Can I Get Off This Treadmill, Please?

In case you missed it, tomorrow our other Heart of Business practitioner Jason Stein is leading a no-cost coaching call on the topic of “Beyond Asking For What You Really Want.” It’s a key to increasing your revenue, and a chance to get free coaching. Check out the details here.

Now Heart of Business practitioner Yollana Shore explains how you don’t really need to do anything, even though you do need to get things done. And how that works exactly.

Can I Get Off This Treadmill, Please?

Have you ever sat at your computer screen with a to-do list longer than your arm? Your body’s aching, your eyes are tired. But you’re trying to get through it in time AND keep the rest of your life going too. The pressure. More than anything you want to stop and rest. But you’re being pushed from behind, pulled from in front, driven to keep going. Because, if you don’t…

The sky will fall.

Or at least something won’t get done. Or it won’t get done in time, or in the right way. And there will be consequences!

Sound familiar?

Perhaps you even have an inner voice that is whispering to you, “Hey, it doesn’t have to be this way, there is another way.”

But when you’re flat out getting that very important job – or twenty jobs – finished, it’s hard to find the presence to really stop and listen to that voice.

If you can relate to what I’m saying, you’re not alone.

The consciousness of work.

Perhaps you’ve heard the story of the businessman who comes to a harbor where he meets a fisherman relaxing by the beach. The businessman asks him why he is just sitting there. He counsels him to go out to catch more fish, so he can sell them to make more money, so he can be successful, and then he will be rich and have time to relax by the beach. Of course the fisherman then says… “But isn’t that what I am doing now?”

Our assumptions about life are shaped by the cultural context we grow up in. Embedded in our cultural consciousness around work is the “drive to succeed.”

Now, there is nothing wrong with this drive in and of itself. In fact, it can be a powerful vehicle that connects our passion and vision with our desire to be of service in the world.

However, when this drive is unconscious, it can taint everything with the stress of “push, push, push.” And when everyone around you has the same habit, it can seem “normal”.

But this doesn’t mean that it’s natural, healthy, or true.

The deeper spiritual truth is that nothing needs to be done.

Even if it doesn’t make sense to your thinking mind, I invite you to let your heart drink in this possibility. Just for a moment, you can let go of everything you think you need to do. You can hand it over to the Divine, which is where it rightly belongs anyway.

You can stop pushing because everything is already whole and complete. Everything you experience is part of the One.

Nothing needs doing. Nothing needs fixing. No one needs serving. No task needs to be finished.

Aaaahhhh… Can you feel your heart opening?

But what about that to-do list?

Of course you can’t just sleep through your next client appointment and say to them, “Oh, sorry, I gave your project to the Divine!”

The relative truth is that there is a lot to do. Yet when you step back from the habit of pushing, and open your heart to the divine, new possibilities can emerge.

It may be that this moment is asking you to rest, to nourish yourself. Maybe you need a drink of water, time for prayer, a walk outside.

It may be that this moment is asking you to re-evaluate your priorities. There may be things you can let go of, others you can delegate, and still others you can schedule out over a longer time frame.

It may be that you are feeling resistance because you are actually barking up the wrong tree. Your goals aren’t truly aligned with your deeper passion, your real vision of how to be of service in the world. Maybe it’s time you changed course.

There are many possibilities that can arise in a moment of stopping. When you relieve the pressure you give yourself the opportunity to find more clarity, more ease, and then move forward from there.

You can get off the treadmill and be present with your heart.

Often our early conditioning has interfered with our ability to find and move with our natural passion and joy. Our desire to contribute, to be of service, has been misshaped by an external pressure to preform or produce.

In the past you may have been asked, even encouraged, to push yourself. And, for sure, there may be times when it is appropriate to push. But far too often, we push ourselves out of habit, when it is not what is really being asked of us in this moment.

If you feel you’ve been pushing yourself at the treadmill of your business lately, I invite you to stop and be curious.

When you’re able to feel connected to your heart again, when you find that spaciousness inside, from that place notice what your business might truly be needing from you right now.

If you can rest into your heart deeply in this new moment, you may be shown a new direction which is much less stressful, much more fun, much more you than the one you’ve been pushing towards.

But don’t take my word for it, please try it.

p.s. Tomorrow: Beyond just asking for what you want.

Don’t forget my colleague and friend Jason Stein is leading a teaching and free coaching call tomorrow on the topic of “Beyond just asking for what you want.”

He’s brilliant at helping clients create community and access community in heart-felt ways that feel good, and it really helps drive your profitability.

It’s tomorrow, Thursday, at 2:30pm pacific. You can check out the details and register here:

Beyond Asking for What You Want, with Jason Stein from Heart of Business