ten things you can *always* do...

i'm submitting this to Heart of the Visionary, a collaborative e-book created by the Cosmic Cowgirls, Ink--and held together by the love & vision of Shiloh McCloud (http://www.wisdomhousecatalog.com/welcometowisdomhousegallery.html). the e-book comes out in december--in time for this giving season--so that people we know and love and others held in our hearts (who we have yet to meet) can access some bit of inspiration that will have some accompanying effect, and help women and girls into action around co-creating the life and work of their dreams.

here's the article:

often, when it’s our heartvision we’re trying to make room for in the world, we need a lot of dream time. we need a lot of incubation. we need a lot of holding precious and growing solid and making strong. that’s why, i think, i takes a lot of us years to get to the moment of announcing ourselves to the world. and it’s okay for it to take as long as it takes—and it’s okay to never get “there”—the heaven you imagine for your self and your business. but it’s okay to get there, too. i think, sometimes, risking at the big stuff of soul we sometimes make excuses about holding back or put some aspect of ourselves in the way of getting on with it. and, without judging, i want to use this space here to do a little nudging. even when it’s daunting, there are always ten things you can do.

1. breathe

in and out, the deeper the better, every moment of every day.

2. see

see your vision for yourself and your business in its final glorious state—imagine every detail—then let it go. exhale as you do it. let it go completely. practice the seeing and letting go like breathing. trust the vision. let go of the dream. get down to the basics.

3. start showing up for yourself

just like you did when you had a “guaranteed” paycheck. many people, who had regular paycheck gigs, got paid, primarily, to show up. if you were paid by the hour, had a time clock to punch, held a “salaried” position, then showing up was the first and most important thing you did monday to friday, week in and week out, and that is, in fact, what you did to guarantee the paycheck. your salary was based on a complicated formula that was a mere fraction of what value your work offered to the company as a whole.

working for yourself, your dream, your vision, is always a straight commission gig. for straight commission gigs, you are paid well, you make your own hours, you determine your strategies and ethics—but you have to show up for yourself.

4. cultivate consciousness

which means notice, track, write down, collect, enter, the ins and outs, the flow of your business and business activity. write down what you do each day. what time you start and end each part of your project. write down how much you spend and what you spend it on. write down how much you earn and who you earned it from. track. write down. collect (receipts). enter data. make it a mantra. do it like you brush your teeth—every day, sometimes twice.

5. do what comes to you to do.

when you’re in the space of your business, you’ve envisioned your business, the unseen collaborators of your business will tell you what to do. take a concrete action, a practical action, a physical action every time you feel their inspiration. writing down the inspiration counts. putting the stamps next to the envelopes counts. SARK calls these micro movements. micro movements count.

6. give your dreams a birthday.

marry the goals for your business to a date on the calendar. thinking of them as “life lines” instead of deadlines allows one the necessary space of anticipation and preparation for things achieved. events, products, collaborations, exhibitions, books, conferences, businesses get BORN—they start something, they live in the minds and hearts and bodies and sensory memories of those that bring them into being, serve them or are served by them. the person or persons birthing them are forever changed for having done so. this “birthday” or “due date” for goals and dreams allows for all the natural cycles to take place. thinking in terms of birth, even god needs 9 months and three collaborators to bring a child into the world. give your dreams a due date. physically write them (in ink) on the calendar. work backwards from the anticipated birthday party to determine what needs to be done to create your thing.

7. talk to strangers.

certainly, you will talk to your friends. you will talk to your neighbors, your former colleagues, the people in the parking lots you frequent, but make a point of talking to strangers. meet people you don’t already know. tell them who you are, what you’re about and what you do. invite them to buy from you. invite them to become your customer. invite them into the secret society of ones who KNOW and SUPPORT you and your business because they have bought what you have to sell. every single human being who breathes has the potential to 1. be your customer or 2. refer you to someone they know who is your customer. talk to every human being that breathes—especially the ones you don’t already know.

8. allow yourself to be assisted.

help is a four letter word. so many of us are not good at asking for or allowing ourselves to be helped. it’s something like charity or hand out or weakness or “they won’t do it like i would do it” or something—something that brings up our control issues. assistance, however, might be a semantic doorway that allows accompaniment. rarely will we say no to the person who sees us struggling with boxes and offers to carry one of them for us. rarely will we make a fuss if someone opens a door or holds the elevator or picks up something we drop on our rushing way to somewhere else. this is assistance. allow assistance. insist on assistance. even god requires three collaborators to create (human) life on earth.

9. write joy descriptions

as you begin to insist on assistance, it will come to you—the kinds and qualities of collaborators you want and need. write what comes to you. not job descriptions, but joy descriptions. all of life is one seduction after another—not always culminating in romance, but we are all supposed to fall in love with each other, and we are all supposed to spend our time on this planet following our bliss and doing what we love. someone is called to work with you—to love what you do not—to partner in co-creation of the miracles your business is designed to bring into this world. get ready for them. remember the mary poppins job description jane and michael wrote? take that for your guide. at this point, just write them. if you have a blog or website, but them up for people to read in the context of also reading about you and your company’s offerings. when you’ve spent ten nights knowing you need help as you go to bed and waking up wishing you had it, put your joy descriptions up on the bulletin boards in all your favorite places. before you put the word out, know what you can offer in exchange. remember that golden rule, “do unto others”, and offer the best, most creative comp plan you can imagine. state the comp plan with the joy description. make sure at least part of the compensation offered is based on results you and your new partner create together.

10. rest.

when you do these things—breathe, see, show up, get conscious, do what comes to you, celebrate birthdays, talk to strangers, allow assistance, write joy descriptions, you’ll need a little rest. it is a dream your making real, after all, and dreams speak clearest when you sleep. make sure to take good care of yourself—eat, rest, relax, see friends, make meals, read good books, watch a little tv, partake of the downtime, spend time in nature, and sleep. it’s often that the greatest breakthroughs come when people take a breather. be sure to make your mind available for breakthroughs by staying connected to the rest of life.