Saturday I heard Dr. Wayne Dyer speak for the first time in person. I’ve watched his PBS specials and read his book. One segment of my curriculum for my Inner Alignment Intensive is even based in one of his books. So seeing him in person had been a goal of mine. It was truly better than I even anticipated. He pulled up a chair to a little coffee table, and it felt as if we were having a little fireside chat. And he was as real and authentic as anyone I’ve ever seen. And very, very funny!
I took a handful of notes as I was listening, and of course while I felt that most of what he said before, I still allowed it to land. As I was reviewing my notes, I realized I must declare that Wayne Dyer is an Aligned Entrepreneur. He earns money by being fully, exactly, no one but, himself. I want to share my favorite notes with you today. Quotes from Wayne are in bold. J
“At some point in one’s life it becomes necessary to rebuild all of ones beliefs.”
I coach entrepreneurs, and I believe that the specific work we do to shift their business into alignment with who they are is work that every entrepreneur must do at some point or another. We can build success via online marketing and hiding behind websites. We can build success by being really good at a particular craft or marketing approach and putting on a show. But to build sustainable success that feels easy to deliver, we need to spend a stage of life rebuilding beliefs from a place of alignment with our personal Truth, rather than that of our parents or culture.
“Letting go of the things you believe to be true is one of the most difficult things you will encounter.”
I’ve had, lets just say, more than ONE person, tell me that they “aren’t ready to work with me” as their coach just yet. Because they knew that a part of the work of alignment is letting go of beliefs that have guided them in the past in order to create new beliefs that will make their business much easier, but will feel very scary to the subconscious mind at the same time. This is work we do in stages over time, but the bulk of one’s transformation to new awareness happens quickly in an environment for change. And when one is ready, that environment, or teacher or coach, appears.
“If you say “I can’t” or “I won’t,” you’ll be a fringe dweller, dwelling on the fringe of consciousness.”
Here Dr. Dyer talked about how he encounters so many people who get the call to change, and they know it’s their time, but they come up with reasons that they can’t heed the call just yet. “I can’t afford it.” “They won’t let me.” Those people think they are conscious because they have studied the principles, but if they aren’t living them, then they aren’t conscious. They are on the fringe of consciousness. We see this so often in the coaching industry, you may even see it with your clients. If someone doesn’t have the result, they aren’t putting consciousness into action.
“Be absolutely faithful to that which exists only inside you.”
Many of my readers are participating this week in my 10-Day Believe Yourself Challenge. I designed this program based on the idea that you have a purpose and mission on this planet. That mission exists inside you, it is not external to you. And while you can get inspiration to help you tap into it from external sources, your perfectly designed business for you will come from within. What you talk about, how you say it, who you offer it to… make it in alignment with what you know to be true FOR YOU. We each came into this lifetime with a seed planted within us for who the fullest expression of ourselves could be. Use that seed in your business faithfully.
“The bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song.”
I loved this quote by Maya Angelou that Wayne brought forward into the conversation. I’d heard it before but it struck me anew at this time. I see so many entrepreneurs get hung up looking for the ‘answer’ of what is their perfect marketing message, or looking to provide an ‘answer’ to their clients. And yet for many of you, your song is what your clients seek, and the answer is nearly irrelevant. Who you are BEING matters more than what you are DOING. And if your being exudes your unique song, people will take notice. If you try to sing like everybody else, your song will be lost. The same will be true if you sing to be right. Just sing your song.
“The solutions to all of life’s problems are inside you.”
Oh this is something that we all believe in theory as coaches. The core premise of coaching is that the client has the answers, not us. And yet actually trusting and believing that each person has the answer for themselves takes discipline! Because assuming or asserting and answer is much faster and easier. Being a space of non-judgment for the client’s own answer to reveal itself, that takes commitment. My favorite coaches I’ve worked with are those who draw out of me my own Truth (even if I didn’t like it in the moment!), and that is what I strive to do with my own clients. I ask you to consider the harder but effective path and to resist looking for someone who gets their ego fed by giving you THEIR right answers, and instead find a coach who will guide you to your Truth.
“You don’t need to chase it – it will chase you.”
This ‘it’ is your purpose, or anything you desire. When we stop trying to chase it down – the money, the visibility, the success, and we instead focus on creating awareness of that which is chasing us, everything gets easier. It’s not always easy to shift the focus, however, in a world that trains us to chase down our goals!
“The minute you try to label it you’ve lost it.”
I believe this was a quote from “Living the Wisdom of the Tau.” While it was referring to the Tau, it is a pretty profound statement when we think about the struggle entrepreneurs have to name what they do. I have seen countless of us stuck in complete paralysis at the thought of naming what they do. Perhaps if we focused more on simply singing our song, like the bird does, and trust that our right people will see us and give us their own label anyway, we’d spend less time in stuck in our heads and more time living our hearts.
“The ideal of the soul is space. It is infinite. It must expand.”
Oh how I loved this conversation. The conversation was all about the expansiveness of the soul. It has no end, it must keep going. This is why we continually quest for ‘more’ as human beings, and why that is not a bad thing. Yet most people do not give themselves the space in their lives for their soul to expand in the direction of its purpose. We pack each day so full of ‘doing stuff,’ making things happen and getting good advice, that we leave no space for our soul to speak. Living in alignment requires space to tune in to the language of your soul. Each person’s speaks to them differently, and you must learn the language of yours. And then give it space to speak, and honor what it has to say.
“No desire. No action.”
I have a client who says “Desire is the Soul Speaking to You” and I wholeheartedly agree. This is the challenging part of getting into alignment. We need to be fully prepared to wait for our inner desire to speak to us and give us a direction. Yet, especially at the beginning of listening to our desire, we often don’t know how to recognize it. And then we get fearful that if we wait someone will *gasp* think we’re lazy. We often just simply must take action to get a result and use the result to adjust our action. The result of an action can help us to locate our desire. Knowing how to discern which is which can be tricky. That’s why I believe in coaching, and in particularly having a coach that aligns with these ideas who can help you find your own Truth about when to act and when to wait.
When I first got into business, Dr. Wayne Dyer was one of my biggest role models and sources of inspiration, and it turns out that still works for me today! What do you think? Let’s hear some comments!