Have you rejected the invitation to the life you desire?
Recently I was reading a great article about becoming a parent. The sacrifice, the highs, and lows. And while parenthood changes the lens through which you see the world, it doesn’t change your desires or your purpose. Parenthood doesn’t mean giving up your dreams. Your purpose and identity don’t default to “just parent.”
I relate this to COVID and being an entrepreneur.
COVID doesn’t default your dreams.
COVID doesn’t make your desires less relevant.
For many clients, COVID hit like a wave that I imagine is similar to being a new parent: finding yourself defaulting to survival mode and allowing those newly surfaced, soul-lead desires to be buried way back down.
The question becomes… “How can I possibly focus my attention on the future when there is so much to manage in the present?”
While so many things are in a wildly different place now than from the start of the year, the question to ask yourself is: are your desires and dreams truly all that different?
If you started the year with a desire and vision for your business, is there truly a reason to abandon it?
At the beginning of the year, I made a commitment to trust my inner knowing and to lead from that place more confidently without allowing fear to override what I know to be true…which would mean that it’s time to move forward with re-branding my business in a new direction. Having built a large steady client base with brand recognition and tons of organic online search rank, a big biz change comes with a lot of “what ifs” and fears.
So I started working seriously on my commitment to stepping into this change with the support of my own coach just before COVID hit in March so I could get support with my internal shifts and work from a place of self-trust.
However, when COVID hit things were intense in my business (transformational coaching and marketing). Our clients needed us more than ever and I felt myself fall back into old energies, putting my new vision aside because people needed what we were offering right now.… Isn’t it funny how we as humans can do that? We think because things get busy or overwhelming or because there’s a world crisis, that our desires don’t matter? We are quickly pulled into our old selves, defaulting on our commitments. The old me would default into firing on all cylinders for days at a time, showing up for everyone else, staying busy with the needs and opportunities right before us, and that’s exactly what I did.
I felt myself rejecting the invitation.
Thankfully my coach helped me see that.
I got re-grounded and considered, “how does any of this (COVID) change my commitment to taking my soul-aligned brand to the next level?”
What I concluded is that COVID doesn’t change my commitment. If anything, COVID made my deepest internal desires ALL THE MORE IMPORTANT.
COVID, parenthood, (insert any excuse you may have), makes your desires all the more important! If we are willing to listen to the message in these times of chaos and overwhelm, we will find the invitation showing itself, inviting us to recommit more fiercely and deeply to our desires.
Everything that comes up as a “reason” to hold you back, is simply an invitation to step in more deeply, more committed.
And when you truly commit to your desire, that’s when things start clicking into place, but you can’t get there if you aren’t willing to really go there.
Defaulting to the old-you
When you are committing to what you desire, it’s important to be aware of a common occurrence that can thwart your commitment: defaulting.
Defaulting to the old you is like receiving an invite to a party where you weren’t sure you’d know anyone but you accept because you see that this could be a great opportunity for you to make new friends. Then hours before the event, you get scared, make up an excuse, and pull out from the engagement.
That’s defaulting to your old energy.
It’s the same when we pull back from our soul purpose. Except when you pull back from your soul desires you miss out on a lot more than just a great dinner party. Instead, you miss the opportunity to step into the reason for your existence.
I recently saw this in action with a client who I’ve been guiding for some time to overcome the cycle of feast or famine in business. We’ve done the work to help her get clear in how she feels about building a team so that she can focus her time in her zone of genius… and yet, the last few months she’s stayed busy with projects heading for burnout and rather than take that step to build a team, she’s decided to pause, retreat and take some time off. Sometimes we need a break to clear our head…
But sometimes, these retreats to our old selves are excuses keeping us from our breakthrough.
Sometimes retreating is defaulting to the “prior you.”
And you cannot create the higher vibe version of yourself from that old energy.
But you can become aware of defaulting, and you can choose to recommit to your desire.
Let’s break down how to do that…
Recommitting to your Desire
If you notice yourself doing this where you have said you are committed to something and right as you near the finish line, you stop, consider this invitation to check in with yourself on a soul level to see if you are truly honoring your desires.
Ask yourself these 4 questions:
- When you allow yourself to truly feel what’s possible when honoring your desire, what’s that feeling? Really allow yourself to feel it.
- And what would become possible for you when you honor that desire?
- Now consider, what’s stopping you from fully honoring that? Let it all out, stare it in the face.
- And what action are you going to take?
A truly aligned commitment to your desires requires a choice. Choosing to feel the fear and trust your soul anyway. It requires consistent practice in listening to your soul and taking strategic action from that soulful place.
This can be so challenging because while we have learned many many things across our lifetimes, many of us have not yet learned the most important thing: how to listen to, trust, and honor our soul-purpose.
And what if that were the thing that mattered the most? To honor your soul-purpose?
Would that change or inspire you to recommit to your 2020 vision?
Let me know! I want to hear what your soul-yes commitment is and what you are doing to move forward on it!