Running a thriving business has become one of the biggest surprises of my life. I remember feeling total disdain for people who immersed themselves in their work and often thought of them as selfish and self-centered. How could they neglect everything else and be so focused on this one thing and how sad it seemed to me that they didn’t live a more relaxed and calm life?
Growing up in poverty with an angry post-war father who probably suffered severe PTSD left its scars on everyone in my family and denied us all the privilege of furthering our education. I watched my older siblings struggle with financial issues even though there was success for some of them, they seemed to be disconnected to life so I decided that I didn’t want to be disconnected and wouldn’t ever chase success or even desire success for fear of falling into the same disconnected trap that I observed.
There were some good times and some rough times but all in all I thought I would happily continue working at a job that I didn’t really love but accepting that this was my lot in life and it wouldn’t ever change.
It didn’t take too long for me to yearn for freedom and so I started a business and took on several small projects hoping to make money and feel better but this kept me stuck ‘working’ and never really gave me the freedom I continued to long for.
After a few failures and a few successes, I found myself on a path of helping others and this fulfilled my soul but still left me somewhat struggling from time to time yet still hoping for freedom. Fast forward to the last 2 years of growing Mindfit Coaching Academy and life has completely changed in ways that are difficult to describe yet easy to see. The impact on those who seek healing has been beautiful and as we grow more coaches to help more people find their way to the freedom we enjoy; the message is spreading and the good news has found it’s way to people and places that we could never have known and could never have predicted.
If you’ve been reading my blogs over the last several years, I often refer to Syd Banks, the Scottish mystic who had an enlightenment experience 50 years ago and whose work using 3 powerful principles has shifted the way I, and thousands of others experience life. In all my years of chasing and wishing and hoping, never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined how incredible life could be when perceiving life through the spiritual lens that is the “3 Principles”.
Today I know that without all of the many, many years of seeking, falling and getting back up again and again, I would not have been open to seeing and hearing more and as the Chinese Philosopher, Lao Tzu said “when the student is ready the teacher appears.” The gratitude I have for my life today gives me goose-bumps every time I feel I have to pinch myself to check if I’m really awake and not living in a dream.
Of course, life still happens around me and I get disappointed, sad and hurt but these days those brief low moments are just that – just moments. Knowing these principles has been a game changer but even more than that they have been the feeling that I am exactly where I need to be, doing exactly what I’m doing and experiencing exactly what I am experiencing, moment by moment.
Have the last two years been an overnight success? Well yes if you only look at the last two years but what of the 40 years I spent looking, seeking, learning and growing?
I once heard a story of how the bamboo plant grows and when I think of what my life has been about, the story has great meaning for me because it perfectly describes exactly what I’m experiencing today.
Once a bamboo seed is planted, it needs water and fertilizer daily. Nothing happens the first year. You do the same thing the next year, and still nothing happens. This goes on for 4 long years.
For 4 years there is no evidence that the plant is even growing. Then one day a small bamboo sprig pops through the ground and in 5 weeks the plant can grow to 27 metres!
The story reminds me a lot of where I find myself today living the fulfilled life I’m living and loving. For decades there was no visible evidence that anything was happening in any significant way even though I was helping people and I know they changed their lives because of it. Little did I know that the deep roots forming over all these years was creating a solid foundation for the now rapid growth and success I am experiencing through the work I do and the coaching academy I am growing. The root system grown over many years was necessary to support the strong structures we are using to grow the academy and the coaches who have become the Mindfit Family and together, we are helping people to heal and live the lives they were born to live.
If you’re doing the work you love and not seeing any evidence that your efforts are having any effect, check to see how you’re feeling? If doing your work makes you feel alive, keep doing it. I don’t think people are searching for the meaning of life. I think people are searching for what it feels to be alive.
“Always leave enough time in your life to do something that makes you happy, satisfied, even joyous. That has more of an effect on economic well-being than any other single factor.” – Paul Hawken
All my love Sha