Commitment & the Spiritual Entrepreneur - Part 1

So, you’re a spiritual entrepreneur. By that I mean you’re self-employed, working in the “spiritual” arts. Perhaps you’re a healer or a psychic. You may work in a more conventional field, but have a spiritual “bent” to your approach.

At some point in your history with your business, you made a commitment to it. You may have made a conscious ritual out of it. Or perhaps the commitment just sneaked by you… first you’re just dating, then all of a sudden you’re sharing a joint bank account!

However it came to pass, take a look at your “relationship status” with your business. Since you’re asking it to produce revenue for you while you help people with the important concerns of their souls, I’d say your business is quite a “significant other.”

What’s the relationship status between you and your spiritual business?

[ ] Flirting

[ ] Dating

[ ] Gone all the way

[ ] Living together

[ ] Engaged

[ ] Married

[ ] Married with a mortgage

[ ] Married with children

[ ] Estranged

Is this a monogamous relationship you’re in, or are you, to carry the metaphor, “seeing other people?” Other “people” may be a day-job, other part-time businesses, or projects that consume so much of your time they detract from your business. There’s nothing wrong with poly-fidelity, as long as you’re open and honest about it.

Check in with yourself right now:

[ ] My business and I are happily monogamous.

[ ] We are in an open relationship. I’m also seeing: _____________________

[ ] I’m cheating on my business with: _____________________  (I promise not to tell.)

[ ] Other. Please describe:

Every relationship has its rules and expectations. Usually, rules get noticed when they’re broken, and expectations are revealed through the emotional feedback of disappointment.

What was your latest disappointment with your business? When was that? What kind of expectation did you have that revealed itself through your feeling of disappointment?

Expectations get a bad rap in the New Age and other spiritual communities. It is fine to have expectations, especially as it relates to this business of yours, one of the aims of which is to provide a consistently high-quality service to others. (That alone is an expectation.) An expectation reflects a set of beliefs at work to create a certain kind of reality. We tend to “realize what we theorize,” so positive expectation can be a great asset in business. You expect that a prospective client will want an appointment with you. They sense that you’re resonating as a “yes” with them, and lo and behold they set up an appointment.

An expectation is not the same thing as an attachment to a result. You can discern the difference by the magnitude of your emotional response and your refractory period, the time it takes you to get over it. Disappointment is one thing, a downward spiral into a full day of depression shows that you are thoroughly “hooked.” It’s time to use your own transformative tools and investigate the source of your attachment. Your off-the-charts emotional response probably has a lot more to do with something that happened in your childhood than with what actually just happened in the context of your business.

Expectations abound in business. It’s good to know what they are!

Here are some of my expectations: I expect that my clients will show up for their appointments on time. I expect myself to return clients’ phone calls within 24 hours. I expect myself to deliver the very best of my abilities in my sessions and classes. I expect to honor my word. I expect others to honor their words.

What are some of your business-related expectations?

Rules and expectations are the fibers that weave the fabric of commitment. Commitments are informed by our rules and expectations, but they come from a place of personal empowerment and strength. To stand in a place of “I commit” implies that you have the power to do so.

Try a little exercise. What was one of the expectations you just noted, one that relates to your own actions, not others? Write that down:

I expect:

Now, change the wording to make it a commitment.

I commit to:

Notice the difference of how those two statements feel when you say them out loud.

Here’s an example:

I expect myself to return clients’ phone calls within 24 hours.

I commit to returning clients’ phone calls within 24 hours.

When I say the first statement, I feel a little like an inner school marm is waiting to smack my hands with a ruler if I mess up. When I say the second statement, I feel firm, like a warrior. I can tell I’m taking a stand for something. My energy collects inward to a point of focus and strength.

How do you feel when you say the “I expect” versus “I commit to”?

Writing your commitments and speaking them aloud calls energy to you, puts you in a place of power as it relates to your business. Big businesses often publish their commitments to their clients. Jaded spiritual folk might dismiss this as so much corporate hype. While you may not want to walk in your corporate cousins’ footsteps, you may find they have some useful models for success. Can you imagine how your clients would feel if they saw some of your business commitments in a framed poster on your office wall or on your website?

Ten years ago, I re-envisioned myself professionally. I stopped thinking of myself as a self-employed service provider. I started to think of myself as the leader of a company. One of my aligning actions around this was to share my company’s values and commitments with prospective clients, vendors, partners and staff. This marked an important threshold in my own sense of entrepreneurship. I began to hold myself with more esteem and regard myself as someone with substantially more power than I had previously. My world responded accordingly.

This is what I posted on my company’s website at the time:

***

We hold these truths to be self-evident:

* That all life is sacred and interconnected;

* That spirit is as important in work as mind and body;

* That prosperity seeks to be shared by all;

* That all individuals and groups thrive on commitment;

* That beauty is critical to the healthy organization of commerce, societies and relationships;

* That joy and labor are natural companions.

For our clients' well-being and our own, we commit to

* Honor the core value of our clients, partners and selves;

* Communicate clearly from a place of respect and with a spirit of collaboration;

* Welcome challenges that strengthen our business and personal practices;

* Apply our arts toward the co-creation of a beautiful, sustainable and harmonious world.

***

Your commitments reveal your essence. Your essence is what attracts the right clients to you. Making your commitments clear signals an alignment between who you are and what you do. It expresses courage and power.

Not much happens without commitment. Without commitment, we back off from difficulty. A relationship without commitment easily ends after the first or second argument. Commitment brings us back to what’s important. Commitment reminds us of our intentions. As a spiritual entrepreneur, you know all about intention.

Living your commitments — to your business, to your clients, to yourself — is the daily practice of strengthening your soul connection with the divine, of bringing effectiveness to your intentionality. Living your commitments — not just honoring them out of a begrudging sense of duty, but living them — with your full breath as a channel for spiritual power, life force energy and grace is like saying to the Divine, “Yes, in this moment, I recall that I was guided to do this work. I remember that I embraced this call to service. I acknowledge the challenges before me. I pray for the courage to meet them. My commitment is the power behind my prayer. Amen. Aché. Blessed be.”