Dear Sister,
Recently I took an action in my business that my intuition told me not to take, but I ignored it.
It was a small decision - it really had no important or long term effect - but my intuition kept insisting, "Don't do it."
I knew why my intuition was telling me this.
You see when I started Wild Mystic Woman I made a commitment to myself that I would no longer take any actions in my business that felt out of alignment.
Even if the misalignment was slight and nobody would know except me.
This meant things like not taking on clients that didn't totally feel like a good fit.
Not promoting anything that I didn't totally believe in.
Not marketing in a way that felt manipulative.
Not launching offers that didn't 100% excite me.
Or any other business action that felt out of alignment with my truth.
But in this instance I ignored my own principles because I was tired and under-resourced and I didn't want to have to deal with the consequences of changing my mind at the last moment.
The thing about our intuition is, if it's insisting you to listen to it, it's usually right. And ignoring it can have small or big consequences.
Thankfully this time the consequences were small. In fact I don't believe there were any external consequences.
But what I struggled with the day after were the internal consequences of feeling disappointed with myself for not trusting myself (especially as I see that my intuition was right), and feeling mad at myself for doing something that was out of personal integrity.
The next day I spoke with my friend Thais Sky, who is a women's leadership expert & spiritual teacher, about how important it is for us all, as new paradigm conscious business owners, to be incredibly discerning about the things we choose to create, share, talk about and promote in our businesses. We both agreed that we all have a great responsibility to not just do things in our businesses for the sake of doing them, but to carefully and intentionally make business choices that reflect our values and inner guidance.
And then a few hours later I spoke with my friend Pat Romain about how I trust my intuition above everything now, and always follow what it tells even if it doesn't make sense.
Well on the day that I chose not to trust my intuition I did neither of these things.
I wasn't discerning about a business choice that I made and I allowed my intuition to be overridden by logic and efficiency.
In short, I acted out of alignment with the woman I want to be. And that's not okay with me.
Whether the act was big or small, self-dishonesty is still self-dishonesty. And as a woman who's highest value is Truth, to be dishonest with myself feels like an act of violence against myself.
That sounds a bit dramatic, doesn't it?
Well here's the thing - the biggest issue clients come to me for again and again is that they feel out of alignment.
That their business or the ways they have been trying to grow their business, feel completely out of alignment. It's why they often feel they don't have the clarity or confidence to make the next best choice in their business, and they are often seriously doubting if they are even cut out for entrepreneurship.
It's my belief that misalignment begins when we ignore our intuition.
When we make choices that don't 100% reflect our core values, beliefs and guiding principles. When we tell ourselves that it's ok to not trust our gut this one time because it's just a small decision and probably won't have a big effect anyways.
Plus, our intuition often does this pesky thing of telling us to do or not do something that makes *no* sense in the context of what we have been working on.
You know the feeling, right? You've spent so much time putting together this incredible program and right before you're ready to launch, your inner voice tells you not to launch it.
"Are you freaking serious?" we ask our intuition. "Do you know how long I've been working on this? How much money I've spent? How much blood, sweat and tears I've poured into this?"
"No!" we tell our intuition. "You don't know what you're talking about. I can't stop now. Plus this is probably just fear talking anyways. You be quiet now and let me get on with my work."
And so we ignore the voice and keep ploughing forward. We ignore the ever present truth within us in favour of our egos.
And often times we (painfully) find out later on that our intuition was right all along.
Once we get started on this slippery slope of bypassing our truth, one tiny act of self-dishonesty at a time, we are headed straight for Misalignment City.
And once we're there it's hard to see how we can find our way out.
Thankfully there is always a way out. It's not easy and often involves a LOT of inner and outer work. But there's always a way out.
But... wouldn't it make more sense if we started making sure that we just trusted ourselves from the beginning?
Wouldn't it be easier if we didn't have to keep playing this same game with ourselves again and again and actually listened to that inner voice *the first time* it told you, "Don't do it."?
That is what I am re-committing myself to now.
I see that I have been taking that inner voice of intuition for granted. I let my ego convince me that it knows how to make better decisions for me than my heart. But that's not how I'm here to lead.
I'm here to lead with my intuition first.
My intuition guides me on what decisions and actions are most aligned and right for me to take at any given time. My ego makes sure that those choices and actions are translated into reality.
So as I re-commit to coming back into integrity I am reminding myself of this guiding principle:
Intuition leads. Ego serves.
And never the other way around.
Because this is leadership I stand for. The type of leadership that says:
- I am devoted to growing my business in ways that only reflect my core values, beliefs and guiding principles.
- I am committed to being discerning and intentional about all of my business decisions - whether big or small. Whether other people know about them or not.
- I am dedicated to leading with my truth, even when it means making unpopular decisions or having uncomfortable conversations.
And I will always call myself out and make immediate corrective changes when I catch myself reverting to unconscious and ego-driven leadership.
And so it is!
Big love,
