Exploring What is the Inner Journey of Entrepreneurship
Are you traveling the inner journey consciously?
What is this Inner Journey of Entrepreneurship anyway? In this post, I’d like to give language to what it is, all the while acknowledging that our interior experiences are so different from one person to another.
The intention is to create some awareness of what it means to be on this inner journey because it’s invisible making it more likely to be ignored or undervalued. What becomes known, can therefore become more valued. And what is valued, can be cared for.
So, what exactly is this Inner Journey of Entrepreneurship?
Each of us, as women will have a unique internal experience that plays out on our journey of entrepreneurial endeavours.
We have an inner experience of being ourselves that includes emotions and feelings. Inside the home of ourselves we have our energy (think energy/ drive) for work and life. Also inside us is the place where our stories, memories and experiences reside; it’s where our reasons for being in business and our “why” lives, along with our hopes and dreams.
All of this inner part of ourselves is in constant flux and influencing and being influenced by our business building activities. Our inner world is not separate from our day to day activities, even as you’re reading this you can pause to notice what’s happening in your interior.
So, the Inner Journey of Entrepreneurship is that inner experience you are having as you start, build and grow your business.
This means we’re all on an inner journey, what varies is the degree of awareness, care and intention we bring to it and the extent to which we are cultivating “inside” skills that support how we build our businesses and live our lives.
Why does it matter that we travel the Inner Journey with intention?
In this section I’m going to shared some reasons why being on a conscious Inner Journey can benefit us as we build a business and a life we love.
One way to understand how things matter is by naming what happens when we ignore or neglect them.
Just like ignoring our body and health creates a host of problems, so does ignoring our Inner Journey. Some of the challenges that come to mind are putting off work because we don’t “feel” like it, being riddled with doubt and putting off posting on social media or being blown over because we got sucked into social and started comparing our success to everyone else’s. It’s worth knowing what’s hard or tricky inside you and get curious about can be different.
Inside us is where we define what success means to us and what expectations and standards we’ll set for ourselves.
There are a million versions of success but what exactly is yours? You get to chart your course and define your success — that’s a big reason for being entrepreneurs right? It’s worth getting crystal clear on your definition of success and then guarding it like a pearl and making it happen. But if your definition of success is tethered to the outside world or you don’t know what it is you’ll find yourself chasing everyone else’s definition every single day. You’ve got to anchor into your own version of success or you’ll burn yourself out and struggle to be content.
The Inner Journey matters because it is intimately connected with your Outer Journey of being productive and building your business.
As we build our business we want to be productive and have good daily momentum towards our goals. So it matters that we create our best energy to work. Just like a car needs fuel, good tires, an oil change or washer fluid to stay on the road, so do you need to marry up your inner world to the outer world in order to be and stay on the road. (Equally you have to know when to get off the road and head to a rest stop or park the car….)
Your interior matters because it’s the home of your life experience, learning and education.
Inside you is where you’ll source your wisdom, and point of view on what it is you’re doing. No amount of course consumption or book reading will bring forward the perspective you hold unless you access what you uniquely know and share it. It will take effort to curate the gems and gifts of your knowledge but it’s what your business needs to stand out. And when you are anchored in your wisdom you’ll be less swayed by the opinions around you.
The Inner Journey is about uncovering and living out your purpose.
You might call this being in your zone of genius and making your unique contribution. It feels like authenticity and not needing to be anyone else but you. While the outer journey will give you lots of clues about what you do that’s different and special (and what will make for your brand of awesome) it’s inside that it’s honed and clarified.
The Inner Journey matters because inside is where we house our emotions and feelings.
This is juicy and messy terrain. Ignore your emotions to your detriment (Take it from me, this doesn’t work out well.) or invite them in and watch the journey take on new meaning. Yeah, this one is interesting but when you start to lean into the fact that feelings are signposts for your needs you’ll find a deep appreciation for your emotional landscape that will make joy more accessible and you’ll learn ways to deal with your stress and inner crazy to bring in the calm you so need to do your best work.
Inside you is where connection lives; connection to ourselves and connection with others.
Human connection is both incredibly nourishing and often very intense or challenging. When you have a deep connection to yourself you are more able to be in the relationships that matter to you, including with your clients. Your clients will feel more connected to you and you’ll find a deeper sense of satisfaction in your relationship to them. But you need to start with connecting to you, inside of you outwards, not the other way around (also known as people pleasing).
This inner journey is invisible and unseen.
In our world and especially in the world of business, we tend to place value on what is seen and visible. We place a high premium on our productivity and output! Given this emphasis on activity and contribution it’s worth understanding how your internal experience supports and/or hinders and/or shapes your work. And to be in business for the longer term you also need to be wise about managing and caring for your precious internal resources.
I hope this letter has inspired you to travel your own inner journey more intentionally. If you feel inspired to share how you describe your inner journey I’d love to hear from you in the comments below.
