Business and loss.
People who go into business for ourselves are always worried about loss.
Every moment we aren’t obviously gaining we believe we are obviously losing.
But that mindset actually reflects nothing about what’s actually happening. It only reflects how uncomfortable we are with patience. With stillness. With time.
One of my biggest frustrations in business, as I was expressing to my partner earlier today, is the feeling that I’ve failed each moment I’m not making a sale, connecting with a potential client, or doing something to “grow” my business to scale. When it seems like “nothing” is happening, I feel at my worst. Maybe you can relate.
This is where it serves us well to bring spirituality into our businesses. To infuse our material practices with metaphysical understandings that help us counter our most derogatory and limiting self-beliefs.
Spirituality is one of those tools that is so frequently left out of business because it’s dubbed as a non-serious, too ephemeral thing that simply doesn’t fit.
But it actually fits perfectly.
In fact, it’s the missing piece.
Business is mysterious.
Business, like all organic matter, goes through processes necessary for life. Dormancy. Digestion. Decay. These are all loss-oriented processes that are just as important as gain-oriented functions like blooming, blossoming, and birth. Just because these processes seem to be moving you backwards doesn’t mean that they are actually making you “worse off” than you were at any other point in time. It just means you — and your business — are more developed. More wise. More mature.
And we need mature businesses.
We need businesses that know how to ebb and flow with what is. We need businesses that won’t falter when the weather gets extreme. To create such businesses, we need to become business owners who believe deeply in our businesses. Who understand them not just as systems we are engineering for survival but also as organic spiritual entities. Our businesses are divine and purposeful, with lives and existences of their own. Thus, when we relate to our businesses, it’s important we honor them as autonomous, sovereign, even sentient beings. When we orient towards our businesses in that, we have more empathy. We understand our business cannot and should not be domineered or controlled.
Business — in all its forms — must be respected.
And sometimes, respect looks like standing by while something seemingly awful is happening, because there’s just nothing you can do to stop it. Sometimes respect looks like understanding when you’ve exhausted your tries.
This doesn’t always feel good. In fact, it almost never does. I encourage you to honor that by letting your anger and sadness be. Tell a friend or a partner about it. Write about it in your journal. Give yourself lots of grace and warm tea.
Because respecting your business means also respecting yourself.
Respecting business in all its forms includes accepting business in the form of loss.
In business, loss may look like losing clients who weren’t a great fit or who simply got everything they could from your services then moved on. Sometimes, loss looks like trashing the website you’ve been working on for months because you had a vision of something better and you’re feeling brave enough to implement it. Sometimes loss looks like removing a particular type of service from your offering list because it’s not within your capacity or integrity to provide it anymore.
All of these “loss” scenarios, mind you, are actually incredibly healthy they are signs of maturation. Development. Natural growth.
Sometimes — and this is everyone’s favorite to talk about — loss looks like losing actual money. Which is also, in some iteration, energy and time. What actually happens is that we make choices around our money and interpret it as a loss, or we are impacted by systemic circumstances beyond our individual control and interpret that as a loss — or more like a moral failing. Neither orientation is appropriate or correct.
When we don’t have income that increases exponentially everyday, we may interpret that as a loss. When we are charged interest on a business loan we didn’t repay in full in time, we may interpret that as a loss. When we invest in a stock that plummets, we may interpret that as a loss. When we spend money on advertising and it doesn’t immediately get us leads, we may interpret that as a loss. When we negotiate a lower fee with a client who can’t afford our services otherwise, we may interpret that as a loss as well.
But what if I told you — none of these situations represent a loss? They all represent gain.
Gain.
It’s always gain.
Because here’s the thing: Interpretation isn’t fact. It is interpretation. And the beauty of interpretation is that with a little practice, we can expand our options. We realize other, more liberating pathways of interpretation actually exist.
One liberating interpretation I’ve picked up from my years in practice:
Nothing is lost in a world where we know how to cherish all that shows up on our doorstep, passes through our fingers, and awaits us Monday morning as we greet our business.
Loss is an illusion that comforts the human brain which needs constant material access to trust that something is actually there.
But loss — as a business concept and as a coping mechanism — becomes less and less necessary the more you spiritually evolve.
Freedom. True freedom. That’s what bringing spirituality into your finances, your professional endeavors, your purpose, your career, and your passion involves.
And that’s what makes my intuitive business coaching offerings unprecedented, deeply meaningful, and nuanced in a way you won’t find anywhere else.
I’m a business coach, yes, and I’m also a spiritual teacher. These two identities merge seamlessly together to create the absolute best possible value for you.
And by value I mean the experience. I mean all you will continue to gain after we work together. I mean all the ways my offerings will keep opening you to more and more and more.
When we work together, I’m invested in your health. I enter into an moral, spiritual, financial responsibility to guide you towards the best possible outcomes for you on your path. I keep that commitment with an integrity and a love ethic that is sort of unparalleled.
Being enough. Having enough. Doing enough. And honoring the enoughness of everything and everyone involved. That’s what intuitive business coaching with me is about.
If that sounds like the medicine you need right now, there are two ways to get started:
Head on over to my shop to purchase one time, short-term exclusive coaching packages (these go away at the end of July) Or,
Apply for my 12 month Intuitive Business Coaching Experience. Both incredible options, but the latter comes with lots of goodies, is the absolute best bang for your book, and grants you lifelong priority 1:1 access to me as a coach, mentor, and friend. Kind of priceless, if you ask me.
P.S. If you want to chat with me for a meet and greet/intro consult/vibe sesh before you apply or buy, go ahead and book a complimentary one here. Books are open in July.
With love and care and reverence —
M.