What are the 3 Levels of Success for Soul-fired Entrepreneurs?

What does a soulful business owner need to succeed?

Last week, a client who was aware that  I coach entrepreneurs and soul-driven professionals asked me – What does it take to be successful? At the time she was quite tired, and was being bombarded by a slew of challenging thoughts about whether her new business would get the traction needed to be sufficiently profitable. This is a great question to address. Here’s my perspective as a business owner, therapist/coach/intuitive, and fellow soul-driven human.

Of course, there are a few parameters and definitions to name as part of this question. What kind of success do you seek; what does success mean to you? It is purely financial? Yes, that’s big – you want your business to grow past hobby status and support you. Another big side of success is finding work that enlivens you, that contributes to the world, that matches gifts you love to serve with. You know that running a successful business involves a lot of business knowledge, but it takes much more than knowledge, doesn’t it?

Turns out, there is a lot you need to be a successful, soul-connected, happy and financially strong business owner. Let’s begin.

FOUNDATIONS OF A SUCCESSFUL SOUL ENTREPRENEUR

Good life foundations:
General success / happiness as a human involves having good foundations in place just to be happy and healthy. This includes good relationships, good health, and the sense you are making a contribution to the world, especially for the soul-driven human. If one of these derails, it inhibits smooth functioning and progress. Your other endeavors and projects suffer, and chaos tends to rule.

Perspective
No matter how much success you create, the constant in life is change. Buddhists call this impermanence. Successful businesses still can fail. Jobs and contracts can end. Health surprises happen. Loved ones die. This is the backdrop to life.

Adversity handles
American culture tends to get miffed if bad things happen. Other cultures expect shit to happen regularly. Either way, working with change in an efficient and respectful way is a key. You will need a perspective and approach that helps you handle adversity, that helps you understand challenges in a way that soul growth continues. And, that helps you keep making progress with your marketing and business growth.

LEVEL 1: Setting sacred ground
There’s a reason it’s called a “practice”

Just as a business needs to have several marketing tools that are practiced consistently, humans need tools that help them handle stress and change. The soulful entrepreneur also needs to develop their abilities to tap their intuition to have an ongoing map, a clear focus, and a way to regularly unfold the meaning of their experience.

I see these tools covering three levels. Level one is getting a basic handle on how you deal with stress and what might cause you to derail or get stuck. If there is past trauma, this needs to be addressed in a way that it stops coloring your world. Clearing trauma’s leftovers allows your highest evolution.

This level also includes the skill of being able to lean into conflict and communicate with others. To push through procrastination and know the difference between when you need to push through hesitancy or when bigger issues might need addressing. When this level is working, you know how to face into challenges and successfully move through them. You are also practicing tools before crisis occurs, and are generally coping and communicating better with self and others.

LEVEL 2 Courage to Flow
Getting through challenges faster and with more ease

Level two for the successful entrepreneur is when they are leaning into their soul work, and starting to meet daily challenges more efficiently. You get through challenging periods with more ease. You have tools to tame negative thoughts, and you can even have humor at times. You know how to work with your emotional stress reactions. You are able to both mine them for timely wisdom, yet not let them get carried away or overindulgent.

You have also begun to practice lovingkindness with your growth edges and in general. You’re developing tools and practices to tap into your intuition and use this both for regular grounding and emotional intelligence/awareness. This means you are less externally driven. You have a spiritual or larger perspective on any challenges that come up in business and life that has replaced seeking approval or advice from others.

LEVEL 3 Joyful Resilience
Grace arrives and is maintained

Level three is where you are mastering level 1 and level 2 coping skills and practices. You are more secure in your foundations, your purpose, and your self-management (including time management / project management systems and the overall life balance picture). You have a reliable guidance system to stay in touch with the emotional and intuitive sides of the self, and the soul purpose evolution and wisdom. You are able to see when the feedback from the world is asking you to grow and get support if needed.

And you begin to give back and serve in a serious, fulfilling, gift-laden way. There is peace, and there is joy. There is connection and love. There is a sense of arrival, though of course, change keeps winking at you. Usually, you can wink back and work through the next growth edge, experiencing (lol) temporary stability and peaceful moments in the chaos and unpredictable surprises of life. What a gift to get here, and to have a bit of grace at last.

LOTS MORE TO SAY

There’s more to say about how all this works. How much time does this take? How do you know you’ve graduated to the next stage? What are the signs that you are building resilience? Stay tuned, we’ll keep going with this one…

What else is important for your growth and evolution as a soul-fired business owner? Let us know your thoughts below.

Would you like to clear barriers so you experience more fulfillment and resilience in 2022?
Book a consult with Denise here.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *