In my last article I shared with you some of my personal background to help you start understanding how we align with or miss our purpose in life and what a fine line the difference can be. As I mentioned, since I couldn’t decide what I wanted to be and lacked a dream that required an advanced education, I didn’t go to college.

Due to the high expectations that my family had for me due to my learning abilities I felt pressured to go into a professional career. Since I didn’t go to college that pressure eventually led me to into the insurance field, a very respectable professional career.  I started in developing a clientele in the property and casualty arena, then added life and health insurance. I was studying financial planning when I was introduced to network marketing.

I wasn’t great in the insurance field because I didn’t like to talk about negative things like dying, being hospitalized or car accidents. I did like working with people, however, so I focused on helping them solve their problems with insurance and I did okay by most people’s standards, but I wasn’t fulfilled.

On the other hand, what I liked about network marketing was that I could continually talk to people about achieving their dreams and goals. I saw myself as a business consultant who helped people improve their lives financially.

The only problem I had was a great fear of public speaking (which is pretty much a game breaker in this industry). This stemmed from the fact that I had been laughed at in the second grade while trying to give a book report in front of the class. That event traumatized me and had paralyzed me from speaking in public ever since.

I told one of my mentors, who recruited me into the business that I didn’t like to speak in public. He said I wouldn’t have to do so, unless I wanted to and he would do the meetings for me.  What he didn’t tell me was that after my first 3 or 4 meetings I’d have to take my people to meetings he was doing, wherever they might be!

So after going crazy chasing him all over 3 counties in South Florida to have him show the business to my prospects, the day came when I got tired of dragging my prospects all over town, following him to wherever he was doing business presentations. I told him I’d try doing meetings myself.

He said it was no big deal.  All I had to do was make up some 3×5 cards with information I wanted to cover, tell people I was new at this and let them see how excited I was by the opportunity.  He said it would all work out.

He also gave me a book called The Magic of Thinking Big and pointed out the chapter on how to overcome fear. The cure for fear it turns out (and you might want to add this to your philosophy of life) was, “Action cures fear.” In other words do the thing you fear and the fear will disappear!

I followed his advice, made the 3×5 cards and even gave myself a pep talk in front of the bathroom mirror as he had suggested. I got myself all pumped up, but as I walked out of the bathroom and tried to put the 3×5 cards in my pocket, they fell on the floor. To make matters worse, I had forgotten to number them. As I panicked, I heard the host of the meeting introduce me. I freaked out.

Seconds later, I stood in front of about ten people, opened my mouth to speak… and nothing came out!  I finally started talking but my voice cracked. I sounded like a twelve-year-old girl in distress.

That night, I did a presentation that was supposed to take one hour… in about seven minutes. Then, I introduced my mentor as “the person who has taught me everything I know about this business” and he finished explaining everything I had forgotten in about forty-five minutes.

When he asked for questions, one guy actually said, “What do we have to do to get started?  Because if that guy can do it, anybody can!”

That night, I became determined to succeed at public speaking. It took a while—at the beginning the only one who laughed at my jokes was me—but something kept driving me forward. I secretly had a deep desire to perform, but I also had a big fear of rejection and failure.

Remember, early in my life I was a performer. I was the star running back on the football team.  I loved to sing and dreamed of being the lead singer in a band. The seed of the dream to be a public speaker was inside me.

I needed to build some confidence, develop my own speaking style and acquire the right skills. People say “practice makes perfect” but it’s really, “perfect practice makes perfect” and since I had some good mentors guiding me and some good speakers to model, I improved rapidly.

I did presentations day after day and even gave speeches in my car.  After a while, I got really good at it.

Today, if you ask me what I love to do so much that I lose track of time and go into timeless awareness, it’s teaching people the universal principles of success—and doing it in public venues.

In fact, the larger the audience, the better I like it and the more fun I have. In the past twenty-eight years, I’ve spoken to several million people. I’ve put on events where we had over 67,000 people in a soccer stadium for two-day business and personal development seminars.

This is my purpose in life—to teach people how to achieve success, happiness and wealth. I’ve grown a lot, both personally and financially by pursuing my purpose. I’m on a constant journey, learning, evolving and coming into conscious oneness with my higher self. I know my purpose and am committed to use my talents to contribute to humanity.

The more I share and give, the more fulfillment and success I create in my own life. In a way, I feel like the lead singer in a band.  I’m able to make people feel good and bless their lives by sharing my talents. It took a long time for me to figure this out but I didn’t really have anyone guiding me down this path.

I’m here to help you figure out what your TRUE purpose in life really is. Whatever it is has to resonate with you. It has to turn you on, light your fire, fire you up and drive you with a passion that cannot be quenched other than by you living that purpose!

In my next article I’m going to walk you through an exercise that will really help you get in tune with your passions and find your purpose in life. There is nothing more rewarding than knowing and living your purpose… anything else is trying to climb the ladder of success while its leaning against the wrong wall. And that only leads to frustration, confusion and burnout so stay tuned and until then…

Please leave me your comments and questions below and share this post with everyone you care about. Also become a partner in my empowerment community at http://facebook.com/carlosmarinlive and promote it to everyone you love and care about. The world needs YOU and your contribution so we can help millions of people raise their consciousness and get free in 2012! God bless and live your passion!