Life Success Strategies for Soulpreneurs®

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?

 

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

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...

The Divine Spirit within protects, but it doesn't interfere. It warns, but it doesn't intrude. It guides, but it doesn't impose. It waits for you... but it is patient.

- Sonia Choquette,

The Time Has Come... To Accept Your Intuitive Gifts!

How many times have you waited and waited and waited... to do something you knew you needed to do? Sometimes there's a reason for procrastination.

I spend a fair amount of time on direct mail for our business. I mail introductory letters and brochures to potential customers. Recently I had about 60 letters ready to be folded, stuffed, and mailed. Somehow I never got around to getting the job done...

My husband and I attend Glazer-Kennedy Insider Circle meetings monthly, so I decided to take one of our marketing letters to get comments and suggestions from other business owners attending the meeting. If you're not familiar with the Glazer-Kennedy organization, it's a major force in the marketing arena, with thousands of members and monthly newsletters, resources, etc. You can check them out at www.dankennedy.com .

Lo and behold, after our Chapter Advisor reviewed our marketing letter, we discovered a typo in the letter! Now I know we are human, still it would have been embarrassing if we had mailed out a letter meant to bring business that potentially demonstrated our lack of thoroughness...

Sometimes procrastination isn't all bad...

How to take back control of your business

"The time has come to elevate the status of the sixth sense, your inner wisdom and authentic knowing, from the lost, ignored sense to the first and most important of them all. No longer allow your intuition to be the "throwaway" or dispensable sense that disturbs your ego's tight control. To lose your instincts- or abandon them to the least important of influences- is an error for which you'll almost certainly pay dearly."

- Sonia Choquette, The Time Has Come to Accept Your Intuitive Gifts!

How many times have you heard that little voice telling you to do something that you ignored? How many times have you regretted not listening? If you're like me, it's every time.

Sometimes I do things just because I have a "feeling" I should do it, not having a clue why... Usually I find out later why, or maybe I don't necessarily see why, but I trust that there was a reason - something I avoided because I did listen.

I have quit keeping track of the number of times I have told my husband we needed to do something for a particular customer, and that customer called or emailed us within just a few hours. It happens over and over - and it's a gift, one we should never take for granted and learn to trust above all we see with our eyes and hear with our ears. It's a gift that has the ability to lead us to a better life than we could ever imagine with our limited physical senses.

I have learned to quit looking outside of me to find the answers. I went through the phase of having many coaches and they were helpful for the learning I needed to do. But there comes a time when you need to respect your own intuition and quit trying to make your business look like someone else's. It's that time for me. The time to step back and look at what's working for me and my lifestyle and what isn't. It's time to choose how I want my business to operate, whether someone else thinks it will work or not. Because sometimes people don't know what they don't know, and I'm willing to show them it's time to think for myself in my own authentic and unique way.

Maybe it's time for you to do the same?

Your Intuition - Your ultimate compass for life....

"It is by logic that we prove, but by intuition that we discover."

- Henri Poincare

I am in the infancy stage of learning to trust my inner voice, my intuition. I'm beginning to notice how often it is right - all of the time. I especially notice when I ignore it, and find out later how much it cost me in terms of peace and even prosperity.

Many years ago, about 15 to be exact, I did listen when it told me it was time to move on - to leave my job of 24 years and grab the freedom that was surely better. I had no idea what I would be doing, or where the road of self-discovery would take me, but I just knew I had to get out of the corporate rat race. I am so thankful that I listened.

Here I am 15 years later looking back knowing that I did what I had to do on blind faith that it would all work out somehow. I'm so glad I couldn't see the road ahead, because I most certainly would not have had the guts to make the change if I could have seen all the ups and downs that were ahead of me...

I hope you are listening to your intuition and living the life you came here to live. As the visionary teacher and author Sonia Choquette said:

"The more you embrace your intuition as a positive force in your life, the more it will become so."

And so it is...