In these last couple of years, my ideas around how our work matters now more than ever have strengthened. While much of what has unfolded in the world has stirred and made me question much of what I thought about the world and myself, I went back again and again to the idea that what we do, how we share our gifts through our work is vital to the healing we want to see.
Even as a kid, I already wondered about the relationship between vocation, soul purpose, and the work we do in the world. I spent my 20s and 30s reflecting long and hard on Joseph Campbell’s famous quote: Follow your Bliss.
As the years passed, but especially after I took the risk of leaving my corporate job to craft my own business, I have expanded my thoughts on this topic. It now involves the union of RIGHT LIVELIHOOD and HEALING.
Not only about our own healing around how we earn our livelihood, but also how the world at large and the systems that run it need deep healing around how we humans earn our livelihoods.
In my simplistic and perhaps bold view, I believe if we could all do what we love, aligned with our sense of purpose and meaning, there would be peace in the world.
To me, RIGHT LIVELIHOOD is about all the spokes of our life’s wheel, which include our relationship with Self & Others, aligned work that sustains us in material and soulful ways; and the sense of purpose and satisfaction we feel when sharing our gifts/medicine with the world, coming together in how we share ourselves and gifts with the world.
In these last several years, we’ve seen more and more folks questioning how our systems of ‘earning a living’ are deadening to us in more ways than one. Enter the pandemic, and many of our illusions around work and business have been torn down.
We have the Great Resignation, the revival of Unions, and the rise of strikes and protests.
Underneath it all lies our cancerous capitalist system, with cannibalistic greedy oligarchs ruling the world and billionaires trying to move to Mars while also wanting to expand their business to the Moon.
This all aligns with the cosmic dance of the times.
This is the COURAGEOUS DECADE because the planetary shifts taking place are archetypal.
These shifts will leave no one behind, and now with momentum way beyond the point of return to what we thought was ‘business as usual’ – pun intended.
Amid the chaos of the last couple of years, we’ve also seen more and more folks leaping to craft something of their own – be it a creative project, a career change, starting a side-hustle, or crafting a full-fledged business.
In a decade with so many planetary cycles beginning (i.e., Saturn & Pluto, Jupiter & Saturn, Jupiter & Neptune), wouldn’t it be fitting to start something new?
Many are reimagining what ‘business’ is by bringing SOUL and PURPOSE/MEANING to their vision.
What would have given you blank stares when mentioned years ago is no longer a foreign idea. While many are burned out, tired, disillusioned, and fed up, there’s also a growing awareness that if we want to heal the economic system, we have to see our relationship with work and business as a PILGRIMAGE OF SELF EXPRESSION.
In my work with solopreneurs, I’ve noticed more and more the awareness that birthing and crafting one’s own business is a SPIRITUAL JOURNEY.
While we may think we’re birthing the business, the business is birthing us – a more expanded version of us, one that helps us claim all spokes of our life’s wheel. It stretches us and leads us towards facing our edges and stepping out of our comfort zones.
I haven’t shared much of my thoughts on business and its cosmology these last few years. I didn’t feel it was time to speak to it, choosing instead to turn inward and take stock of my place in this world that often feels like it’s hitting all of us with a relenting battering ram.
But with the recent events unfolding in the world, I feel my inner flame reignited, despite it also cohabitating with a sense of existential dread. (Who said it was easy to hold the tension of the opposites?)
And yet, I know that doom scrolling won’t lead us out of this mire because what the world needs now is CREATION MAKERS.
Folks who are willing to serve as channels for what wants to be birthed through them. And your business idea, side-hustle, or creative project are knocking on your door. In this COURAGEOUS DECADE, what the world needs from us is that we bring forth our gifts, our medicine, and our creative spark, because each one of us is an answer to a question of our times. That’s why your work matters now more than ever.
Wondering how to bring your gifts to the world? Come check out my coaching offer here.
Featured photo credit: Riccardo Annand
Second photo credit: Amy Shamblen
