The November Challenge
Last month, I took part in an enlightening challenge hosted by Robin from The Diary of an Empath. I’ve been quietly following her work for about two years now. It started with reading her blog and signing up for her emails. Then I began listening to her podcast. I loved and still love listening to her content. She’s such a gentle soul. It was through her teachings that I began learning more about myself as an empath and how, like other empaths, I see and relate to the world differently.
The tagline Robin used in her challenge emails and on Instagram pretty much sums up my main takeaway from the challenge. “My work deserves to be worked on, prioritized + cared about.” So many of us have been conditioned to dim our light to make others feel comfortable. Taking part in the challenge has shown me that hiding my passion and purpose will not make the “haters” stop. People will always find things to criticize and judge me for.
During the challenge, I also worked my way through Robin’s Pillars of Purpose course. This course was so good! It was meaty, eye-opening, validating and enriching in a way that I can’t fully put into words. I finished it more than two weeks ago and I’m still thinking about it. At the end of each workday, I dedicated time in the evenings to completing the workbook exercises in my journal as part of “prioritizing my work.” It was a calm + cozy way to end the day. I made a pot of herbal tea, lit a few candles and got out my stickers and markers.
The workbook helped me (re)discover the following:
My soul blueprint
My soul gifts
My light codes
My ego desires
I found the soul blueprint to be the most insightful. I explored my numerology, my astrology, the meaning of my name, my birth cards and my animal allies. It was deep work, which led me down so many rabbit holes! I love it when I find a juicy course that I can really sink my teeth into. It makes my schoolgirl heart so excited. The main themes that came up four times within all that digging were balance and harmony. My purpose in this world is to create and maintain balance and harmony among others. When I first read this, I tensed up a little. I mean, the pressure! Especially in this 2022-era we are living in. It felt like a lot in that particular moment.
The number 8 kept popping up as well. Apparently, we Capricorns vibe with this number. From studying tarot, I’ve come to see the number 8 as representing forward movement and taking action, but the symmetrical shape of the number is a symbol of, you guessed it, balance! I guess I can’t escape my purpose… and now that I’m on the other side of this challenge, I no longer feel the pressure of that responsibility. I don’t want to escape my purpose — I want to fulfill it.
The final two exercises at the end of the course were to write my alignment statement, then break that statement down into the five next steps I need to take to move myself forward. As scary as that felt when writing it all down, I know that it will help me grow and serve my peeps well.
My five next steps are:
Create long- and short-form educational content for my peeps
Create a loose schedule for myself using time blocking
Include self-care and ritual into my schedule
Choose one day a week to prioritize my own writing
Begin looking into money coaching and shadow work for money mindset
The action item I chose to work on first is creating educational content for my peeps. So be on the lookout for that
Lessons from the challenge
Consistently showing up for myself and my business was hard. There were so many times when I didn’t want to be bothered, felt scared to talk about how I help writers, had low energy or wanted to burn it all down. I believe in ease and flow to an extent, but you’ll never hear me babbling about how easy it is to run a business. Is it fulfilling? Yes. Is it worth it? Yes. But it’s not easy, and I dislike it when people give the impression that it is all rainbows and butterflies every day. It’s misleading. I had a coach once tell me, “Don’t say it’s hard. Simply imagine that it’s easy and it will be.” Hogwash! If it were that easy, everyone would be doing it, and everyone clearly isn’t. (Ok, rant done.)
My all-or-nothing attitude had to take a back seat. I went into this challenge thinking I was going to be the ultimate overachiever, completing a laundry list of tasks each day. That didn’t happen by a long shot. My brain was like, “girl, bye.” Challenges are meant to test you, but they are also meant to sharpen your judgment, increase your learning and spur growth. Prior to starting this challenge, on days when I felt tired, the overachieving, straight A student would push through until I felt like I “earned” my rest. But part of showing up for my business is knowing when to rest to avoid burnout. When I’m fully rested, I can bring my full self to my business and say, “let’s make some magic today.”
Speaking your truth will polarize people. When I look back at the content I’ve posted over the last 30 days, I noticed how my boldness increased bit by bit. Talking about my offers (multiple times a day) and my values became easier, and instead of closing my laptop and hiding in my tent afterward, I would carry on with the next task, not really caring what people thought about it. As a result, someone actually reached out to me and asked if I wrote marketing copy for other biz owners and would I be open to discussing some content writing opportunities. An opportunity to help biz owners and writers? Yes, please!
I was spending way too much time working IN my business as an employee and very little time working ON my business as CEO. Posting my accomplishments each day in my IG stories not only held me accountable, but it also showed me where I was spending the majority of my time. I also realized that I need more structure than I thought I did. I discovered that I am a “mapper” archetype. I love a good plan or map! For me, it’s not about knowing every rest stop along the journey, but more so about knowing the final destination. Knowing the “needle moving tasks” that need to be accomplished each day gives me something to focus on. Simply going into my day without a plan brought on a little anxiety. Things would get missed or end up getting done at the last minute, which I don’t like. I don’t do my best work when rushed. Once I realized this, I started planning for the next day in the evenings instead of doing it the next morning while having my pot of tea.
Going forward…
It’s very easy to do a challenge like this, then slip back into old habits and ways of being. The timing of this challenge couldn’t have been more perfect. True synchronicity at work! I’ve aligned my business with the seasons, and my next quarterly planning session is scheduled for the winter solstice. (I’ve scheduled all my CEO planning days for the weekends of the solstices and equinoxes.) I’m so glad I had the foresight to save the images I posted each week on my phone because now I can use that information when creating a schedule for myself (one of my next step actions). Strategizing and analyzing information is one of my gifts, so that’s exactly what I’ll be doing for my winter planning session to ensure I stay on track and don’t slip back into not making my business, my creation, a priority.
I went into this challenge thinking I would get on people’s nerves talking about my values and what I’m working on. But for some reason, I felt called to do it anyway, knowing it would feel uncomfortable.
I’ve come out of the challenge having made many new connections, which is something I didn’t expect. I was pretty bummed that I couldn’t attend the virtual meet-up and chat with the other entrepreneurs who participated. But knowing that so many others were doing the scary things and showing up for their businesses right alongside me felt empowering.
The prompt in her final email of the challenge: what might it feel like to open up to the idea that good things could happen for you?
From my journal:
It feels exciting and a little scary. I have some really big dreams, not just for me, but for my business as well… one of which involves crossing international waters. But I’m committed to giving my mind proof that these dreams will indeed be made manifest.