A Formula for Success...

2.6K followers

Updated 9 years ago

There are many ways to do things right, a million ways to unlock varying degrees of success. I would like to provide one of my own for your consideration.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I had the honor of serving as a volunteer at
Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio TX where I worked in the burn unit ICU. My patients were some of the most badly damaged people on the face of the earth. Traumatic amputations, traumatic brain injuries along with severe burns were common place... so was death.

The people who survived their stint in the BAMC burn unit, faced a long and difficult recovery. The average length of stay for my patients was around 19 to 24 months, during which time most underwent multiple major surgeries and months of grueling and extremely painful physical therapy.

I was commissioned to create a method that would both increase the speed of recovery and improve their quality of life once there recovery was deemed complete. When they were discharged from the hospital, most returned home and attempted to re engage a normal life.

Drawing on experience I gained after my own trauma (see my blog post the art of helping), along with years of hands on experience as somewhat of a trauma consultant or trauma coach, I came up with a simple formula that worked like a charm. When correctly employed by trauma patients, both their speed of recovery and quality of life improved significantly.

As time continued, I began to employ this formula in a few areas of my own life, and saw results as well. I'm becoming more and more convinced that this simple formula has the capacity to help people improve their performance in virtually all areas of their lives, including your performance at Wealthy Affiliate. Please allow me to share this formula with you...

DESIRE X (INSPIRATION + MOTIVATION + EDUCATION) X ACCOUNTABILITY = SUCCESS

If I may, I would like to take a moment and break this down.

Desire. It's the most critical piece of the equation, and it's the part of the equation YOU must bring to the table. Without desire, you simply will not experience success. When selecting patients to work with at BAMC, it quickly became apparent to me that each individuals level of desire was directly proportionate to their level of success. It's much the same as risk and reward. Without a high level of desire, I could not help my patients. The good news is the fact that you are here indicates you have some level of desire. :)

Inspiration. We all enjoy being inspired. Seeing someone accomplish something or recover from difficult circumstances gives us hope that we can accomplish the same, or overcome our own difficulties and life challenges. When I decided I wanted to improve my physical condition, I would find myself constantly watching you tube video's of people who had radically changed their health and their bodies, like this guy. I began to hang out with and get to know people who inspired me. My own transformation began to take root.

In 1987 I was involved in an airplane crash of epic proportion. The airplane I was flying, a 1957 Piper Super Cub, crashed in the Strawberry Mountains in Eastern Oregon. It exploded on impact. I was beat up pretty bad and sustained 3rd degree burns to 75% of my body. Over the next 6 1/2 years I endured 33 major surgeries and endless physical therapy. In hindsight, there were key players that played a key role in my recovery, one in particular, a man by the name of Pat Rits, who's own story inspired me. Pat had been burned in a wild fire some years prior, had already been through what I was going through, and was living a happy, successful life. I knew if he could do it, I could do it. Pat inspired me.

Motivation. The thing I find most interesting about motivation is how personal it is. Each person is motivated by completely different things ranging from compassion to ego and everything in between. Some people are negatively motivated, and some are positively motivated. Recognition motivates some and the lack of it motivates others. Love, desire, wealth, beauty... they are all motivators. We are all motivated by different things and at at different times in our lives. The key is to determine what truly motivates you during your current season of life, and to lock on to it.

My son was 9 months old when I had my accident. Shortly after his mother who was also my wife, left. While on one hand, it was probably the most difficult part of my ordeal, it also was probably one of the best things that could have happened. There is part of me that wonders if her leaving might have even saved my life. You see at that point, I HAD to recover. I had to be there for my son.

I don't think there is any stronger love that the love you have for your children.

Shortly after the crash, I was put on a Life Flight jet and flown to Emmanuel Hospital in Portland from Eastern Oregon. The doctors told my wife and parents that I would not live through the flight, and if by the off chance I did, my chance for survival was almost nill, that my life would most likely expire. I stayed in a coma for 8 days.

When I awoke, it took a while before I could comprehend the situation, but eventually I grasped the severity of things and went to work on surviving and recovering. When you think your going to die, you're pretty motivated not to, and do what you can to accomplish the tasks in front of you. When my wife left, I was distraught, depressed and overwhelmed with my predicament.

Then there was this moment in time when the fog cleared and it became crystal clear to me that there were two probable outcomes. Either I survived or I did not, in which case my son would be abandoned and orphaned as a baby. Whatever level of motivation I originally had paled in comparison to the motivation that now was firmly embedded in my soul. I've never worked so hard or endured so much in my entire life. In a weird and almost twisted way, my wife had given me a gift by leaving. She provided the the strongest level of motivation one could have to survive... a fathers love for his only son.

Find the one thing that motivates you the most. It will play an integral part in the success of what ever it is you want to accomplish.

Education. Education is also a very necessary part of your capacity for success in life, and it's simple to explain. Rather you want to improve your health, your income, your relationships or virtually any aspect of your life, how can you do it without knowing how. Probably one of the best things I like about Wealthy Affiliate is the clean, crisp, step by step instruction Kyle provides. Whatever you desire to accomplish, you must educate yourself about it to make the accomplishment. Learn, learn, learn... become an expert. Enough said.

Accountability. Probably the most underrated part of this equation is accountability. Have you ever wanted to accomplish a goal, only to fizzle out in the process? How many people purchase a membership at a local gym after the first of the year with great intentions, only to end up back in front of the TV by April. We've all been there... I know I have.

By joining Wealthy affiliate, you've started a new chapter in your life, with the potential to fundamentally change the way you make a living. You now have a legitimate opportunity to unplug from the job you are most likely enslaved to and create a better life for yourself and the ones you love. Will you stick it out?

I do not know what the success rate is for Wealthy Affiliate members. I do know that in any endeavor like this, there are those who enjoy success and those that fall bay the wayside. It how life works. What I do know is your ability to succeed in becoming financially independent through the business model presented here, will be dramatically increased by having a person or people hold you accountable.

It can be a scary thing to be transparent to others, telling them what you want to accomplish and how you want to accomplish it, and ask them to hold you accountable. It takes away your out. If you fail now, there is a higher level of humiliation, the feeling that you let someone down, you no longer can quietly slip away when you get overwhelmed, bored or distracted. EXACTLY!

Rather you connect with others on the Wealthy Affiliate website, or people within your own circle of friends, I encourage you to find some accountability partners. Having someone hold you accountable will increase your capacity for success exponentially.

I've used this little formula for years helping people improve their recovery after a trauma, and I've employed it in areas of my own life with good success. If you elect to use it, I trust it will be an asset to you here at Wealthy Affiliate as well as in other areas of you life, both now and in the future.

Thanks for your ear...

...Rico