Lessons in Finding Flow: Effort vs. Results
I received the books for the Money Flow Experience today! If you haven’t checked out the event yet, please do so here. It was amazing to unbox these beautiful books that I had spent so long creating, and it got me thinking about the elements of finding flow in our businesses.
One of the most crucial elements of finding flow in your business is joy: finding joy in what you’re doing and how you’re doing it.
It reminded me of a paragraph that I read in the Gita.
The Bhagavad Gita is one of Hinduism’s most important spiritual texts. It recounts the conversation between Arjuna, a warrior hero, and Krishna, a deity. Arjuna is about to go into battle, and he’s looking for advice on how to live his life.
At one point, he asks Krishna how he can be sure that he is worthy enough to go into battle. Krishna answers that one’s worth is not equivalent to the results that one produces, but rather the quality of attention that one puts into a task.
In high school, I played on my school’s tennis team. I would often play one or two matches after school, and then get home with only a few hours to study.
If I put my full attention into my studies when I got home, everything always seemed to work out, even if I felt like I didn’t have enough time to do things perfectly.
But if I went home and didn’t use my time wisely – talked on the phone with friends or watched too much TV – I always ended up paying the price on a test or pop quiz the next day.
It taught me an important life principle that I use every day: I always give 100% and do everything in my power to create the best outcome for any project.
Because if I give my all and something still doesn’t work out, then I know that it just wasn’t meant to be.
Perhaps the universe has something better for me, or the timing wasn’t right. This outcome is so much easier to accept than blaming myself for not trying hard enough – and it lets me live without regrets.
This is exactly what Krishna is referring to when he tells Arjuna that one’s worth is determined not by the results that their actions yield, but by the energy that one puts into those actions.
So many of us as business owners spend way too much time worrying about our results, trying to control our results, trying to make sure that we get *exactly* what we want.
When we don’t get the results that we want, we blame ourselves. We tell ourselves that we messed up. We feel sorry for ourselves, which takes away our joy and prevents us from having the energy to try again.
Doing business this way is exhausting. And it doesn’t work.
My invitation to you this week is to take Krishna’s advice. Tie your self-worth to the energy and attention that you put into each project rather than the results that come out of it.
When you go to bed at night, give yourself credit for showing up completely to your work, no matter what the results are showing.
Watch how much more joyful you can be when you focus on what you can control instead of what you can’t.
Here’s to all of us experiencing more joy and more flow by focusing on the attention we put into something rather than what comes out of it.
And if you are ready to come to an event that combines spirituality, business strategy, ceremony, and ritual to help you call in a new vision with flow and ease – check out the Money Flow Experience (May 10-12).
