Simple Success: More Fun, Less Rules

I just finished teaching a business class for a group of life coaches. It was a business class like no other. At one point I clearly said, “Stop using logic to figure out your marketing.”

You would think that advice would make the class members run for the hills, terrified of me and my wacky ways. No logic? In business? How can one possibly succeed as an entrepreneur without logic?

Easily. In fact, more easily. That’s the whole point. Letting go of logic leads to effortless success. I am not making this up – this is how I operate as an entrepreneur and coach.

Before we discover this easy method, most of us grasp onto logic like it’s a lifesaver. Want to market a class or workshop and have it sell out? Get books written by experts, study for months, learn the exact steps necessary, and then follow the formula. That is what our minds tell us. Taking that advice is exhausting, stressful, and a lot more effort than necessary.

When I told my class of coaches to stop using logic, I heard sighs of relief. At long last – permission to do what we already know, deep down, is the path to authentic success. The coaches were dying to listen to their own intuition, and once they started, creative ideas burst forth until we were brainstorming a variety of telecourse topics and marketing copy. We hammered out solutions to long-pondered problems in minutes.

That is the magic of getting into the creative flow, opening up to your own inner wisdom, and letting your inner wizard take over. We are all born with this skill, but it is often logicked out of us as we learn how to sit in neat little rows in square classrooms with specific, structured homework assignments. We get used to someone telling us what to do, if we’re right or wrong, and we have to follow certain steps to succeed. In fact, our whole educational experience pulls us further and further out of ourselves and away from trusting our own inner wisdom.

It can sound a little “woo woo” or over the top to say “tune into your spiritual guidance.” Our hearts beat a little faster at such irrational words, even as hope blooms inside that very same organ. For many of us, there is a sense of coming home to our heart wisdom, to a more comfortable way of being, when we start contemplating our intuition. Memories of times we have trusted or not trusted that little voice inside pop into our minds. We remember evidence of the value of this inner voice.

Having spent years re-attuning to this voice, I now live in exuberant celebration of it. Every day is sculpted at its direction – never perfectly, but always moving closer and closer to staying tuned in throughout the day.

The truth is, you already have plenty of logic. It’s already there. All those logical ways to market yourself, start a business, make money, and otherwise create success are not forgotten. When you step away from the logic and connect to intuition, you do not lose this information. Something much more magical, much more powerful happens: The exact piece of information you need, right now, merges with the creative idea you need, right now, to create the perfect next step in your journey.

If you’re ready to try this madness and experience success with effortless fun, creativity, and joy, here’s how to start. Take a moment to imagine the successful experience you are hoping to create. Imagine yourself giving the class, on your favorite topic, with a roomful of delighted, interactive participants. Imagine the full scope of your new business, thriving, fun, full of things you love to do. Imagine the book, finished, with its beautiful cover art. Whatever it is, live it in your imagination. Roll around in that feeling. Experience the love, the excitement, the peace – whatever you feel. Grab a notebook and jot down the first three ideas that come to you as you are reveling in that feeling. They may make no sense. They may be action steps that seem irrelevant. They may be words that relate to what you’re working on, or they may be something else. Just write. Then, take one of the steps. Write one of the sentences. Use what just came through from your inner wisdom in whatever way feels right. Watch what happens. Note how easy and fun that was, and the results you got, no matter how small. Rinse and repeat.

Over time, you’ll build evidence that this is really working. You’ll notice that your marketing campaign, your business idea, your whatever it is works – and it even makes sense. There is a mystical, beautiful logic to it after all. But you did not have to think hard, struggle, push, force, or fight to make it happen. You got to enjoy being in the creative flow, feeling good, and listening, always listening, to the inner wisdom that guides you perfectly, every step of the way.