 One of my clients is a small business owner, and we spent some time reflecting on the past few months.
My client Jeff (not his real name) shared how many fellow business owners in his area of work had shut down their businesses. But Jeff found that his business was doing okay. I asked him why he thought his business was still open and others were closed. Jeff responded by sharing with me a story. A month or two into the lockdowns due to the pandemic, Jeff happened to run into one of his colleagues Mary. Mary told Jeff that she was depressed. She spent most of her waking hours watching the news, feeling like her whole world was falling apart. She felt clueless about how to keep her business going in this new reality because everything she had been doing all these years was no longer working. She told her friend Jeff that she was thinking of closing up her shop for good. Jeff told Mary, “You have to stop thinking like this. And stop watching the news! You’re going to have to let go of how things used to be, because things aren’t working the same way anymore. Even the people who used to be doing well in our industry are now scrambling. You can make things change for the better. But first, you have to believe that things can be better. And if you want things to be different, you have to be different. Who are you called to be in this new environment?” I remarked to Jeff how wise he was, and Jeff himself was shocked at his own positivity and insights, because looking at the glass as half-full was something new for Jeff too. But I knew that Jeff wasn’t just spouting some niceties to his friend. Jeff had been focusing on his own personal growth these past couple of years. He'd been changing who he was to match the kind of life and world he wanted to create. And his life and business were direct evidence that he was adapting who he was to this new and changing environment, while remaining true to himself. Jeff’s story reminded me of the fable of the oak tree and the reed. ** One day, this huge mighty oak tree spotted a reed nearby and struck up a conversation. The oak tree noticed that whenever a small wind would pass by, the reed would bend to the whim and the direction of the wind. The oak tree laughed and made fun of the reed for not being strong and mighty, and for always bending to whichever way the wind blew. But the reed remained quiet and didn’t respond. Then, it so happened that a major windstorm came with such a force that it snapped the oak tree in two. The reed, though it thrashed here and there in the storm, survived the winds. When it was all over, the reed stood strong while the oak tree had fallen. ** I bring up this fable because there are times in life where you could ask yourself, are you more like the oak tree or like the reed? Where in your life are you perhaps more like the oak tree, being more rigid and stuck in old ideas of how things are “supposed” to be? If something isn’t working for you, there might be things that you’re doing that are stuck in old patterns, habits and behaviors. This might look like not working out anymore because your gym is closed. Or it might look like trying to do your work as business as usual, even though the working world overall has drastically changed. Instead of being rigid like the mighty oak tree, where in your life can you be more like the reed, and allow more flexibility? If your gym is closed, what are other kinds of activities you can do to get your body moving? (Bonus points to you if you can think of activities that are fun and make you feel more alive!) With work, maybe take a look around and ask yourself how you can show up differently and be of greater service to the people around you? What’s one new thing you can do to show up differently in the world, that’s aligned with the vision of who you want to be and the world you want to create? Take the story of Jeff and Mary as a lesson for your own life. Do you want to be more like the oak tree, or do you want to be more like the reed? In the end, you get to choose. And choose. And choose. Every action you take can be a new choice. Every day you can choose anew. Who are you called to be today? Abundant Blessings and Namaste. ** I'd love to hear your thoughts about today's article. Please feel free to leave a comment below.  Recently, the late great Congressman John Lewis wrote an essay and requested that it be published in the New York Times on the day of his funeral.
In his letter, he urged all of us to “answer the highest calling of your heart and stand up for what you truly believe.” What would you say is the highest calling of your heart? For a lot of people, this is a pretty tough question. That’s because most people aren’t asked to listen to their heart, much less its highest calling. From the time you’re little, you’re usually told what you’re supposed to do, based on what everyone else is doing. Does any of this advice sound familiar to you?
In my work as a spiritual life coach, I meet so many people who’ve tried to make a go of this route and have ended up miserable. Many find themselves unfulfilled, and some even distressed. That’s because the life they were told they “should” live wasn’t in alignment with the life calling inside their heart. If you’re unsure what direction your heart is calling you to, it might help to ask yourself some questions. Here are a few to get you started:
Take one of the questions and contemplate what comes up. If you’d like, you can even journal on any or all of these questions. If you want to receive powerful answers, the best way to do that is to ask powerful questions. By simply asking the question, you activate your own abilities to listen to your heart’s calling. Whether you realize it or not, your heart is constantly communicating with you, calling forth the highest and best for your life. You receive the communications of your heart when you feel excitement and joy, when you feel alive and connected, and when you feel time doesn’t exist. Imagine if you experienced joy and the vitality of life each and every day. And imagine if other people around you, all throughout the world, also experienced this same joy and vitality in their lives. What a world we would be living in…full of wonder and possibility. I believe that when Congressman John Lewis wrote these words, encouraging you to “answer the highest calling of your heart and to stand up for what you truly believe,” he spoke from this highest vision of what’s possible for every person, and what’s possible for our world. I share in his encouragement. My intention and my prayer are that you live your life with vibrancy and joy, and in service to your heart’s highest calling. What is your heart whispering to you? And in what ways are you called to answer? Go ahead. Take a step in the direction of your heart. When you do, be willing to be surprised by how the Divine Love of this Universe shows up to greet you. Abundant Blessings and Namaste. ** I'd love to hear your thoughts about today's article. Please feel free to leave a comment below.  Is there something in your heart that you’ve been wanting to do for the longest time, but for whatever reason you haven't been able to do it?
For me, I had this brilliant idea and dream to write a book. In my mind, it was going to be a best-seller! Thousands, maybe millions of people, from all over the world were going to buy it and love it. But what happened is, year after year, I just didn't do it. I had so many different reasons that came up. “Oh, I'm so busy. I have to work on this first.” “I want it to look this particular way, so I’ll just wait until I have all the other pieces in place and lined up first.” “I’ll get to it next month.” Do you know when I first had the idea to write this book? 12 years ago!!! All these excuses, year after year, for the last 12 years. A few months ago, though, I made the decision that I wasn’t going to wait any longer. Let me tell you what happened to make that change. I realized that a lot of my focus was on all the hype I placed on the book...that it would be a best-seller, that millions would love it, or that it was the pinnacle of all the key lessons I’ve learned in life. In other words, my book had to be perfect. I continually stopped myself from even writing the first word, all because everything had to be just perfect. Have you ever stopped yourself from taking any action towards your dream vision, all because everything had to be perfect? I finally took action when my business coach, Shawn Shepheard, gave me a writing exercise to help get my writing juices flowing, just to get any words on to a piece of paper. For this exercise, Shawn asked me to write five short stories that defined my life. I happily agreed. Five short stories. That seemed simple enough. Anything to get the writing flowing. In less than a couple days, I picked five defining moments in my life, and I wrote a short story about each of them. Let me tell you. A defining moment isn't a simple re-telling of a walk in the park. A defining moment, by its very nature, is an experience that ultimately changed you and the trajectory of your life. As I wrote, I remembered the challenges and the frustration I faced in each of these moments. I recalled when I had to turn to others for support, or when I had to dig deep to turn to my own inner reservoir of strength that I didn’t know that I had...all to overcome different challenges in my life. After writing these five stories, I realized how powerful my experiences were. And each moment contained a life lesson that could be shared with others. That’s when a lightbulb went off in my head. “OMG! This could be my book!” In fact, it was the start of the book that I'm working to finish now. Since then, I've added more stories from my life, and I've added life lessons to each of these stories. These last couple of months, what helped me to get over this hump of not writing a book for the last twelve years was to simply take action. You see, it’s when you take action, when you take the first step, that you actually get more clear on your vision. How many times have you heard this nugget of wisdom from others? How many times have I told my clients to do the same thing? Sometimes, the person that needs to hear your wisdom the most, is yourself. And so my coaching question for you today is: What's one thing that you've been wanting to do for the longest time that's in your heart but you haven't done it yet? Now, think about one little action step that you can take towards the direction of that vision. What’s that one baby step? The smaller and easier the baby step, the better. Then, go ahead and take that step. It doesn't matter if that step is going to ultimately be a part of the picture of your vision. What taking that first step does is open up and activate the energy of possibility. Taking that first step leads you to the next step, which then leads you to the next step. You can take my own learning in writing my book as a lesson. Take a step and be willing to be surprised. And then watch as, what for me was 12 years in the making, will soon become a reality. Abundant Blessings and Namaste. ** I'd love to hear your thoughts about today's article. Please feel free to leave a comment below. |
About JoselitoJoselito is a spiritual life coach helping people create a purposeful, spiritual path to career and financial freedom. Sign me up to receive the free newsletterPopular Blog Articles Beware (Be Aware of) these 5 Unhelpful Money Stories How my body told me to quit my job How I was offered an all-expenses paid cruise after making my Vision Board Today I choose to live my GREATNESS You are not your stories. You are the story-teller. Your job is not your Source. Archives
January 2021
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