As the end of 2012 draws close, I’ve been asking myself deeply… What do I really want?
This inquiry was given to me by Gangaji, at a spiritual retreat many years ago. And whenever I have turned my attention to it, it has always, always served me.
For most entrepreneurs, when we think about what we really want in our business, it’s easy to see, at the surface just what that is… Perhaps it’s more clients, more consistent income, a certain dollar amount, a successful launch of a new product, to finish a website, or any of a range projects, etc, etc…
Too often, these wants – call them goals, visions, dreams or intentions – drive us into a fervour of action plans and to-dos… And we end up with our wheels spinning, chasing a dream or an external event that, as necessary as it may seem, exhausts us.
And it seems like such a tragedy that these simple things, that we really want – money, clients, success – are just elusive enough to leave us burnt out and exhausted in the getting of them.
Ever bought something you didn’t really need?
Have you ever been shopping in the supermarket when you’re hungry? You go in with an intention to buy your weekly groceries, but you’re so hungry, you diverge and add “just a couple of these” and “just a few of those”…
Somewhere between the counter and the car, you fill your hungry belly, and get home to find that there’s a few extra things in your shopping bag that you didn’t really intend to buy…
Sure, at the time, it was what you thought you wanted… but, somehow, when you get home those extra items can leave you feeling less satisfied… Not more.
On the other hand, if you’re hungry and you stop to eat before you shop, you can see clearly and think straight, and your purchases stay in alignment with your intention.
Don’t shop when you’re hungry…
It’s exactly the same with goals. If you go chasing after what you think you want for your business when your heart is thirsty, you end up with a plan that is out of alignment with your true intention. And that is, quite frankly, ineffective and exhausting.
If you can fill up on your deeper hunger, the thirst of your heart, before you even ask, what do I want? You can have a different experience all together…
What we really want…
If you stop to ask, really, what do I want? … beyond the first level of response, what comes up for you?
Or, another way of asking this – If you had more clients, more money, a successful business, or whatever it is you’re chasing… what would that give you?
Our deeper hearts long for peace, love, safety, freedom…. Can you recognize something like this in your own heart’s longing?
And even deeper, perhaps, some of us long for a spiritual connection that goes beyond even the “happy feelings”… For complete surrender to the source of creation, and to be used by that in service of Love.
You may relate to these suggestions, or not. It’s okay either way. The invitation here is to inquire deeply what’s true for you… What do you really want?
How to feed a thirsty heart…
In order to achieve external goals, it seems like we must take action… To go get them.
Unlike external goals, which we must do something to achieve, to achieve the states of grace that our hearts long for (peace, love, freedom, joy…), we only need to receive them.
Take a moment right now to identify what your heart really longs for… Then use the Remembrance practice to ask directly for those qualities… to fill your cup from the source. You can use this short audio to guide you in Remembrance if you like: Remembrance Audio.
When the heart is full (like a full belly at the supermarket), you can then begin to ask yourself “What do I really want in 2013?” And let the truest goals and intentions for your business reveal themselves to you from there.
When you conceive your intentions from a full heart, the intentions themselves, and your path to realizing them, is far less exhausting. Because they are in alignment with your true heart.
p.s. Opening the Moneyflow 2013
If you’re wanting help discerning and reaching your business’ potential from a full heart, you can get the whole Heart of Business team’s help! There are still a few opening for Opening the Moneyflow 2013.
28 Responses
Thank you for this reminder, in the form of the Remembrance audio. I am proof-reading 5 books for digital conversion, plus attending to the proof-reading of my new book – all at once, and just before Xmas! And so the Remembrance has taken me back into spaciousness and trust, knowing that all will be well; in fact all is well.
On the eve of a new year I always do a ritual tuning into my heart’s deepest goals for the coming year, and so I really resonate with this post of yours. Thank you for your ongoing wisdom and guidance.
Glad this was helpful, Juliet! 🙂
Like Juliet the reminder to remember came at just the right moment. I woke this morning into the hectic pace of life. Being quiet, taking time to be still, to open my heart, to remember…. well, the simple things bring nourishment. Thank you for walking with me.
Thank you, Deirdre… It’s a gift that we get to walk together.
Thank you, Yollana, a really wonderful contribution! How true!! These superficial issues tend to cloud over the real purpose, and it’s just at the time of most clouds I need to see the purpose most.
The question J.K. Rowling put in the mouth of one of her heroes:
“It is the time to choose between what is easy and what is right.”
Not connecting to what we really want, how likely is it we will make the right choice?
After 20 years in practice I’m standing in a place of compromise: continue doing what I’m good at and what works (…) and what brings in income – or go for what really matters?
For some 20 years I’ve been gathering insights on causes of disease and ways of healing. It’s become clear what tremendous power our mind and subconscious have on total health. Alignment of conscious and subconscious has to do with spirituality. Do you realize, how by bringing spirituality into to everydays business practice, you at Heart of Business are contributing to many, many people’s overall health as well?
I’ve been blessed to have met people with pioneering methods that really improve life quality. My professional association, the whole framework I work in, demands me to use the old methods that – however good, efficient and client friendly – still either do not deal with the real issue, or do so very slowly.
Do I need to leave the association? That looks very bad indeed, usually people leave (are forced to) due to misconduct.
It means leaving all I’ve built up over 20 years behind. Starting without a framework, without support, offering help people do not know and understand yet.
What is easy and what is right?
What is it I really want? Follow my heart and serve well! That is living my purpose.
The road may not be easy, but it’s right.
At Heart of Business you are blessed, folks! It looks like you DO live your purpose. I might ask you to kick my butt int the right direction 🙂
Great thanks for all you do for us, far, far beyond the ‘business part’.
Is there a way to integrate your deep knowledge with the work you are already doing? I struggle with this same problem, so I have a lot of empathy for your situation. Sometimes you just need a bit of courage to create a different path. Sending blessings for courage to you!
p.s. I, too am grateful for Yollana’s timely reminder!
How kind, Linda, thank you very much for your heartwarming response.
Can you help me see a chance of integrating without compromising my heart’s belief?
For 20 years I looked for the causes of disease and time after time found stress and old emotional issues (which cause a lot of the stress). My association (it took me lots of blood, sweat, tears, time and money to join the association) allows me to use acupuncture or shiatsu only. (I do add some EFT, have informed the association and they warned Never under our name.) Without me being a member of the association, the clients would not get reimbursed. Reimbursement means a lot in Holland. It means not just money back, it represents approval of the therapist.
Is acupuncture or shiatsu likely to cure stress? Old emotional issues? It can help deal with everyday life better, which is very valuable. However, I can offer support with methods that often give deeper, faster and more empowering results than acupuncture and shiatsu. Help people not just have fewer health issues, but really get better and enjoy life more.
Joy in life, I believe, is the key to health.
Helping people with that is my life’s purpose, and I’m as passionate about it as a Wiener dog about his steak! (the ‘bone’ is for the acupuncture and shiatsu)
So, I’m very curious about your dilemma? The link with your name lead to Jenny -?
Thank you for your post, looking forward to hearing from you,
Monika
I typed in the wrong link – sorry! I will email you privately, but I wanted to say that I agree that joy in life is the key to health, as you say. Again, many thanks to Yollana for reminding us to look deep into our heart’s longing for our inner truth.
– Linda and I have already found lots in common.
Writing a post is a great way of meeting lovely people 🙂
My pleasure, Linda. Yes, what a wonderful way to meet! 🙂 Blessings… x
Thank you for sharing your story here, Monika! I have a client from the Organic Business Development Program who is in a similar situation, having been a medical doctor, and seeking an uncompromising philosophical and embodied place to stand for wellbeing, beyond (or perhaps transforming) traditional and holistic medicine. She is open to talking with others in this journey. Please email me – yollana AT heartofbusiness.com – if you would like me to put you in touch with each other.
Dear Monika and all,
I am late to the party, and here nonetheless. I am the OBDP client that Yollana is referring to. You have my email now. I know the painful place you are speaking from. A Quaker teacher by the name of Parker Palmer talks about it as “living a life divided”. I don’t know what the answer will be for you – to stay or leave. I chose to leave. The container of conventional medical practice could not hold what I wanted to transmit to my patients. Very much like you, I saw that their wellbeing was much more a matter of learning how to be self-authoring, how to find their own center, than a matter of being bestowed a diagnosis and given a form of treatment. What I didn’t know then, that I know now, 10+ years later, was that I needed to leave. My soul needed more space, more oxygen, more uncertainty, more room to find her own expression. If I had a financial need to support myself, perhaps I would have had to find a middle way. As it is, here I am a decade since, having grown, awakened, discovered my own path of soulful living. I am the one who needed to author my wellbeing before I could even begin to know how to transmit this deeper knowing to others, to give form to my own “original medicine”. What you have is your original medicine. Own it. Give it room to breath. Whether it is alongside your licensure/membership or apart from it may not matter – what matters is that you stand in its validity and give it freely (well, you know what I mean!).
What do I want for 2013? That. That very thing is what I want. Perhaps we can support each other…
Hi Yollana, Linda, Julia,
In the mean time, things have become clearer for me. I realise that I want my message to be seen and heard. My work is an expression of it. Once I ‘got’ that, things started flowing. New clients, meeting new people to help me developping – I’m blessed 🙂
Thank you so much for all the loving support!
May you be blessed!
Monika
So glad to hear this, Monika! 🙂
Thank you for this, it came at exactly the right time.
🙂
Hi Yollana,
Yes, thank you for this wonderful reminder as I prepare for 2013. I just found Heart of Business in time to enroll in the Momentum 2012 course and the Money course starting in January. The Momentum course has helped me tremendously to gain clarity in what it is that I want. And it is to have a business that is streamlined with in place systems that are working smoothly and efficiently. I don’t mind spending that time creating the systems b/c I know once in place that initial effort will provide exponential returns. Then…. what I get, which is what I want, is the time to truly connect with the precious individuals working with me, ease when I return home to my precious 4 year old daughter, a confidence that my business is running smoothly and providing true assistance and guidance. Peace, ease, time, and a knowledge that I am doing as I am being called to do. I am very much looking forward to 2013 and grateful for Heart of Business’s contribution to me already.
Beautiful Roxanne… And it really does sound as if you have already connected with peace, ease, time and a knowledge that you are doing as you are called… even as you continue to put systems in place. How precious!
What an interesting process it has been thus far to delve into the question you pose, Yollana. I’ll take you on the brief tour through the spiral of Remembrance: First the wants were the usual: more clients, more money, etc. Then what arose was the wish for recognition, then to be *seen*, then to be *seen by God*, (that was puzzling) so I shifted more deeply and what emerged were powerful cross currents of** wanting to reflect the light of heaven** ( not quite sure what that means, i’m just rolling with it) which has to do w. being seen, while at the same time feeling that my gifts don’t matter. So both a sense of resignation and longing to be seen. Extending out and pulling back at the same time. I’m just hanging with it at the moment.
Thank you for sharing this, Meg. Earlier this year I had a really deep dive into how my own heart longed/longs to be seen. At first, it was like wanting to be seen by significant others in my present life, then like my inner child wanting to be seen by my parents… And then it was simply my heart wanting so deeply to be seen by the Divine. I was also surprised by the intensity of this experience… of the longing. I wrote this poem at that time, which is quite tender to me, but I will share it here anyway…
The Witnessing
Circle me with your awareness
drench me with your gaze
Do not take your eyes off me for a single second, Beloved.
Yes, look here. Look here.
behold, consider, contemplate and regard me.
Let me command ALL of your attention here
I demand all of your presence, into myself.
Penetrate me with your inner sight
perceive me fully, for I am here
I am your creation
and I exist for you to enjoy
Don’t look away.
Circle me with your awareness
Let your look traverse the land of my being
This is the caress I long to feel.
See me, Beloved.
I am here.
Thank you, Yollana…a beautiful and powerful evocation you offer here.
I returned to Remembrance this morning and picked up kinda where I left off: with despair. I just stayed with it and as I did, the milk of despair slowly churned itself into the sweet butter of longing. It flowed through me, longing pouring into and out of my heart. I felt too shy to ask to be seen byt the Divine. Thank you for the encouragement!
With startling clarity I realized just recently what I want in my life. StartIng right now and extending far past 2013. I want to help other people get what they want!
Wonderful, Jameson!
… you want to help other people get what they want, or what they really want?
😉
Hi Jameson,
we offer others what we need. 🙂
May you get what your heart needs.
I definitely enjoying every little bit of it and I have you bookmarked to check out new stuff you blog post……………
i wish i could lead a regular life like every one else does, cuz sometimes it’s not possible.
Just noticed first two commentators have part of my name in theirs! Lovely post and thankyou for the link to the audio. This really resonates with me just now.
Are you on Twitter?