During one of my sales training calls a few weeks ago, the call leader talked about how it was important to take the Law of Detachment into consideration when it comes to selling and in our business in general.
When a successful person who has built many billion-dollar companies suggests that we take into consideration this highly metaphysical aspect of life, it really catches my attention.
Transformational author, Deepak Chopra was the one who really brought The Law of Detachment to light for many of us.
I'll be honest, I had not read Deepak's book and I knew little about The Law of Detachment, but thanks to Google, it only took me a few minutes to fill the gaps.
Essentially, The Law of Detachment's philosophy according to Chopra is that:
1. "I will not rigidly impose my idea of how things should be."
2. "In my willingness to accept uncertainty, solutions will spontaneously emerge out of the problem, out of the confusion, disorder, and chaos."
3. "I will step into the field of all possibilities and anticipate the excitement that can occur when I remain open to an infinity of choices."
As an entrepreneur, I can surely see where I had NOT been applying the principles of The Law of Detachment in my life and business... especially during those more challenging years where I felt the self-imposed pressure of figuring it all out on my own.
I'll also admit that, like so many of us, the principles of metaphysics are still new and even though intellectually I understand many of them, putting them into practice is a whole different story.
It's not at all that consciously I don't want to, but like all entrepreneurs out there, I come to my business with all my baggage and all of my limiting beliefs.
Our past shapes us and it's never as blatantly obviously as when we start a business. It's been said that launching a business is the ultimate MBA and I couldn't agree more because you learn so much about your abilities when you have to manage your own business.
I read a quote that really spoke to that:
"Successful and unsuccessful people do not vary greatly in their abilitie ... they vary in their desires to reach their potential." - John Maxwell
That said often times in business, it's not the fact that we don't want "it" badly enough, it's more about believing it deep in our core, in our heart and in our soul that we really deserve that big huge business success.
Business can become the BEST lesson in perseverance, self-development, self-actualization and self-confidence you'll ever get.
Waking up each day with this burning desire to build something new, change the world in some way or make a big difference in people's life is an incredible exercise in faith.
The Law of Detachment would want us to let go of the ultimate outcome once we know that we've taken all the steps necessary (a.k.a. hard work) to make those business dreams come true.
I'll admit to having been much more aware of when I'm white-knuckling it in my business and believing that I can find all the solutions to my problems by stressing about it. When I find myself in that space I more graciously accept that maybe if I let it go... if I detach myself from the outcome (so I accept that the outcome could positively or negatively affect my business, but I'm okay with that) that I can move on to finding other solutions that often were staring me in the face, but I was putting so much energy on "figuring out" that I was essentially putting blinders on.
It's not easy to "detach" yourself from the outcome of your business because, well, it's your blood, sweat and some days tears, but when you do you'll often attract bigger and better things than you possibility could have imagined.