Starting a new business from scratch is hard. Don’t I know it!
It can feel like you’re pushing a stone uphill until it catches momentum and starts rolling on its own.
And the hardest part is that you don’t know when that’s going to be.
There’s no date to point to on the calendar when you can say…“That’s when it will feel easier! That’s when momentum will kick in and all the work I’ve been doing will pay off!”
Nope…you just have to keep plugging away…keep rolling that stone uphill…and trust that at some unknown point in the future, momentum will kick in and your business will start to flow without you pushing quite so hard.
It’s the same for a lot of things in life where you’re starting from scratch.
It might be a new health condition you’re dealing with…a new job…training for your first marathon…starting a new single life after divorce…or starting a new habit – like eating better or exercising more.
Starting something new is hard because you haven’t figured it out yet.
There’s a period of time when it feels like you’re wandering aimlessly through the woods and trying out a bunch of paths until you find the one that leads you where you want to go.
It can feel disorienting…heavy…and overwhelming.
So what can you do to make it easier?
Here are 3 practices you can try that have made a big difference for me:
- When It Feels Like Failure, Remind Yourself You’re Experimenting
There’s no failure in an experiment. You’re just trying to figure out what works.
And you can’t figure out what works unless you’re willing to experience what doesn’t work.
As Thomas Edison said about creating the light bulb, “I have not failed 10,000 times—I’ve successfully found 10,000 ways that will not work.”
Nelson Mandela had a similar philosophy: “I never lose. I either win or I learn.”
Remember their wise words when you’re trying to figure out your new thing.
And then try this simple mind trick: add “yet” to the end of any thoughts that sound like, “I don’t know how to do this”…”I can’t do this”…or “This just isn’t working.”
As in…”This just isn’t working…*yet*”.
But it will.
If you’re having trouble believing in that last part, read on to my next tip!
2. Trust You’re Being Guided by Something Bigger Than You
Whether it’s a religious belief in God…a spiritual belief in the Universe/Divine/Source…or simply your gut feeling, the pull of your heart, or your intuition…
…trusting that you’re being supported on your journey by an unseen force bigger than you will make your load feel a heck of a lot lighter and easier.
Develop a practice that allows you to tap into that trust and develop a stronger relationship with it.
For me, that’s meditation…exploring the intersection of science and spirituality…and connecting with my inner-voice/higher self and what I believe are benevolent energies or spirit guides.
For you, it might be journaling, drawing, or creating a vision board to connect with that deeper, more intuitive part of you…it might be a religious practice…or it might just be grounding in nature.
Whatever it is, make time for it.
Your relationship with that source of trust needs to be nurtured in order for it to nurture you. It can anchor you when you feel unstable or lost on your new path, but only if it has enough weight to it.
As Steve Jobs said…
…“You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”
3. Be Mindful of Your Thoughts and Words:
Whether you listen to the teachings of science (specifically quantum physics), spirituality, or simply the wisdom of successful people throughout the ages, they all say a version of the same thing:
Your thoughts create your reality.
I was most recently reminded of that truth when I started listening to the book, “Seth Speaks: The Eternal Validity of the Soul”.
The content of the book was channeled by a woman named, Jane Roberts, from an entity who called himself, Seth, in 1970. It’s similar to Abraham-Hicks, if you’re familiar with them. And in one of the first chapters, Seth talks about how our thoughts create our reality.
Not figuratively; literally.
He talks about how our thoughts create electromagnetic particles and how eventually those particles coagulate to form matter. That is, they bond together and eventually create physical form.
Now, not all thoughts are powerful enough to form into matter. But those thoughts that have intense emotion behind them, create images in the mind, and are thought consistently eventually do become reality.
So to create the reality you want, you need to think thoughts that support that reality.
The trouble is, that can be hard to do when you’re at the beginning of an endeavor and you haven’t yet figured out the path to success.
It’s easy to fall into gloom and doom when things aren’t working out (yet) 😉
So here are two easy hacks you can use to keep your thoughts in line with the life you want to create. Both of these have been enormously powerful in my life!
- Create a mental image in your mind of what success looks like. Close your eyes and really feel what it will be like when you get there. Imagine it as if it’s your reality today. Meditate on that mental image and the positive feelings it generates for at least 10 minutes per day. If you can do it twice a day – once in the morning and once before you go to sleep – even better.
- Diffuse negative thoughts using this simple Acceptance and Commitment Therapy tool, developed by Steven Hayes:
Let’s say you have the thought that your business will never succeed. Repeat these phrases in your head or out loud:
==> I’m aware of the thought that my business will never succeed.
==> I am not the thought that my business will never succeed.
==> I contain awareness of the thought that my business will never succeed.
This tool helps you create space between you and your thought and helps you see your thought as something separate from you. It’s not reality, it’s not a probability; it’s simply a thought. That’s it. The only power it has is the power you give it, so use this tool to loosen the grip it has on you.
I hope these practices help you find grounding, ease, and relief as you walk your new path.
If that’s not enough, though, reach out to me and let’s talk about coaching! I would love to support you in creating the life you want!
My professional training was designed to help people just like you through life transitions, and I’ve got a lot more tools up my sleeve that can make your path clearer and easier!
Schedule a free exploratory call with me here ⇒ https://soulfireshift.com/coaching
P.S. Here’s a smattering of quotes from science, spirituality, and wise teachers that all boil down to the same thing: our thoughts create our reality.
If you’d like help diffusing negative thoughts, while forming and developing trust in positive thoughts the serve your dreams, schedule a free exploratory call with me here ⇒ https://soulfireshift.com/coaching
SCIENCE
“Our beliefs control our bodies, our minds, and thus our lives…We can control our lives by controlling our perceptions.”
~ Bruce Lipton, PhD, cellular biologist, and author of “The Biology of Belief”.
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“Quantum physicists discovered that physical atoms are made up of vortices of energy that are constantly spinning and vibrating; each atom is like a wobbly spinning top that radiates energy. Because each atom has its own specific energy signature (wobble), assemblies of atoms (molecules) collectively radiate their own identifying energy patterns.
So every material structure in the universe, including you and me, radiates a unique energy signature. If it were theoretically possible to observe the composition of an actual atom with a microscope, what would we see?
Imagine a swirling dust devil cutting across the desert’s floor. Now remove the sand and dirt from the funnel cloud. What you have left is an invisible, tornado-like vortex.
…The fact that energy and matter are one and the same is precisely what Einstein recognized when he concluded that E = mc2. Simply stated, this equation reveals that energy (E) = matter (m, mass) multiplied by the speed of light squared (c2).
Einstein revealed that we do not live in a universe with discrete, physical objects separated by dead space.
The Universe is one indivisible, dynamic whole in which energy and matter are so deeply entangled it is impossible to consider them as independent elements.”
~ Bruce Lipton, The Biology of Belief
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“The brain generates electric signals, and if I put EEG wires on your head, you can see the brain activity printing out. There is another device called a Magneto Encephalograph, where the probe doesn’t touch the head. That device reads your brain activity with a probe outside of your head.
You might say, “Wait! Then my thoughts are not contained in my head?” and I’d say, “That’s right!”
The concept is, your brain is acting as a tuning fork and the broadcast from your brain is not located in your head, so you’re like a radio station. In effect, you’re broadcasting.”
~ Bruce Lipton, brucelipton.com/good-vibrations
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SPIRITUALITY
“Everything That Is, is the result of vibration. And if you don’t like the result, change the vibration, that’s all!
‘How do I change a vibration?’
Think differently.
‘Well, how do I think differently? That’s the way I’ve always thought.’
Well, start paying attention to how the thoughts feel instead of the content of the thought.”
~ Abraham-Hicks
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“Consciousness creates form. It is not the other way around.”
~ Seth
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“All experiences are preceded by mind, having mind as their master, created by mind.”
“We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we make the world.”
~ Both quotes above are different translations of the same teaching from Gautama Buddha, as written in the Dhammapada (or Dharmapada).
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PHILOSOPHERS AND WISDOM TEACHERS
“Watch your thoughts, they become your words; watch your words, they become your actions; watch your actions, they become your habits; watch your habits, they become your character; watch your character, it becomes your destiny.”
~ Different versions of this quote have been attributed to Lao-Tzu and Mahatma Gandhi
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“You become what you think about.” ~ Napoleon Hill
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“Whatever we plant in our subconscious mind and nourish with repetition and emotion will one day become reality.” ~ Earl Nightingale
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“You don’t become what you want. You become what you believe.” ~ Oprah Winfrey
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“External circumstances do not create feeling states. Feeling states create external circumstances.” ~ Martha Beck