Jan Meditation HERE
Free Workshop HERE
As is often the case, sometimes when I’m writing about a topic, it surfaces in unexpected ways in my life.
I’m delighted to say that’s happened this week as I explored Reinvention––the theme of this month’s new meditation HERE and of the webinar I’m teaching on Monday HERE.
And, of course, Vlad drove that home, fully embodying a passage that I was intending to quote in this newsletter:
I began my book The Yoga of Money Manifesto with these words:
Everyone from Thich Nhat Hanh to Goldie Hawn
has noted that the Lotus is considered the most
beautiful flower…and yet it only grows out of the mud.
Originating in the muck and mire, the lotus rises
to the surface; only then does it gradually open its
petals and reveal its glories as it blossoms in the sun.
In many ways, this process exemplifies an important aspect of the spirit of Reinvention:
Namely, in order to successfully reinvent, sometimes we have to go through a lot of mud and muck before we can truly bloom.
A second set of synchronicities also happened this week.
In 2023, I joined two different marketing/branding programs.
Although I could have sworn I’d booked two consulting calls this week, as I started to map out my schedule somehow neither was on my ical.
I shrugged, figuring I might be mistaken since the appointments were made about 6 weeks ago.
Strangely enough though, I began getting text messages an hour before each phantom event, reminding me of its existence.
Fortunately, I was free and able to join the zoom consult on time.
Mystery solved: the organization had just moved to its own app (versus their website platform), which had caused all existing appointments to accidentally evaporate.
Obviously, this was part of the muck and mire of them Reinventing Themselves (digitally), as it were.
What I also learned––to my great dismay––was that this type of appointment, the 1:1 consult for which I’d joined the program in the first place, was being completely phased out.
Sigh…
This marketing organization is very “value-oriented” and sincerely “mission driven” and of course they’ve crafted a different kind of replacement offer.
Yet it honestly won’t be the same as the 1:1 sessions with their branding experts.
I can also now confess that before joining I confirmed that there was no limit on how many of the slots we could have.
I was officially told that it was simply “first come, first served.”
Let’s just say that––fully taking advantage of that condition––each week I was always pretty much digitally first in line, something that somehow flew below the radar of the administration staff.
In any case, despite my disappointment that this particular service was drawing to a close, I also realized how a few of its challenges I would definitely not miss at all.
Indeed, to my great surprise, a feeling of relief actually began to set in.
You see the curtain was being drawn on an argument I had during every first meeting with a consultant, an argument that more or less challenged my freedom to define and reinvent myself.
Allow me to explain.
As Walt Whitman wrote in Song of Myself:
Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)
Interestingly, with the consultants I found myself arguing for this enlarged sense of self on pretty much a weekly basis.
You see, one of the tenets of the program is that you need to concentrate all your focus (and therefore all your messaging) on one thing and one thing only.
I’d met with over a dozen consultants and each first meeting was always the same.
As I tried to give an overview of what I was working on before getting into the specific thing I wanted to discuss, they always stopped me––with varying degrees of force––and echoed the mantra of only doing one thing.
Yet for me, that’s not possible.
To be specific…
I’ve been working on a wellness start-up for two years; it would be ludicrous to jump ship as we’re Beta-testing.
At the same time, I also have a large-scale art project that I’ve been developing for quite a while; I’m never going to abandon this kind of true passion that connects deeply to all of my work, even to my soul.
And right now most of my income derives from various online courses, both old and new, which sustain my life with Vlad.
Ultimately, each consultant eventually let go of the need to reinforce this principle, yet usually only after I insisted that:
“When it comes to my projects,
You can’t force me to make a Sophie’s Choice!”
Earlier in this newsletter, I mentioned that I was a member of two of these groups.
As active as I’ve been in one, I’ve mostly neglected the other until this week.
After a disastrous meeting to pair people up in Accountability Pods––a process they accurately described as “speed dating on zoom”––I asked the head admin if she knew of a group that was the right fit for me.
Via the miracle of synchronicity, a perfect one had just formed and was meeting the next day for the first time.
I was welcomed in and it honestly blew my mind.
All of us were at a certain success level when it came to digital products yet we were all completely different.
My favorite moment might have been when a member tossed off a line that I cannot imagine myself saying in a thousand years:
“If I could live in a spreadsheet,
I would!”
All the things I avoid, she treasures.
Indeed, although everyone was quite successful, the variety of business models and the diversity of approach were extraordinary.
And yet one thing did unite us:
We bonded that for each of us, doing more than one thing was necessary not only as a business strategy, but because it was also a part of our DNA.
In theory, the singular focus is absolutely wise.
And in practice, it can also obviously be an effective strategy.
Yet I think that real life favors those who can adapt easily, who can pursue multiple passions, and most importantly, thrive by continually reinventing.
That’s why I really hope you join me for the Tell A New Story: The Power of Reinventionwebinar tomorrow Monday January 15th at noon EST.
(And yes, there will be a replay.)
You can sign up for everything HERE.
Finally, let me share that I’ve often found myself amused while preparing it.
I want it to be a concise 45 minutes yet full ofvaluable takeaways.
And yet at the same time, I’m allowing myself to divert wildly from my original intentions, and perhaps, like Vlad in the field, sometimes even getting a little muddy.
All of this seems to suit the topic well.
As Tolkien said:
“Not all who wander are lost.”
Indeed, perhaps they might merely be out pursuing multiple passions, or frolicking in the mud and muck, or even better, reinventing themselves.
Namaste for Now,
