Nancy: The reason you don’t have what you want in your business and your life has nothing to do with discipline or willpower. It has everything to do with what you’re truly most committed to. So it’s time to align your commitment and your desires.
Nancy: Welcome to the Nancy Levin Show. I’m Nancy Levin, Founder of Levin Life Coach Academy, best-selling author, master coach, and your host. I help overachieving people pleasers set boundaries that stick and own self-worth, anchored in empowered action, so you can feel free. Plus, if you’re an aspiring or current coach, you are in the right place. Join me each week for coaching and compelling conversations designed to support you in the spotlight, as you take center stage of your own life. Let’s dive in.
Welcome back to the Nancy Levin Show. I am thrilled you’re here. Today we’re going to be exploring a transformative tool, specifically how it applies to entrepreneurs. And the tool is shadow work.
So shadow work is not a buzzword. It is not a fleeting trend. It is a profound practice that can revolutionize the way you lead, innovate, and thrive. It is time to embrace your shadow, to empower your business. So let’s first begin by understanding what shadow work is. So simply put, your shadow is the unconscious part of you where all the qualities that you reject, deny, or disown reside. So these are the parts of yourself that you either don’t want to be and don’t think you are, or do want to be and think you’re not.
Think of your shadow as a hidden facet of your personality that influences your decisions and actions in ways you may not realize. Shadow work for entrepreneurs is recognizing that in these hidden parts of ourselves, live gifts that we can tap into to support us in our success. So for entrepreneurs, recognizing these shadows is essential. Your hidden fears, unacknowledged strengths and forgotten passions, can all surface in ways that might sabotage your business success. These shadows can manifest as conflicts with partners, challenges in decision making, or even put a ceiling on your professional growth and what you think you are deserving of earning. By facing these shadows, you can transform potential weakness into strength, leveraging deeper self awareness for strategic advantage.
So why does shadow work matter for entrepreneurs? Enhanced self awareness, improved emotional intelligence, increased resilience, authentic leadership and creative innovation are only a few of the benefits. And we’re going to dive into each of these right now.
So, enhanced self awareness. Delving into the parts of yourself you often ignore or suppress, helps you understand your motivations, your fears, your hidden beliefs. This awareness leads to better decision making and clarity in navigating business challenges.
Improved emotional intelligence. Recognizing and integrating your emotions, rather than suppressing them, improves emotional intelligence. This is crucial for leadership as it helps you manage stress, communicate effectively, and build stronger relationships with employees, partners and clients.
Increased resilience. Facing and integrating shadow aspects can be challenging, but it ultimately strengthens your resilience. Your willingness to explore internal conflicts and past traumas helps you develop a greater capacity to handle external pressures and setbacks vital for sustaining long term success in the unpredictable world of business.
Authentic leadership. Shadow work encourages authenticity. This means leading from a place of genuineness and integrity, inspiring trust and loyalty in your team, and fostering a positive and productive work environment.
Creative innovation. Exploring the shadow often reveals hidden talents and aspects of creativity previously untapped. Engaging in shadow work can unlock new levels of creativity and innovation, leading to unique solutions and ideas that set your business apart from the competition.
I’m just going to pause here for a moment to let you know that I’ve got a brand new free guide called Shadow work for Entrepreneurs: A Transformative Guide to Maximize Your Business Success and you can grab it now@nancyleven.com/business. So download your free guide today Shadow work for Entrepreneurs at nancylevin.com/business.
So here’s the deal. Shadow work is not a one time thing. It is an ongoing process. And there are seven alchemical stages of shadow work that can help you as an entrepreneur integrate these insights into your business practice.
So stage one is Awareness, acknowledging your shadow. Recognize the unconscious aspects of your behavior that influence your decisions. This might mean identifying a tendency to avoid risk due to past failures or recognizing an unacknowledged capability for creative problem solving.
Nancy: Hi, it’s Nancy interrupting my own show. I’ve got a lot of exciting things coming up in 2024, including a brand new book plus a group coaching opportunity, unlike anything else I have ever offered before. To make sure you are in the know, pop on over to my website now and sign up for my free weekly newsletter at nancylevin.com/newsletter so you don’t miss a thing. Okay, back to the show.
Stage two is Surrender. And as you embrace the power of surrender, you let go of the illusion of control over every aspect of your business, accept the unpredictability inherent in business, and trust the process without knowing the outcome.
Stage three is Responsibility. And as you step into responsibility, you accept accountability for your reactions, projections, and the broader impact of your behavior on your business environment. Own up to the consequences of your shadows, such as biases in decision making or the impact of your leadership style on team morale.
Stage four is authenticity. And as you cultivate authentic leadership, you align your outer actions and expressions with your inner values and truths. This might involve realigning business goals with personal values, reshaping company culture, or rebranding to better communicate the authentic mission of your business.
Stage five, Resilience. As you build resilience through inner work, you develop the ability to cope with and adapt to challenges and setbacks while maintaining a commitment to personal growth and business objectives.
Stage six is Nourishment. And as you are nourishing your entrepreneurial spirit, you are feeding both the personal and professional aspects of your life to ensure sustained growth and prevent burnout. Implement regular wellness checks, team building activities, and promote a culture of continuous learning.
Stage seven Wholeness. By bringing your wholeness to your business, you are integrating all aspects of yourself through shadow work to operate from a place of complete self understanding and acceptance. Wholeness is reflected in business practices that are not only profitable, but sustainable and ethical.
One of the most powerful aspects of shadow work is identifying and dissolving shadow commitments. These are the promises you made to yourself to stay safe, which served you when you were young but sabotage you now. If you’re not getting what you want in business, it’s likely there is an outdated shadow commitment holding you back. For example, you might say you want authentic, heart centered business relationships, but find yourself avoiding networking opportunities because you fear rejection. The shadow commitment to avoiding rejection keeps you from pursuing the connections you truly desire.
So I invite you to just take a moment here to reflect. What are you unconsciously committed to that is in opposition to your conscious desires? By identifying these shadow commitments, you can start making new conscious commitments aligned with your true desires.
Everything we’re talking about here today leads us to the power of alignment. Alignment is about becoming more comfortable with dissolving your shadow commitments and aligning with your true self. It might mean breaking off certain business relationships, changing your business model, or even relocating your operations. These changes can be uncomfortable, but they lead to a business that is in alignment with your true self.
Imagine wanting more authentic business relationships, but realizing you’re more committed to never experiencing rejection. While this realization might be uncomfortable, it is the first step toward making conscious choices that align with your true desires. Because the reason you don’t have what you want in your business and your life has nothing to do with discipline or willpower. It has everything to do with what you’re truly most committed to. So it’s time to align your commitment and your desires.
As we wrap up today’s episode, remember that shadow work is a journey, not a destination. It is about continuous growth and self awareness. And by embracing your shadows, you not only transform yourself, but your business as well.
Remember to download your free guide, Shadow work for Entrepreneurs at nancylevin.com/business. This is a transformative guide to maximize your business success. Once again, you can download it for free at nancylevin.com/business. And I look forward to being with you again next week.
Nancy: Thanks so much for joining me today. I invite you to head on over to nancylevin.com to check out all the goodies I have there for you. And if you’ve enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, leave a rating and a review. I’ll meet you back here next week.