My Sufi sheikh, Sidi al Jamal ash-Shadhuli, taught that “hope is a medicine.”
What he meant, is too much hope isn’t good for us. It can lead to toxic positivity, what he called “being heedless.” There are genuine reasons to be cautious and alert in this world.
However, too little hope leads to paralysis and despair. We begin to believe that things can’t change, and that it’s not worth trying.
When I think about medicine, it has to be dosed according three things: the patient, the malady, and the larger context.
Children don’t take adult-sized dosages. A slight illness doesn’t require intense medication. Sometimes, if there are multiple issues going on, you can’t give medicine for all of them at once.
When I encounter someone who is hoping for a complete, radical, ocean-change of a shift in their business over the course of year, I feel the same way when I encounter someone who thinks their business can’t do anything this next year.
They just feel like hopes and fears disconnected from the ground they are standing on.
Now, I’m not saying miracles don’t happen, and that big changes can’t arrive beautifully. They can, and do. I don’t want people to snuff out their dreams in order to be “realistic.”
However, I also don’t want folks leaning into hope so hard that they feel like they have to work themselves to the bone, or judge themselves harshly for not getting there.
For me, the first step is being really honest and kind and compassionate in embracing where I am. What’s true for me, for my business, for my life.
Then, from that ground, I can feel into hope, I can find the hopes that inspire me without disconnecting me from the ground.
These kinds of hopes may be, yes, more “realistic” in that they are more grounded. But I’m not talking about being strictly practical and discounting miracles.
However, I am saying if I’m looking up to a mountain top, maybe the mountain I’m next to feels miraculous enough, without aiming for a mountain top three mountain ranges over that I can’t even see from where I’m standing.
Want to give it a go? Even for just 5-10 minutes?
For you, heading into 2025, I invite you to contemplate these three things:
Yourself: What is your capacity? What is your stage of life? What are your strengths, your dreams, your hopes? What are your challenges, the things you don’t like, what you want to avoid?
Your business: Where is it doing well? Where is it challenged? What kinds of capacities does it need to develop in order to function better?
Your context: What else is going on in your life? What is your health? What other commitments do you have for 2025, to loved ones, to other organizations or situations?
I invite you to sit with what you notice about yourself, your business, and your context.
As you embrace these and allow yourself to stand on the ground you’re on, notice how you feel. Notice what’s true for you.
And then, allowing your heart to look up, what is the mountain top for your business, the hopes and dreams you cherish for this coming year, that are connected to where you are, yet still inspiring and exciting and even a little miraculous?
For instance, someone in their first two years of business, maybe the end of the year won’t see the business suddenly making enough to sustain a small team while the owner takes luxurious vacations… but maybe there can be a 50-75% jump while creating a spacious schedule?
For someone whose business is more advanced, maybe they can’t get the business to be totally self-running to take a six month sabbatical, but maybe a team can be put in place that allows the owner to work 25-35% less, while maintaining income?
Or, for someone else in the middle, maybe the business can expand significantly enough to start savings and vacation accounts, separately? Without increasing the amount of time they are working?
What’s the dream, the hope, that your heart cherishes, when your feet are grounded in where you’re standing?
With love
Mark Silver, M.Div.
Heart of Business, Inc.
Every act of business can be an act of love.
The Heart of Money & Power… almost
Our longest-running course, the Heart of Money & Power Transformational Journey, which I first taught in its earliest version back in 2002!, and has been a deep source of healing for thousands of people. Many folks take it multiple times, going deeper each time.
The next cohort starts in January, and we will start enrollment next week.
However… it will be the last time for the foreseeable future. There is so much we want to do, and there is only so much time in a calendar year. And, I should say, 22 years is a good run for a course!
If you have been wanting to take this course, or if you just know you could use a really different relationship with money and power, especially in the context of your business, consider joining us.
As I said, it’s not quite ready for registration, but I wanted you to know it’s coming up.
