September | 2020 | The World According to Wendy

My Soul Purpose Project: mysoulpurposeproject.com

It’s Monday and I am feeling defeated before the week even begins. All of my ideas and goals are swirling around in my head trying to land in the appropriate place on my calendar, in order of priority. I am also evaluating my overall mission and looking at which tasks resonate and which should be discarded. The words and pictures I am contemplating involve my hopes and dreams as well as my fears and frustrations. It can be overwhelming.

After an hour and one break, I finally settle in on a plan I can live with. At least for the day. Chances are, I’ll go through the same process again a few more times during the week and each time it will change. Each time I recreate the wheel, I’ll be stalling the forward movement and eroding my confidence and hope for success.

One of my new endeavors is an online business I am calling, My Soul Purpose Project which helps people identify and move towards their life’s purpose. https://www.mysoulpurposeproject.com/ . It is a process of self discovery in which I use tarot, dream interpretation, flower essence, distance healing, the Law of Attraction, and other proven techniques to help the participant move closer to their true nature.

As part of planning the business, a friend suggested that I read The E-Myth by Michael E. Gerber, a book which outlines the benefits of systemization and how some degree of franchising can be the key to growth and getting a product or service out to an unlimited number of people.

I enjoyed the book a lot and it got me thinking about ways to set up my own business so that it can deliver quality and consistency every time. By automating at least some of the process, I realized I can grow a successful business without weighing myself down. What could be better?

I am now at the point of refining the operations of My Soul Purpose Project and it is going very well. And, something unexpected is beginning to occur.

I am starting to look at the systems of my own life.

How do I organize my time and efforts in such a way that I don’t have to rethink or redo it every week or every day? How do I eliminate the emotional dance that accompanies each reiteration? Can I set up my life so that it will operate as efficiently and effectively as one of the franchises outlined in Gerber’s book?

This thinking brought me to another book I read last year called, Better Than Before by Gretchen Rubin. In the book, Rubin points out the benefits of creating healthy habits and gives tips and techniques on how to do it. She emphasizes that the best way to achieve our goals be it weight loss, better sleep patterns, improving our relationships, or starting a new business, is to learn how to replace old debilitating patterns with new ones. And once these habits are formed, they run our lives with automated precision and allow us to move towards our goals with efficiency and consistency. According to Rubin, if we put our focus and care into the creating and maintaining of these habits and keep repeating them, the objective will be achieved. Automatically. Everytime.

I am finding the habits of our lives are much like the systems of a successful business. Once we decide on a goal, we then need to break it down until we can piece together a series of habits that will lead us to that end. With continuous monitoring and adjustment, the series of habits can effectively run the operations of our lives. Once this happens, we can sit back and relax, continue to manage the overall process, and let the dream unfold.

While out on my morning walk, my mind turned towards a book I had read over the summer, On Writing by Stephen King. The book was in essence a memoir and writing course crafted as insightfully and engaging as you would expect from the renowned author. Among the many valuable takeaways, there was one in particular that I cannot seem to get off my mind.

“I distrust plot for two reasons,” says King, “first, because our lives are largely plotless, even when you add in all our reasonable precautions and careful planning; and second, because I believe plotting and spontaneity of real creation aren’t compatible.” “My basic belief about the making of stories is that they pretty much make themselves. The job of the writer is to give them a place to grow.”

To me, this says it all. Not just about writing a good story, but about how we live and more accurately create our lives. It is a basic principle to the success of manifesting our soul’s purpose.

I am currently at a crossroads (middle age, empty nest). I have been occupied lately by not only reviewing my life to date (what I did well, what I could have done differently), but also with the challenge of creating a plan for the next half, one that will maximize my remaining time here on Earth.

I have spent countless hours envisioning and planning, looking at finances, measuring my strengths and weaknesses, honing in on my dreams and wishes, and running different scenarios.

It has been hard to settle on one plan.

There are so many ways things could go wrong. I could change my mind. My circumstances could shift. The world could throw another curve ball. All of these uncertainties have stalled my movement.

I am beginning to think that my problem could be in the plot.

Maybe I don’t need to have it all figured out before I begin. Maybe if I focus on where I want to end up and my most important values and create a loving and nurturing place for them to grow, I will end up somewhere extraordinary. And the journey will always be exciting and fun because its direction will evolve. There will be unexpected twists and surprises and I may get further than I would have had I tried to plan it all myself. My life may be fuller and more meaningful if I allow the guidance of something greater in.

King wrote most of his best selling novels in this fashion. He showed up every day, put in the time (and much talent of course), and let the grace of his genius come forward.

I intend to heed the words of the great writer and apply them to my personal journey. I am going to put my end vision out there and set the intention for creativity, adventure, magic, health, and love. I am going to create an environment that is nurturing and conducive to growth, and I am going to let go of the details and allow my life’s purpose to guide the way.