“Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection.”
Mark Twain
As spiritpreneurs, aka healers, coaches, or soulful business owners, we need to stop thinking that in order to be successful, profitable, or impactful, we need to have all our ducks in a row. It’s not true. There were times (ahem – more than I’d like to officially admit) I didn’t even know where TF some of my ducks were – haha.
If you are anything like me, you then will wait to take action on something important until you felt better. Or until that “one day” where you felt the “stars were on your side”.
I would allow myself to become lazy and not do anything. I would not send out an important newsletter because I didn’t feel like selling or coming across as “salesy”. Whatever that even means. I wouldn’t launch a program I had worked on because I wasn’t feeling “inspired” enough. I wouldn’t work on my book Universe & You: 11 Steps To Co-Create The Life You Desire (published by now) because I felt like such an imposter. Like, who am I to write a book and put it out there?
And so I kept operating at that level. I operated out of the illusion that I only want to work when it feels “aligned”. When I’m “in the flow”. When it feels exciting.
Oh my God. Seriously?! What was I even thinking?
Running a business CAN be exciting, sometimes. And yes, being in the flow and feeling aligned is also important. There should be periods where we feel like this, otherwise, what’s the point?
However, running a heart-centered business requires more than just the flow. These are feminine energies. By themselves they can of course be successful too, don’t understand me wrong. After all, I have successfully run my healing and coaching business by operating purely out of that energy.
Spiritpreneurs need to combine feminine flow within a masculine container in order to scale their business
Everything shifted in my business (and myself) when I invited in more masculine energy too. When I operated with flow AND structure. Alignment AND discipline. Excitement AND every other existing emotion on this planet, including “negative” ones. When I built “containers” in the form of packages, programs, evergreens, self-study courses, and wrote and birthed some books. When I understood that in order to get to the next level, there were lots of aspects that were not so exciting. That business could be quite “boring”, in fact, and I still had to get through stuff when I wasn’t feeling all “lit up”.
So by now, I know a thing or two about the holy grail of taking messy action.
So what does taking messy action look like exactly?
1. Let go of perfectionism
“Approach an action with curiosity rather than perfectionism.”
Renae Fieck
Messy action can be that typically you would want to have a few hours to work on something. But because of unforeseen lacking child care you suddenly only have 30 minutes (if you’re lucky).
Take some messy action then. For example, You probably won’t be able to send out a newsletter in that time but you will have had time for an outline of what to cover.
As Renae Fieck writes in her blog – rather than approaching an action with perfectionism, approach it with curiosity. Ask yourself the question: what would I be able to get done this week if I show up even if it’s messy most of the time?
Everything shifted when I understood that I can have “off days” AND continue to show up, serve, and sell my offers. Or, at the very least, work on something behind the scenes.
As a healer, I used to feel like an imposter when showing up for client sessions and not feeling 100%. I would postpone sessions when I wasn’t feeling my best. Which is a stupid and unrealistic thing to expect from ourselves.
Regular employees also go to work with a headache or broken-hearted and deserve to get paid. Not only have I stepped away from portraying the image of the “perfect service provider”, because what even is that? I also used the times when I wasn’t feeling well to “turn my pain into gold” by writing vulnerable poems that I then published in my book “When A Wild Woman Rises”.
As spiritpreneurs we are not robots. We need to get rid of our masochistic perfectionism, show up and serve even when things aren’t great. We can create art and channel our emotions into it, or write beautiful poems.
I’m sure you know many artists or writers who turned their pain into gold, such as Frieda Kahlo through her self-portraits, or Elizabeth Gilbert, author of “Eat, Pray, Love” where she very authentically shared what she went through post her divorce.
So, no, none of us need to feel like we need to have all our ducks lined up in a row before we show up to serve.
2. Start before you feel ready.
“The key to success is to start before you are ready.”
Marie Forleo
I am guilty as charged when it comes to waiting in order to “feel ready”. Let me tell you: you never will. I went through many cycles of waiting for the “right day” to come and then it never came. I know many female spiritpreneurs who are into astrology and wait for certain things like “mercury retrograde to be over” before they dare to start taking action.
While I of course believe we are all being influenced by the planetary alignments, the full or new moon, our own moon cycles, etc, I don’t believe we need to wait for certain things to fall into place. Messy action means we take action no matter when.
I also waited to hire a virtual assistant because I believed I needed to earn a certain amount of money before I did. However, once I believed that hiring a VA was the one thing that would help me scale my business, my mindset shifted. Now I would have more time to focus on my zones of genius versus the tasks that just took up most of my time. As a result, I could scale my business much quicker.
3. Get more clarity through your messy action
“Messy action will lead you to more clarity and help you understand what works and what doesn’t.
Lauren Widrick
Lauren Widrick has a great podcast called Why You Should Take Messy Action Toward Your Goals.
I love this so much. I have learned so much through the messy actions I have taken over the years. It allowed me to get clarity on what works, what doesn’t, or what can be improved.
For example, your first webinar might not have been perfect. But you will have learned some essential things by doing it, enabling you to improve and perfect the next ones.
My free 4-day “Manifest More Impact, Profit & Success In Your Biz” challenge might interest you. It’s geared towards helping female spiritpreneurs to get clarity on their vision, align with it, embody it on a deeper level AND take action. Just click here or on the banner at the bottom of this blog to enroll.
