How do you deal with inner conflict? This LinkedIn post from six months ago served as a timely reminder…
I’ve been open about closing down my previous business of 16 years because it wasn’t bringing me any joy.
I’ve since been determined to build a new business that is nothing short of magical.
And that takes a heck of a lot of inner work. Where did I fail? Where did I succeed? What did I fear? Where did I flourish? Does a truly magical business even exist and what would that look like?
My biggest learning is that I tried to juggle too many hats… the parts of me that I was equally passionate about.
There’s the divinity in me, which I started to explore when I first felt forced to go to church as a child, through my cancer journey, through being a parent, to being the primary caregiver of a parent unable to care for themselves. Each a spiritual experience in its own way.
There’s the human in me, the one who identifies with every disappointment, betrayal, unfairness, and failure while trying to maintain compassion, empathy, and forgiveness for myself and others. After all, I’ve had my moments of disappointing, betraying and being unfair towards others. It’s called “being human.”
Then there’s the entrepreneur in me, trying to build a successful business when all of the above is going on around me and inside me.
It’s impossible.
Neatly trying to balance my spiritual versus human growth alongside my spirituality in business growth alongside my work-life growth left me feeling like the hamster on the wheel, the scream on the rollercoaster, the lint in the washing machine more than an accomplished human being.
So my new, magical business integrates all parts of me instead of compartmentalising who I am to be able to fit in appropriately as and when expected of me.
My divinity, my humanity, my ability to build a business that helps change the world…There can be no separation.
So with that, the divine in me honours the divine in you. The human in me honours the human in you. The entrepreneur in me honours the entrepreneur in you.
There is no separation between me, between us.
Are there areas in your life where you’re compartmentalising who you are in order to fit in? What would it look like—or feel like—to embrace all parts of you as one big whole?
You raise so many important issues. So many facets of our lives and we are very rarely totally present.
When we are working we long for our free time but when we aren’t working we worry about what still needs to be done, being professional ( what ever that means) and knowing we are only showing a small part of us, the one we think is the acceptable business persona,it goes on and on. We are encouraged to find work life balance but is that really a solution? I think integration is a better option for me, not compromising one facet for another.
Do I achieve this? Not all the time, it’s always work in progress.