Commitment & the Spiritual Entrepreneur - Part 2

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.

As someone who’s self-employed, you are in charge of your business… and your Self. You call the shots. You’re the one with the power to make commitments. Your clients expect you to. Your livelihood expects you to. With power comes responsibility.

If you tend to feel responsibility as a burden, consider what “responsibility” really means. Response-Ability. Ability to respond. If you’re a soul-worker — a psychic, a shaman, a priestess, a massage therapist, a Reiki practitioner, a counselor — you’re in the business of enhancing others’ abilities to respond to life. In the fine work of body-mind-spirit transformation, where your presence works as effectively as your technique, your clients will respond to your own ability to respond. Commitment reflects the depth of your response-ability.

What are the true and heartfelt commitments you have for your business, your clients, your Self?

Don’t make up commitments because they sound good. Your truth is your truth. You are either committed to something, or you’re not. If you say you’re committed to something and you’re not, your business feedback loop will reveal where your words are out of sync with your truth.

Start by examining the commitments that are already present in your relationship with your business. As creative as you naturally are, don’t make anything up. Just ask yourself this question: What commitments are present in my relationship with my business?

Then see, sense, feel or know what is already there... and put it all down on a piece of paper. Give yourself permission to draw, write, scribble, show or tell. Go for at least 15 minutes. If you come to a stopping point before then, pause. Reconnect with your Self, and continue to observe

Circle the marks you made on the page that have particular resonance for you. (I say marks because you probably didn’t just write words.) What feels really true for you? Not a little bit true. A lotta bit true. Circle those. Use color – crayons are great, if you have some handy.

These commitments are the foundation of your consistent, resilient relationship with your business. If your resonant marks were more pictorial or symbolic, then translate their essence into simple words. Don’t get fancy with your words. If you started off with words, then simplify or refine them until you have a bullet list of your commitments.

Now that you’ve articulated the existing commitment within your business, here’s a chance to do something ceremonious.

How would you like to mark your commitment to your business? Remember, these aren’t new commitments or “stretch” commitments. These are what are already present and functioning in your business. In fact, you may have already ritualized this. Even if you have, you may want to do it again, now with greater self-awareness. Long-married couples often reaffirm their vows.

Would you like to just restate your commitments aloud with enthusiasm? Or would you like to craft a ceremony?

When I transitioned to a new level of commitment in my business, I actually had my logo — a beautiful flaming heart, an artwork of my own creation — tattooed onto the back of my neck. I chose the Summer Solstice of 1999 as the ripe ritual date, and the marking took place inside a sacred circle with a priestess as my witness. A marking ritual won’t eliminate challenges in a business, any more than a wedding protects against marital tension. But commitment ceremonies have the power to contain big energy. And for me, having a living, breathing talisman literally written on my body is an enduring invocation of the essential energies in my enterprise.

I’m not advocating you do this. However, I am encouraging you to embrace the power of your ability to respond to your business —all it entails — through the potent tool called commitment.

How would you like to commemorate or ritualize your commitments?

Commitment is not the same thing as love. In the best of relationships, love and commitment twine together to weave a fabric of fulfillment and endurance. Your resonant commitments, the ones that are already at work in your business, probably stem from love. For most spiritual entrepreneurs, the impulse to launch their ventures is motivated from the heart. Love is the starting place. Commitment is the follow through. So it’s usually not hard to see the love in these foundational commitments.

However, when we use the tool of commitment to stretch ourselves — to become more effective, more profitable, more visible — we can sometimes lose sight of the love. Our focus is on the growth, the sometimes painful push beyond our comfort zones. We’re not thinking about love and the beauty of living an autonomous life committed to our spiritual ideals. We’re thinking: I need to make 10 cold calls to local healing centers this week to introduce them to my work; and I need to write a business plan by Friday to impress the bank so I get financing for my own healing center; and I need to write that letter informing my clients that I’m raising my rates this month.

As you begin to grow your practice — and yourself within your practice — you will begin to make greater commitments. You will begin to stand for a greater vision of yourself and your offerings and this larger stand will require bolstering through new commitments. In this growth phase, it is imperative that you remain connected with your love for your work.

When you love your business, you are expressing Source’s love for all of creation. When you love your business — and you anchor yourself firmly in that love — the cold calls come more easily, the business plan breezily, the letter more smoothly. When you are centered it your heart-motive, the “selling” so many spiritual entrepreneurs balk at ceases to be selling and suddenly becomes sharing. Yes, you do need to make the calls, create the plan or write the letter. But when your heart is full of the love you have for your craft, your clients and your choice to be in business, these actions are natural expressions of your heart-felt devotion. And people respond to that. They yearn for it. And you know this. Which is at least part of why you have chosen this path instead of some other.

So, let’s take a look at your love.

First, ground yourself in a good heart feeling — a pleasurable memory of feeling fulfilled, feeling like a “yes,” feeling loved. Got it? OK.

What are the physical sensations you are experiencing while you’re in this emotional space? Don’t focus on the content of your memories or even the story you make up about the feeling. Stay with the physical. What is happening in your body right now as you feel this lovely feeling? Is your breathing long and slow? Your shoulders down and back? Your belly soft and relaxed? Your legs uncrossed? Your eyes soft?

This is important. These body sensations can be recreated. When you consciously choose to produce these physical sensations, your psyche will offer the mental/emotional experience they’re associated with, namely, a pleasurable heart-feeling. You can access this frame of mind whenever you like, by creating these sensations in the body. This is handy — it’s a way to prime yourself for situations where you’d like to be feeling this feeling.

OK. So go ahead and connect with that good heart feeling.

Now take a look at why you went into this line of work. What do you love about your work? What aspects of your business do you actually enjoy, adore even? These may be work tasks, or the smile on your client’s face after a great session. Love knows no limits! Give yourself some time to brainstorm, and write it down!

Copy out these discoveries onto a fresh piece of paper and post it some place where you’ll be sure to see it every day. Write in big letters across the top: “What I Love About My Business.” This is a helpful touch-point for keeping the good vibes flowing on a bad day.

Knowing what gives you juice about your business provides the soul-stuff you’ll need as you stretch into greater professional commitments. When you love, you care. When you care, you act.

What are three actions you can take this week to express your love for your business?

1)

2)

3)

Go ahead and commit to them!