Inspired Creation, Effortless Delivery

Over the last several months, we’ve been exploring a new approach to business—everything from the stuff you love to do when you procrastinate to bringing forth more from the work that already exists.

And for the record, I’m so genuinely digging this conversation with you. The feedback you’ve sent my way tells me you’re digging it, too. Thank you.

Today, I’d like you to imagine this with me: Inspired creation, effortless delivery. Imagine returning to and becoming tuned into the work that matters most. Imagine feeling entirely on purpose again.A while back, we discussed the Paradox of Success in which the pursuit of success can become the catalyst for failure.

As you may recall, the Paradox of Success can be broken down into four phases:

1. When pursuing a new endeavor or project, you’re outfitted with a clarity of purpose and passion. Success is possible because your clarity is what inspires and connects you to others (customers, readers, clients, etc.)
2. As the success and connection of your endeavor grows, your reputation is formed. You become a “go-to” and you’re presented with increased options, opportunities, and opinions (this is a big one for online entrepreneurs). Unconsciously, your direction starts to shift and the clarity of purpose begins to waiver.
3. The new opportunities and changes in direction create new demands on your time and energy. Without realizing it, you begin to zig-zag on the path you’re traveling rather than staying the course forward.
4. Over time, you become distracted from your clear purpose and passion—the very thing that helped accomplish your earliest success. You find yourself so far off the mark that the work no longer feels like a calling, it feels like a grind.

In other words, success can having you zigging and zagging all over the map until you wind up lost and feeling entirely void of purpose.

But, let’s take a moment to look at that first phase again:

1. When pursuing a new endeavor or project, you’re outfitted with a clarity of purpose and passion. Success is possible because your clarity is what inspires and connects you to others (customers, readers, clients, etc.)

It is the initial clarity you had in the beginning that intersected with the customer’s desire and made your entire business possible. It’s where inspired creation and effortless delivery met an external need.

And paradoxically, that clarity is the first thing that goes missing when the journey begins.

Exciting, Joyful, Necessary

If you think back to when you started and why you started, there’s probably a thrilling moment—the kind of realization that gives you chills—where you realized you were on to something. It might’ve been the coming together of your business idea or a first sale, but everything about that moment was exciting and joyful. You had the realization that the work you were doing was wanted and necessary—your inspired creation met an external need.

And when you started to deliver it? Well, that was probably an absolute dream! So fun it felt effortless. I still remember lovingly packaging up my very first sales and putting them in the mail with pure delight. That didn’t feel like work, it felt like unadulterated play!

I‘m not suggesting that everything business-related remains carefree, exciting, joyful, and fun (squee!). You and I both know there’s hard work involved. We know the challenges we face often call us to shed our limiting beliefs and step into our bravest skin.

However, if clarity of direction is the first thing to go, it stands to reason that many of us have lost that pure feeling of being fully on purpose. There’s a good chance you’re reading this knowing that you have to strain a littler harder to still hear your very truest callings.

What’s the Work You Do When You Procrastinate?

When nobody needs anything of you, when you have time all to yourself, what do you do?
Here’s my answer: I read and research, write summaries, and create guided discovery lessons—like the blog post I’m publishing today.

It’s my definition of inspired creation, effortless delivery. However, It took me decades to realize that what comes so naturally and effortlessly to me could meet an external need and be of great value to others. That was my blindspot! Moreover and even after uncovering that blindspot, it took me years to figure out that I could let just this pour out of me as a career.

I erroneously believed a successful business had to be my natural abilities (inspired creation) + a whole lot of “something harder’s.” I mistakenly strategized that it had to be what I was inspired and inclined to do all day + a whole lot of have-to’s and added production.

My motto has always been: Your life. Your business. Your way. I had to walk away to come home to that again, and I can hardly wait to share what I’ve learned.Imagine this with me: Inspired creation, effortless delivery. Becoming tuned in to the work that matters most and feeling on purpose again. What does that look like for you?

Until next time and all the best,