Many years ago when I cross-country skied regularly, my first husband and I had a favorite route from Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood, about an hour outside of Portland, Oregon. The trail was seven miles of a gentle downhill slope with easy curves on an unplowed forest service road — this is heaven for a cross-country skier.
The problem for me was that I would get going faster than I was comfortable. I was a fairly good skier, but nothing special. Sometimes the snow was slippery and faster than I liked. I would get going too fast and get scared.
My solution was to try to control my speed by slowing down. I had to work hard to do this, and I wasn’t very successful. I still kept falling down. I wore myself out trying to control the speed of my skiing.
Get ready for a major insight.
One day I gave up trying to control my speed. I decided sometimes the best strategy was just to surrender and to Go Fast.
At first I was scared, but I found when I quit trying to control my speed so much, I fell less often. I also started having a whole lot more fun. I realized at the time this was a useful metaphor for living. Sometimes it’s better just to surrender and let yourself go fast.
Building a Business
For the last six months I’ve been in the process of clarifying what it is I have to offer and to whom I can best offer my services. This may sound easy to those of you who’ve never tried to do it, but believe me, it’s taken everything I have to be able to get clear about how to articulate quickly what my special gift is and identify the people I can best serve.
(Here is my Impact Statement: I work with seekers and entrepreneurs to help them dissolve their fear, so they can gain more confidence, have more fun, follow their bliss and create a life beyond their wildest dreams.)
Here is what part of building a business looks like: creating a logo that is your brand, building a website, offering a freebie that will be irresistible so people will want to sign up for it so you can collect their names so you can build your list so you can create the Hive of people who are interested in what you do, so you can offer programs, teleseminars, small group or individual intensives, retreats, private coaching — in short, get yourself out in the world doing what you do best and getting well compensated for it.
This ride is a rather steep downhill, sometimes slippery, slope. I have felt overwhelmed and out of control much of the time, even though I am committed, absolutely committed, to not selling out the joy of today for promised joy tomorrow.
I have found myself too often getting caught up in the future, and not enjoying my present life. This is the exact opposite of what I believe in and value the most in life. I’ve been struggling trying to figure out what I’ve been doing wrong, where I’ve gotten off track so to speak.
The Secret is Revealed
Today I remembered “Go Fast!” I’ve been trying to put my arms around all of the activities, all this new knowledge, all these strategies, all these conferences — all this business building activity and excitement. I’ve tried to understand it, to get a big picture, to hold on to what is good, and to — here it comes — control what is happening to me.
It’s just too big to control.
So today I decided from now on I’m going to surrender and Go Fast. I can’t even control my inbox, much less everything else that is happening to me, so I’m going to go with the flow, do stuff, talk to people, create stuff, and enjoyed every frigging moment of it.
And lo and behold, today I did enjoy every frigging moment! It was so simple! I didn’t even know I was trying to put my arms around “it” and understand “it” and control “it.” Perfectionism is very, very sneaky. And that’s all this is, just my trying to do it all right, or at least understand what is happening to me.
I don’t get to understand “it” all. I get to live it all. I get to surrender and enjoy the exhilaration of Going Fast. I’m going to fall down occasionally, but less often than I was falling down when I was trying to control everything.
Ha! Isn’t this just like it often turns out to be? The answer is so, so simple. Let go, surrender, listen, go with the flow, and follow my bliss. Hey! That just happens to be my business! What a coincidence!
And being in Bali right now, surrounded by beauty and love doesn’t hurt one little bit.