February 19, 2021 6 min read
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
The journey to be our best version is alluring, but it’s not easy.
Self-improvement is a project that soon becomes a challenging path when peeling the different layers of our personality, psyche and systems of beliefs. As with any other entrepreneurship, this exploration demands the “capacity and willingness to develop, organize and manage a venture along with any of its risks” and objections.
Spirituality is an initiative that connotes something bigger and far-reaching than a simple and single action. It’s a whole undertaking that is difficult and requires effort.
Spirituality is a marathon, not a sprint, and those faint of heart or the speed demons will discover it in a blink.
The same thing happens with startups that take 2 to 3 years to start being profitable, and success usually happens after 6 to 10 years of hard work. Even the wrongly labeled “overnight success” businesses have invested thousands of hours before reaching their golden period.
The reality is that enlightenment is a state that is attained over time. If you acknowledge that climbing Mount Everest from halfway up at Basecamp takes 26,364 steps, you can picture that reaching your highest version won’t happen in a couple of days.
But it doesn’t mean it’s not achievable. The 560 million early-stage entrepreneurs reported in 2019/2020 by Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, the 804,398 new businesses established less than one year ago in the US, and the almost 5,000 successful climbers of Mount Everest in history, have proven so.
Inner and outer enterprises
A new survey via Natrol Relaxia, revealed that 72% of Americans polled named 2020 as the most stressful year they’ve ever lived through, with 56% claiming they’re more anxious than ever before.
This is where the Inner Enterprise comes in.
It is the process to become our best self through a series of stages that will lead us to conscious growth and evolution. The outer enterprise is the journey to create our best expression through a profession, business, product or service.
The two of them undergo similar situations and events from the beginning, at the wake-up call or the identification of a need, all the way to the developmental stages that give life to new genesis and, yes, a marked reduction in stress.
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1st phase: need/opportunity glimpse
A situation, a comment, or even an observation becomes the spark. A forward pull inspires change and gives you a different perspective. This crucial moment erases the limitations and constrictions you are currently living and enables you to experience cosmic self-realization or the emergence of a big idea.
Whether it is the inner or the outer enterprise, what happens is that the call to adventure that leads to a new direction is received. After experiencing this incident, the deeply impacted inner or outer entrepreneur can only see forward.
2nd phase: concept development and research
You are in unsettling and that sensation fuels the seek. This new discovery might have already challenged your understanding of the self, beliefs, ideologies, practices, relationships and even worldviews.
You can’t unsee the vision of the higher reality that you can become or offer to the world, and that pushes you forward to find answers, learn more, navigate unexplored territories and dive into a larger world.
Known as a stage of information gathering and careful research, you are drawn to whatever aligns with your unique view.
The less analytical entrepreneurs will feel intuition guiding them towards the ways that suit them best. The more rational ones may identify it as the Reticular Activating System at full speed triggering patterns, connections and sensory inputs that show them exactly what they need to reach the potential they want to manifest.
What, how, who, for who, when and why will inspire an immersion in an information vortex needed to get that inner or outer initiative off the ground.
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3rd phase: the inner work
You go from an isolated investigation to practice.
The dedication to transforming information into knowledge sprouts into a new output and you begin to shift yourself or the world.
The regular application of what was learned removes mental, physical, emotional and energetic barriers harnessed by old beliefs and ignorance. You step into flow, where focus and passion trigger creation.
As the inner and outer development deepens, you become increasingly closer to what you aimed for after the spark illuminated your path. A like-minded community or team is created around you and the blueprint of what you are building is revealed. The layout extrudes into reality and the value to be provided as a new you or a new company/product/professional is ready to be presented to the world.
4th phase: clarity and refinement
By nature, evolution is only reached after the status quo is confronted. The spiritual path is then not excluded from struggle, and the outer enterprise will find success only after it’s tested by the community that will impact.
Shortcomings, feedback, deceptions, resistance and mistakes are uncomfortably needed for growth. These new barriers unfold to push you forward and promptly become crucial turning points in the existence of your inner and outer enterprises.
The darkness itself allows you to see the light and forces your thoughts, emotions, or behaviors to change and become more expansive, compassionate, innovative, forgiving, resourceful, etc.
At the beginning, it’s seen as a setback that blocks your progress, but it quickly turns into another wake-up call that tests your resilience and commitment. The result is the burst of a new adventure at a higher level.
This journey has four stages that signify completion or wholeness. A tetrad that carries the universal law of creation as is seen with the four elements, cardinal directions, seasons, and more.
A cycle in which each phase provides a greater understanding and finally restarts the natural process.
The premise that spirituality is not different from any other enterprise allows us to conclude that any daring and intricate project we embark on is not different from spirituality either. As such, the approach of how we embody it should not differ.
The disjointment of our inner and outer enterprises is what has so many of us working hard and not smart. We act alone and drain ourselves fighting a competitive battle instead of feeling connected and abundant.
Understanding the interconnection between our inner and outer enterprises is the first step to building the bridge that will join them and allow us to embrace life experience with our spiritual and human sides working as cooperative components.
The infinite connection principle becomes the foundation to recognize that the boundless knowledge we tap into when overwhelmed by a junction in life, is also available for the development of external projects.
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