All Posts Tagged With: "mindset"

Thankful Thursday: It’s Raining Mentors

photo: anslatadams flickr stream

Late in 2008, I realized I needed some mentorship to take my business in a new direction. During 2009, I was blessed with such a windfall of mentors, it was sometimes a challenge to absorb all that they had to teach.

Being a diligent student, I always tried to get as much out of them as I could. To learn the business systems, the mindset shifts, tools and processes to access inner wisdom – everything from inner reality to outer reality.

Recently, I reflected on how overwhelming this can be. It’s a case of – the more I learn, the less I know. I feel like an open field in a rainstorm. Sometimes the rain is very heavy, sometimes it’s a light, gentle drizzle.

In any field, when it rains, the amount of water that soaks in depends on the receptivity of the ground. When it’s hard-packed and dense, then most of the water will run off and not soak in. If it’s loose and loamy and full of all kinds of dead organic matter and lots of air, organisms and creatures, then much of the water will soak in.

This is an apt metaphor for this last year of intense learning and redesigning my business. It’s really fine if what I’m trying to learn just runs off and does not soak in. I can’t force it to soak in, can’t change the rate of soaking in. All I can do is prepare myself, prepare the ground, to the most effective extent. Still accepting that not all of it will soak in.

I have to simply trust that what does soak in is what I need right then – the nutrients, the moisture that will help me continue to grow. Just like the field – of course, the field needs the rain, but it doesn’t need ALL the rain. Some of the rain runs off, and goes into other ecosystems, streams and waterways, and that’s fine.

The part that does soak in becomes integral with my own way of thinking and being in the world, and that is just a beautiful thing.

Thinking is Acting

photo by Julie
Have you signed up for “”How to Overcome Green Overload” yet? During a FR*EE teleclass on Nov. 12, I’m going to reveal the power of a green mindset. Not to be missed! (More details at the end of this post.)

I had to chuckle when I came across this sign the other day. Such a relief! I am by nature a thinker, and sometimes succumb to an inner battle between the thinker and the doer. Am I a dreamer only? Or someone who takes action as well? Is it possible to find an ideal balance? There’s that old adage: Vision without action is a daydream, but action without vision is a nightmare.

Lately, I’ve been studying with mentors who emphasize that it’s not WHAT we think, but HOW we think. This appeals to me very much, even while it seems impossibly daunting. That same distinction can be applied to action as well, can’t it? It’s not WHAT we do, but HOW we do it.

All this boils down to a fundamental care taken in all that we do. What is that care? It’s compassion, respect, love, and truth. No matter what challenges face me, whether they be the most practical concerns about my business’s profitability, where my next client is coming from, or how to communicate my message most effectively, I can always tap into an expansive sense of possibility by remembering why I am doing all this in the first place. If I am not acting out of compassion, respect, love and truth – for myself, my clients, and the earth – my work will not be as meaningful and rewarding as it can be.

Today, ask yourself, How can I embrace thinking as a form of action with a problem that’s currently taunting me? Don’t be surprised if it leads you to wonder afresh, why do I do what I do?

I’d love for you to join me on my upcoming FR*EE teleclass, “How to Overcome Green Overload in Your Small Business: 5 Steps for Cutting Through the Clutter.” This call is on Thursday, Nov. 12, at 4:00 p.m. EST. This is your chance to learn all about:

• The essential questions you MUST ask yourself before you go green
• The 4 must-haves of creating a sustainable green vision for your company
• My ground-breaking 5-step model for creating a green business

AND I’ll work with you to create your first green business plan right on the call! Register now.