If 2015 whirred past you before you had a moment to press pause, let’s make this moment an opportunity to take a few slow, deep breaths together right now. Let’s consciously decide to slow down and make 2016 the year that you savour every moment?
Your role as a mother and a business owner is a stellar juggling act. Many women are capable of achieving success with long hours of constant stress, over-work and multi-tasking. Yet doing it sustainably remains elusive for many mums and tends to be the road less travelled. If success is costing you health and well-being, it’s time for a paradigm shift so that you can enjoy longevity and wellness alongside your success.
Here are my favourite five sustainable action steps:
- Know Your Values
One of the most effective ways to ensure that you are not saying yes to everything that presents itself. Values are those emotional states you wish to experience on a regular basis – such as connection, fun, peace, harmony, spirituality, adventure, abundance, freedom, family, humour and calm. Being aware of your top ten values and narrowing them down to your top five is an exercise in focus. Identify values for your business and your personal life. When an opportunity presents itself, ask yourself the question – ‘is this opportunity in alignment with my values?’ If it is, then go right ahead and say yes with enthusiasm. If the answer’s no (or maybe) press the pause button until you’re clear.
- Make a Pact to be Grateful
Feeling pressed for time, energy, money or motivation can be a sign that there is an internal limiting belief around lack. Stop and give thanks for what each moment is teaching you. Business is a spiritual path and constantly shows you where you still have room to grow. Expanding your beliefs about time, energy and money creates a win-win where the universe reflects to you more of what you are grateful for. Choose a gratitude mantra to support you:
I am so grateful to have all the time I need to complete this project now.
I am so grateful to be supported by divine right timing in all ways.
I am so grateful to have all the time, money, energy, resources and motivation I need to achieve my best result.
I am grateful that this experience of overwhelm is teaching me where I need to say no.
- Focus on Others
Many women, especially those in service businesses, are over-givers who have no problem focussing on others. However, one of the greatest secrets to sustainability is to focus on giving to others in ways that honour your talents, abilities and values. As Einstein said, you can’t teach a fish to climb a tree. Burn out and overwhelm often comes from giving in areas that are simply not suited to your expertise or desires. Often we are so busy doing the work of the marketer, or the bookkeeper, or the sales person when it’s not in our area of genius. Outsource as soon as you can.
Your ideal ‘who’ is the type of person you love doing business with whether it’s a client who is well aware of your value or another business which shares your love of earth-friendly practices. Define your ideal client in advance by listing their qualities. Set the intention to call in those who are an ideal match for what you do and eliminate the tyre-kickers.
- Learn the Art of Receiving
The feminine art of receiving is being compromised by women the world over. Receiving is an act of generosity, to oneself and to the world around you. Yet so many women come to coaching announcing that they feel ready to take their next steps towards greater freedom, abundance and lifestyle but they feel they need to ask permission from someone else first, to allow themselves to have their desires.
Mastering the art of receiving means seeing yourself the way benevolence does – being so worthy, so absolutely adored and deserving of all the goodness and grace that life can bring forth. You can give yourself permission any time to receive all that you desire.
Receiving comes from an infinite number of free sources. Pause to receive the nourishment of the breath, to savour a sip of water, to openly receive a compliment or – my favourite – to lean back and receive the support of the earth’s gravitational field. Fill your cup to overflowing regularly with a gratitude practice to fully appreciate the blessings you have received to increase your capacity to receive even more.
- Be Mindful
Complete mindfulness means being so fully immersed in the present moment that you pour every aspect of your being towards the moment at hand. It means noticing the sensations of taste, smell, sight, sound and feel of the moment. Being mindful is a portal that opens you up to see what is right in front of you. How many opportunities do you currently miss because you have been distracted by the past or the future? The present moment is the only place that you can truly shift and change the trajectory of your life towards a more spacious, easeful and nourishing way of being.
Learning how to achieve true holistic success is an alternative option to placing your nervous system into hyper-drive to get what you want. Take a sigh of relief and enjoy 2016.
About the author:
Lisa Fitzpatrick is the bestselling author of Manifesting in High Heels – secret rituals to achieve success and Healing the Heart of Your Business – sustainable success for heart-centred women. As the founder of Sacred Women’s Business, a coaching and training business, which serves conscious women in business, Lisa believes that every woman has the right to tap into her unique feminine wisdom to achieve lasting success and leave a legacy. Lisa is a certified coach, writer, yoga teacher, workshop facilitator, speaker, registered physiotherapist and mother. She lives in a subtropical paradise near Byron Bay with her two sons http://www.LisaFitzpatrick.com.au
Free offer: Pick up Part One of Healing the Heart of Your Business – sustainable success for heart-centred women at http://www.LisaFitzpatrick.com.au
