…on what I wish I knew
…zoom outfits for the win, thank you comfy pants
Below are my notes from a dōTERRA leadership panel that I spoke on this week. If you aren’t building a dōTERRA business, this might relate to your life as we’ve lived during the pandemic anyway <3
I think one of the most important things that I wish I had learned earlier was about flow. What I want to share today isn’t for everyone. But I want to talk right now to the person who has felt like this year was hard and who feels shame around their business not looking like they expected or how they think “others” are doing right now. Who thinks that there’s something wrong with them.
If you can start to look not only at your business but your whole life as a flow of seasons and recognize that working with our natural flow will actually yield a beautiful and sustainable life and business then we can start to give ourself permission to work when it’s time to work and rest when it’s time to rest. I think we all know that January is a month for rest – anyone?? And yet how often do we end up at the end of the month feeling shame and guilt about how we’ve ended, like we “should have been able to do more”. But I think this can happen every month! How often do you say to yourself “ok I’m going to play with my kid now” but then you’re half on your phone. How often do you think “ok, I’m going to take a break and watch a movie” but then spend the entire movie distracted and feeling guilty about it?
That is terrible terrible rest! Some would argue it’s not really rest at all. Within any given week, month, season, there are times when you will need to truly rest – and that doesn’t mean trying to rest but then feeling bad about ourselves and berating ourselves for not doing “enough”.
We are truly not designed to be able to work at 100% all the time – look at our oils! They don’t all grow year round. It is impossible to constantly be harvesting, the times that a field sits fallow are AS important as the time it’s spent growing. If you’re feeling in the flow and like you’re killing it right now – go for it! But if you’ve felt burned out and shame around “hustle culture” then I really want to encourage you to really start to look at finding your flow. (This is totally where we have an advantage as women – we can often find that flow with our hormones each month, and while we can’t always line it up perfectly with the reality of the world, if we can even just start to be aware we can start to really notice a shift in the way we show up and more importantly how we FEEL. Even 5% can make a huge difference).
If you truly want to make this business a part of your life’s work, there’s no finish line. There’s never an “enough” – you’ll always have a leader struggling, or dropping back, or dropping out. SORRY! There are always more people that can be served with oils. There’s always more personal growth, something crazy happening in your personal life, or the literal entire world turning upside down like we saw in 2020! That piece can be hard to manage – what happens if we never get “there” because there isn’t a rank or a destination? The beauty and freedom in that is that then it becomes how can I do this in a way that is sustainable with my life and my rhythm and my seasons.
One of my favourite quotes is “the greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist” – I have seen that reflected so much in our businesses over the last year. When we’re so isolated, and this was totally my experience this year – I felt so alone, and so broken. I had to come up with a new framework. Because the reality is that, as women especially, we just take it alllllll on. So I just want to end with this. If you think you’re the only one feeling rocky or the only one who’s business has been hard this year then it’s so easy to take on that it must mean that there’s something wrong with YOU. Rebuild your own energetic reserves, find your flow and notice where joy and ease can be invited back to the table. There will be a time in the future when your business is thriving again. There’s nothing wrong with you.
When you feel good, it’s WAY easier to make a business that feels good. When your business feels good, it’s so much easier to do good. Start to look for little wins - small gains will start to compound.
