There are two journeys in life: the journey of the EGO that wants to be seen and the journey of the SOUL – the part of us that wants to go on a different path. Go on an inner journey with Entrepreneur Jesse van der Velde and explores the journeys we choose in our personal and professional lives.
- Why are you on this journey?
- What are the challenges you face on this path and what is the growth you are experiencing because of that?
- What is your soul asking you to do?
Click here to listen to the episode on Spotify.
Journey
In our lives, we’re always on a journey. The moment we start a new business is the start of a new journey: we set goals and go on a new path ahead of us. But in the end, the thing that we value most is what we learn along the way. What we build will never endure the test of time – there will always be an end: businesses change; times change; consumer needs change; maybe someone replaces you and changes everything you’ve built with your business. Every time we start a new business, we go on a new journey: a journey of BECOMING.
- Why are you on this journey?
- Why do you have the business that you have?
- What are the things you face on this path and what is the growth you are experiencing because of that?
These questions touch on what is so much more important than the physical results.
It’s Not What You Accomplish
Our souls will travel through time and come back to Earth after we have left this physical body. The shamans don’t just look at the physical and emotional body – they look at the soul and body of light and energy. The big question to ask while on Earth is:
What are we here to learn and heal in this lifetime?
If you were to ask someone who has exited their business: “What is most important in your life?” Most likely, that person would say, “It’s nice to be here; it’s nice to make this big exit after all the work put into building this business. It’s nice to be successful and have everything I wanted…but what’s so much more important are the people I met along the way and the things that I was able to contribute to another person’s life. I value the things that I have learned on this journey.”
The businesses we build and the goals we accomplish in our lifetime will not endure the test of time – it is who we become that endures.
Two Journeys in Life
We are on two journeys in life:
- The journey of the EGO that desperately wants to be seen.
- The journey of the SOUL that wants to go on a different path – even though in the beginning there is so little recognition and understanding.
The EGO Screams
The journey of the ego is what many of us pursue and it is an external path that will often yield some material success and notoriety. And the funny thing is – the ego is the loudest voice inside of us – it screams. It has a big need to be seen and recognized.
The ego is always speaking loudly and passionately – with emotions, fear, and a convincing story. Our ego drives us to take action and say, “I need to DO what I’m capable of doing – I need to change the world.”
Our ego is what drives us to push through and take action without stopping to be and make a choice.
The SOUL is Quiet
While the ego screams to be recognized, our deep inner soul is paradoxically so quiet. Why is it that the calling of our soul is so quiet and subtle?
But the journey of the soul – this is an inner journey on which only WE can embark for ourselves. The reason why we go on an inner path is to be able to hear the part of ourselves that wants to be heard – our intuition.
We become silent and still so we can hear our soul and intuition speak.
We can’t hear this voice speak from our head – we can only connect to its subtle energy; to see the subtle signs of the universe. This may look like people bringing up certain conversations – giving you clues and ideas of which direction to take in life – without them even knowing they are guiding you. They have no idea why they said something particular to you, but maybe to you, it’s a sign. You should always determine what is a sign and what is not.
Start from Joy and Love
The only thing you can truly ignore is passion.
When we are on the journey of our egos, we are constantly making fear-driven choices and ignoring our soul’s calling.
But when we are on the journey of the soul – then we can truly start from a place of joy and love.
Here’s what I mean:
Over the past few months, I have seen so many things going on in the world that I’ve wanted to fix – my mind and ego went, “Be a leader; be what you are capable of doing; show this to the world and save the day!”
These thoughts were not driven by the soul’s journey, but instead the ego’s journey.
If our initial reaction is to say: “I need to do this because I want to do what I’m capable of,” we are coming from a place of fear of not doing enough and of not being enough. This is the journey of the go.
But doing something from love and joy requires no effort; there is nothing sexy about it.
Our culture is so biased – we look at athletes and the people who are “number 1” in the world – we admire that. But it is our ego that admires this: we want to achieve this success too – to fulfill that part of ourselves that is not feeling seen in this present moment.
The part of us that needs something from the outside world – this is the ego’s journey. We need to be seen a certain way, or we want to accomplish a certain goal so that we can then feel a certain way.
The soul’s journey starts from a place of love and joy – not fear.
Avoid Escapism
The calling that you feel to begin a new journey should be more than enough reason for you to go on that journey.
This choice will come with a lot of confusion – not just from you, but also from other people. They will ask: “What is he going to do? What is she going to do?” Maybe their minds will judge your choice – but you should listen to the calling that lives within your heart.
With that said, you should also remain wise enough to see the practical side of things: take care of the business that you have; take care of the family that you have; keep things going in rhythm – build systems and procedures and keep your feet on the ground,
See your soul’s calling in the right perspective of time – see how much time you want to allocate to this calling and make sure to take care of what’s currently going on in your life first.
NEVER let your current life be the reason for not going on your true path – this becomes escapism.
There is so much truth with being present with “what is,” with what life and your business are currently asking of you. To truly be in the moment is to see: “I have this business, this is where I’m at. This is what I need to do to move on to the next step; to move on to the next level.”
Leadership is about serving what it is that is necessary at this moment – and usually our mind, especially as entrepreneurs – goes in so many different directions.
We are silently dreaming of, “Yes, but I want to do this, etc.” But if we spend so much time dreaming of the future and making new plans – we are not doing the one thing that we SHOULD be doing right now.
I’ll give you another personal example:
For years, I’ve been silently dreaming of becoming a spiritual teacher – of sharing what I’ve learned in all my journeys in plant medicine, and sharing what I’ve learned from my shaman mentor and shaman mentors. This path has been calling me to go deeper on my own medicine path and to share that with the world. And in a way, I’m doing that right now.
But two years ago, my business and life needed something different from me at that moment. I was still in business with my business mentor and he had invested a large sum of money – over a million euros – into our venture together. That investment money wasn’t being returned out of that business at that moment. While I knew that I wanted to go deeper on my medicine path and that I wanted to become a spiritual teacher, life was asking something different of me
I wanted to go deeper on my inner, spiritual journey, but practically, I needed to exit that relationship with my business partner first. Only then could I truly commit to my heart’s calling.
While listening to my heart, I also had to take care of something I had already started; something I had begun; something that I had said “Yes” to. In short, it wasn’t time for me to dive into my heart’s calling – but what I could do was balance the two.
So I continued to pursue my plant medicine path in my free time – I never stopped this journey; I merely balanced my inner journey with what life was asking of me.
This was the right thing to do because – if I had dropped everything to pursue my spiritual calling, I would have been escaping my current situation. And for me, this wasn’t true leadership.
What Are You Afraid Of?
I eventually bought my business partner’s shares out and I now own 100% of that business. And this is part of my transition to my heart’s calling.
It would be so safe and comfortable for me to continue building and expanding this business, it is a game I’ve played for many years and could continue for many more. But we need to listen to what our heart is telling us – what our intuition is telling us – where the path of our soul is taking us.
The thing is – this path is uncomfortable and the fear of the unknown inevitably arises. But it is this deep connection with our soul and intuition that we are led to the questions:
- Who am I?
- Why am I here?
- What is my path – my journey – on this Earth?
These answers are never found through thinking “really hard.”
These answers can only be explored by simply pursuing the journey of the soul.
The Journey of YOUR Soul
There’s this moment in our lives when we look back and we see how things are coming together. We come to the understanding that everything we have done so far is merely a stepping stone to the next thing that we are about to do.
So I ask you:
- What is the next step in your journey?
- What is it that you are silently looking for?
- What has been growing inside of you?
We can find this path by closing our eyes, looking within, and feeling what it is that we might be most AFRAID of doing.
It might be uncomfortable; it might be hard to explain; maybe it is even hard to give it words – but that should never be a reason to not go on that path. The fact that you don’t know the outcome yet – the fact that you don’t even have a clear goal yet – that should never be a reason to not go on that path.
Maybe you have built a business, but silently, you are dreaming of a whole different life – of a new beginning. But your mind is conflicted: “How will I do this practically?” Or, “This isn’t my current customer base?” Or, “But I’ve built this business and I need to be there for this organization.”
So you wait and postpone your ideas.
Instead of postponing – what if you took one small step? If you would let joy and love speak, what would be your next step?
While taking that next step, always wonder, “From what part inside of myself am I truly acting? Am I acting from ego? Because I’m looking to experience something in the outer world? Am I looking to be seen a certain way? OR Am I acting from simple joy and love?”
Share with me what you’re feeling right now – share with me what’s uncomfortable. Share with me where you feel a calling but you have no answers – where you have no strategy. Share with me your soul’s journey.