things would start happening.

With her suggestion, I put the 2 together and made a poster of (a few more than) 10 things I am choosing. I put it in my bathroom so that every day when I go to brush my teeth, I can look at what I’ve chosen. With the exception of one of them (I’ll explain in a minute), I plan on having all of these things within 30 days.

Some of these aren’t huge – they’re just things I wanted when I was making the poster. Other things are much harder, but I think they’ll happen. I’m going to post progress updates on my blog and would love any support and help anyone can offer me.

Once this poster pans out, I’ll probably dare to go bigger and bigger and see what else I can come up with. Here’s what I have so far:

Full poster here.

Ignore the fact that drawing isn’t my specialty. At all.

I’ve gotta say though, even just drawing this stuff was a TON of fun! I felt so energized and in such an awesome mood! My friend called me right after I was done and he was feeling exhausted. He said just how excited I was helped him feel a lot better, and 100% of my good mood was from that poster.

Anyway, here’s what I’m choosing:

1. 7 days of juicing only. I am going to give this another go. I know it sucked the last time, but I think that’s because I did it with too many vegetables (too alkalizing) and not enough fruit. Also, I am doing this with a different intention in mind. I think it was mostly for weight loss last time, even though I may have convinced myself into believing otherwise. This time I have studied a lot about digestion and really want to do this as a way to appreciate my body and do some intense cleansing. The weight loss is a nice benefit but it truly isn’t my main goal and I’m not even weighing myself to start it off.

2. Connecting one on one with people. I feel best when I’m off my computer and in front of people, and I’ve felt really inspired to start letting people know what I know. I don’t necessarily want to do it in a “let me teach you” authoritative style, but I do want to work with people on a friend-to-friend basis. People constantly tell me how I inspire them, and I want to do that more often.

3. 1762 clients for Burn Your To Do List. This is the one that might take longer than 30 days – not because I don’t believe I can do it, but because I need to make sure we have the appropriate number of staff first. I don’t want to take on too many clients and then end up making them all upset. We’re in an awesome place with the site as far as making clients happy and I have no desire to jeopardize that.

4. Flight ticket home. I miss my family and friends in Philly!

5. Flight ticket to London, and then I want to Eurail throughout Europe. I am so excited to go explore there!

6. Flight ticket to Kenya. I’ve been aching to go on a safari for a long time now.

7. Flight ticket to Dominican Republic. My friends Steph and Todd are moving there, and my friend Bruce is already there. The fact that I love being near the water only elevates my enthusiasm a million percent.

8. 500 sales per month of this delicious chocolate drink I’ve been drinking. I haven’t even created a website or ordered my first batch for sale yet, but I want to start selling this super-amazing drink I’ve really been loving. It’s not part of an MLM or anything – just a delicious raw vegan drink that has tons of superfoods and antioxidants in it, and gives an INSANE amount of energy. It can be made into ice cream or in a shake, and I actually have to ration down my amounts because sometimes it gives me so much energy that I can’t even sit down. I have been really excited about selling this because it’s something I could feel awesome about. It’s a super-healthy product that really helps people… and everyone loves chocolate!

9. Tons and tons of energy as if I was drinking the chocolate drink every single moment. Thanks to both the chocolate and my juice recipes I have been feeling super-high 80% of the time, and now I’d like to up it even more.

10. Will weigh 142 pounds. At 5’8 I’m already at a healthy weight but I think 142 would be a superb goal. Your outer body reflects your inside body and with all the work I’ve been doing, it’s high time I showed it and got rid of the flab.

11. A hair cut and color. This is a smaller one, but I’m overdue.

12. Starting up belly dancing again. I miss it!

13. Keeping a super-happy relationship with Otto.

14. My income being passive again. This has been happening more and more but I’d like to get it to the point where it used to be – where I could just stop working for months and months at a time and not have concern about one single email coming in to me. I drew a picture of my business bank account showing $106,817.63, and my personal account at $95,242.76. I know this isn’t millions of dollars but I want more than I could ever want or need, and I can’t see needing more than that right now. I might in the future… like I said, I’ll probably make what I choose bigger and bigger as I start making it happen.

Anyway – these are what I’m choosing, and like I said, I’ll post updates here to tell you how I’m doing and what action I’m taking towards my goals. I welcome any support or comments that you have and would actually sincerely appreciate it. I’m looking forward to all of this coming true!

Hearing her excitement is making me SUPER NOSTALGIC for when I used to do that. On the same note though, it feels nice to a routine going on.

While Jaime was here, she gave me a book that she created for my birthday. The book was freaking AMAZING… so I made a video where I read it to you.

And like I said, other friends gave me ridiculously heartfelt and awesome things as well. I know I already blogged about it but you guys didn’t get to SEE it. In alphabetical order:

Brian sent me a beautiful bouquet of roses.

Joshua surprised me by putting this swoonworthy poem in my screen door:

And Otto gave me this AWESOME framed letter that made me positively melt:

I know you can’t read the picture, so I typed everything out that it says:

50 Things I Love About Rachel Rofe

1. You’re super-loving
2. You’re amazingly smart
3. You care about others
4. You’re perfect at listening
5. You’re adventurous

6. You’re kind
7. You’re more talented than you realize
8. Your smile brightens the room
9. You’re giving & charitable to others
10. You look for win/win solutions

11. You have immense integrity
12. You’re trustable
13. You’re sweet
14. You’re always there for a friend in need
15. You give your best 100% everyday

16. You live life to the fullest
17. You create that which you want
18. You’re creative
19. You read
20. You’re honest

21. You always express how you truly feel
22. You’re super positive
23. You look at the good in everything
24. You make friends easily
25. You’re funny

26. You love learning
27. You travel
28. You’re great at business
29. You’re open to new things
30. You always do good by people

31. You’re playful
32. You do whatever it takes to succeed
33. You’re spiritual
34. You always bring your A game… especially in Uno
35. You’re a striver

36. You’re very enlightened
37. You work hard
38. You never complain
39. You’re wise beyond your years
40. You think for yourself

41. You’re independent
42. You’re a great cuddler
43. You inspire others
44. You’re calm and centered
45. You’re thoughtful

46. You’re extremely considerate
47. You cherish quality moments with friends and family
48. You build people up
49. You’re confident
50. You’re constantly growing youself

Bonus: You’re Great at life!

I love you Rachel and wish this is the best year of your life to date and things only get better and better from here forward.

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I just had to share, because all of these made me feel SO MASSIVELY GRATEFUL and reading Jaime’s book opened up all the memories from my birthday again.

I’ve been WAY busy lately, but here are some quick updates, which I can hopefully expound on soon…

-I’m going to Buenos Aires tomorrow for a month with my boyfriend (!!!).

Two things about that:

1. Buenos Aires – YAY!

2. Yes, boyfriend! And some people left some comments on the boyfriend test such as,

“I think you are beyond a qualities list and gone into the world of make believe.”

or…

“I sincerely think you should settle for having at least two boyfriends ’cause you’ll hardly find all these traits in one single person.”

….

But I’m happy to say that Otto meets EVERYTHING on the test (except for blue eyes, but that’s okay), and a lot more. In fact, I told him I don’t even have the imagination to list out everything that he encompasses. Dude is INCREDIBLE – makes me really happy I waited for 4 years before getting into a new relationship.

- I sold yayFOOD! The new owner is a really incredible guy. He tried out the diet himself and has lost 12.5 pounds in 3 weeks! =)

There were quite a few people who bid on the site and I didn’t vibe with all of them – I think George (the new owner) is the best match, and am psyched for him.

- When I get back from BA, I think (you know my plans change all the time, but as of right now…) I’m going to get a home base in San Diego. Otto and I are possibly going to get a place together… depending on how we feel after BA. We’ve already been living together since early January and then we’ll be together all through February…

But who knows, maybe we’ll decide it’s better to have space when we get back.

- I’ve been working on an awesome new site that I’m super-stoked on, it’s about one of my passions and it’s something that’s pretty fulfilling to me. The site has been doing really well & I think it’s going to be my new baby.

Okay… guess that’s it for now, I have to go return my rental car and pick up our laundry before we peace out!

I’m going to put everything I.M. over here from now on… and make this site all about my personal life, experiences, etc.

I think the separation will make posting in both blogs much more enjoyable.

(And by the way, how awesome is my new layout? )

Since I don’t think I’ve been attracted to more than 5 men in this freaking country (I’ve been here for 3 weeks!), I’ve had a lot of time to think about what I do want when someone stellar comes along .

I’ve also realized that there are probably 3 men in the entire universe that fit everything I expect.

Now, I’ve always been pretty picky (it’s why I’ve been single for 3 years!), but the more I grow, the more quirky things I expect.

Years ago, I had an Excel spreadsheet that was a potential boyfriend test (feel free to roll your eyes, but my friend made one too – and when she started dating a guy she had rose-tinted glasses with, she gave him her test and realized he failed – miserably).

The traits I used to have were:

Ambitious, Charismatic, Chivalrous, Confident, Educated, Fashion sense, Funny, Good friend to others, Good job, Good listener, Good sexual chemistry, Happy, Has his own interests, Honest, Likes to travel, Not cheap, Not too clingy, Open minded, Positive, Reads, Romantic, Sense of humor, Sentimental, Smart, Spontaneous, Tall, Thoughtful, Well rounded, Will try new things.

Everything had an equal weight, except for ambitious and romantic (they had double weight).

After I went to Warrior Camp, it was an important criteria for me that someone went there too. I think I could let that go now, provided someone pushes themselves out of their comfort zone and has read books from authors like David Deida (one of the most special parts of Warrior Camp was when we did a thought-provoking exercise on the differences between men and women – very similar to Deida’s “Way Of The Superior Man”).

Today, I’d probably switch around a bunch of the “qualifiers” I had before – take some out, add some in. I’m thinking my list would look something like this, in alphabetic order:

Ambitious (not as important as it once was as long as he constantly pushes himself out of his comfort zone)

Blue eyes (ok, ok, that’s just a wishlist item – but usually not attracted to dark hair, dark eyes, hence this Brazilian tragedy )

Cares about others

Charismatic

Confident

Cuddler (Grade A only)

Educated (not necessarily by college, but homeboy has to love to learn!)

Exercises

Funny

Good friend

Good listener

Has his own interests (that he acts on frequently!)

Healthy (Raw foodist preferred since I’ll at least be 80% for the rest of my life, I think)

Honest

Intelligent

Loves surprises

Loves to travel (Love, not like)

No “job” (At this point, there’d be a big disconnect between me and anyone who needs to clock in and out or be at work specific hours)

Not cheap (I hate when people let money hinder them. Need more, make more.)

Open minded

Positive

Pushes me (My friend Jose, who I consider to be one of my greatest personal heroes, never let me get away with anything – and I loved him for it.)

Romantic (Non-negotiable)

Sense Of Humor

Sentimental

Sensitive

Spiritual (Another non-negotiable.)

Spontaneous

Tall

Thoughtful

Well-rounded

I don’t know if I could deal with 80% any more, though – I’m just going to hold on to the fact that someone out there meets 100%.

If you know him, feel free to make an introduction. =)

First of all, I want to sincerely thank everyone who responded to the church post. I didn’t respond right away because I wanted to think about everyone’s answers, but I do definitely appreciate them. I read them all closely, followed all links, and spent a lot of time pondering them.(I also want to especially appreciate Frank Sousa for UPSing me 2 books that I can’t wait to read: The Holy Bible and Answers To Tough Questions.)I talked to some friends outside of the I.M. world about this, too, and am still very fascinated by it – I guess it’s just a topic that’ll never have a clear answer.

In Other News…

If you’re following me on Twitter you already know this, but I decided not to go to Europe. It was really weird, but everything surrounding that trip was going wrong. I was getting incredibly stressed (which is not a word I typically feel) and bad thing after bad thing kept happening.

I’d driven to Philly from L.A. so my sister could take over my car, and the insurance company was saying she wasn’t allowed to drive it. I couldn’t find important things that I needed, people on CouchSurfing weren’t getting back to me, etc. The final straw was when I ordered an international cell phone. It came 2 days before I was supposed to leave and was missing the SIM card. When I called to ask about it, everything just surfaced up and I ended up bawling on the phone to the poor lady who answered.

There were 2 people I wanted to talk about the situation to – Jaime and Brian. Not surprisingly, when I first called Jaime, she picked up and then the line broke up as soon as she said “Hello?”. (I’m telling you, EVERYTHING was going horribly.) When I finally talked to her an hour or so later, she gave me awesome advice – to go to my “centering place” (which was a bookstore) to calm down and think about things.(When I got there I read an awesome book by Sonia Choquette – “Love Yourself, Live Your Spirit” – but that’s another blog post ).I still didn’t know what to do but I did feel a ZILLION times calmer. I got a hold of Brian, and…

He Offered Me Quite The Deal!

I told him how I felt – that I didn’t know if I should go to Europe or just stay in Philly and head to Australia in January.

The first thing he said was that he’d be angry with me if I stayed at home. He said he’s never been angry with me (and we’ve gotten in some quite heated battles), but he’d really be mad if I let myself stay home and not explore like I wanted to.

He immediately told me right after that Rio De Janeiro was an option. He has an amazing 2 bedroom penthouse with an unoccupied bedroom that he’s been living in for 10 months.

I decided to go (I actually got here this morning!), and once I did, good things started happening again. The insurance company said my sister could take over the car, amazing emails were pouring in, unexpected money to my PayPal account, etc.It definitely feels much more right over here, and it’s awesome to be hanging out with Brian. I think it’s going to be a phenomenal thing and feel ridiculously blessed to have been able to live with 2 of my best friends. I’m also really looking forward to learning Portugese!

It Kind Of Sucks Though…

…To be in a country where you don’t know the language. Some people said since I know Spanish I’d be okay in Brazil, but that definitely hasn’t been the case. Portugese and Spanish have some cognates, but they say everything with a different accent here. It’s kind of like, “so close, yet so far”. I have no fear that I’ll pick it up, it’s just hard to feel ignorant.

(Also, “It Kind Of Sucks” makes a great headline. )

On the plus side, this all makes for AWESOME people-watching. They say 60-90% of all communication is via body language, and since that’s all I can observe, I’m very much appreciating that.

(The beach is going to be amazing too. )

I guess that’s it for now. There’s a few more things I want to post about soon… things that have been on my mind bigtime lately (how I feel about marketing, abortion, and a slew of other things), so I’ll try to post about them soon.

1. WordPress keep deleting my line breaks every time I click Publish, so I have to manually add them in. It’s annoying. Why is this?

2. New blog theme… I’m a fan.

3. I made a new site with reports in efforts to build my list. Find it here and give me your feedback!

4. Grrrr, it’s hard to type from the heart when I keep reminding myself to remember the line breaks…

5. Brian and I are running a mastermind together. I’m REALLY excited about it… it’ll be with this group that I build a new $10K passive income stream. The whole angle is “90 Days To $10K”… read more here (and if you apply before September 23, it’s 20% off).

6. I got my tickets to Madrid today!!! SO FREAKING EXCITED FOR EUROPE THAT I’LL TEMPORARILY FORGET ABOUT THE ANNOYING LINE BREAKS! I sent this email to Brian earlier today:

(I think all the “dudes” make me sound insanely intelligent. )

7. My birthday’s in 5 days.

8. GRRR linebreaks, I’m going to go work out..