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Doing what you love may be something you are currently embracing, or it may still be living as a distant dream inside of you. In either case, when your work is your soul’s calling and your passion, odd as it might seem, it will evoke resistance within you. What! You ask, “How could doing something I love bring me anything but joy?”
While it doesn’t make sense to our reasoning mind that doing something we love will bring out resistance, it’s true. I’m going to tell you why and what you can do about it.
When you decide to expand beyond where you currently are, it requires growth, right? I have coached many clients over the years that have started new careers, ventured out on their own and started up new businesses, or became self-employed doing work that was much more meaningful to them than their jobs in the past. Something interesting, however, always seemed to show up and catch them by surprise.
While my clients were very successful in previous jobs, the notion of doing their soulful work often caused many of them to hide out and procrastinate when it came to offering their work to others, particularly for lucrative fees. It was as if some little switch flipped on inside of them and drove them to behave in ways that were quite out-of-character. It was particularly puzzling because so many of them were typically over-achievers!
Have you made the shift or do you want to make the shift into doing your life’s work with meaning and purpose, yet you know you have hit a wall of resistance? You might recognize some of these resistant behaviors and troubling emotions:
- Authors and Writers – you are overly critical of your writing and hesitate releasing your work to the public. The never-ending edits and rewrites!
- Transformational Coaches and Healers – you don’t feel quite ‘good enough’ to charge more for the work that you love to do, the work that comes easy to you; you procrastinate in marketing yourself to potential clients; you over deliver;
- Soulful Entrepreneurs and Business Owners – you are reluctant to speak about your venture or make business offers to potential clients out of fear they will reject you or your ideas, products, and services that mean so much to you.
- Professionals: Realtors, Attorneys, Lenders, and Organizational leaders – you do not raise the bar for your income to increase as you take on leadership roles and greater responsibilities; you might fear looking ‘too good’ and not wanting to seem superior to others. You deny yourself the freedom to relax and have fun;
- Artists, Singers, Performers – you minimize your talent by holding back and not allowing yourself or your work/art to be seen or heard in front of a larger, public audience; the thought of monetizing your talent triggers thoughts of not good enough and traps you in the comparison game.
Of course, I have mentioned just a few professions in the list above; however, any profession that requires your creativity, talent and has deep meaning to you will trigger resistance within you. It will keep you from reaching out and being bold about offering your work to your potential clients and customers.
This is NOT your fault! There is absolutely not one thing wrong with you. Please hear that fully. The inner resistance that shows up when you decide to elevate your work and your business into the purposeful and meaningful work that you’ve come here to do in the world is very normal. Yet, it must be dealt with or it will be the demise of your business or your career, not to mention your self esteem.
This goes beyond changing your limiting beliefs! What I mean is that once you become aware of your limiting old beliefs that suggest you are not good enough or you are not worthy to be paid well for doing what you love, something else very crucial comes into play. Resistance to change!
We have a natural, inner resistance to change, particularly when that change involves our core beliefs and how we need to be seen by others.
While new empowering beliefs make sense to our reasoning mind, change does not occur in our reasoning mind, at least the type of change that requires very different behaviors from what we’re comfortable with.
Let’s face the truth here. Does it feel a bit vulnerable when you think about revealing your authentic, personal self expression which means so much to you, which speaks from your heart and soul? Do you deeply want to help others live better lives?
If you do not feel hesitant about unleashing your services or products, then you’re likely not exhibiting the behaviors and feelings that I mentioned earlier. You are on your way!
However, if you are reluctant to make offers, to speak about your work in ways that enroll others, write your book, create and display your work of art in whatever form that takes, or charge appropriately for your services and products, resistance has stopped you. You have fallen prey to your natural, subconscious protector of your justified image and your status quo.
So how do you release yourself from the grip of resistance and access your powerful Self that is authentic, creative, and abundantly resourceful, your Self that wants to shout out from the mountain tops that you are here to make a difference and that you can be paid extremely well for it?
In all of the years I have specialized in successfully releasing inner resistance to change, for myself and others, I have consistently used my AAA to Freedom, 3-step process:
- A= Awareness – you must fully step into your patterns of resistance. These must be identified and felt fully;
- A= Acceptance – accepting resistance and its accompanying behaviors, thoughts, and feelings requires the suspension of judgment and blame. Reacting to your resistant patterns evokes more resistance which keeps you stuck where you are!
- A= Alignment – to be free to make better choices, like doing what you love and being paid really well for it, you must first achieve a state-of-choice. This is true freedom. This state is in alignment with your powerful authentic Self. It can only be experienced from an inner space of acceptance.
You can begin this work right now by becoming Aware of your own resistance:
- Identify the negative behaviors that you would like to stop doing today that are not supporting you in your soulful and purposeful work;
- Identify the positive behaviors you would like to start doing today and into the future that would support you in doing and expanding your soulful work;
- Forgive yourself for not doing what you want to do as you become aware of your inner resistance to change.
- From your state-of-choice, choose (1) one behavior that supports your soulful work and begin it today!
The practices just listed are taken from my “Ring of Fire: Breakthrough to Source Energy and Thrive Program.”
So what can you do next?
Visit my Course Library and learn more about my “Ring of Fire Audio and Workbook” series online course.
To your prosperity, freedom & joy,