This is a post I found way back in the archives of my website – written originally in 2014…..enjoy!
So I’ve been involved inthe understanding of the Principles behind how humans work for a year this week, so I wanted to take a moment to reflect on what’s been going on.
When I reflected on this yesterday, here’s what I saw.
1. I’ve wasted a year of my life learning about this whoo whoo crap when I should have invested with a marketing coach to learn about how to grow my business.
2. I’ve done NOTHING for the past year except faff about ‘trying’ to experience a quiet mind.
3. I’ve surrounded myself with a load of people who are struggling to make money and as a result the investment I’m asking for my own coaching has dropped.
4. I’ve spent time trying to learn deeper coaching skills and I don’t even LIKE coaching – I prefer creating passive revenue where I do nothing and still get paid.
5. I’m heavier than I’ve ever been, my kids are so badly behaved that the babysitter leaves close to tears and don’t even get me started on the dog.
6. Peace of mind? What f**cking peace of mind? I’m up in my head thinking more than I ever did and getting cross and frustrated that I can’t feel this ‘deeper connection’ and ‘hear the soft whisper of wisdom’ like I’ve been promised all along.
7. I feel compelled to have a glass of wine every night, to come up with a new idea for my business and to constantly surf facebook – surely if I ‘got’ the Principles, I wouldn’t be doing this after a year?
8. We’re never going to hit our JigsawBox targets this month (my software company) – I should be focusing my time and energy on that instead of all this spiritual crap.
In summary: what a waste of a year.
And yet today when I reflect, here’s what I see:
1. In the past 12 months I’ve stepped back out of the day to day running of JigsawBox completely, seen my team have their own wisdom and common sense and stopped micro managing. Completely. Result? I’ve had some worried thinking about hitting the target every month and yet we’ve hit every single target we’ve had this year so far with no effort required from me. That’s simplicity, ease and grace.
2. I’ve experienced periods of time so quiet in my head……..I can’t even put that feeling into words as I write…….it’s just wonderful. Just a few of them, but enough to see what’s possible. I want more of that.
3. I’ve finally experimented with all those things I’ve wanted to try for years over the past 12 months: working with clients with anxiety, training as a yoga teacher, coaching nearly 100 clients and being a full time mum. Because suddenly there weren’t any reasons not to. No more ‘what ifs…………’ – I discovered what I liked and didn’t by actually doing them. I’ve done more than the average person does in three years in the last 12 months. I didn’t ‘set a massive challenge to get 1000 people onto my coaching program and do whatever it took to get them, striving and wearing my big girl panties all the way. I just enrolled 1012 people onto our program. Sometimes it’s so easy it feels like you’re not doing anything.
4. I’ve successfully created a business that can run without me in JigsawBox, but I discovered I actually LIKE working, so have created a new coaching program here where I get to interact and coach some of the coolest people I know. And I filled the program by pinging people messages on Facebook – nothing like how you’re ‘supposed’ to fill a group program – at an investment that feels totally congruent and a no-brainer – and I can’t WAIT to get started.
5. Nearly every single client I coached this year, I came away from this year texting my buddy Linda ‘ This sh*t actually WORKS!!!’. After years spent trying to hype my clients up to get them to take action and realising that has ZERO to do with them creating the results they want in their lives and business, I now know where to point them and where the truth lies.
6. I don’t have a nanny, I haven’t even considered one for a year when all my time used to spent thinking about how to juggle our ‘chaotic lifestyles and school runs alongside a business’. It just doesn’t look that hard any more (most of the time!)
7. My summer holidays have flown by this year. Normally I’m counting down the days until September by now, instead I find myself thinking “What? Only 3 weeks left?” I have never had that thought before. I love my kids.
8. I had an insight into compulsive thinking last night that is going to profoundly affect everything from my 7pm glass of wine, to my Facebook addiction to how I go about doing my business. It’s not clear yet, but I’ll share it when I can.
9. The new blog I started has had nearly 10,000 views and over 700 shares of the very first video. What I’m ‘meant to be doing’ is actually already happening when I take a moment to notice it unfolding.
10. The dog is just the dog. And he now has 350 fans of his own.
11. I practice yoga pretty much daily, I’m stronger and healthier than I’ve ever been and at some point it will occur to me to eat less. Whenever.
12. I took my daughter to Disneyland and drove on motorways. For those of you who know me, you’ll know why that’s a big deal. And yet it’s so not a big deal I only thought to include it after I’d put this post live and re-read it.
13. I’m free to have days like yesterday and I don’t have to ‘sort myself out and get positive’ because when my thinking changes I have a completely different experience of life. And there’s nothing I need to do to make that happen. Sh*t days are OK to have.
Most clearly this morning, here’s what I see.
ALL of the above is real in the moment I think it.
NONE of it is true.
How simple is that?
I thought when I started this journey that I would spend this year de-cluttering my cupboards, deleting emails from my inbox and saying ‘no’ to way more things. Control freaking even more.
Instead this year I’ve learned to be free.
Free to do anything, feel anything and think anything.
Bye bye control freak.
What an amazing year it’s been.
