Life Success Strategies for Soulpreneurs®

To all "Soulpreneurs" who read this web log:

It is my intention to share with my readers what has worked in my life, whether it be personal or business related - it doesn't matter - it's all the same, all about relationships, and all part of my spiritual journey. It is my hope that you will share what is working for you too!

Many blessings,
Sandy

The Choice is Yours

I am responsible for what I see.
I choose the feelings I experience,
and I decide upon the goal I would achieve.
And everything that seems to happen to me
I ask for and receive as I have asked.

- A Course in Miracles

For several months I had a "story" that I stuck to.  That story was, "I have acid reflux.  I need to take Pepcid every day".  This story began when I was taken to the emergency room because I didn't feel "right".  I had no idea what was wrong, I just knew it wasn't right.

After the normal check for heart problems, which I didn't have, the doctor gave me a milky substance to drink and had me rest for a while.  It worked like a charm, and so I became a person with acid reflux.  It didn't occur to me at the time that I had a choice in the matter.  I thought it was just something I had to learn to live with.  And so I did...

Eventually I learned to watch what I ate, took digestive enzymes, did internal cleanses occasionally, and went on with life -  Pepcid in tow wherever I went.

I can't say exactly when the change happened, but one day it occurred to me that I had a choice.  I could choose to be a person with acid reflux, or I could give up that image of myself and build a new one.  I chose the later.

Today I take digestive enzymes only, and I rarely have any problems with acid.  If I do, I know what I've done to cause it.

We all have choices about how we want to live our lives, how we want to see ourselves and our world.  You can see success or you can see a hard road before you.  The choice is yours.

What do you choose?

 

Today is surgery day. It's hard for me to grasp the concept of being old enough to need cataract surgery, but here I am... Another lesson in learning to release the past and surrender to life, just as it is.

If you're having problems doing the surrender thing, I totally identify. During this whole economic downturn, we've hung in there, and still are. It hasn't been easy. We've had to give up ideas of living particular ways and quit being concerned about the "good opinion of other people". Maybe that's not such a bad thing.

Any business owner knows they can ultimately only count on their own drive, ambition, and most of all their own intuition. I thank God everyday for the ability to intuitively know what I need to do to keep moving forward. I know the intelligence flowing through me doesn't come from me. I know, that I don't know what I don't know.

I think that's what has saved our butts, and kept what peace of mind we have, so far... If you own a business right now, I hope you've discovered your own inner wisdom too. That's where your power lies, that what will make you a Soulpreneur...........................

Flexibility is the Name of the Game

"The Universe is not a rigid place. While the essence of what It is remains unchanged, the manifestation of It is constantly changing. Rigidity goes against the flow of the Universe and produces stress and pain in our lives."

- Joanne McFadden, Science of Mind Minister

Yesterday we had to lay off one of our employees - not something I have been looking forward to... We have potential work in the pipeline, but most people are dragging their feet about making decisions, and so it goes... That's why many businesses are struggling right now. The money is out there to be spent, but people are reluctant to spend it, even when they really want something.

This situation causes us to learn the lesson of flexibility on a daily basis. As much as we would like the world to see the economy go only one way - up, that's not the way of life. It's always changing, ebbing and flowing, both ways, yet staying the same.

And so we're all learning the lesson of "going with the flow" along with "keeping the faith". Ultimately I believe it will work out for all of us. Life will go on, and we'll all find happiness where we are, although it may not be where we would have ever thought we'd want to be.

While this may sound like a Pollyanna type attitude to some of you, I believe it's the only attitude I can have and still be happy while I'm living in this world. And I'm sure not ready to step into my next life just yet...

As far as our employee goes, I know he'll be alright. He's a good person, and if we don't get to hire him back first, someone else will. Hopefully we'll get to him first...

Love is always the answer - a story...

After a long hiatus from this blog, I'm back at it again. Most of my time is spent growing and marketing the residential construction business, owned by my husband, my son, and myself. It's a full time job and then some...

Today, however, I read a story in the July 2011 Science of Mind magazine that I had to share. Giving Joanne McFadden, Science of Mind Minister, and Science of Mind Magazine full credit, here's the story.

"Australian mother Kate Ogg was devasted when doctors tried unsuccessfully to resusitate one of her twins after his premature birth. Nurses placed her son on her bare chest, so that she could say goodbye. Ogg told reporters that she and her husband wanted the baby to know that they loved him.

After five minutes, he began to move. The doctors dismissed the movements as reflexes, telling the couple that their son was most certainly not alive. Ogg continued to hold him for two more hours, after which he opened his eyes and then began grabbing at his parents' fingers. They asked the nurse to bring the doctor, who refused to come, holding steadfastly to the belief that the baby was not alive.

The couple used a ruse to finally lure the doctor back to the room, where he was able to hear the baby's heartbeat. "I don't believe it," he responded."

After reading this story, my first thought was "love is always the answer". No matter what you're going through right now, and many of us business owners are going through some rough times, keeping the faith and creating relationships built on love and respect is the answer. If you can hang in there and keep your focus on loving where you are, and where you're going, eventually you'll get there.

As we say in Science of Mind - "And so it is..."

Getting Life in Perspective - Once Again...

"Allowing the truth of who you are - your spiritual self - to rule your life means you stop the struggle and learn to move with the flow of your life." - Oprah Winfrey

Reading the above quote inspired me enough to get off my duff and post again... Sometimes life gets in the way and you lose the momentum to pay attention to your inner life. This happens to me regularly as a business owner. I get so wrapped up in making sure our business is moving along on the right track, that I forget to step back and let God have Its way with me. In other words, I forget to "go with the flow".

I also love this quote by Dr. Ernest Holmes, author of one of favorite books and spiritual institutions, The Science of Mind.

"Hold steadfastly to the thought that all of life is in a state of eternal flow. Relax your thought and allow the free flow of the Life Essence, in and through you..."

That's my goal for the week - to relax and go with the Flow... How about you?

A New View of Service

Today we honor our veterans, and honor them we do. I am in awe of the men and women who choose to go to other countries to keep peace on the homeland, and to help make the countries in which they serve a better place to live.

In the midst of this recognition of our servicepersons, let's also honor those of us who live our daily lives in an honorable way. I love the following quote by the late Religious Science minister, Ed Jones.

"Winning and protecting freedom is not enough; people must know they are free, or they might just as well not be."

We also serve by exercising our freedom to make our unique contributions to the world. Remember the butterfly effect and know that even little things we do in kindness, love, and respect of those in our lives is a way of serving, and will benefit us all by raising the most important consciousness of all - love.

So, as you go through your daily routine on this Veterans Day 2010, remember that you too make a difference, and you make it by being the best you that you can be.

Life - as I Know It...

Have you ever looked back over your life and realized how your journey had to be guided by a higher intelligence than your own? The older you get, the more it becomes apparent something has to be going on underneath the surface of life "as we know it".

About 15 years ago I made a decision, a large, life-changing decision, to leave the company where I had worked for 24 years. It was a painful, yet freeing experience. It was an experience that I had to go through. I can see that now.

When you're in the middle of these life-changing experiences, you haven't got a clue where you'll end up in 15 or 20 years. You just step out on faith and go for it. Now I can see that I have grown in every part of my life, emotionally, intellectually, spiritually, physically, and I have matured in ways I could never have foreseen. I have become more than I ever thought I would be.

Do I have regrets? Yes, there are definitely things I would do differently if I could travel back in time. But I also have to accept that at the time I was acting in the only way I knew how at that stage of life. And I accept my limitations, forgive that younger self, and move on - knowing that in 10 or 15 years, assuming I'm still living this life, I'll be a whole different person than I am today. That's what soulpreneur's do. That's what keeps life going and growing - living and loving the everyday stuff, which is the stuff of life.

And so it is...

"Today, hand-in-hand with my Source, I step into the unknown to find another delightful neighborhood of the same world I know, where love rules through law and all that is needed has been provided."

-Rev. Jesse Jennings, Senior minister of Creative Life Spiritual Center in Houston, Texas

Seeing the Big Picture - Spirit at the Center of Business

"If that which is whole within itself were not already here, neither medicine, psychology, nor affirmative prayer could in any way benefit us physically. For whatever the medicine or manipulation or emotional adjustment or prayer of affirmation may do, it does not and cannot create life, it may only reveal it."

                                             - Ernest Holmes, Author of "The Science of Mind"

What is it that makes us move through life - that breathes us, that beats our hearts and allows us to create intuitively, naturally? Surely it is nothing we have created ourselves. There has to be a natural order of things, and we can only scratch the surface of understanding how it works. And so it is in all areas of our lives.

Ernest Holmes says that living within all of us is the essence of creation. We all have the ability to create to the extent that we believe we can. This applies to all aspects of life, for all of life is intertwined in the whole from which we came and will return at some point in our lives.

If we are all one, why do we make life so hard by trying to set ourselves apart, by being "different' or better than other people? We are conditioned from birth to be better than other people if possible - to compete and to win at all costs. Is this why we came here, to be unique and different, to shine in our own unique way? I believe it is, at least in part. We all have music in us that needs to be given to the world while we're here. And so it is with our businesses.  They are no more and no less than an extension of our selves, and are meant to be one more expression of those selves in the world.

So, what's the point? The point is that when you're creating and working in your business, an awareness of why you're doing what you're doing, at a deeper level, will help you succeed because it will help you formulate your advertising and marketing strategies so that they reflect your true values, which are at the heart of every Soulpreneur's business.

Always remembering that we all live in the Oneness of life, and that what you think, say and do affects all of us; will keep you in the state of right-mindedness as you think about and formulate your business strategies, and put them out into the world every day.

"Any job can become a ministry, as long as it is dedicated to love. Your career can be an empty canvas for God to write on. Whatever your talents or abilities, He can use them."

                                                                         - Marianne Williamson

One Soulpreneur's take on business, life, and spirit

How do you reconcile bringing your spiritual life into your business without losing the importance of your business being your source of income that can sustain you and allow you to have that which makes you happy? It's all in how you approach your life...

Since we are One with our Source, whatever you perceive that to be, it is natural, and innate, to use that Source, which you are, for everything. This leave nothing out - nothing...

Just like it's natural to use your hands to write, love, create; your mouth to eat, to speak, to drive; your legs to walk, to run, to skip, to move from here to there - all of life in you - all Laws of Life are meant to be used and shared and loved. Just as you have use of your body, you have use of the Laws of Life to use in all areas of your life.

In reality, there is no time you do not use these Laws, you just don't think about it as you go about your daily activities. You go to your job or your business and you tend to think you are separating your work from your home and spiritual life, when in reality that's not possible - ever!

So, this leads back to our question, how do you reconcile bringing your spiritual life into your business? By realizing it can be no other way, it's all One, it's all natural, so you may as well use all that it has to offer. In using it consciously and intentionally, you will find your awareness grows each day and opens your business and your personal endeavors up to a world of possibilities of which you were not even aware.

And so it is...

Is "Social Retailing" in Your Future?

Facebook has become a part of daily life for some 500 million people. So much so, that retailers are now searching for ways to tap into this mega social media platform and offer their wares. But this begs the question, do those of us on Facebook really want to be marketed to??

Reality is we are already receiving hundreds, if not thousands of marketing messages every day - some consciously and some unconsciously. It has gotten to the point that most people are tired of being marketed to continuously, in just about every form of communication available - unless they're looking for something specific... When they're looking for something specific, whether it be for their home, health, or for entertainment, they might look at these marketing messages as a gift, as part of the law of attraction in action... Of course, these messages have been there all along, they just haven't been paying attention, until they need what someone has to offer. The key is, of course, how do we marketers find the people who are ready to receive our messages?

This is a dilemma no matter what form of marketing you are using. And the answer is, we just have to get the message out there to as many targeted consumers as possible. We have to use intelligent marketing methods, such as using list services that help us find the people who are most likely going to use our product or service, and also target based on location, if our business is limited to specific locations. This brings us back around to social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, both of which can be used for location specific marketing.

Yes, they can be used to find prospective customers, if you use the right strategy - one that shows you care about people, not just about what they can do for your business.

Here's an informative article that can give you food for thought, if you're considering expanding your marketing strategies to include Facebook.

Facebook Seen as Next Frontier for Online Sales

Should Facebook be used as a marketing tool to help our businesses, and our economy, recover a little faster?

I invite you to share your opinion on "social retailing".