What does the word success bring up in you? How does the word success make you feel?
What if somebody asked you “Do you have a successful business?” Do you think that you have a ‘successful’ business? What does that look like to you? The word success used to make me feel small and like a failure. But I realise now, that is because what I thought success was is not what it truly is. Growing up in a capitalist society, I linked the word success with highly profitable and also very well known. I imagined that running a successful yoga business meant that you employed multiple people, perhaps even had a studio or a retreat centre. It meant having thousands of followers on social media and a full schedule of full classes. It meant doing all of the classes all of the time for all of the people. Weirdly, I also thought that to be successful, I also needed to be thin. That pile of shit is for another day! 😂Clearly, this is NOT true! This is what the Oxford Dictionary has to say about success: Success: The accomplishment of an aim or purpose. Wow. So simple. And just like that, I have a successful business! I am very clear on the aim and purpose of my business. Right now, at this stage of life, my business needs to fit with my life. I need my business to: 💫Earn enough money to be comfortable- Healthy food and holidays are a must. 💫Fit around my needs and my family needs- I need space for flexibility. 💫Feel purposeful and have meaning - I need to believe that what I do is important. My business does all of these things. No. I don’t earn 6 figures. No. I don’t employ a team of staff. No. My work week is not full to the brim- I would not want it to be. No. I don’t own a studio. No. I do not have a perfect body- this is ridiculous! It can be tempting to look at others and what they do and either consciously or subconsciously. It can be easy to fall into the trap of believing that success is what someone else is saying is success. But really, success is the accomplishment of an aim or a purpose. That’s all. Simple! What is your aim or purpose? Are you clear on that? Or would you like some help? If you resonate with any of what I’m saying and you’d like some support to accompany you on your journey you may benefit from mentoring. Would you like to schedule a free chat to see if working with me could help you? Maybe you are ready to say YES! to some support? Get 7 months of mentoring for the price of a 6 month package here. As soon as you buy, you will get lifetime access to all of my resources and training.
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This is something that I was talking about recently, with someone who I mentor. I was actually joking at the time, but many a true word is said in jest, and this is really true. For me anyway, I wonder if you feel that way too?
I don’t see this talked about a lot within the kids yoga teacher world. I wanted to talk about it today, because I think it is really important that we acknowledge it as it can really be quite unsettling! When I set up my business eight years ago, I thought that I would simply move from being a school teacher to being a yoga teacher. I worried about the business side of things as this wasn’t my background. But generally, I just thought I’d be less stressed, less busy and that my health would be positively impacted. I had NO IDEA what a deep journey it would take me on and how it would lead me to such a transformation of who I am in the world. When I look back to the person that I was eight years ago, I am so different. You could say that everyone changes over a period of eight years. But if I compare how I changed in the eight years as a self employed business owner to the previous sixteen years of being a teacher there is no comparison. So many internal shifts! So why is running a business so inextricably linked with personal development? Deep rooted beliefs about ourselves, habits and patterns are brought to the surface. We are forced to face them and deal with them whether we like it or not. Here are some personal examples of issues that arose for me. I wonder if they resonate with you: 😟A fear of not being good enough/ knowing enough Leading to:
🫤Comparison with others Leading to:
🫣 Feelings of vulnerability, fear of judgement and fear of rejection Leading to:
🤯Workaholic and perfectionist tendencies Leading to:
All of these issues still arise for me! I am not perfect and I don’t have it all figured out. I’m still very much on the journey. But I am far more aware of my own sh!t than I was at the start of this path! To be honest, I don’t really believe anyone who makes out like they have it all sorted, because we all have our issues that we are working through. We are all human! When we create something and bring it into the world, we are sharing something of ourselves- which can feel incredibly vulnerable and uncover issues, patterns of behaviour and thought processes that we didn’t even know were there. I’m sharing this today, because I just wanted to normalise the process and the thoughts and feelings that might be happening for you too. If you resonate with any of what I’m saying and you’d like some support to accompany you on your journey you may benefit from mentoring. Would you like to schedule a free chat to see if working with me could help you? Maybe you are ready to say YES! to some support? Get 7 months of mentoring for the price of a 6 month package here. As soon as you buy, you will get lifetime access to all of my resources and training. Thanks for reading, I'd love to know your thoughts on this, has your business been a personal development journey for you too? Email me at [email protected] Although it is almost half way through the month, this is the first video I’m recording in 2025, so happy new calendar year!
As I’ve mentioned before, I love living seasonally and follow the wheel of the year, so this time of the year doesn’t really feel like a new year to me as we are still very much in winter. If you feel like you’ve struggled to ‘get going’ and you are lacking in motivation, drive and maybe even inspiration- you aren’t alone. Look around you, the trees and plants know that it is still winter (in the northern hemisphere). This may not be the time for leaping forwards and making bold changes. This is still the time for hunkering down and reflecting. As it is a new calendar year, it can be a good time to reflect on the calendar year that has passed and perhaps set some gentle intentions for the new one. As I shared back in December, I like to intentionally reflect on my life and business (because they are so interwoven) at 8 main times of the year. These are at the four points when we shift seasons and the and the mid points of the seasons. During the Summer and Winter Solstice and the Spring and Autumn Equinoxes, I take a day to reflect more deeply. You can get access to the questions that I use here and a watch a video of me talking them through here. The questions can be done at any time, so if the start of a new year feels like a good time for you to reflect then these might be useful to you now. Alternatively, you can use them any time when you feel the need to reflect on where you are. One of the things that came up for me during my Winter Solstice review day, was the realisation of how much time I spend on these videos and blogs and perhaps this isn’t in alignment for me right now. So, I’ve decided to trial creating shorter videos to see how that goes. Perhaps it will free up some time for me and maybe people who watch will find shorter content easier to watch, let me know your thoughts. I know I like to witter on, so perhaps shorter videos will be better. As a culture we are encouraged to be striving and improving on who we are. Societal messages tell us that we need to do better and be different. This is because we live in a capitalistic society, and so if we are always feeling like we are lacking something, then we are more likely to be buying something! A quote that I’ve been thinking a lot about recently is this one: “It is easier to try to be better than you are than to be who you are.” Written by Marion Woodman in Addiction to Perfection: The Still Unravished Bride: A Psychological Study What if this year, we didn’t try to be better, but we just spent some time getting to know who we are and got more comfortable with that? 2024 was a big year for this for me as I got my official diagnosis for Autism and ADHD. Although I had suspected for some time that I am neurodivergent, having confirmation of this has meant that I’ve been viewing everything through a new lens. Sometimes we learn something about ourselves and it changes our view on everything that happened before. This quote has really resonated with me on a deep level as I acknowledge that for most of my life, I’ve been trying to be better than I am rather than who I am. I wonder if you do this too? That brings me to another quote that I really love from Marianne Williamson’s book ‘Return to Love’ “... as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we’re liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” So this year, I’ll be ‘being more of me’ and sharing that with you. Here’s your invitation to spend a few moments considering what ‘being more you’ would look like in life and in business. What would you do more of? What would you do less of? I hope that you will be more of you, because the world definitely needs that! If you feel like you need some help in discovering your special qualities in your business, perhaps working with me as a mentor may help. I love helping other kids yoga teachers feel more confident to be themselves in their business. If you are watching this in January 2025, you can currently buy a 6 month mentorship programme and get an extra month free, taking you up to the end of this academic year. If you’d like some support in your business then this might be for you. Book a mentorship with me now and get instant access to all of my resources and training courses. Book a free no obligation call to see if this is right for you. I'm really interested in learning how this blog landed, comment here or email me and let me know [email protected] |
From Julia
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January 2025
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