What Keeps an Entrepreneur Down?

Doing the work of digging deeply for soul purpose is honorable and important.  It requires honesty and openness to thoughts, feelings, and emotions one may not have been open to before.  It requires the discipline of self-examination and questioning.  One of the symptoms of not knowing your way is “never getting around.”

Have you ever wondered why you just never get around to doing something that you absolutely know is important in your life?  It’s a rare person who can honestly answer no, LOL!   Here are some of  the things I see when someone asks for my help and who is working off their path:

• Boredom
• Irritation
• Whining
• Excuses
• Unhappiness
• Depression
• Frequent illness (headache, nausea, stomach ache, lack of energy)

It’s too daunting to ask directly “What is your soul’s purpose?”  We can’t approach finding the bare trace of your path in such a forced and quick way.  Instead, we have to search here and there, looking for the barest beginnings of an overgrown, hidden trail.  So here’s how I often start helping someone discover soul’s purpose.  We begin by understanding what it is NOT!  You’ll know what your soul purpose is not by building a list of tolerances.  I often begin my Soul Purpose workshops by having people do this, and we always get a few good surprises and laughs.  Here’s how to do it by yourself:

• Get a few sheets of blank paper or a large sheet of paper from a flip chart.
• Draw a vertical line down the center of the page(s).
• At the top of the left column write “I am tolerating these people and things.”
• List everything you can possibly think of that you put up with and really wish you didn’t have to – a low paycheck, a spouse who never takes out the garbage, a button off your shirt, clothing that is too tight, a snotty co-worker – no matter how big or small the issue is, write it down.  Close your eyes and let the list come, and when you think you are done close your eyes and do some more.  It often takes a while to prime the pump – sometimes people have been tolerating things for so long they are numb to it.
• Now, at the top of the second column (on the right) write “inspiration.”  Pick one or two of the things off your list that really bug you and think about how your life would be without them.  Think about how energizing it would be to quit tolerating these, once and for all.  Feel within yourself the tiny flame of excitement you get at the idea of freedom from these things.

That’s a short and quick version of what we often spend two days doing – questioning, puzzling, and talking our way through list after list of tolerations, and crafting in the opposite column a life based on inspiration instead.  Amazing things happen, one being that people get closer to their purpose.  The weeds and vines in their way begin to get rooted out, or moved aside.  With some commitment and humor and self-reflection a person starts down the path of finding her soul purpose.  And over time, we can take that soul purpose and create work that is financially successful, deeply satisfying, and often joyful.

I believe one of the most critical actions one can do is to find one’s soul purpose.  Taking that and crafting it into successful entrepreneurism is deliciously sweet, like the icing on your birthday cake.  May you find your way to both.

(c) Sue Painter