The simple reason you aren’t finding the success you want…
When I first left the corporate world, I was grateful to have my yoga “career” to fall back on. It was great to have to show up somewhere each week, deliver and to have a small but steady stream of income. Plus, for years I had been dreaming of trading in my desk for the yoga studio. So I threw myself into teaching, taking on additional classes, subbing up a storm and running my ass all over New York City.
But there was a problem. A big one.
Even in all the years that I had dreamed about having the freedom to teach more, I knew it wasn’t the career path for me.
And it wasn’t. Because I had a different definition of success.
I adore yoga and I love sharing the practice and benefits with others. But a rigorous teaching schedule was preventing me from being focused on the career and company I did want to pursue. (I had days last summer where I’d teach six or so times over the span of 14 or so hours, riding the subway up to 8 times I could barely keep right and left straight – let alone focus on my coaching practice.)
Disappointed with the progress I was making in my business, I knew something had to change, but not exactly what that thing was.
Slowly, insights started to drip in.
It was time to take a step back from teaching. Of course the first time the thought popped up, I felt torn apart, completely rejecting the idea.
It’s preposterous!
Teaching is what I do! It’s a differentiator in my business!
I can’t possibly walk away from something I love so much or have worked so hard for.
I should be able to teach and run a business, shouldn’t I?
But the seed was planted. And because I process EVERYTHING out loud, it started creeping it’s way into conversations.
“But you love teaching,” one friend claimed.
“I do love it, but I don’t need it in the same way I did in my corporate job.” I found myself telling her.
In another conversation, I told a fellow yogi that I was starting to realize I was not a yoga teacher who happened to be starting a business, but rather a business woman who happened to teach yoga.
Conversations like these starting taking place more and more frequently. And while I knew what needed to happen, I couldn’t get myself to pull the trigger.
I signed up for another teacher training, and led an international retreat; experiences which reinforced how valuable, worthy and important teaching yoga is.
I was overwhelmed by fear and stuck in the excuses that stemmed from it.
I set deadlines, which came and went without any movement. Questions like: What if I regret it? What if I fail? What then? rambled through my head and heart.
I wish I could tell you the exact moment or thing that finally spurred me into action. But I can’t.
What I can tell you is that over a matter of weeks, it became increasingly more clear that the time had come. I became reluctant to wake up for my morning class, I started feeling jealous that my students were practicing and I wasn’t and I started making plans for when I wouldn’t be there anymore.
And it felt like shit. Because, allowing myself to stay stuck was more painful that getting unstuck.
So early one morning, not able to tolerate it anymore, I sent the email. A month later the date was set. One month after that, I taught my last morning class. The last morning I taught, I was a bit sad to say goodbye to my students. But mostly – I just felt freedom.
And then an interesting thing happened.
Over the next month, my coaching business doubled.
Now, it easily could have gone a different way. But it didn’t. And I know it didn’t because I was willing to let go of one thing in order to make space for the thing I wanted to happen.
I was willing to bet on my own growth by risking what was comfortable. By giving up something I loved, because it no longer served my ultimate goal. How I defined success.
This principle applies to you too. Whether the success you are seeking is in your career, romantic life, or something else you won’t find success unless you make the space for it.