Balance - Staying Sane Mastering Network Marketing

For three months now I have been completely immersed in learning the techniques of effective network marketing on the internet. For those months I have been on a real high that felt like nothing less than a honeymoon. I was so relieved to find the mentors who were giving me the knowledge needed for my goal, that I instantly manifested a one-pointed focus bordering on obsession. I was advised for my first task to pick one of the main big social media sites and put all my efforts there to build an internet presence, create relationships, and learn how to be of value to others. I had something to do that took me away from the endless thinking, thinking, thinking about my sorrows, and this was a welcome and much-needed medicine. I chose Facebook, and with guidance and advice, began the process of building the relationships there that would help me to branch out of what had become for me, due to the events of the past two years, a diminished life. Slowly I began to meet people who were on the same path. I connected with other network marketers on Facebook. We were all reaching out to each other to help and be helped, and this was a heady antidote to the social isolation that my time of grieving had fostered. New tasks would present, and new skills were needed, so I had to increase my research savvy. New terminology flooded in to be mastered, as well as a deeper understanding of social media and all the sites that facilitate this phenomena: Onlywire, Digg, Mixx, Tumbler, Twitter, and many, many more. I had never even heard of social bookmarking. Now I had to learn it and use it. Added to that was article marketing, and the intensive training that required. Many late nights found me doing keyword research and writing.About a week ago, I started to get irritable and feel tired, but just tried to ignore it. Still, I was up and at my keyboard every morning, most of the day, and into the night. It was do or die! Just at this time I received an email from my company, expressing concern and compassion for this time of feeling overwhelmed and confused, assuring me it happens to everyone who sticks with it, and to take a breather and relax and have patience along with persistence. Who me? Overwhelmed? Confused? Nooo....I was in the zone! I received an email from a fellow networker about going in circles and I gave him the advice I had gotten (for which he thanked me heartily), "This happens to everyone, take a breather and have faith, and hang in...it will pass." Yesterday morning I felt awful when I awoke, drank some coffee and took headache pills and plowed back in, neither listening to nor taking my own advice. Then the wall hit me square in the face last night and I had a good crying spell, put on my pj's and crawled into bed at 9 PM. I laid there letting it flood in...I was burned out. But, due to the wise counsel of the most excellent mentors in my company, I knew this was predictable enough for them to judge just when their letter should be sent. So I was able to take a deep breath and know, "This too shall pass."Today I awoke knowing that I had neglected an essential part of this process - balance! I had forgotten to feed my spirit. Things I used to do regularly to nurture my core had been a casualty of a myopic focus on the logistical aspects of learning this business. And I recalled again something the founders of my company said when talking about mindset - what they loved the most about their success was not the money but the people they had become in the process. It's all part of the process of change. Some of us are countering generations of poverty culture and this is not an easy thing we are doing. This is when persistence saves the day. The overwhelm, the mental exhaustion, are passed through with strength drawn from a commitment to see this journey through. Stepping back, but not giving up, knowing when to slow down and nurture the spirit, but not quit. The journey itself teaches a new delicacy of balance. I'm learning to ride this bike!So today I spent the day in meditation, and reading and listening to my spiritual teachers, refreshing my soul and reminding myself of why I am taking this journey in the first place...love and service to those precious young ones whom I promised a helping hand in starting their lives. I feel gratitude for the gift of finding this path, and the gift of the wisdom to choose it. I understand the pearl hidden in this struggle, and why I would never go for a "turnkey" operation, or why I would never seek get rich quick opportunities, and why lottery winners too often fail to hold onto their sudden wealth. If you choose this path, or are already on this path, perhaps you have reached that point of feeling overwhelmed, like there is simply too much to learn, and you feel impatient for results. I encourage you to look to the experiences of our mentors, those who like us, started from a humble place, yet built an empire. They will tell you this is a journey of personal growth which cannot be rushed, nor are there short cuts. This process transforms us at a depth and is of a quality and substance such that we expand into a genuine capacity to offer something from ourselves of real value to others. We are developing the millionaire mind, a benefit which will emerge in everyone who sticks with this process of internal transformation into a leader. The journey toward success develops persistence, staying on focus, self-reliance, ceaseless self-improvement and learning, true interest in the well-being of others, accepting and absorbing the wisdom of our mentors, and the wisdom to return to the Self to recharge - balance.