Cast yourself. You are the spell. ~ T. Thorn Coyle, Evolutionary Witchcraft
I was drinking my coffee this morning, reading Danielle LaPorte's 17 Declarations On Business Life, and it brought some things to mind:
It's interesting to contemplate "business life." What does that really mean (can't it mean many things?) If you were to go to a dictionary and look up the word business, you would find many definitions. I particularly like:
- purposeful activity
- mission
- creation, concoction
- maximum effort
- and, of course, "a bowel movement, used especially of pets" (though it really doesn't fit in with today's discussion; still, funny stuff, folks)
I want my whole life to "mean business." After my Reclaiming Initiation, a friend asked what the purpose of Initiation was, and my response was "I want to show myself that I mean business." So yes, I love these ideas Danielle LaPorte has put forth, not just for "business life" but for my I Mean Business life.
As I was looking through her list of 17 declarations, one really knocked me on my ass. It was toward the bottom, but I would launch it right up to the top. This declaration is the one that I think is a most important and fundamental step toward the I Mean Business life:
Show up as yourself.
Danielle goes on to say that people are dying inside because they are not showing up, and I know this to be true, from lived experience. I have a past that is heavily flavored with trying to hide, with trying to fit into a smaller space, with trying to numb out and not be present. And though it often feels like the answer to a lot of problematic parts of life (a job that isn't fulfilling, a relationship that has run its course, a spiritual group that requires more conformity, less audacity) I can tell you this:
Not showing up only leaves your truth out of the equation. The problem is still there, you are still there, but with less than all of your vibrancy, your singularity, your presence and your faculties and your true skills.
If you only show up with the tools that everyone else has, there won't be an aha moment. Bring your weird to the table, it will make a difference.
If you are numbing out, you are only bringing your dull and rusty tools. Keep your sharp edges- it's hard to dig a new path without them.
If you are being small, you aren't making anyone comfortable. Bring your real self and shine big. If we witness liberation, we know liberty as possibility.
I love how Danielle puts it: "So if you're You - at the meeting, at the club, on the bus, in love - well, then that would make you automatically exceptional." And Thorn gets it, too, in her challenge to cast yourself. You are an energy that has manifested here, now, to be. To Fully Be. Because You Are Needed. Because You Are Necessary.
Because You Mean Business.
