Oh Yes. There is a difference!
If you Manage your business and life, you’ll always be attracting and orbiting and dealing with Damage.
If you learn to Steward your business and life, with the support that you’ve been ignoring, you’ll ride the balance of work and spirit with grace and ease.
In this article, you can learn how to simply re-orient yourself a bit to step back into Stewardship when you accidentally (or habitually) fall into Managing.
There are three perceptual shifts we gotta make, that have to do with the difference between Management and Stewardship….
Ready to learn them? Here we go!
One: Stewardship is a co-creation with Spirit vs. Management is a One-(Wo)Man Show.
Isn’t it cute when we humans think we are in control? Aww! It’s so cute!
It’s so cute, because it’s so obviously not true. We don’t control other people, the weather, the stock market, our children or anything outside of our skin! And we can’t generally control even what’s inside our skin – our thoughts, feelings, sensations… at least not very well. So what’s left?
Nothing. We control nothing. [sound of shoe dropping on hard wood floor – THWAK!]
So who does control stuff? Well, if you’re like me, even if you’re not “religious,” you might believe in some over-arching divine intelligence thingy that you might call Spirit, or God, or The Universe, or the Tao.
And most wisdom traditions point to the fact that in order to feel sane, happy, and peaceful, we really need to accept that we are not in charge of stuff. Moreover, we can feel lots better if we align and actually relate with the Creator as a loving force. We can choose to trust how stuff is going down, and yet use our positive thoughts and intentions to consciously play along with that Creator!
So that’s the first big SHIFT to becoming a Steward instead of a Manager. It’s about co-creating with Spirit.
We have the choice to connect with, accept, and play along with what’s already happening, as if we really are co-creating (creating with) the Divine Force.
Now maybe you’re shaking your head like “Geez I don’t know if I believe that because it can’t be proven….” And I’d put it to you like this. You don’t have to believe it to benefit from it! If you are willing to simply change your perception… to imagine it… to play along… then your attitude and even your reality will shift.
Dude, perception is everything. Quantum Physics proved it. Look it up. 😉 What you perceive becomes real for you. So even your rational analytical side can get on board with this shift. It’s about choosing to imagine that you are working WITH the creator/controller of everything. It’s about accepting what’s here, and imagining that everything is cool.
Your option is Managing. That’s what culture keeps encouraging us to do. Managing relies on the assumption that we control everything. So every time something unpleasant occurs or even exists… it’s YOUR fault! And you gotta fix it! So you gotta get mad at everyone till they fix it all. And you gotta be displeased and grumpy about all the bad stuff. Cause it’s all WRONG. Aarrggh.
This brings us to our second Perceptional Shift.
Two: Stewarding centers on Intention vs. Managing orbits Damage
Living life as a Manager of all things, you are always focused on “What’s Wrong.” So in order to Manage, you must orbit the Damage.
You reduce your creative brilliant self to a damage-control specialist who is responsible for everything. Every. Thing. Ugh.
And I say we “orbit” the damage when we manage because we literally run around and around whatever appears “wrong.” We spin. We find ourselves back in the same situations. We go round and round and end up in the same place drawing the same dang problems to us.
Orbiting is a pattern. It’s a repeating pattern. It’s a circular pattern. And sometimes we keep doing it just cause it feels familiar!! Sometimes we manage just cause we don’t know who we’d be if we stopped orbiting the damage!
We stay spinning as Managers in order to keep up the illusion that we are in control.
So the perceptual shift is instead to recognize that we can’t really control – but we can Intend. And intention is way underrated!
Intention works! That saying “You can do anything once you set your mind to it!” is pretty dang true. And we all have stories of when we proved it true for ourselves.
Standing in your Intention is a pretty gutsy act. That’s because first, you need to feel your desire, which is scary for many folks who’ve been punished for wanting, lusting, and desiring stuff. Secondly, you dare to express what you WANT, knowing you might not get it the way you want it. And third, you hold both your strong desire/want AND your acceptance/surrender to the Divine Will at the same time. That’s a pretty impressive inner circus act!
You likely know that when you stop orbiting the damage in your life, and when you dare to dream, want, and express while still surrendering to the highest good.. well… Good Stuff Happens. And you feel in connection with it, not in control of it. That’s Stewardship.
In this respect, the third perceptual shift is kind of bonus points….
Three: Managers are Lonely at the Top vs. Stewards Are always Supported
Being a controlling Manager sets us up for an isolated lonely frustration in our day-to-day lives. Of course! That’s cause everyone is doing everything wrong! And then they’re not appreciating us for fixing every dang thing!!!
Hee hee. <–That was a nervous laugh because I really see myself in this pattern. Ack. OK Confession Time, Mellissa….
See, when I’m dropped in, and doing my work, basically being a modern oracle who sees people’s deepest purpose and role and stuff… I feel GREAT! I feel really powerful, all-seeing, all-knowing, and super helpful! And people pay me good money to help them, and everyone’s happy, knowing themselves better and making good money doing what they do best and tra-la-la!
But then, there’s LIFE. There’s the reality of car troubles, or my mom’s chemo, or my sore shoulders, or those loud partying drunk folks on the street… and faced with this stuff, I’m not all-seeing, all-powerful, and All That. I don’t control that stuff at ALL! I don’t see it’s “deeper purpose” and I don’t LIKE it!! Dude – It’s a bit of a let down to be human after all!! 😉
And then I feel nervous… there’s such a big difference between my Spirit Seeing Self and the “Real World.” What if people won’t love the normal real me? What if I’ll get in trouble for being an oracle? What if I’ll be betrayed by friends? What if What if What if… and… oh man… I want to Manage! I want to Manage REAL bad.
I want to change and fix and control stuff to make sure I’m loved, I’m safe, and I’m free. But the more I try to manage everything, the crappier I feel. Till I crash. Yep. I crash. I feel yucky, tired, and my head goes foggy. Everything is poo.
The crash lasts until I get desperate enough to go scrabbling for my Stewardship tools again. (Why do we wait until we’re desperate to do this so often??!!) Then, I pray. I surrender. I put my feet in the ocean and let Her take my “cute” stress and control-issues away. I go back to my own basics… devotion to the highest good, self-love and care, and love for my inner circle. That’s what brings me back to Stewardship.
So, yes. I do use these 3 Perceptual shifts (over and over), and here’s how:
1. Re-Connect with Spirit and consciously accept and surrender to reality as it is.
2. Re-set my Intention, and acknowledge my desires and devotions, offering them up to Divine will.
And THEN…
3. Re-Connect with my support – I open and receive the support that’s been around me all along – from nature, from spirit, from those who love me as I am – not for what I “do.”
And those, my friends are the 3 magical ingredients – the perceptual shifts – that I keep blowing and then coming back to again and again.
I’d love to hear your stories of how this works in your life.
I can tell you, this Stewardship thing is the ONLY way I see people being happy in business or life. And YES you can run your Biz this way. It’s the only way I want to do it or teach it anymore!
Let’s all be Stewards together, and turn this world around. Shall we? :)j
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It’s the perfect time to take the Soul Gift Quiz if you want to understand yourself better.
Why? Cause the quiz is free, just 9 questions, and will set you up to get a free training about your Soul Gift that has a series of great funny videos I made. Want it? Just go take the fun quiz, and then enter your Soul Gift type on the form you’ll get sent to. You’ll get a free clearing with me right away, and next week, you’ll get the training. Whee!
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Want to do Business in the STEWARD way?
I’ll be teaching a select group of peeps how to make a solid fun business from their Soul Gift, starting later this Summer. I’ve got spots left. If you’re interested, let’s talk about it!
