Over a year ago I wrote a post entitled “Part One: ‘Law’ of Attraction… Prepare to Meet Ancient Sufi Teachings” and promised a follow-up with Part Two.

And then I chewed on it. And chewed on it. So much strange esoteric knowledge, and I didn’t have a clear way to describe it without confusing everyone, including myself.

Help From the Thirteenth Century

Finally I was working with a recently-translated Sufi text from the thirteenth century that helped me get a handle on why the Law of Attraction and other abundance-promising approaches never settled into my heart, and why so many people were getting so few results.

The Result?

A guidebook I just wrote entitled “Backwards.” Eloquent, ain’t it?

Because this has been such a thorny topic for so many, many people, I’m making this available without any opt-in whatsoever. You can just go to the page and download it. You can share the pdf with whomever you want without asking me for permission.

I want you to share it as widely as you can.

Go here to grab it:

Backwards: Why Common Abundance Manifestation Approaches Are Sabotaging Your Success
(You can also find it on our website under “Free Resources- Toolkit and Newsletter.”)

And please, share what you think about it below

This Came Up Now Because…

The whole topic of “money” is in the air for me, because we’re opening enrollment for the Heart of Money Transformational Journey course the end of next week. And I’ll be holding a no-cost call next week as well- so keep your eyes on your inbox if you’re on our email list for those things if you’re interested.

Then, I got shy- what in the heck do I talk about on video? I’ve been writing for decades, and I feel really comfortable expressing myself in writing. But, video? Brave, new, un-edited world.

I had just had lunch with my buddy, David Billings, aka Mr. Sparky Firepants. He is a top-notch designer (he’s worked at Nickelodeon among other places), big-hearted, and for the moment his family lives with a bunch of Alpacas. You should hire him now before his rates go up, or he becomes an Alpaca farmer full-time.

At lunch he asked me a question about what makes the difference between someone who makes it, and someone who doesn’t. Here’s about a minute and a half of my thoughts on that.

There’s more to it than that, but hey, it’s a start. So, you like? More video? I’m resisting the urge to apologize for the bad lighting, and all the other imperfections that I’m seeing…

What Moses Knew About Getting Ready to Teach

So, have at it, and let me know if it was helpful.

First, in the history of spiritual paths, usually the student has to travel to the teacher. Often at great personal sacrifice. The particular Sufi lineage I’m in has story from the earliest days of how a student travelled up a mountain three times to try to engage his teacher, but was told to three times to go down again and wash and purify himself once more.

Sidi Muhammad al-Jamal ar-Rifai ash-Shaddhulli lives in Jerusalem, and yet travels to the U.S. once a year for several months to visit his students here. Very amazing.

Second, he is an Islamic imam, and I’m Jewish, although at this time I’m more accurately described as a Jewish Sufi Muslim- a Jufi. How does that happen?

I have such deep gratitude for his teachings. In his presence I’ve had incredible experiences of having my heart torn open and light poured in. I read his books and I experience what I call “light” to be pouring off the pages- sometimes I just open a book without reading it and I can feel it palpably in my heart.

The practices and teachings I’ve learned in this lineage have been lifesavers for me.

(By the way, if you’re in the U.S. and you want to meet Sidi, here’s his travel schedule. These events are general open to any sincere seeker of the heart. Some are free or by donation, some are more intense events that ask a tuition.)

And yet, and yet…

In the nature of things, because I tend to see Sidi once a year at an event like this, and because he has thousands of students all over the world, I don’t receive much direct personal guidance from him, except in short interviews when we meet.

This was an okay situation for years, because I was a student and then later a faculty in the sufi school where I still received mentorship and guidance.

However, it’s been a few years, and I haven’t taken the pro-active steps to have someone in the tariqa (lineage) guide me personally. I do receive support and guidance, but not from just one person, and I’m starting to really yearn for that.

How Important Is It To Have a Teacher?

Some people say teachers are unnecessary, that we have everything inside us. Some folks have had very bad experiences with teachers who were false in some way.

My experience has been that there are very, very challenging things that come up on the spiritual path. Very uncomfortable, transformational, annihilating things that turn one’s world upside down. Without a teacher, I wouldn’t know how to navigate them. Also, I’m not sure I would trust myself to face and go through the really uncomfortable challenges of spiritual growth without a teacher.

In all of Sufism, there is only one saint that didn’t have a teacher and still attained to divine knowledge of Love. Everyone else had a human teacher.

I know I have some sterling qualities, but I don’t think I’m so special that I’m the second exception to the rule. I think I’ll look for someone this weekend, one of my teachers under Sidi.

In Business, Too?

One of the most important things I’ve learned in Sufism is the power of lineage, of being a part of the chain of life, from the past into the future. A lineage can carry a powerful transmission, bestowing generations of insight and wisdom onto those who inherit and receive from the lineage.

We spend an entire day working on lineage in the Path to Profitability Retreat (early-early bird discount ends July 31st!) It’s that important to momentum. I’ve been blessed to have some incredible business teachers, too.

And you?

Do you have a spiritual teacher? Do you have a business teacher? Or have you ever? Have you had a teacher and then gone for periods without guidance? How have you found or chosen a teacher? I’d love to hear about your path with teachers and lineage.

For instance, I was working with a client who has a number of staff working under him that he wanted to delegate to more efficiently. Despite his efforts, the same problem showed up in employee after employee.

Okay, so it got incrementally better, somewhat. But even after several years he was still exhausted, and the delegating wasn’t really taking the load off.

Harumph… His way of trying to fix the mistakes didn’t seem to be fixing anything, because they kept coming back.

Does this sound familiar? Do you have problems that keep cycling back over and over again in your business? What’s going on? How do you fix these “unfixable” mistakes?

The Problem with Human Mistake Radar

Here’s what I’ve learned through the Sufi teachings about mistakes: our human guidance system is nearly infallible in detecting that a mistake has happened. All the emotional, physical and inner-knowing symptoms that tell us something is “off” or not right are usually very, very reliable.

Maybe you’ve got a sinking feeling in your stomach. Or just a knowing that something is out of whack. However you get it, you know that a mistake has occurred.

Unfortunately, most of us have not been taught how to look behind this discomfort to see what the mistake actually is.

Let me restate that: as a human, you know when a mistake has occurred, but you rarely know what the true mistake actually is.

Why We Misidentify Mistakes

It’s hard to name the mistake, because as humans we usually grab onto the most visible part of it: our actions, and the results that came from them. But the action wasn’t the mistake. You need to look behind the actions.

The mistake that occurs within a project or with a person happens before the action.  When that relationship is out of whack, then your actions reflect that out-of-whack relationship. In the example with my client, he had to eventually look at not what he did with his the employees but at his own relationship with delegating.

Why Mistakes Are a Gateway, the Sufi View

Mistakes are required. Without mistakes an essential part of our humanity would be missing. The part of you, deep in your heart, that really wants to know that you don’t have to earn love and acceptance. That no matter what you do, love is available.

Forgiveness is the bridge. Without it, we can’t truly relax into being our full human selves. And without mistakes, we wouldn’t be able to taste forgiveness in our hearts. There will always be a place in us saying: “But if I goof up, I’m doomed, unlovable.”

Allow me to quote from a Sufi teacher, who is describing God’s perspective on our mistakes (please forgive the Old Testament flavor):

“Through the gate of the mistake, most of My beloveds come to reach Me. First, I put them in the fire of the mistake, then this fire brings them to the deeper fire of My love. Then I show them My light in the fire, and in a moment they jump and are face to face…” (from Music of the Soul, by Sheikh Sidi al-Jamal).

The first “fire of the mistake” that the Sheikh mentions refers to our internal guidance system-that place that feels yucko that something went wrong.

The second fire is the return to love that burns away the yuck. it’s the insight that comes in this second fire that shows you the true mistake without a tinge of shame or guilt. It will feel pure, simple and very true.

Back to my client above, the insight he finally achieved was understanding that he actually wasn’t really delegating anything, because he continued seeing his employees as something less then the responsible adults they were.

Seeing and acknowledging his employees as responsible adults was the change needed to correct his mistake.

Marinate Before the Fire

Before you jump in with both feet, take a gentle breath, and just let your heart marinate on this insight. Ahhhh.

Still the mistake happened. A goof-up occurred, and the mess is here and now. So you still have to clean it up. How do you jump from the first fire of yuck to the second “deeper fire of love,” so you can clean things up?

Keys to Cleaning Up the Mess

• Take responsibility for the unknown.

When you feel that yucko feeling of a mistake, your first inclination may be to push it away. But that doesn’t work so well. Instead, take full responsibility, even though you don’t know what that looks like yet.

That’s right, find the place in your heart that is willing take full responsibility for the mistake. It’s yours, and remember, it’s your gateway to love.

• Ask for forgiveness.

The way the Sufis ask for forgiveness is to call into the heart: “I ask for forgiveness from Source. Please help me to see what I don’t know.” And be willing to be surprised.

Be patient. This process has taken me as little as one minute, and sometimes as long as 30-60 minutes of quiet reflection and asking in my heart, especially if it’s a big mistake in my life that I’m having some reluctance looking at directly.

When you receive an insight, and that insight doesn’t have any tinge of shame, or wrongdoing, or that “just have to suck it up and fix it” energy, then you know you’re complete. You’ll probably feel a relaxation and peacefulness come into your heart and being.

• Fix the mistake.

Follow through with the clean-up actions as soon as possible. This is the integrity that comes with love.

Your mistake had consequences in the world. You and people around you were affected by it. Do your best to make up for any miss-steps you made. Ask your heart, and ask the people involved, what will help to make things whole again?

My client followed these three steps and found that the hardest thing was simply finding the humility to apologize for his past behavior, which was much easier than continuing that painful cycle.

After this insight, my client felt an increased depth of love and trust in relationship with his employees, and his delegating skills grew in leaps and bounds.

When you do all three steps to resolve a mistake, the Sufi teacher I quoted above calls it “consuming the essence of the mistake.” Once the essence of the mistake is consumed, you may have a healing in your heart that keeps these kinds of mistakes from happening again.

An achievement that will definitely help your business bloom.

Resource: If you want to look at this process in more detail, you can get my workbook, Cleaning Up Mistakes in Business, which is available to anyone who completes the Remembrance Challenge.

This is a bit of a radical approach to mistakes–the idea that maybe they don’t need to be fixed, at least in the way one often thinks about “fixing” mistakes. And yet, you don’t ignore them either.

Does this resonate for you? What’s your experience with unfixable, or repetitive mistakes?

This is not about collapsing and begging to be forgiven because you messed up. This is about asking deep in your heart to see something that you haven’t seen yet, and to know that you don’t have to be perfect in order to earn love.

p.s. Are you making mistakes with money over and over?

Giving away your precious time. Under-charging and under-earning. Earn more, spend more. The credit card bills keep growing. Making decisions in the spur of the moment, and feeling upset afterwards at the money you spent for one more useless thing.

These are the common mistakes business owners make every day. Again and again and again. If just knowing what to do would change things, the problem would be gone.

Sometimes you need a healing. Sometimes you need a real transformation. May I suggest the Heart of Money Transformational Journey Home Study?

This is a course that sold out 20+ times for $1500/person. We’re currently running a course for 1/4 that cost — 80 spots sold out. What’s more, the breakthroughs we’re hearing about are incredible.

Finally, after more than eight years, the Heart of Money Transformational Journey course is being turned into a home study course. We’re aiming for an August 17 release/ship date. Right now through July 31st we’re offering a pre-release price.

Check it out for yourself:  The Heart of Money Transformational Journey.

Trust your heart. And if you have any questions, please ask. Just do it by July 31st, or you’ll miss the pre-release price.

However, when I think about where we were, actually I was, a few years back, that place many who are dreaming of having a successful business are now, I realize we’ve past into another level.

For folks in the position we’ve now come out of, overwhelm is a frequent companion. Between marketing, systems, running the business, and then actually providing services, not to even mention having a life outside that, it can get pretty insane.

And then, you look at something like Heart of Business, or any of several successful businesses around and you wonder, “How in the heck can they get it all done?”

Here’s Where Personal Branding Betrays You

Businesses the size of ours tend to still have a very visible front person. If you don’t look carefully, or if they haven’t taken pains to show you what’s going on, it can look like the business is that person.

This can lead to incredible feelings of inadequacy, because you realize that you are barely keeping up with what you’re doing. How in the heck could you ever handle what they are accomplishing? Crazy!

Let Me Pull The Curtain Back

I think we’ve been pretty transparent, but let me pull the curtain back a bit more so you can understand that I’m not doing all of this myself.

People involved in Heart of Business:

1. Me. I do my fair share, and I’m still wearing a number of hats that I’d like to hand off. For instance, I still end up being the IT go-to guy far more often than I’d like. But it’s getting better.

2. Holly, my wife… except now she’s with the twins, so we have to take her off the list temporarily, just for a couple of years.

2. Kate Williams, Director of Projects and Development. Kate is a bona-fide full-time on-the-payroll, health care benefits and all employee of Heart of Business. She works amazingly hard and wears many of the hats Holly and I used to wear, plus some hats that were just lying around unworn that desperately needed a noggin to sit on. She edits, she writes, she connects with customers, she handles details and projects, she collaborates and dreams. Amazing.

3. Jim Brosseau, Head Trainer. Not that he trains our heads, although he does that some, but he’s the first person aside from Holly and I to work directly with Heart of Business individual clients. He also played a pivotal role in the beta “train-the-trainer” program we just ran with a handful of people, as well as helping too in strategy meetings and planning for growth. Plus, he’s started to give public talks. He also makes a mean raw, sprouted cracker.

We’re also in the process of adding one more contractor to provide client services. You’ll be hearing about her soon.

4. Jason Lay, Intern. He’s just starting on his path to become a Chinese medicine practitioner through the National College of Natural Medicine (NCNM), and already he’s wanting to learn about heart-centered businesses. He agreed to intern with us, and for a double-handful of hours a week, we’re giving him all we know. He’s tech and web-savvy and has already handled some critical web-related projects that we… just… couldn’t… get to. We’re humbled that he wants to be here with us.

5. Eric Grey, Intern. Coincidentally enough, he just graduated from NCNM, has started his own clinic, and still wants to learn more about heart-centered business practices. The thing is, he’s a total David Allen, Getting Things Done disciple, and is also a popular blogger in the holistic health field. We’re amazed to have him. He’s handling admin stuff for us, and looking at it from larger systems perspective. Very cool.

6. Adam Kayce, Bright Coconut. We’ve hired him for two projects now doing what he does superbly well–-really solid Wordpress-based web design. Clean, workable, dependable, fantastic. He helped us redesign and launch the current heartofbusiness.com and is currently helping us relaunch The Business Oasis.

7. Trisha Cupra, Professional Website Makeovers. Even thought we’d already found Adam and have been deliriously happy with him, Trisha came into our life to help us with our new html ezine design, which is a whole ‘nother thing from the website. Since then, she’s been supporting us weekly in getting the ezine out, and is starting to work with other design projects we have. She’s really, really good.

8. My Mastermind/Brain Trust group. Molly Gordon, Jen Louden, Michael Bungay Stanier, and Eric Klein function as my board of directors, my own little slap-happy, all-too-happy-to-slap-me compassionate, loving, self-development group. I joined after they were already formed, and they had already named it a “Brain Trust.” But since I have always talked about these kind of groups as mastermind groups, I’ve never been able to entirely shift my vocabulary. We talk as a group at least twice a month, we get together in person once a year, and we’re constantly in communication with each other through a private forum and phone calls. They have totally saved Heart of Business’ butt, and my own, numbers of times.

9. Karen, Michael and Nicole, Balance Your World Bookkeepers. Finding affordable, flexible, accurate bookkeepers has been more challenging than we expected. Especially when we decided we didn’t just want to hand in reports once a month and get reports back that were four weeks in the past. We wanted to know what was happening in the business right now. These folks know small business, are totally efficient and trustworthy, and are helping us stay on top of our numbers day-to-day. You might not need that level of service if you are running your average self-employed service business. But, if you do, here they are.

10. Fabeku Fatumise, Sankofasong. I’ve known we need to take our audio content up a notch, but haven’t known how, until now. Suddenly, I realized, we didn’t need a musician, we needed a sound healer. Enter Fabeku. He’s creating intro/outro music that really supports the deep intention we’re bringing to our content. I can’t imagine this will be the only project we’ll do with him.

11. Steve Alverdes, My Tax Man. Last on the list, but not least, is Steve and the gang at My Tax Man. Small business accountants, they handle our payroll, our taxes, and are available for conversations and consulting during the year when we need to understand how to do things right, or how financial decisions, like hiring an employee, is going to affect us. No, strangely enough, they don’t have a website. Even so, as a third-generation business, they seem to be doing just fine. If you want to find them, here they are.

That’s A Long List of People

Lord forgive me, I hope I haven’t forgotten anyone. To tell you the truth, when the payroll can handle it, we’d love to have some more dedicated admin help. If it’s not too late, let me say: “Please Don’t Freak Out!” Please don’t freak out. If you are currently self-employed and don’t have any help, don’t look at this long list and think, “I can never afford it. I can never get there.”

We didn’t start here. We started with “I.” My first step ever was to hire some office help a few hours a week. Holly helped out, too. Eventually I hired a virtual assistant. We’ve been through several bookkeepers. Of course, I needed an accountant from the get-go.

Anyhoo, it’s been a long journey, filled with mistakes, missteps, and experiments. But over the years it has become crystal clear that in order to be successful, “I” needed to become “we.”

I was team-phobic. I didn’t think I wanted a team. I didn’t know how to handle a team. But, sure enough, to really have the business work, I needed a team.

Start to Build Your Team Now

If you want to succeed in business, start to build your team. Start to gather the people around you who can support you. No, you don’t have to do it like I did. You don’t need someone on a payroll, you don’t need employees.

But you do need a team. Otherwise, you don’t have a business that is going to succeed. You have a gerbil wheel that will eventually roll away.

Any other sage advice? Or questions?

If you’ve built or are building your team, what sage advice do you have? If you are struggling and suddenly realize you need a team, what questions do you have?

Let’s take it to the comments.

Let me explain that I’m running a business, I’m a new father of twin boys, and I’m a little sleep-deprived. I haven’t really had a lot of extra time to read.

Howsoever, when Pam’s book arrived, and I saw the cover, I couldn’t help but flip it open.

And there it was, the line on page 2 that everyone seems to be repeating, and that sums up the gestalt of the whole book (whatever “gestalt” means):

“And despite what a lot of hyped-up marketing material will tell you, hating your job intensely is not a business plan.”

One morning, after a 3am feeding which my wife blissfully slept through (one of only two nights a week when I’m on for the night feedings–an arrangement that allows me to be coherent and run the business that keeps us in baby formula), I couldn’t go back to sleep. So I picked up her book. I think I had made it to the second chapter.

And finished the book by 5:30am. (That’s your cue to go buy it now.)

If you’re wondering how to make the leap from corporate to entrepreneur this is the book for you. It’s got the nitty-gritty, like:

• “How to Shop for Benefits, including the basics, resources, and some things you definitely might not have thought of. And what is more terrifying than being without benefits while you’re trying to support your family?
• “Do I Really Have to Have a Business Plan?” The answer is “Absolutely not.” And “Absolutely.” which is a lot more clear than you think if you read the chapter. And you’ll be glad you did, because business plans and planning can either speed you up or slow you down, depending.
• “How Do I Choose a Good Business Idea” including Pam’s direct confrontation of the popular trite-ism “Do What You Love and the Money Will Follow.” No, she’s not recommending losing what you love, but she does clue you in how and where the money comes from.

But, this is not another boring how-to-set-up-a-business book. What kind of a boring-how-to-set-up-a-business book would help you detox from corporate life and thaw out your soul, which you must do. You can’t be a successful entrepreneur with a frozen soul, period.

Or how how about facing your family and friends who maybe don’t have an entrepreneurial bone in their body and can’t conceive of you actually making it, and so they tell you their worries day in and day out until your dreams start to turn to dust…

Except that you were smart enough to have both picked up this book and read it.

About the Writing Itself

I revel in the informal, conversational, messy, impromptu, in-the-moment writing that has cropped up in blogs, on Twitter, and in a variety of pdfs. I love it that written conversation is accessible to everyone.

At the same time I’m a writer and sometime editor, and have been for more than twenty years. I worked on a daily newspaper, I ran a non-profit magazine, and I’ve written hundreds of articles and a few books.

I say this to let you know that I value quality writing. There is a skill, talent and art to written expression which makes it easy for the reader to walk into a book, sit down, and have a cup of tea. A combination of humor, heart-opening turns of phrase, and an ability to empathize and stay connected to you as the reader.

Pam’s got it. You’ll enjoy reading the book. You will. Even the parts that could be boring, like “Looking Your Finances in the Eye,” are a pleasure to read.

Why Am I Making Such a Big Deal Out of This Book?

Heart of Business has two missions. The inner mission is to help people touch spirit, to remember Oneness and love in the context of business and money, specifically small business and being self-employed.

The outer mission is to have as many people as possible thriving, with their hearts open, because small businesses are where most of the jobs, creativity, passion, and life-blood comes from in the business world. And strong small businesses help keep money local, and they help to weave strong communities.

A huge number of people have just been forcibly ejected from the corporate world, and millions more are wanting to make the leap. Around the turn of the last century, half the population of the US was self-employed or working in small businesses. I think we’d all be healthier and better off if we were to get back closer to that percentage.

Pam and her Escape from Cubicle Nation- From Corporate Prisoner to Thriving Entrepreneur are compadres of ours in this mission. She may only suspect it, but we’re soul-siblings in terms of this mission.

So, there you go. My cards on the table. Now, please, go get the book. And follow her on Twitter. And read her blog.

And start a business.

Of course, thank God friends were watching the boys, because that was the night Holly’s mom, in for a three week visit, went rapidly downhill and we took her to the ER. I was up until 2am getting her admitted, while Holly went back and picked the boys up at 11pm.

Then, three days later, I went away to teach the Sacred Moment Seminar. Gone Wednesday morning through Saturday afternoon, and returned home to find Holly’s sister Amy, who had flown in from Ithaca, helping mom with some intense nursing, thinking mom was dying.

Mom’s been up and down for over a week, Amy has stayed a week longer than she intended, hoping mom can get strong enough to fly home, so she can go into hospice there. And, in the middle of this, a big issue so tender and private I’m not going to blog about it for a variety of reasons, including respecting people’s privacy, which amped our family stress levels considerably.

And, I’m supposed to be running a business?

I’m Not Going to Pretend I Have It All Together

The business is needing a LOT right now. We’ve been making a major shift from Mark’s Big Solo Adventure to actually having a company and a team. There are several exciting and time-critical projects that are cooking right now, plus active paying clients who need attention.

And, as well as Heart of Business has done, we’re not independently wealthy, and I need to provide for my family, despite the craziness.

Options?

One: Hide in my office and lock the door. That’s kinda gross, even if it would be moderately productive. But, with so much going on in my family, I would distanced from my sense of aliveness.

Two: “I’ve only got one family.” This option means neglecting all but the minimal necessary in the business, and support my wife, twins, my mother-in-law and sister-in-law, and the twins in this profound process. It’s very tempting, but it didn’t feel right, either.

Three: “Things are very urgent. Time is of the essence. Must meditate twice as long.” I spent dozens of minutes walking around the house with our young boy Sam, chanting a Sufi Remembrance into his heart and mine. I’ve tried to keep up with as much of practices as I can. I’ve tried to keep coming back to my heart every chance I’m given the grace to remember.

In this third option, there are some deeply heart-restful reminders that have come in. The first is the reminder of my role in the family. Right now, I’ve been given the role as family financial provider. I need to attend to that. If run around trying to do too much of other people’s roles, and ignoring my own, it’s breaking a sacred convenant with my family.

This is not to say that I only work, and ignore the family. That’s gross. But, I do need to pay attention to my station in life.

Another reminder is that I can’t carry someone else’s fate. My mother-in-law is, in all probability, dying. We won’t know until she does, and I hold out hope that she may yet have some wonderful, healthy time in front of her. But, we all have our own fates, and our own paths to walk. I can’t extend her time by one iota, it’s in the hands of the Divine.

So, I give my love, prayers, and do any tasks that I’m handed, and do them with love. And let go of outcome as much as possible. Of course, that means letting in a lot of grief and sadness. But, my heart can handle that. I know how to cry. I can do that.

The third reminder is that the business is an entity. It has a heart and beingness to it. I was the channel for its birth, and it has claims on me in its existence, as do the team members, clients and others who depend on what Heart of Business gives.

It takes a lot of prayer, and a lot of connection to Source to trust this very painful, narrow, twisting section of the path I’m walking right now. And yet when I can take the time to stay connected to Source through my practices, when I let others carry their own fates and don’t try to save them, and when I pay attention to the tasks and roles that are here, in this station of life I’m in right this moment, I’m aware of a presence of Love and Caring and Support that go far beyond the momentary stresses of this life’s existence.

I Know I’m Not The Only One

Perhaps you are in a similar situation, where many requests for your time, attention and love are being made. How do you fit running a business in, too?

There are choices to make. But, the choice isn’t about what to put first. The choice, as I see it, is to bow my head and find my connection to Source, and then accept what is being asked of me, and trust that the Divine is caring for those things that I can’t get to in a particular moment. Even if it means someone is dying.

This is not a call for complacency. Or a call to give up compassion. This is the call to deeply surrender to Love’s annihilation of my own picture of how I think things should be, and the profound acceptance of my small and humble place in the mystery of life.

I hope you’ll join me here. I need companions on this path, because it sometimes approaches more than I can bear, it can be challenging to Remember the irrevocability of Love’s promise to us: You are already Home.

Plus, over the years lots folks have come to us frustrated, burnt out, used up, and blaming themselves after trying to make the “Law” of Attraction work for their businesses. Something wasn’t quite right, and yet I couldn’t put my finger on it.

Then, in 2007, I came across a translation of an ancient Sufi text that gave me some startling insight. It’s not that these popularized teachings are dead wrong– they aren’t. What they are is incomplete.

Two Parts to Tackle– Abundance and Attraction.

There are two parts that I feel need addressing, and it will take two posts to tackle them. The first part has to do with the idea of material abundance, that there is plenty for everyone. That All-That-Is wants you to have everything. As Joe Vitale (who appeared in the movie, The Secret) has put it, the universe is your catalog–just order what you want. (I’m paraphrasing, but not far off from what he said.)

The second part is this idea that if you change your “resonance frequency”–your mood, your emotions, your thoughts– then different things attract to you, kinda like being a magnet with channels. This idea even goes so far to say that you can “create” what you want out of nothingness, and bring it to you.

This post is about the abundance issue. Part two will cover the resonance/creation issue.

Before we dip into either of those parts, I need to bore you with some esoteric stuff about layers of reality. What, you aren’t bored by esoteric stuff? Cool! Me neither!

The Four Layers of Reality

Sufism describes four layers to our experience of reality. Despite some minor differences, the essential concept has remained consistent across all religions and mystical paths that I know of– at least the ones that have stood the test of time and aren’t just fads.

First Layer: Oneness, Source, God. This layer is that completely immersed and drowned experience that All-Is-One, and there is no difference between you, a chair, and your mother-in-law. It’s all from Love, and it all returns to Love. Actually, in this layer there is no you, chair or mother-in-law. “Just” undifferentiated Oneness.

Second Layer: The Qualities, aka “the Soul.” This layer is formless, and yet has individuated essential Divine qualities. Sufism talks about the 99 Names of God, things like Love, Strength, Wisdom, Compassion, Truth, Justice, Peace, Friendship, Gentleness, Appreciation, and on, and on.

Third Layer: The Unseen World, aka “the Heart.” This layer is the realm of angels, spirit guides, jinn, and other creatures. Also the realm of the deeper emotions. Note: Just because information or guidance comes from a being in this realm, doesn’t mean that information or guidance is always best for you.

Fourth Layer: The Physical, 3-D World. Where you, I, and your business live most of the time.

Here’s where it gets a little tricky: everything is Source. It’s not like layer 4 isn’t completely, totally, and inseparably One with Oneness. But, there are the Veils.

The Veils of Perception

In order for us to have this human life, there has to be the experience of separation. Me, you, the chair, the house, the cat, the mountain, Zane Safrit, Naomi Dunford, Charles Bronson. All separate, and all One simultaneously.

In reality, the separation is an illusion, and it’s carried out through veils that stop us from seeing Oneness. These veils can be beliefs, ideas, pictures. They can also be Divinely-imposed veils that keep us in ignorance as part of our path. Some we can work on, others are lifted through grace. A few will never be lifted while we are alive.

Okay, Now That You Know That, Let’s Tackle Abundance

Abundance. There is plenty for everyone, and that the Divine wants you to have an easy life and easy provision.

This is an absolutely true and proven teaching. However, there is one problem.

Abundance is not a Layer 4 teaching- it’s a Layer 2/3 teaching.

You see, the definition of “ease” changes depending on what Layer you are witnessing through. If your in-the-moment experience is Layer 4, then you might define “ease” like this:

“I’d love to have a million bucks, and live on the beach, and do nothing but whatever my whim of the moment is. Of course, I want to help people and be of service, but I want my material life to be really easy.”

However, at the heart and soul level, the definition of ease changes quite radically. When we’re talking about receiving provision and work, ease of heart is defined more like this:

Your heart is at ease when your work: (1) benefits others and is of use, (2) does not incur any “sin” or “karma” problems with your own heart, (3) is honest.

This teaching about ease and abundance in provision is a teaching of the heart, and has nothing to do with whether you are a millionaire or not. Is your heart at ease with your work in the world? That’s the question. You have been promised that there is work that can support you that will bring ease to your heart.

Not exactly what our egos want to hear, but notice if your being relaxes knowing that you don’t have to measure success and abundance by anything in the Layer 4 world.

One More Thing About Abundance

The further from Layer One we get, the thicker, heavier, and more disconnected is our experience of reality. The slower, less plentiful, and more boundaried. I wrote about capacity and abundance in another blog post, and that teaching applies here. Source is unlimited, and yet the physical world is a limited place. Source has always been around, outside of time. The physical universe was birthed from Source, and exists within time and space- finite.

We have a limited amount of time on the planet. There is a limit to how much fresh water is available. There is only so much fossil fuel in the earth.

There is an unlimited amount of the Qualities in Layer 2. You can have an ever-expanding amount of Love, Strength, Compassion, Forgiveness. These nourishing qualities will never run out.

However, your bank account can empty. So can your fuel tank. People do die of cancer, among other things.

Pay Attention! You Aren’t Being Judged!

When your bank account is empty, or your life is otherwise troubled, it doesn’t mean anything spiritually about you and your path. This is an important distinction, so that you don’t mistake the natural limitations of the physical world as some kind of judgment on your soul. Bringing sincerity, creativity, curiosity to those limits can be incredibly freeing.

And sometimes accepting those limits is equally freeing.

Then Does My Business Have to Live in Poverty?

No. You can work towards having a thriving business, to increasing your bank account, to enjoying the physical world more, absolutely. However, remember that you aren’t the only person sitting at the table. Spending some time deciding what is “enough” is critical to this.

Without accepting limits or considering what is enough, we end up with sub-developments of McMansions and other types of excesses that have led to the United States and other industrially-developed countries using up far more than our fair share of the pie.

It’s insane and cruel to think that the teeming billions around the globe who live in poverty could have whatever they want simply by focused, intense thinking about it. But, they can, and many of them do, have far more happiness– Love, Wisdom, Compassion– than those of us who live in these materially-obsessed cultures.

Get what I’m saying? Plenty of Love for everyone, but not plenty of Mercedes for everyone.

Creativity, ingenuity, and technology can go a long way towards more efficient, more equitable, and more sustainable use of resources. And, accepting limits is a part of being mature.

Heart-ease of provision. Abundance of Love. Acceptance of Physical Limits.

With these three, you’re standing on solid spiritual ground. As I said, I’m going tackle the “attraction” thing in the next post, so let’s pause for moment:

Question: How does your heart feel about accepting the limits of the physical world, while opening to the immensity of Love?

As a trained writer and editor, I think of writing as a craft or business in itself. Yet, I actually write as much or more helping run Heart of Business than I did as a freelance editor and writer. I think it’s a rare business owner that hasn’t had to fess up to the fact that written expression is essential to their business’s success.

Let’s face it, whether you do it or you hire someone to do it for you, your hands must be deeply involved in the creation of your business’s written expression. And no one’s going to write your emails and day-to-day social networking messages. Those may not be styled with much style, but those messages need to be readable, they need to make sense. A lot of credibility gets packed into your writing.

I wonder if you’re surprised by how much you’ve had to focus on what to write, how to write it, or whether you can write what’s needed to feed your business’ momentum.

Facing the “I’m Not a Writer, How’m I Gonna . . .” Full Body Writing Balk

It’s generally not my role to work with Heart of Business clients, but in a growing business of two, sometimes three or four-ish, flexibility and creativity keep us all alive in our work. Gladly, I’ve ended up as a sideline writing coach for members of a health care clinic Mark is working with. As you may know or guess, writing is a key skill needed to make the most of his heart-centered marketing and business development teachings.

My intention has been to offer ways for the practitioners to gain greater ease with writing in general, to give them the confidence and motivation to make writing one of their powerful business tools.

Then surprisingly, prior to Mark’s first meeting with the clinic, a practitioner sent us an email asking for writing support. Right on, I thought, someone’s claiming their writer’s balk before they’re faced with writing their customer focused story, or web pages, or articles, or . . .

Anyway, I ended up getting to do some coaching with this practitioner and thought you might relate to some of the struggles she faces as a self-promoting health care provider cornered into having to write.

Staring Down That Pesky Inner Critic

The “Inner Critic” is a familiar character in the world of professional writing. Maybe you’ve heard of this character, if not you’ve most likely experienced an inner voice that has crash landed more than one of your attempted flights of creativity.

When I asked this practitioner what she felt was making writing such a struggle, I got back a list of pleading cries from a determined but bruised and battered creative spirit–the inner critic standing nearby shooting barbed criticisms at her as she shared:

• I want to be perfect
• I’m lacking self-worth
• I don’t want anyone to judge me or my writing
• I lacking confidence
• I don’t want to draw attention to myself
• I don’t know how to write–I use the passive voice, write long sentences, use too many comma

“Oh, dear heart . . .”

This is an Inner Critic gone on a rampage. Sound familiar? Bet you could add a few choice reasons to this list, eh?

Don’t get me wrong, there is a place for this Inner Critic, but there is no room for it to be butting into the creative stages of writing, and you have to gain the confidence and experience to keep it in its place. It’s place comes after you’ve completed a piece of writing and want to mold it into a shape that can be effectively shared with those it’s meant for. In this place the Inner Critic moves into its heart formation, becoming the Inner Editor, or the Creative Refiner.

But before that part of you can show up in your heart, you have to give your Creative Spirit the freedom to splash, roam, rave, and sprint. You need to give yourself permission to be messy, to experiment, to free your thoughts, to practice translating them, however clumsily, into meaningful, heartfelt written communication.

You can read every copywriting, website writing, or article writing book on the market; you can take course offered, but if you have an unconfronted raging inner critic or traumatized school kid reeking havoc on your insides, how-to writing instruction is going to be tough to integrate and use successfully. Give those places longing for attention the mercy, compassion, and space to undo before pushing yourself even harder to produce the writing everyone is telling you is so important for your business.

The push will lighten. You might even find the joy that comes when you find the sweet spot between thoughts and feelings, and just the right words to convey them.

Write, Make Mistakes, and Write Some More!

There are as many ways to get through writer’s balk as there are people needing to write. Here are a few suggestions that I came up with in response to the health care practitioner’s woes:

• Take time before you face the white page to remember the source of your creativity, that you are not alone in the process. Connect in your heart with Divine Source.
• Spend some time doing unstructured writing. Free-write for a designated amount of time–5 minutes, 20, 2. Don’t stop typing, don’t take your pen from the page. Even if all you can write is “I don’t know what to write,” write it until something else come. The Inner Critic is not welcome, no punctuation is necessary, not even capitals, periods, or commas. Banished here.
• Consider taking that process a step further. Make free-writing a daily dump to free space for creative writing by following Julia Cameron’s Morning Pages practice. Free write three handwritten pages a day, preferably first thing in the morning. If you can devote the time, this process will go a long way in peeling your Inner Critic off your shoulder. Freedom.
• Use free-writing as a brain-dump for specific writing projects. Now take your creative process into a specific project. Sit, connect with your heart, Divine Source, and ask what’s most important to include in the project. Then begin free-writing with only your writing project goal in mind.
• Copy other people’s style and structure. I’m not talking about plagiarism here; I mean study how someone else puts their marketing copy, or article, or whatever together using your own language and ideas–which come from your free-writing. This is the point where learning tools like Mark’s Heart-Centered Article Writing or Creating Heart-Centered Websites become useful.
• Find someone you trust who will give you useful feedback. I don’t recommend asking your mother to do this. You want someone who’s a reader, someone who’s good at communicating clearly, someone who’s nurturing, encouraging, and honest. Well, someone with as many of those qualities as you can muster, anyway. Share your writing; it’s what it was created for.

I could go on and on, but I’d rather hear things that have worked or not worked for you. Write to me. Challenge your writer’s balk right now. Don’t worry about writing it perfectly. I really want to know what it’s been like for you to write for your business when writing was not on your life list of things to get good at.

Remember, writing is about expressing ourselves, it’s about communication, connecting with others. And that means the thought of doing it can stir up all sorts of emotions that can stop you in your tracks. Facing those stirrings is what opens the space to try. Practicing is what makes it easier and more effective.