Aye caramba … are you in the midst of one of those ‘character building’ moments at work or in your business? It reminds me of when I lived in Eastern Europe and was flying to a different city every week, or at least every month – and if anyone had mentioned ‘spiritual journey’ to me then I would have laughed in their face.
(That might sound very glamorous but anyone who’s travelled for work for any length of time will tell you it really isn’t. Although, I feel I must also add that I’m also incredibly grateful that I got to do that for a few years of my youthful adulthood. It was amazing, often.)
But I digress…
I remember some time into my European escapade that I was having terrible PMS (pretty mental spastics also known as Pre Menstrual Syndrome), was miserably homesick, and the novelty of tripping about complete with suit and laptop was wearing off. A colleague asked me at after-work drinks one evening in Zagreb if I missed my family and it was all I could do to clamp my lips together and nod my head gently, holding back Niagara Falls. I think they felt quite sorry for me!
At the time it felt like a gruelling emotional rollercoaster that I couldn’t get off.
I recall a friend saying over the phone from London how it was ‘character building’ and I declared I had enough character by now, thank you very much. (For more on my story and what I finally learned about taking charge, check out the Start Me Up Toolkit).
Something to Transform
When I look back now I can see it was an opportunity to become a stronger, more centred me. I just didn’t have the tools back then to figure out how.
I know now that the moment we step up, step out or step into something new or bigger, we are opening ourselves wide up for growth.
A few years ago I read a blog by Natalie Sisson (the www.suitcaseentrepreneur.com) and she commented on how every time she decides to take her business to the next level, sure enough, some untapped fear of something (failure, success, failure, the internet!) comes roaring to the surface. Sound familiar? It did to me.
There’s a good chance that the moment you decide to buy another business, take a new career direction or start claiming more time for yourself that any insecurities, self-doubt or limiting beliefs that were lurking in the depths somewhere, will surface. Great, I say. Something to transform.
Back in those troubled traveling days ‘work’ felt to me like a very separate beast to my personal development and spiritual journey. They were in their own ‘boxes’ so to speak.
But it really isn’t so.
Over 10+ years of coaching others and growing myself, I’ve realised that our work journey and all it calls on us to overcome, learn and be is part of our personal evolution.
It makes sense.
I mean, think of how much of our life we spend at work – of course it is supporting and contributing to our overall growth as a person.
Learning how to become an entrepreneur is always less about business development, and more about personal development in disguise.
Ash Ambirge (www.themiddlefingerproject.org)
Your Evolution
If work feels really tough right now, there’s a good chance you’re not going through this because you can’t cope, the economy is tanking, or you’re in the wrong place at the wrong time – but because you’re meant to GROW through this.
In recent months I’ve worked with clients on a range of work-related challenges including managing staff, sexual harassment, work stress, undefined career direction, burn-out and restructures (and restructures of restructures!).
In every case, there is a deeply personal point of growth to work through, heal and transform.
Everything our work or business demands of us; the struggles we make our way through, and the learnings from those struggles are building us into stronger human beings.
They are calling us to grow ourselves – not slog harder, work longer hours or sacrifice more – that would be crazy right?!
But to step back, find wiser responses, to LEARN.
Take heart, dear one.
There is a bigger story being written here; the one of your life and your evolution.
Karen x
There’s no need to wish you hadn’t taken that job,
or that you’d done that degree.
There’s no need to try to re-do your life.
Start where you are. It’s where you were meant to get to
from where you’ve been.
NOW is your best place to start.
There is no perfect plan.
And the plan is perfect.
~ Karen Ross.
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