828-280-1686

Chop Wood, Carry Water

by | Feb 7, 2017 | Small Business Advice

A Woman’s Path to Self-Fulfillment and Success

Yes, it’s all very Zen:

  • Before enlightenment: chop wood, carry water
  • After enlightenment: chop wood and carry water

personal and professional self-fulfillment and success

I just came in from two hours of chopping wood. It’s good exercise: mindless, physical work. While I didn’t carry any water — because it’s winter outside, I did carry plenty of chopped wood. And as happens when my hands are busy, but my mind is not, I got to thinking about business and how the search for self-fulfillment and success in business is interchangeably linked with my personal goals of spiritual enlightenment, self-fulfillment and success.

Listening for Clues

My spiritual practice encourages me to listen to the world around me. When you stop thinking about yourself, your mind tends to wander in other directions. So, like I do in my spiritual practice, when I stop thinking about myself, I listen for clues as to what other people need. I always get answers.

When it comes to business, though, I too often forget to take the same road to self-fulfillment and success. It’s almost as if I don’t think business is a worthy recipient of my higher nature. But exactly the opposite is true.

Getting Out of My Own Way

When I listen for the needs of others in business, the answers may indeed often lead to the next client and more income. But it’s the practice of getting out of the way that seems to produce the outcome. I get answers when I think about what you need rather than what I need.

Whenever I have my head stuck in dark places (like up my butt), I never can see the light — only more stinky gloom and doom. When I worry about myself and my needs and desires, I cannot be open to the universe’s cries for help.

Start-Up Blues

You may be going through similar doubts if you’re an entrepreneur. As a start-up, it’s easy to find tons of issues to worry about:

  • What if I can’t pay my bills?
  • What if no one calls?
  • What if I make a mistake?
  • What if I fail?

Sometimes, the very answers are buried deep within the what-if questions:

  • What if I get so busy I don’t have time to pay my bills?
  • What if too many clients call, and I can’t give them all my best?
  • What if I create something beautiful?
  • What if I succeed?

Sounds So Familiar

This kind of existential thinking then takes me to the core. It all sounds so familiar, yet sometimes so far out of reach. I ask: “How can I profess to believe that there is a higher power setting all things right in ways that I can never understand and still worry about my business?” Is that not the very essence of hypocrisy?

If I believe that everything’s going to be all right in my personal life, then those same practices that bring me self-fulfillment and success when I’m not working should translate very well in all my business affairs. And they do!

And some of the very basic principles that have turned my sorry excuse for a human being into a pretty darn good citizen of the world work quite well in every aspect of business. Those core values I use in my own life can serve as the core and brand of my business as well, bringing with them the same level of self-fulfillment and success. Some of those include:

  • Gratitude
  • Generosity
  • Love
  • Forgiveness
  • Patience
  • Commitment
  • Honesty
  • Integrity

So just for today, I believe I’ll continue to chop wood and carry water. I’ll work hard. Give an honest day’s work. Strive for excellence in every split log and every lit blog.

It works if you work it!

Ray Access is a content marketing firm that delivers targeted words to empower your business. Contact us about your specific project to receive a quote or discuss your needs. We write website copy, blog posts, e-newsletters and more. Everything we do is thoroughly researched, professionally edited and guaranteed original.