The Naked Essence Of Success

I talked to an entrepreneur the other day who was doing all the right things. She was taking massive action. Her website was gorgeous, her branding consistent, her copy was excellent, and she was obviously incredibly educated in the area of marketing and sales.

And she was broke.

In spite of all her hard work, in spite of making massive investments in herself, in spite of putting herself out there and building her list … she would only enroll the occasional client now and then. She certainly wasn’t making a living.

After talking to her for fifteen minutes, it became pretty obvious to me why she wasn’t making money.

You see, what she was really doing was looking for proof of her value.

She was looking for proof of her value in the way her list responded to her.

She was looking for proof of her value in her client’s results.

She was looking for proof of her value in her sales figures and in her bank account.

She had managed to tether her perception of her own inherent value to everything and anything OUTSIDE of herself.

What she really, truly wanted was for the Universe to prove her value to her.

It happens a lot.

We think that, when we create a certain income level, when we have a certain number of clients, when our clients create results, when we fill our event with a certain number of attendees …. THEN, then we will be successful, or accomplished, or an expert.

We chase new results because those results would CHANGE OUR PERCEPTION OF WHO WE ARE. Those new results would mean that we are the person we long to be. This is the essence of attachment. Our identity gets wrapped up in our results.

It always creates lack.

Our ego takes over, desperate and needy for validation, we get more strategic, we work harder, we educate ourselves incessantly and invest in ourselves relentlessly, looking for that missing link or piece that will finally, finally “make” us “successful.”

Of course, our results can never change us.

Instead, it’s when WE CHANGE that our results also change.

It’s when we stop trying to prove ourselves that proof appears.

It’s when we stop working so damn hard that making money gets easier.

It’s when we stop imitating others that our uniqueness shines and attracts our ideal client.

It’s when we stop trying to be successful that success shows up.

New results start on the inside, and are reflected outside of ourselves.

The necessary change within us is not an evolution.

It’s a return.

We drop everything that we are not, and stand in the simple Truth of who we are, as a Divine Being, inherently, infinitely valuable just because we ARE, and because we dare express ourselves into this human experience, without apology.

It’s not hard. It just takes massive amounts of courage.

Here’s my favorite analogy. Imagine standing naked on a platform in Times Square, for all the world to see, and judge, and value – or not. Standing naked is easy. It’s not hard work. But it would take tremendous courage to start stripping down. And as the clothes come off, it would probably be highly uncomfortable. And some people would think you’re crazy and others would think you’re amazing. Everyone would have an opinion. And this would bother you, or elate you, and drive you nuts. But perhaps eventually you would stop paying attention to what other people think of you and fully experienced the safety and ease of your own nakedness. And if you can get comfortable there, naked, you’d have the incredible joy of simply being you.

It’s not hard work. It’s just really, really difficult until it becomes really, really easy.

This is why we evolve our consciousness – so that our ego stops chasing who it thinks it should be.

We evolve our consciousness so that we can identify with and express our Soul’s inherent nature, nakedly and joyfully, into the world.

To your success,
Andrrea Hess