"Take the challenge of your life. Reach out to your goals. There is no limit to what you can achieve." - Lailah Gifty Akita

The basic foundation of conscious entrepreneurship is to always let your intuition have the last word. I write that with the caveat that you need to be in tune with your intuition and have cleared your energy to be able to have the discernment to be properly guided. Most of the most brilliant entrepreneurs I know were told at the beginning of their journeys that they were nuts to pursue the path they set out on, but they had that gentle feeling inside nudging them along despite all external aspect pointing towards failure (whatever that means anyway!). For the purpose of this article and the attached podcast, I am focusing on four areas:

• Business idea/planning
• Establish and build up resources (finance, supply lines, communities, etc.)
• Launch
• Manage and operate the business

Business Idea/Planning

Have you ever asked yourself, "Where is this idea coming from?", when you have a bright insight or idea? I am not necessarily going to provide you with a answer to that question, scientific or otherwise, but rather my thoughts around it. However, I also want you to ask yourself that question and remain open to receiving what ever answer is out there for you. I don't believe in coincidences, I believe in vibrational matches. When everything is vibrating at the perfect frequency for something to materialise, being it an idea, chance meeting, or anything else, it happens. This is why the idea comes to you, and I mean that literally, you are a vibrational match for that idea to be attracted to you and to materialise within you. It is then up to you to run with it or let it go. 

This concept shows why it is critically important for us to constantly seek to become the optimal version of ourselves, so that we constantly grow and attract experiences that truly serves us. When we heal our core woundings we stop attracting the lessons we need to learn as they relate to the core woundings. Those lessons can cause us to experience poor flow and performance in our conscious entrepreneurship. 

Your motivations will often be tainted by your core woundings, conditioning  and programming. Hence, your awareness of these will dictate how "clean" your motivation is as you make decisions about your business plan. For example, if you are motivated by fear or lack, it will be reflected in how you go about trying to make your business successful and you have lessons show up in your business teaching you about those feelings and emotions, you will attract that which you hold as your core energy. There are no shortcuts in that work, you have to do it bottom up, inside out. 

In order for your to go the distance and succeed in your business, you need to resonate with the business and it's purpose, you need to be aligned. I like to look at this from a perspective of setting my Massive Transformative Purpose (MTP, source: Singularity Hub).

Every action I take or experience I have must then reflect or support my MTP, and the same with the business plan, the reason for any of the items you put in your plan can be explained with a link back to the MTP.

Intuition is an internal experience and is linked to the heart. Conscious entrepreneurship is very much about the heart and not the mind. The mind only concerns itself with external validation and is often at odds with your intuition. Go with your heart first and then see if the mind agrees, if it doesn't, check your motivation and discernment. 

We are in pursuit of balance and equilibrium, and if you don't feel that in the long run, you need to check in with yourself and see where the imbalance is. If you have to struggle in your business year in and year out, something is not right and other aspects of your life are surely suffering because of it. Seek out the balance and find the harmonious equilibrium. Predict this in your business plan and make sure that any imbalances are temporary. Sure, you do have to put in the effort and work hard in the start-up phase and at times during the rest of the journey with your business, but don't wear the "I-am-an-entrepreneur-therefore-I-have-no-life" badge of honour, because it is an illusion. Also, it should not feel like a struggle, when you are in flow then you are in the element and everything happens with ease.

Establish Resources

This analysis is of course part of the business plan, but it is one we often don't delve deep into, nor make a comprehensive analysis of. We also don't tend to look at it from the perspective of conscious entrepreneurship. We always have to be accountable for what we attract into our lives, because it is the energy we hold that will determine what we attract. Have you thus attracted the resources that you need for your endeavour, i.e. people, finances, clients, suppliers, knowledge, skills, etc.? If you haven't or aren't, what is it that is blocking you from realising it? This is, again, deep work where you reveal hidden aspects of yourself that may very well be very uncomfortable to revisit, but necessary all the same. 

Launch

This is where your prep work will prove to measure up, but there will always be snags and challenges, but with the best planning and work leading up to the launch, you will have done what you can. Remember, when you encounter a crisis or challenge, it is not the best in you that comes out, but rather, you sink to your lowest level of preparedness, so make sure you have worked on your core woundings and conditioning to take things in strides. As the Prussian Field Marshal from the 19th Century, Helmut von Moltke, wrote in an essay, "No plan of operations extends with any certainty beyond the first encounter with the main enemy forces." Remove any attachment from your expected outcome and open yourself up for the opportunities that the flow of energy will offer up. Hold a high frequency within yourself to attract the most favourable outcome and to create the best circumstance for you to be in flow. 

Managing the Business

Similarly, it is important that you manage yourself and are aware of how you show up in your business. Conscious entrepreneurship is very much about being conscious of yourself and your business through mindfulness. The energy that flows through you and the business is dynamic and ever changing and you have to flow with it.  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi presented the flow state beautifully in his career. The best way, according to him, to kill off your flow is to stagnate. You want to be in constant motion between being challenged and mastering. Don't fall victim for where you think you have nothing more to learn, then the flow dies off.

Many clients I work with find, after a few years, that they are lost, they've lost their spark. Often we end up doing work that doesn't inspire us. Constantly check in with yourself as to what your motivation for doing tasks in your business, does the task inspire you or is it slowly killing your spark? If it isn't lifting you up, delegate it as soon as you can, make it a priority.

The underlying purpose for your business is for you to learn, experience, grow and contribute. Make sure you do not stagnate. Keep your MTP in focus, but reassess it periodically, and set medium and long term goals that serve the MTP. Set quarterly, annual and longer term OKR's (Objectives and Key Results) to keep you on track against your goals. Goals and OKR's are topics all of in of themselves, but you can easily search them up and learn about these very useful tools. 

Taking the step out to practicing conscious entrepreneurship takes courage and practice, but on the other end you will experience success with ease, stress will be a thing of the past, you will have confidence in your boundaries, your mental resilience and fortitude will the envy of others and you will have an outlook on life that is sunny as a spring day without the naiveté. The list of benefits goes on and on, but like most things, the effort you put in now comes back to serve you on the other end.