“Success is a wonderful thing and a terrible thing. Just do what you love.”
-Gene Wilder
I do what I love.
After twenty-six years of a lucrative business entertaining and coaching, I had several months in a row of practically no income, and Mr. Fix It (my mind) stepped up to the plate with a very familiar solution, consisting of two steps:
A) Freak out.
B) Use the adrenaline gained from freaking out to ”make’ things happen.
Mr. Fix It has given me this advice my entire adult life. He has glimpsed the future, and assures me that it will suck unless I let his sense of urgency and emergency push me to do things that worked in the past to generate income: Call churches where I’ve presented at in the past. Put together a local concert. Do another webinar. Offer a sale on my coaching. Remind people that custom-made Song Portraits are the best gift ever.
All of these things worked in the past. But I had arrived at a place where freaking out about money (or the projected lack of it) was a habit I was ready to release.
I was ready for my A.I.A. (Anal Inner Accountant) to retire.
I have another internal advisor, one that is dear to my heart but somewhat foreign to my nervous system. She whispers: “You are safe, and so is your future. There is nothing to fix. CHILL OUT NOW.”
Instead of pro-motion, she is pro-stillness, pro-rest, and pro-joy!
Under her guidance, I’ve been building my to-do list based on the answers to the following question, “What would pure joy have me do?”
My three main action steps while under her tutelage have been:
1) Sharing my journey through articles like this one. Creativity is an extended orgasm. And I get off even more when it is good for you, too! (Please don’t stop reading till you get to the climax!)
2) Going to public places with friends and holding up signs that say Free Hugs. These angelic interventions are putting huge smiles on faces, especially mine.
3) Walk around public places singing and strumming, sharing popular songs from the 60’s and 70’s, Broadway musicals, rock, folk, even disco is fair game. Basically, I’m learning how to play and perform songs that touched me in my childhood. They touch me far more today. And they build bridges to other hearts, these classic songs that people remember fondly from their youth.
So that’s my business plan, Investing in futures by investing in today’s joy.
And boy, it’s really working well!
Lately I’m having such an awakening. My therapist says that I remind her of someone who has battled cancer, came close to death, and emerged from the experience with a passionate commitment to living life fully and letting joy lead.
Letting joy lead.
It’s not completely new territory. I’ve been doing what I love and watching the money follow since I give up my day job in 1990.
But in the past when money got tight, I got tight as well.
Motivated by fear of scarcity, I put on my business cap and went through my list of practical things to do to make things happen.
Nothing wrong with that. It helped me build my male side. Action alleviated anxiety.
Temporarily.
But now I’m in a new place. My feminine, receptive side is leading the way and giving me the business plan.
I call it a Faith Walk. I’m letting joy lead, doing what I love. The money may be following, but it hasn’t quite caught up to me yet. I’m walking into the Red Sea, financially, trusting it will part. There’s no turning back, just step by step forward motion into the ocean.
“Show me the money,” Mr. Fix It screeches. “Then I’ll relax and let you do this joy thing.”
But I have reached a point where I am no longer willing to be held hostage by fear, which demands ransom money in exchange for feeling safe, and procrastinates relaxing into the arms of an ever present love until its list of conditions are met.
Are they ever?
I was in a men’s group that included two multi-millionaires. Sometimes they would share their fears about keeping their wealth. Fear of loss and even a fear of poverty was a part of their lives. I took good notes: More money does not equal more happiness, nor a consistent sense of safety. Wow, what a lesson.
Meanwhile, I am continuing to strum my guitar and sing like a bird, taking my eyes and fears off my bank statements, and putting daily joy deposits into my mutual fun account.
By letting joy lead on a consistent basis, it is inevitable that synchronicity, serendipity, love and money will find me attractive.
NEWS FLASH! While I was writing these words (2015), in the space of two days, a new client showed up for coaching, another person hired me to sing at her Montessori School, and yet another emailed me inquiring whether I was available to share my gifts at a retreat in the mountains near San Diego happening in three short weeks.
He had stumbled upon my Spiritual Dr. Seuss videos on YouTube, and the theme of the upcoming retreat was the wisdom of Dr. Seuss. We worked out the logistics, agreed upon the finances, bought me a plane ticket, and away I went.
Letting joy lead. I believe there’s a future in that!
