Success Story: Alex Mill

When you look back on your past and connect the dots to realize how you are meant to serve the world, the results are incredible.  I am going to share with you how this recently worked for one of my blog readers.  A few posts ago Alex Mill answered my three questions in the comments on how he uses his time.  Here were his answers:

1.  What three things do you spend the majority of your time on during an average week day?
Creating (blog posts, visual art, other writing) Learning (reading about career advice, podcasts on selling art, etc.) and the rest gets broken up into yoga/cooking/spiritual practice (meditating and exercises.)
2.  What three things do you currently spend the majority of your time doing during a typical weekend?
The weekends are no different for me than weekdays.
3.  When you are alone in your car driving (probably to or from work), what three things do you most often think about?
How I will generate income, where I should focus more of my energy, and practicing opening up to inspiration.

I studied his answers and read over his blog (http://kindnessville.com).  From an outsider's point of view, it seemed clear that Alex was uniquely qualified to write and illustrate children's books about mindfulness.  All it took was someone to point out this simple observation and Alex was ready to start creating children's books like this world has never seen before.  Now that Alex is completely aware of his current purpose, he'll create a fantastic line of books (kind of like how Dr. Suess did, or how Steve Jobs created Apple).  It's like being "on fire" in the Nintendo NBA jambs video game.  He's focused on what he loves and ready to accomplish great things.

If you have kids, Alex's books can help you figure out your own purpose.  Since children don't need help with mindfulness, the books Alex creates will be written to help teach the adults reading them to their children (while still entertaining and reinforcing what the children already intuitively know).  Alex is driven to help adults become more authentic in their daily lives through mindfulness.

If you have kids, I suggest you to go http://kindnessville.com and get on Alex's email list.  If you already take time to read your kids stories, why not learn more about yourself in the process?

Let's take a look at Alex's story so you can see why he is uniquely qualified to write and illustrate children's books on mindfulness.  While reading his story, try to see if you can find the underlining meaning to your own life story.  In comes Alex:

"...my world was rocked after I read the first few paragraphs from my teacher's book years ago.  I was in a new age bookstore (that I didn't want to be in) with my girlfriend at the time.  I saw a book and was intrigued by the cover.  I started reading and couldn't put it down....   

...What she was saying in the book spoke to my experience EXACTLY.  Word for word.  There was an inner resonance in her words that broke through the defences I carried around with me.  The void that she was able to touch I would describe as this:


Outwardly I had everything that should make me happy: 
 

• the beautiful, kind, loving girlfriend
• the good paying job that
  allowed me time to work on my artwork
• a spacious apartment in a
  beautiful part of Philadelphia
• all the possessions I ever
  wante
• friends that cared about me and supported me

But none of this = happiness.  I felt separate from everything and everyone like there was an invisible wall between me and everything else.  Everything felt superficial and no one, including myself, seemed genuine.  I saw all of us as masks holding up "what we liked" "what we did" "what we thought" as though this WAS us.  It felt like a sad, lonely world in which I didn't understand what the point of living was.  What my (future) teacher was saying in the book shed light on how this was normal -- what the cause of it was -- and how to choose something else.

I bought that book I was reading at the behest of my girlfriend.  And I proceeded to purchase every other book my (future) teacher wrote. That was my habit and it made me smile to recognize it as such - since that was part of what I was learning from her books.)  Nothing would have made a difference for me had I not taken one small action from all I was learning in her books -- I bought a meditation cushion and began a practice of meditation. 

I can tell you that the rest paved the way to the monastery.  I noticed that the introspective work was creating more peace as well as more turmoil -- but "good turmoil."  I was looking at things that were hidden and was unwilling to look at previously.  I was also more daring and adventurous in my life than ever before with radical changes that directed me out of the blue.  At one point I sold all my belongings and traveled cross country with my girlfriend -- destination California. The plan was that I wanted to check out the monastery.  Well, it turned out that half-way into our trip I decided I wanted to spend a month there.  So my girlfriend dropped me off at the bus station in San Diego and I had hours of long travel toward Northern California where I began my monastic career.  I never left.  I had week long visits to see my family yearly and a couple visits to my girlfriend, but other than that I stayed in the monastery permanently."  - Exit Alex

Think about the reality of this story.  Can you see yourself being so moved by mindfulness that you would leave everything in your life to study it permanently for many years?  Alex did, and he did it because that was his purpose at that time in his life.  More importantly, he knew it to be his purpose, and as a result he is now in a possition to bless the world with his mindfulness cartoon books. 

What is your purpose?  What do you uniquely have to give the world?  If you're unsure, please read my last few posts (maybe for the second time) and see what pops out at you.  Learning who you are is the most important work you will ever do, so stick with it and become a rockstar like Alex Mill.