Entrepreneuring: The noble walk of truth
Fellow starting entrepreneurs, I just received some of the printed marketing materials – I have flyers and business cards! And the coolest part – bookmarks with the logo and branding of my practice. Yeah, I also have a practice, a coaching and counselling practice.
If you are starting to feel like I am just mumbling while factually listing what is going on in my life, you are getting it right. I have been catching myself in this specific fact listing act quite regularly these days. Listing facts somehow became my mantra – I walk around the park and admire the awakening of nature in the midst of our exceptionally beautiful spring here in the Netherlands and my inner voice keeps rehashing: “I am an entrepreneur”, “I have started my own practice”, “I am building a life that I want to live”. It’s quite meditative. In fact, my partner who has recently become amused by studiously reading Buddhist teachings gave it a just and proportionately grand label: The noble walk of truth.
What does it do for me? Well, The noble walk of truth brings to my conscious attention the changes that are unfolding in my life at the moment (and there is a lot, but another time about that). This in turn, helps me better process my experiences, feelings, and thoughts about those experiences, and grounds me in the present moment – I am right where I am supposed to be in every given moment. With every such fact listing walk, I own just a little more of the new life story that I am writing from one moment to another. Where does that lead? You may ask. Well, it helps me in understanding and accepting what these new experiences give and take from me. Having a better understanding of what I am working with in every given moment helps not only in setting the next step but also managing my own expectations regarding the process that I am attending to.
What do I mean by that? Humanly as it is, I can easily get carried away when working towards something that I am excited about. I can get impatient and lose track of the long run in favor of getting done as much as possible today. I can get into problem solving mode where I fixate on the outcome and trap myself in the “I am going to make it happen even if it kills me” mode – figuratively, of course. You wonder how helpful all this is, right? The irony is that when I enter this mode, I don’t immediately understand that I am slipping away from more constructive means. In my constructed world of that moment, I am doing what it takes to make this practice successful. While in that mode, what usually happens next is that I start setting high and unrealistic standards for myself to which – surprise, surprise – my efforts fail to live up to.
The fact listing comes in right there, reminding me that I need to step back and park those demands. It allows me to create some distance from those demands and remind me where I am at the moment. For me, this is particularly helpful to reformulate goals in a way that they become stage-appropriate and realistically achievable. All the while more consciously observing and managing my expectations regarding those set targets and desired outcomes. Building a business is a process where the ultimate outcome (committed clients) is outside of our scope of control. Refocusing my attention from the outcome to the willingness to show up for and engage with the process that is value-driven and exert consistent and sustainable effort is what usually sets a more constructive perspective for me.
Another important ingredient in all this is hope. Hope is usually easily dismissed as a passive quality that is either present or absent. When in fact, hope would ideally be actively cultivated through consciously reminding ourselves that even if today things weren’t unfolding as we wished for them to go, ultimately things will work out for the better. I guess there is another component to it, one that is equally important. And that is trust in our own abilities to cope with whatever this new path may bring us. Those two in combination can help us withstand the obstacles that can challenge us on the newly taken path and remain committed to moving forward – one small step at a time.
So fellow starting entrepreneurs, in case you recognize yourself in some of the challenges I am experiencing, or would just want to further empower your own entrepreneurial efforts, make sure to keep the following prompts in mind while on the noble walk of truth:
(1) Connecting to the present moment – At this moment, “I am taking a walk in the middle of the day which I can allow myself because I am an entrepreneur now, crafting my own schedule”.
(2) Building more awareness about the context within which I am operating – Where in the process am I? What were the most recent steps that I took, and what would be an appropriate and effective use of my energy and time for defining the next step?
(3) Managing own expectations – Am I expecting more from myself than realistic at this stage? Am I pushing for more than what can realistically be accomplished at this moment? Am I giving myself the rest that I would need to be able to sustain my efforts in the long run?
(4) Building awareness about the scope of control – With my actions am I trying to control an outcome that is outside of my scope of control? How can I help myself to engage with the process and exert consistent and sustainable effort without fixating on the outcome?
(5) Cultivating trust in the process and in own abilities – Am I carrying myself with optimism and genuine trust that things will work out? Or am I littering my mental space with pessimistic outlooks? Am I trusting my own abilities that I can handle whatever comes my way?