I’m learning how to write again after some important time away. I’ve spent most of the last decade figuring out how I can create systems that will be of service to the world. I’m still figuring it out, and it seems that I now have more questions than answers.
Over that time period, I’ve been met with far more challenging lessons than I have successes. Even in those few times when I have tasted this success, it has never fulfilled me. Atleast, not in the ways that other forms of service seem to nourish me.
Perhaps, the attempt to be of service through creating systems is futile in itself.
Maybe I am asking the wrong question all together.
In my pursuit of creating systems that seemingly help me be of service to people, I’ve learned more about what not to do than anything else.
I have come across 3 key problems that I no longer know what to do with.
Problem 1: The sales process only seems to dilute the Godly aspect of the deed itself.
Sales has never felt good to me. Marketing has never felt good to me. The guru’s of the world, those with the loudest voices on the internet, say that I need to learn how to market my product and sell it in order to be successful. It is actually my sacred duty to learn sales so that I can bring my gift into the world.
I’m not going to blatantly say that this is false, because I don’t know. But I will say that this line is usually a key message within their own sales process, and you are their ideal client.
I have not been able to figure out, how exactly does one deliver their soul work through a sales and marketing process without first morphing it in order to fit the market?
Let me attempt to take the most sacred thing to me, my whole heart, my soul’s offering to the world, and filter it through a process that turns other souls into numbers on a stat sheet. This obsession with conversions, even when practiced by a company with a good cause, is one manifestation of the plague of greed and colonization that keeps us collectively ill.
This makes maintaining the purity of the offering and your heart in the right place is a constant uphill battle. This has been my experience with sales.
Maybe I just haven’t yet created something yet that I am passionate enough about to feel good selling. Maybe this is just my own purging process as I clean myself out from some deep layers of the greed that live within my own heart.
Or
Maybe this is just some sort of temporary hiccup in our world, that is waiting to be busted down and broken through. Maybe we’re just collectively purging this right now, until the day we see that our system is truly broken and we cannot keep participating in it when it’s convenient for us. Maybe the best solutions to problems in the world are meant to be simply solved, and not sold.
If getting clean water to every human on this earth paid well, it would’ve been solved by now.
That would be a true spiritual service, not a self serving entity wearing a cloak labeled spiritual service.
Problem 2: The more complicated systems we create, the more we have to rely on technology, the further we move from the earth.
I see more and more people who speak on spirituality and consciousness bring an approach to this conversation that basically says, “If we can’t beat em, join em.” The idea is to dive fully into all of the creations of the tech giants and make our lives fully dependent and reliant on these systems. If we do this, we will get really good at it, and we can stay ahead of the curve and bring a higher vibration into these worlds.
It’s a wonderful idea, and I truly wish I could buy into that way of thinking because it would make things easier. Unfortunately, the only way I see this ending is with technology eating us up and spitting us out. Our consciousness cannot compete with the algorithm. We can’t win this battle with good intentions. We’re outnumbered and overpowered.
I believe this technological movement is a phase. It might be a 100 year phase. It might be a 500 year phase. But we are not evolved enough to be able to handle the level of technology available to us. We are going to fall over the edge at some point, and the new earth is going to be rebuilt by those who have stayed close to the earth and have learned to work in harmony with nature as a focal point of their life. This is the only way that humanity will survive here on earth. Nature is in charge, and always will be. This tech problem is just a temporary problem that humans have brought here, and it cannot be solved by more tech.
What if I don’t see the fruits of my labor? What if my children don’t see the fruits of my labor? What if my grandchildren don’t see the fruits of my labor? Well, I have faith that the fruits of my labor will be felt by some children at somepoint in the future, and that makes it all worth it.
As I sit here and write this newsletter on my macbook, I still do not know where I draw the line with technology.
Problem 3: When the primary focus remains on a business creation to be of service, it takes time and energy away from being of service in non-creative ways, which is truly the most fulfilling piece.
I spent so much time focusing on building my business that I left countless precious moments of love, connection, and service on the table.
In the world of business, when the financial pressure is on, everything feels urgent. I’ve been around entrepreneurs who spend their whole lives in this energy. When you live this way, you miss some of the most valuable moments.
You miss the opportunity to stop and talk with the old lady in the grocery store.
It becomes difficult to tune into nature because your mind is now conditioned for constant fast-paced business.
You don’t spend as much time connecting with your parents and grandparents.
When your friend needs help moving out of their house, you say no because you have business problems to solve.
You become so connected with a vision that it becomes your life and you forget about the simple medicine of authentically connecting and making people smile.
If this type of humble service seems less important than your fancy business pursuits where you’ve convinced yourself that you’re going to save the world, you might want to check yourself.
Final notes:
Someone please smack me with this essay when I start my next business endeavor.
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Do you agree or disagree with my sentiments?