Hope you are doing well! Yesterday I walked miles in a corn maze. And walked several miles in a park the day before. The weather was so so nice.
I was reading Chop Wood Carry Water this weekend and came across this quote from Teachings of Don Juan by Carlos Castenada:
“I warn you. Look at every path closely and deliberately. Try it as many times as you think necessary. Then ask yourself, and yourself alone, one question. This question is one that only a very old man asks. My benefactors told me about it once when I was young, and my blood was too vigorous for me to understand it. Now I do understand it. I will tell you what it is: Does this path have a heart?
The trouble is that nobody asks the question; and when a man finally realizes that he has taken a path without a heart, the path is ready to kill him. At that point very few men can stop to deliberate, and leave the path.
For me there is only the traveling on paths that have heart, on any path that may have heart. There I travel, and the only worthwhile challenge is to traverse its full length.
And there I travel looking, looking, breathlessly. “
Carlos Castenada
This really spoke to me.
When I started my business, I wanted to be able to write more and help people, while controlling my schedule.
But I wasn’t making any actual money for a while.
After working 50-hour weeks, for a year or so, with very little to show for it, I began trying something else.
It ended up changing everything.
I started writing letters to the soul of my business. I was inspired by Hiro Boga, who says that everything in the universe has a spirit or deva.
“What do I do so that my business makes money? How do I write more, be of service, and come into the full expression of my purpose?” I asked.
I imagined what my business would say.
My business told me to take walks.
I was like, “What??? How will this help?”
But it was like when I used to manage small businesses–when the boss tells you to do something, you just do it.
So I went off on my walks, and it’s just like the quote above–
- Trying every strategy to grow my business,
- Signing up for every course or template I could get my hands on,
- Spending hours posting on social media, doing this or that…
was “a path without a heart.”
As the quote says:
At that point very few men can stop to deliberate, and leave the path.
The chasing was putting me into a fight or flight state of stress where I kept thinking I just needed to do, do, do more.
I was spinning, spinning, and felt urged to do similar things but MORE.
BUT REALLY I need to pause and reassess my direction.
I needed to stop chasing outside advice so much and really tune into my soul and the soul of my business.
I needed to slow down so I could find a new path, full of heart…
These are all things that made no sense to me at all. I resisted them for a long, long time.
But eventually I learned more ways to do this and through practice and repetition, it became a way of life.
These days, I spend a lot more time off social media because I realized that paying attention to it for 50 hours a week was not growing my business or helping my mental health.
I found ways that work for me to use it in balance, along with a lot of other things that help my business.
And I actually make money! Yay.
And help people! Yay!
And work on my own creative writing projects! Double yay!
The way I do business is also designed to grow my soul,
to improve my creativity so I can write on my own projects,
to be less consuming so I can have a beautiful life,
to make space for what is important to me.
My business has made me a better person.
What is my business telling me lately?
I’m feeling called to help other people to make a shift in their business.
If you want to serve others as a coach, healer or creator, it is possible to serve more people in a win-win way and enjoy your life, too.
Here’s how:
First, if you haven’t signed up yet for the free writing class, it is going to become a paid course on October 27th. See here for the course!
Learn how to tap into your genius and write so your business website, content and book flow better. They’ll be more enjoyable and more effective in connecting to the people you are here to serve.
Second, the Winter Writing Group will be dedicated to helping you to make the shifts that will change or grow your business for the better!
Not only will it help you write the words you need for your site, content or book, but it will help you connect to your inner genius and the soul of your business, so you make conscious decisions that are a win win for you and your clients.
We will be getting a group of sparkly mermaids together to write together, take pause together, create and brainstorm together.
To really focus on what to do next to expand and serve others in a deeper way.
We will be taking the path of heart at every turn even if we don’t totally understand why…
(Because that’s how genius work!)
It starts in December and runs through March 2023.
I’m excited for it! And I know it’s going to grow me, too.
Looking forward to telling you more as that gets closer, and for now enjoy your day!
Join the waitlist to hear when the next Writing Group opens.
