Note: this was written as a stream of consciousness, typing as fast as I can. I didn’t go back and change it, because I wanted it to be real, the way I felt it. If you don’t already know me, I tend to ramble in long sentences. Get used to it. 🙂
Five years ago I stopped working in my business. For several reasons, it felt like it was time to take a break and re-evaluate what I was doing. I stopped teaching and stopped writing. I spent a lot of time on the beach re-assessing things. It was time to simplify.
Normally when things get tough, the Taurus in me puts her head down and pushes through. What I’ve learned is that sometimes I pushed through things that were meant to be walls that said stop, do not proceed. If I heard the message or saw the signs, I ignored them and kept pushing.
Since a big part of how I work and how I mentored other entrepreneurs was through my intuition, I had to ask myself, “How could I not see this clearly?”.
I had made a mistake that cost me a lot of money and created significant stress in my life. It shook me to my core. Looking back it seems my interpretation of the situation was harsh. I magnified a negative spin I had put on the situation. Now I realize I gave it such an over the top meaning because I needed a catalyst to take me through a new journey to learn what I’m teaching now.
I needed to take time to regroup, restore and renew.
To complicate matters, I was one of many who were hit by financial loss after 2008. So ending this stream of income wasn’t going to be without consequences.
I was never an extravagant person in the way I lived, except for my love of travel, so those 10-12 weeks of vacation each year were definitely not in my lifestyle for a while.
I moved back to Cabo San Lucas, a place I loved, and downsized everything. Yes, I was living in Cabo, but not in the big way I had when I lived here in the 90’s. Instead, I lived in a simpler way that seemed more appropriate to the inner work I was doing. The key for me then was peace, quiet, and simplicity.
For a long time I felt stuck, and to my surprise, I spent a little too much time beating myself up for not being perfect. That was a joke on me because I had prided myself on giving up being a perfectionist years ago.
I was going through a dark night of the soul. It was challenging that it lasted longer than I expected, definitely longer than a night. I did a lot of soul-searching, a lot of spiritual reading, and at the same time, I probably spent too much time in my head.
I didn’t know how long this stage was going to last. I wondered if God decided that I had my run, a decade of living my passion and purpose and then it was over? I wondered what my new mission was, what was coming next.
I still wanted to participate. I still wanted to give. I just wasn’t sure what my message was. I had lost the clarity I had always had.
While I was struggling with not knowing what my new mission was, I watched people who had been some of my closest business friends increase their impact, create, teach, and seem to be having a great life. Sometimes, this just made me feel even more frustrated, and at other times it propelled me because I wanted my life back and to find out what I was to do next.
I said wanted my life back, but actually I wanted an improved version of my old life. There were so many things I wanted to share but I wasn’t sure which area I was where I was supposed to make a new contribution. I just didn’t have my usual sense of clarity and purpose.
Sometimes it felt like my life fell apart. It’s more like I took a sledge hammer to it to punish myself for not being perfect. It’s interesting though. Part of me knew even while I was doing it, that it was a necessary part of my process and I needed to crash what I was doing to restart and get to the next level. Lynn Pierce 2.0 But it felt so strange because what was crashing was the very thing I teach, it’s what I know, and yet it was instrumental to my growth for me to forget it in the moment.
Going through a dark night of the soul is painful and it feels never ending. But, it’s all worth it in the end when you finally come out the other side with a new view of everything and a new inner strength that is bigger and better than ever before.
Yes, it’s trial by fire, but that’s how great things are forged.
I had a couple people at different points through this process give me another frame of reference. A new reference point is only valuable when you are willing to take it on. I had to wait until I was willing to put away the past, come out of my cave and look at the gifts that had been left for me. The clarity comes when you’re ready to take it on.
While I was going through it I wondered why had I chosen to give an occurrence, (a bad real estate deal) that so many other people would have just brushed off such a heavy meaning? Yes, it was a very expensive mistake, but that wasn’t the main point. Yes, on one level, I ‘should’ have seen the signs. And yet, to get through this lesson of transformation, I had to go blind to these things to move through them.
When something happens that you seem to over-great to, you can always relate it back to things from childhood, the primal buttons that get pushed. Or, you can take it as a sign that there is something much bigger and more meaningful going on.
From where I am now, I can see clearly that this was the next step on my path.
To be a better teacher, a more compassionate leader, these were the lessons I had to learn…and there were many!
I’ve never been good at reaching out to people or sharing what’s going on in my life, especially when I’m not feeling good about what’s happening. So I went way too long struggling through this alone. At the same time, maybe that was what was required, a solitary quest. I do believe I would have benefited from reaching out sooner, but I took the long and winding road instead.
Now I can come out of my cave and share all the lessons I learned while I was in the dark valley.
I feel stronger in being able to speak my truth. I am committed to being me, without worrying about whether my peers or anyone else approves. That’s a big step for me because I used to want everyone to like me and never rock the boat. I’m sure there will be times that I struggle with this, but I’m committed to it.
My old business organically decided for itself that my niche was spiritually based women entrepreneurs. I did have some great male clients, but 98% were women. It’s clear to me that the lessons I have to share, while useful to all soul-based entrepreneurs, are critical for women over 50.
I feel aligned with pretty much everything I was doing before. Now it’s clear I need to add the topics of health and wellness as part of your ageless life and business. So I am now taking an even more holistic approach to helping business women over 50 be ageless.
I’ll talk more about what all this looks like later, but this just started to pour out and I thought it would be a good idea to write it down and get it out of my head and my heart and into the world.
Take from this what you may see in yourself here. I’d like to invite you to join me in this process.
I had a feeling that other women over 50 had gone through some kind of transformation in their life and business too. So I started to look around and see what people were up to. This kind of stuff isn’t something most women are going to post on Facebook or tweet about. So I had to look a little closer and reach out to people and ask.
I found there are plenty of women who have such challenging and beautiful stories of transformation and triumph. We all have our own kind of speed bump that gets in the way, but rarely can you get to this age without having one.
So I’m going public with my transformation and so are some other amazing women over 50. They will be joining me in a telesummit in January to share their stories, what they learned, how it transformed them and what they are doing now. I’ll get you more info on that soon because I’m sure if you’re reading this, you’ll want to hear these stories.
So, to answer why you should care?
Because if this hasn’t already been you, it probably will be at one point in the not so distant future. My lengthy journey may be able to save you time by knowing the signs and having a path to work through it and come out bigger and better quicker than I did. I know for sure I can help you create the life and business you want to have from this point forward.
I want you to be healthy, happy and have an ageless life and business. I will now be living my life more publicly as my own example of what living an ageless life and creating an ageless business means to me.
For now:
The first step to creating your ageless lifestyle and business is to create the foundational document for your life, your Personal Manifesto. If you haven’t completed this document yet, click here to get your free copy of the special report which walks you through the process and gives you a template to use for creating your own personal manifesto.
Then you can move naturally into the next step of creating and achieving the goals you’ve set in the recognition of what you choose to manifest as your divine soul purpose. Click here for help with your goals. It’s all part of allowing your ageless mind to successfully manifest the ageless lifestyle you choose to create through living your life’s purpose.
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