I am here, this is it. The holidays are drawing to a close, and I am getting ready to move into position, take three steps forward, and open the doors of The Wabi Sabi School of Mindfulness for the first time. I see golden sunlight streaming in, there are poppies everywhere, a field of poppies, and this is bigger than the Emerald City because I am about to walk into the life I have been waiting for since before I was born. It’s what awaits us when we are ready to step into all that we are, all that we are meant to be, when we embrace, fully, who we are, without apology, without downplaying it, without excuses as to why we have not made it here yet, or proclamations about where we will be a year from now.

This is what I have been waiting for. Not the school, not teaching, not mentoring, not having my own business, I have been waiting for the moment when I would finally be ready.

Not ready to do the work, ready to do the work without fear.

Not planning for the future from a fear-based place but knowing that if I just do the work I need to do right now, in this moment, write one page at a time, greet one student at a time, mentor one person over the phone at a time, the rest will take care of itself. I am ready to meet each day, each challenge, each joyful moment, right where it is and give myself fully and completely in the moment without losing half of the experience afraid if I am doing it “right” or if someone else is doing it better of different. Each of us has a unique soul print on the world. 1000 people could teach the exact same material and it would be 1000 different universes of teaching, learning, and experience. We don’t need to worry about doing something new, we need to concentrate on doing something that is true for us, something that rises out of the complex fiber of our being which has been growing and growing through the years. We are like fisherman casting our nets out in the deep waters of life and we each pull up many different kinds of treasures and experiences that with our essential nature and natural talents makes anything we do unique.

Too many people wait and wait and wait (I know this, I was one of them) because they are trying to either figure out what is “different,” what they might do that has never been done before, or they are trying to copy what someone else has done because it has been successful. Neither approach will work. When you put your own spin on things you bring people who were never drawn to the work that you are doing because there wasn’t the right person doing it in just the way you are doing it. It is synchronicity. You come together in space and time when the moment is right. The age old saying When the student is ready the teacher appears… is also true in the reverse. When the teacher is ready the students appear.

Too, you don’t want to copy someone else just because they have been successful doing what they are doing. This is a cheat, and the person you are cheating is yourself. There is no doubt that there are certain paradigms that seem to work but all of a sudden hoards of people are copying one successful person and it works for awhile but then it is just so many cookie cutter cut-outs and most of those don’t succeed. Learn from those who are successful, use business strategies that work, but take your own idea and nurture and raise it like you would your own child because it, too, is a child of your body. Think about it that way and you don’t mind the long hours, the sleepless nights, the doubts and fears.

When you have a human baby, and I’ve had three, you run into every single doubt, insecurity, fear, and more than you can imagine but you have no choice but to keep on. There is the baby. You keep on keeping on and read books and talk to other parents and it is the hugest on the job training experience of a lifetime. You can feel as though you were shot out into outer space without a manual as how to drive the ship. But in the end you figure it out, you do the best you can, and look what you end up with — a child you love, adore, and share your life with, cherishing every moment, and still there will be challenges and problems and you just keep on keeping on. It is no different than starting a business. Are you ready to have a child? To love it and nurture it no matter what color hair it ends up having or if it goes through colicky nights and you have to walk the floors and it spits up all over you. In the middle of all of that you can end up saying, “WHAT was I thinking?” but you get up every day, and in each moment you just continue on. I am birthing a business. I’m afraid I won’t know everything I need to but BOMBS AWAY! Here I go!

As to the fear of not knowing what to do I have an incredible business coach, Dr. Rachna Jain. I think if you are serious about starting a business today it is essential to have a coach and to study everything you can. I would not be here without Rachna and she is just beyond incredible. There are many other wonderful coaches too, lots of them. You will find the one that fits best for you.

And as far as never feeling ready to begin finally you just have to jump in and DO IT! One of my favorite quotes, and it has become a mantra as I begin, was something I heard Marie Forleo say, “Everything is figureoutable.” Dang, that was enough to make me jump in the deep end. As my Zen teacher said, “If not, why not? If not now, when?” Feeling like you are ready is half of the equation, but the other is having faith in yourself, that you can figure things out, get the help you need, find the resources you need for your business, and today with the internet you are never alone, there are coaches, books, courses, resources galore and tons of things for free! Anymore if I can’t figure something out I go to YouTube. There’s nothing you can’t learn going to YouTube.

In the end, it all comes back to having the confidence in yourself that you get by slowing down, centering yourself, breathing, and staying, as often as you can, in the present moment, and when you stray away, as we all will, bring yourself back gently. Gently, please. Soft, slow, and gentle gets the job done a whole lot faster than self-loathing and beating yourself up. Haven’t you had enough of that already for 10 lifetimes?

I will be spending the rest of the day working on getting things ready. The school will open in early January but in a few days I am going to start my private Mindfulness Mentoring program and I am going to do something that I am very excited about that Rachna encouraged me to do and that will be a “Pay What You Can” option through January. My regular fee, at present, for private coaching is $250 an hour, but until the end of January you can have a 30 minute mentoring call for $50 and up, whatever you can pay. I want to help the most people that I possibly can, I want people to really understand what it is that I do, how I can help them. The thing is, Mindfulness Mentoring, as I do it, has a core approach but it can apply to any situation in life. And your first call can be gotten at a bargain! That page should be up by the end of the day.

So you see, there is a world of possibilities that will open up for you like the thousand petals of the lotus flower when you are ready, and you are ready when you trust yourself, and you will trust yourself when you slow down, really learn who you are, what your purpose is, and most importantly learn to love yourself. That is the core principle. Maitri (The practice I wrote about in yesterday’s entry.)+Mindfulness is what I teach. Love yourself, live fully in every moment, and the world is your oyster. There are limitless possibilities. Potent possibilities abundant as I have written about for decades.

I never thought I would get to this place. I now get up everyday without fear, brimming over with excitement, filled with love and joy. I am finally ready, and man oh man does it feel good!

Warm Regards & Deepest Blessings To All,