I was talking with a client just recently who was in a sticky situation financially. His business well was dry, bills were coming due, what to do? We had had a break-through session just the week prior, and a tremendous amount of clarity had come in for him about his passion and his work, but it hadn’t yet translated into action.
If business is slow, the remedy I often hear is to “get into action!” Sounds good- if things aren’t moving, you better get moving yourself!
If you were my client, what would you do? Would you just jump into action?
Whoa! Before you do, you have to look at where you are jumping from to have a good guess as to where you might end up.
The problem with just jumping straight into action from a place of fear, anger, sadness, neediness, is that it just kicks up a lot of dust. Why? Because when the well runs dry, dig around as much as you want, you’re just going to come up with dust.
Why do people come to your business? People come to you because your heart has something to offer them. If you are full of fear, anger, or sadness, what are you offering them?
What I was talking about with Business Heart(tm) More Than Your Category is this essence that your heart gives to people. People come to you to drink that. When they stop coming, it’s not because you did anything wrong. It’s because the well, your heart, is dry.
How successful do you think you will be jumping into action, running around offering your empty dry heart to people?
Your product or service is important, and yet it is the vehicle for something deeper and more beautiful.
Certainly we’ve all seen two similar businesses (real estate, wine shops, etc.) do virtually the same marketing actions, and yet one does well, and the other doesn’t.
Don’t just jump into action hoping the dry well is going give you more than dust.
If you have a dry well, you have to consider well’s source. Is the source of the well of your business your customers? The marketplace? No, it’s not. If that were true, what would you have to offer that would be of any value?
This is important:
The marketplace is not the source for your business success.
The good news is that in your heart is the source of the well. When you return to the Source (capital S), you then become full again, and have something to give. When you have something to give, people come wanting to receive. Your business is no longer dry.
Have you ever tried doing marketing, or accounting, or anything else from a scared and needy place? How comfortable was it? How effective were you? Instead, try returning to your heart, feeling the emotions that are there, and, with the Remembrance, return to the One, and let yourself drink through your heart what you are trying to get from the world, through clients, or whatever else.
My client reconnected to his source, and discarded all of the grand schemes his mind was offering. Instead, a simple idea came to him, one that he implemented easily, and, within a couple of days, generated around $5000 in revenue. Not too shabby.
Can your well stay full? No, it can’t stay full. You will always run dry from time to time. But, the good news is that you can always drink more.
The sufis say that the one who thinks they can drink from God, be full, and know is wrong, so don’t pray to be full. Instead, the sufis say that what we want to pray for is the perfect thirst. Meaning, that we continue receiving, filling up, giving out in the world, and then receiving more. The Divine is infinite, why stop just because you think you’re full?
Keys to Tapping the Well
• This is not just about marketing, this is about any of the doing in your business. Your well can be dry in your financial and accounting tasks, in cleaning up your office or workspace, in your interpersonal relationships with employees or colleagues.
• If you don’t feel like moving into action, honor yourself! Let yourself feel the stagnation, and look more closely at what is going on. In what way do you feel empty? Is it exhaustion? Or is it a suppressed emotion that is draining your well?
• Businesses are successful because they give. You cannot try to “get” from the marketplace. Yes, you do need to receive, but don’t forget the true Source of what you are receiving. Otherwise, you’ll be back to the dry well.
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Exercise: Tapping the Well
1) Start the Remembrance. For those unfamiliar with this, it is to repeat the Name of the Divine, whatever you use to call to the Highest Light, and saying it into your heart. Not with the idea of fixing anything, or healing anything, or seeing anything. It’s just remembering that there is something more than just you in the mix. If anyone has questions about the remembrance, please ask me. It’s fairly simple, but there are easy places that people sometimes get stuck.
2) Identify what is it you are trying to get from the world, or from your business. Is it money? Is it clients or customers? Is it help from the employees? Once you identify it, feel how it feels not have it. And let the feeling of not having it point you towards what it is that you think it will provide. In other words, you want money so you can feel… how? You want help so you can feel… how?
3) Once you have the “how” you want to feel- feel the lack of that. Feel how you need it, and you don’t have it.
4) Bring the Remembrance in here, and ask the Divine to bring you what you need directly into your heart. Drink deeply. Fill yourself.
5) Once you are full, look back at what it is you originally thought you were trying to get (#2 above). How does it look now? What changed for you?
6) Ask your heart, now that you’re full, how does your heart want to give in the situation?
7) Go for it- be creative and generous in your giving now!
