Yesterday, during an interview with Kylie Menz of My Lifestyle Show, she asked me a question (as interviewers often do) and my response surprised the socks off of me.
Last year, I assure you, the answer would have been different.
The question?
What do you love most about your lifestyle business?
If you’ve been around here for any length of time, or if you know me at all, you know that lifestyle – or designing a life you choose – is at the forefront of every decision I make. I rarely make business decisions that compromise my lifestyle, and if they do, it’s a short term sacrifice for a long term support.
So, when she asked me that question, I assumed my answer would be along the lines of, I get to surf when I want. I have lots of free time. I get to make my schedule. I’m blessed to work with clients I love and adore. I get to be creative. I dictate my own earning potential etc…
And while all those things are true, they didn’t fall from my lips in the form of an answer.
What do you love most about your lifestyle business?
My answer?
What I love most is that I get immediate feedback as to whether or not I’m in the flow.
What? I know, surprised me too.
I went on to explain.
My alignment, my connection to the divine, my ability to be in the flow is my number one priority in life. Everything comes from there. And, because of my business, I know, immediately, whether or not I’m in the flow.
Not being in the flow shows up in a lot of ways – resistance to creating my art, procrastination from communication, too many days out of the water, avoiding relationships, drop in income – all of which have a direct affect on my life.
Because of my lifestyle business, I know whether or not I’m tending to my number one priority in life – if that’s not something to be grateful for, I don’t know what is.
Now, you might ask, couldn’t that be said for any person – butcher, baker, corporate candlestick maker? Don’t we all get direct feedback as to whether or not we’re in the flow?
And I’d say of course we do. The trouble lies in recognizing it.
Most people I know compartmentalize their lives – fun over here, work over here, family over there, and so on – instead of living a fluid and integrated life. By doing so, it makes identifying the hitch in your alignment more difficult.
Abraham Hicks would say, You can tell by the way you feel. Which is absolutely true, but, for me, because there’s no wall between focuses in my life, I’m not spending time blaming or sussing out which box is off kilter.
I look at the pieces of my life as one life, and therefore the options available to me to return to the flow are endless – they stretch across all aspects. The solution might be to surf, or write an email, or lie on the floor, or dance, or write a poem.
Usually it’s a combination, a one-two punch – surf and then create something for my business, lie on the floor and then write that email. There is no line, it’s all life, and it all contributes to returning to the flow.
We all get out of alignment. We all lose connection. We all push and resist and attempt to control things. We’re human, it’s part of the gig. But our creative power lies in identifying when we’re trying to battle the dragon with a toothpick, and then making a different choice.
This is the foundation of my work, it’s the inspiration behind The Adventure Experience and the guiding force of Message Mentoring.
It’s about living an integral life, and getting into alignment so that your message, your brilliance, and your service can effortlessly flow into the world and be absorbed by those who need it.
Without my lifestyle business, those walls might have stayed intact, those compartments never broken down, instantaneous feedback rarely found, and my message, the one I am destined to share, might never have been heard. And, although it’s not always easy, it is worth it, and for that I am wide wonder-filled eyes to the stars grateful.
PS – You can watch that interview here (it’s a good one!)