A decade ago (2009) I started a quest to find the AND, as in meaning AND money, purpose AND profit, grace AND gratitude.
This journey led to what is now Succeed On Purpose and the Share On Purpose portfolio of brands.
I assumed it would be easy. HA!.
The quest for the AND required the courage to face fear, doubt and self-judgment. Finding the AND became a transformational journey from the inside-out.
Transformation asks us to surrender to the soul’s path as we master patience, gratitude and grace along the way.
It wasn’t as simple as just choosing to be generous, or kind. I couldn’t just invest in purposeful ideas and magically be able to mentor entrepreneurial leaders. Surprisingly, it wasn’t as easy as just “DO good” and the AND will show up.
To experience the AND, I had to BECOME more. To create the change I wanted to see in the world, I had to transform myself first. Hum…
I vaguely recall a junior high science class when we studied the process that occurs when a caterpillar transforms into a butterfly.
I clearly missed an important part of the science lesson: The caterpillar’s DNA actually changes.
A caterpillar doesn’t just evolve, it completely transforms its DNA as it becomes a butterfly.
And that’s what the last decade felt like. Complete transformation. A decade later, I am not the same person I was when I started this journey. My DNA has changed.
As we move into the next decade, these are 10 “butterfly lessons” I will take with me.
- Patience: Never go faster than God can guide me. Sometimes the most powerful thing we can do is wait while things are unfolding for us.
- Acceptance: When we release ALL judgment (right/wrong; good/bad) we find peace. Accept what is.
- Trust: We always have what we need. Always. Even when it doesn’t feel like it. There is no reason to fear losing what we have while pursuing what we want.
- Appreciation: Be grateful for what we have now while creating more of what we want.
- Collaboration: Work only with the receptive and only on what’s trying to happen.
- Power: We already have everything we need (inside of us), and when we embrace that truth, we no longer need validation from external sources.
- Co-create: God works through us. We just have to remain in alignment in order to create.
- Flow: Everything we want is always on its way to us. Allow and align replaces ego and effort.
- Rewards: Money isn’t a reward. The impact we have on others is the reward. Money is just an energy we trade during our service to others.
- Abundance: Learning to attract abundance is a skill rather than a position we are born into. The rich get rich because they expect to. We can develop the same skills through practice and repetition. It doesn’t matter what we were born with, or what we have today, we can learn how to attract abundance.
Here’s to butterfly wings in 2020.