It seems but a moment ago, but in reality it was almost 8 years ago when I first glimpsed what today I'm sharing with you.

You see, I was the Marlboro Man of Northern California working for Philip Morris USA, working the 5 P's (Price, Promotion, Product, Positioning, Packaging) of marketing for my many retail clients. And I was good. More people were smoking Philip Morris cigarettes in Northern California than any other brand, and market share was growing fast under my sales management execution.

Every day I'd get up and drive the company car, comfortable with the security of having a steady pay check and health insurance for my young family. I'd done it. I'd successfully accomplished what had been asked of me… get good grades so that I could get into college; get my degree; and get a good job with a big company. I was successful by every well-meaning friend and family member. It was the first time I'd ever heard from my father that he as actually proud of me. I'd done it, you know?

Yet why was I so numb? No longer did I really feel the ups and downs of life. I was numbing the pain smoking the free cigarettes they shipped me every month. It was an added bonus, I guess, to be numb doing what I was doing. But something inside me was dying or almost dead. It was my dreams. It was my purpose.

It's impossible to live with passion when you're numb.

Looking back I realized my tenure as a cigarette sales manager was an absolute essential ingredient for me to now be living the life I live. It gave me an experiential experience of being who I'm not. It freed me permanently from feeling more responsible to other's dreams than my own. The experience emancipated me from ever living any other purpose than my own.

The transition from there to here wasn't easy. I'm not saying your transition will be necessarily easy either. But it's worth it. It's so worth it.

I've shared this glimpse with you to remind you that I'm simply an ordinary man who remembered the extraordinary withinasthru my purpose lived. Not extraordinary necessarily by others' eyes, but my own. And isn't that what matters most?

Because once you begin to declare to the world who you are through the power of speaking in the I Am, you will begin to notice a shift. My time selling cigarettes allowed me crystal clear self seeing of who I wasn't so I could begin to choose and declare who I am. Even now, when I declare I am love, someone invariably arrives to challenge me to be the love I declare my self to be. Now I simply embrace this person as a gift giving me the very opportunity to be who I am. This seeing has made all the difference.

It will be this way for you too. In my next email I'll share with you another dimension of this process. It will be a longer letter, that I'll share in two parts, about the evolutionary catharsis you may be experiencing. It's important, critically important, for you to get, truly get, that this is a natural part of the process.

See the opportunities that challenge you to be the you of your dreams today, and so shall you be and become.

In Adventure & Personal Experience,

sk