Minding and Mine-ing Your OWN Business

This morning in a conversation with my daughter, Cindy, I was describing Inspirational Coaching, explaining to her that I coach the nuts and bolts under the nuts and bolts of business: the metaphysical meanderings of the soul desiring to manifest itself creatively.  I said, "It's the business of you!"  I realized with this statement that we all are entrepreneurs; entrepreneurs of our own lives: the writer, the director, the producer and the star of the "me" show.  I believe as adults we all create our own story, our personal scenario, but usually unconsciously, driven by thoughts and perceptions, beliefs and values that may have been given or pushed on us by culture, parents, peers, teachers and people of authority, not chosen by us. Becoming conscious of the process, mine-ing our own business is a movement, a journey within, that allows us authentic, empowered success of minding the store (the outer manifestation).


According to Webster: entrepreneur. n., a person who organizes, manages, and assumes responsibility for a business or other enterprise, one who undertakes.  How well are you "organizing, managing and assuming responsibility" and "undertaking" the "enterprise" of you? How conscious are you of the minding or mine-ing of your business and your life? 

Believing that the macrocosm is a reflection of the microcosm--and vice-versa--it's difficult to separate the two.  If we're not "minding" our business, we're not mine-ing who we're authentically meant to be.  How many stories do we hear of what appears to be an outwardly successful person who has wreckage in their personal lives? Someone who wasn't "mine-ing" their business.  Or someone like me who mines the inner life, constantly reading/researching/re-inventing, but doesn't "mind" the store. (My work in this incarnation is to get the show on the road, of which I can now announce is occuring. It takes what it takes; my soul-finger beckoning over and over again as I dart and bob, weave and serpentine, go out, come in--ever so patient as I've moved like a turtle toward the finish line.)

We can please some of the people all of the time, all the people some of the time, but we can't please all the people all the time.   -anonymous



Years ago I read a book entitled, What You Think of Me is None of My Business, by Terry Cole Whittaker, which gave me insight and permission to step out of my co-dependency of concern about what other people thought of me.  After all, I didn't have any control of what others thought; if I did, what could I do about it? and, how many times had I not been true to myself because I was worried what others might think? "What you think of me is none of my business" became a mantra so that each and every time I ran the gamut of  worrying what the proverial "you" was thinking of me-- you probably weren't giving me a piddle of a thought anyway--I'd see those words flashing in front of me as if they were a neon sign blaring a warning of caution and consciousness as to where my mind was meandering. Ms. Whittaker asks us, "...are your afraid that if you express yourself FULLY (capital letters, mine), you will be rejected?" No one wants to feel the pain of rejection, I know I certainly didn't.  But self-rejection was the biggest pain, and I learned I could take charge of this by writing and living my own life script, and that excluded concern and time wasted worrying about what you thought.

I learned to quit shoulding/woulding/coulding all over my shoes.  As I loosened the grip of co-dependency, FREEDOM TO BE ME became the new neon sign, the new mantra. Carl Jung named the process of moving beyond what others think, individuation.  This is the process, the digging and delving into the soul, which is the work of becoming ourselves which is distinct from the "others" around us.  Yes, metaphysically, we are all one, but in the human experience, we are each a personality.  And we want to be an original and authentic personality, not a conglomeration of what the outside world is.  We want to live our gifts and talents that emanate from our souls, not what the outside might be luring us to be.

        
            The value I place on myself and my business is the same value the world returns to me.

78 cents to the dollar; this is the recent statistic of what women are paid to what men earn.  Shocked!  After all these years of women's emancipation, my feminist butt almost fell off the chair.  After I'd gathered my witts, I said, "Oh, yes, it's still a patriarchal, hierarchal system."  In the past two days I've heard two women relate stories to me, where I read between the lines, of them giving their services away.  Now, women, take notice: YOU'RE NOT HELPING THE CAUSE OF EQUALITY!  Each of us has a responsibility to value ourselves so we add to the dynamic of equalness (I might add that many men undervalue themselves also because the 1% ers want you for their slaves).  Early in my entrepreneur endeavor, a Harvard business graduate friend told me that I was sitting on a gold mine and only mining ore.  I took notice and I guarantee you the $200,000.00 I earned in 1982 was a result of his observation.  Thank you, Jay, where ever you are!

Ask yourself: am I mine-ing gold or ore, or is my mine (mind) closed? Ask yourself, then ponder it deeply, maybe in your journal: What value do I place on my gifts and talents?  Am I brave enough to ask for what I think I'm worth?  You do need to step beyond your ego, get into your emotions, to truthfully answer these questions. After all, if your don't value yourself, who will? Pay attention to Mnding and Mine-ing Your OWN Business!

Believing that my experience, strength and hope can shine a light on your parade. Until next time.

                                                                                                       Glori Jarvi
                                                                               Inspirational Coaching for Entrepreneurs

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