3 Steps For Turning Your Challenges Into Amazing Opportunities
Your Inspired Launch Mentor
If you are in business for yourself you know that challenges are part of your path. You have gotten used to them, still don’t like them but… you know they are there, plenty of them.
What’s if each of those challenges could just be turned from “straw” into “gold”? Sometimes, into real gold like more money, sometimes mental gold and more often than not into spiritual gold.
What do I mean by that?
You see, in the last months I had worked long hours, feeling a tremendous sense of excitement and “power” within me. I loved getting up early and start checking emails, I loved thinking about work on my walks, I talked about work wherever I went. Results came pouring in, giving me confirmation that I was on the right path (the right path in terms of business-growth that is).
And then the perfect storm started brewing…
…first my kids complained about me not being interested enough in their lives, then my ex-husband accused me of “neglecting” the kids and then even the love-of-my-live, my ever-patient, always-understanding Robert started acting weird.
Long story short…
…conflict was breaking out everywhere I looked. First I couldn’t understand it, then I got frustrated, I wanted all of this to go away, I wanted harmony back, I wanted THEM to back off, I wanted THEM to understand, I wanted THEM to hear me…and…and…and…
Yet, one quiet morning last week, I was reading a chapter in “A Path With Heart” by the renowned Insight Meditation master Jack Kornfield and he challenged me in this meditation:
“Think of a diffuclty that you face in your life. As you sense this difficulty, notice how it affects your body, heart and mind. Feeling it carefully, begin to ask yourself a few questions, listening inwardly to the answers.
How have I treated this difficulty so far?
How have I suffered by own response and reaction to it?
What does this problem ask me to let go of?
He posed some more questions but I stopped right here. Stunned by realizing how harshly I had judged others, how defensive I had been about my work and how isolated I had myself in my self-righteous way, I put the book down and thought about my life…
I don’t want to bore you with details (after all this article is for YOU) but needless to say that I realized that I needed to let go of my “addiction” to success, to work, to self-development. That the excitement and drive I had felt had partly been fueled by real addiction because once I let go off this need, I realized how much I missed the connection to everybody I love….
Also needless to say that I had a lovely week with my girls, with Robert and even with my ex-husband (while all the work still got done).
The difference:
The energy for the work now came fueled by the love I once again felt for everybody and from everybody, including my pets. Nothing really changed expect the SOURCE OF ENERGY. It was like my world had become brighter, more cheerful and way more fun. By letting go of the need to achieve, to “make it”, to “show them” and by refocusing on LOVE, I changed not only my world but also those around me.
The lesson learned for all of us, I hope, is that challenges (whether internal or external) can be our best teachers…if we stop and reflect. If we stay honest, if we welcome them and are willing to transform them into “gold”. Being an entrepreneur brings daily challenges and with it daily opportunities for growth. It exposes our weaknesses, only to give us an chance to create strength.
I feel blessed to be allowed to do what I love, challenged to do it with grace and mindfulness…learning to think big and stay grounded.
May you offer your challenges a few minutes of reflection and honor their potential to be your most amazing teachers,
Your humbled leader,
Christiane
P.S. Please take a minute right now and tell us all about your challenges and your successes in turning them into beautiful spiritual gold. Just use the comment space right below.
Jude on Sat, 16th May 2009 11:25 am
Oh yeah! Just the other day the perfect opportunity was given to me to drop “judgment” when my daughter e-mailed asking for money. I started several responses commenting on her choices and how I wasn’t happy about__. I thought “I need to talk to my coach about this” and then I started thinking, hmmm…I’ll be spending $XXX to be coached, why don’t I just send the money as a gift, no strings, no expectations, no judgment. When I let it go and offered it, she’d already found the money she needed.
Go figure–the Universe knew what I needed!
Tarnie Fulloon on Sun, 17th May 2009 2:53 pm
My journey of the past 15 years has been discovering and exploring my feminine energy, and thankfully I have a wonderful husband who supports me on multiple levels but mostly financially because I have not been able to sustain that place for the last few years as I have not been able to “do business” by the old model and there has been no road map for my new way I need to be in my life and with my business. It has been very tough for me because I have been used to making money and having money, however moving more into my feminine has demanded that I cannot do life the way I used to do it. So I have been struggling with “how to get out there and make a viable business” and keep my balance. Previously I was successful at the expense of my health, relationship and my internal nurturing needs. In the past few weeks I have been working with acknowledging my inner masculine energy for all the work and support it has given me and internalising what my husband has been holding. The result: I see the results of all my work, my internal journey into my feminine and spiritual connection marrying with the superb skills of my masculine energy that I had kept away because I was afraid I would “be like I used to be”. I needed to let go of the fear of my driving, doing, extremely successful masculine and embrace him knowing I now have the balance to contain his energy. I am very excited, feeling the joy and fullfillment of this “new me” and I can internally feel the shift, plus I am already starting to see the financial and emotional rewards!!!