by Marcy | Business Building, Inspiration, Personal Development
Your momentum is driven by your “Will”, the energetic force that gets you into action. It helps you actually get your ideas created and implemented in your business. The six stages of “willing” described in The Act of Will by Roberto Assagioli offer a helpful framework, especially if you are stalling out on your project. Knowing what stage you are in can provide insight on how to get back into action.
Purpose, Motivation and Intention
As you think about business strategies and products you might create, it’s important to have them aligned with your purpose and to make sense in your business model. You also want to feel excited about it. Creating from purpose arouses motivation. So your first question in response to a product or business idea is “why am I wanting to create this?”
Deliberation
Once you have an idea, exciting as it is, take some time to reflect on it from both a strategic perspective and from an intuitive one. I often invite clients to imagine the idea completed and explore what that looks like. Where does it take them, what doors open up etc. Products often have a life of their own so the important question to ask yourself: “Is that where I want to go?”
Choice and Decision
Once you have deliberated and are clear that yes, this idea has energy and it will take you and your business where you want to go, you make the decision to pursue it. The decision is not about “trying”, it is about a commitment to do it.
Affirmation
Declaring your choice and your decision in the form of an “I Will” statement activates it. It is about embracing certainty, faith and conviction. It is often helpful at this stage to post your “I Will” statement where you can see it. Making it visual also empowers the statement so consider creating a collage or draw a picture of your finished product.
Planning and working out a program
This is about breaking your project down into steps and setting milestones for yourself. This process outlines how the action will unfold, deadlines to meet and resources needed.
Direction of the execution
You have your decision, commitment and plan. This stage of “will” acts as command central and directs the action. It harnesses your energy, talents, imagination, intellect and heart to move forward.
If you feel stalled with your project – take a moment to reflect on each of these stages to identify where the problem is. Are you motivated by purpose or calling? Is it the right project for you? Have you fully committed? Do you have a workable plan? Once you know whats going on you can correct it.
by Marcy | Business Building
A retreat is often thought of in the context of a spiritual
journey but it can also be a powerful tool to rekindle passion, commitment and
energy in your business. In a busy schedule it’s a guaranteed way to slow down
and reflect. A client of mine made it a
habit to schedule a three day retreat every quarter. What an inspired thing to
do.
In thinking about a retreat for myself, I pulled out one of
my favorite books; Synchronicity, The Inner Path of Leadership by Joseph Jaworski.
He recounts his story of creating the American Leadership Forum. He describes
the ease and synchronicity that happened when he was in the flow and connected
to his passion, what happened when he fell out of sync and then his journey
back. He describes two forms of commitment
necessary for success; the ground of action – as entrepreneurs we are very good
at this one, we know how to make things happen – and the ground of being. The
ground of being is about being a part of an “unfolding, generative process” –
deeply connected, aware on many levels and following your bliss as Joseph Campbell would say.
One of the traps that can get us disconnected from the
ground of being is the trap of overdoing. Like many entrepreneurs, I’d been doing
a lot of over-doing and my ground of being was getting ground down. I was
over-ripe for some down time and decided to give myself four days to slow down,
re-connect and renew. I didn’t go to a
fancy retreat center (although that’s a wonderful option) – I created the
experience in my home and you can too.
In many ways my retreat experience surprised me. Part of me wanted to “do” the retreat. I had a
whole list of things that required re-evaluation, decisions and direction. I originally envisioned doing values work,
brainstorming and mapping out the goals for the year ahead. It isn’t that those
things aren’t perfect for a retreat but they wouldn’t give me what I was most
hungry for. The simple guidelines that follow helped me get what I truly needed
– a reconnection to the ground of being.
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