Belated Happy Labor Day, or as I like to call it, Labor With Love Day, a day to celebrate the opportunity, or better yet, privilege, not that we have to work. Rather, that we get to work.

As Khalil Gibran said in his poem On Work:

Work is love made visible.

I'm grateful my work involves writing from my heart and attempting to make a piece of it visible to you.

That said, like anything, doing work we love has its ups and downs. It demands that we look at all the sticky parts that show up.

Recently, a familiar part has appeared, and I'm singing my own version of Bo Burnham's That Funny Feeling.

(If you Haven't seen Bo's comedy special Inside, it's one of the greatest art pieces I've ever seen.)

Anyway, the chorus goes:

There it is again, that funny feeling
That funny feeling

While Bo is speaking of his mental health and impending environmental/social collapse—for me, that funny feeling is around a sense that I'm doing something wrong. Not morally wrong, rather like "you put your shirt on wrong."

Questions that arise are:

• Am I doing enough?

• Is this the right way?

• Why aren't things happening faster?

• Am I not getting the proper support?

This year, I learned the Hokkien word, Kiasu.

Kiasu (kyäˌso͞o) means having a grasping or selfish attitude arising from a fear of missing out on something.

This explains that funny feeling—one of needing to do something or I'll fall behind.

The feeling gets triggered when I see people who started their entrepreneurial journey later than me yet have more success than I do.

I started in 2015. It took me five years to "make it," which meant earning $39,000. Another five years passed, and I'm earning $120,000.

Don't get me wrong—this is great! But then I meet people who started in 2019 and are wildly more successful, and it triggers a feeling of lack and not-enoughness. As an Enneagram 3, it only propels my fixation to achieve

The other night, I was losing sleep because of "That Funny Feeling," but then a thought struck that allowed me to doze off.

I remembered that the wise people I admire—people like Richard Rohr, Michael Singer, Mirabai Starr, Cynthia Bourgeault, Jack Kornfield, Adyashanti, and many others—are all much older, some over twice my age. Those are the people I'm interested in emulating—not the online coach who made millions in a few years.

And I bet all these people would say they weren't "Trying" to get to where they are.

Where they ended up was the unfolding of deep devotion, practice, and humility.

(I've heard it said in some lineages that if a student badly wants to be a teacher, that is a sign they aren't ready. Yikes!)

Doing this work is not about our success in 5 years. It's about the elders we want to be in 30 years.

That is the real dream.

I wrote in my journal on January 10th, 2015:

Remember, you are not going to make your dreams happen in ONE DAY
You're not going to make them happen in ONE WEEK
You're probably not going to make them happen in ONE YEAR
It's yet still unlikely you will make it happen in ONE DECADE
Maybe, just maybe, you'll make it happen in ONE LIFETIME

So I exhale and remember there is nowhere to go.

I say to myself:

"You are exactly where you need to be.
You are doing exactly what you need to do.
All is in perfect timing.
Trust the process."

Maybe you could use those words right now too.

Remember, it's about the long game. If it's your life's work, be willing to work for it FOR LIFE!

Helping people on the path of doing work they love is why I started Meraki Mastermind.

The group is for you if:

-Spirit has called you to make your love visible through your work
-You're committed to a LIFETIME of realizing your dreams
-You need practical business support to make it financially sustainable
-You feel alone in the process
-You seek a community of others on the same journey

This group is not about a fast track to success. (That doesn't mean you won't be challenged!)

The group is about Slow, Juicy Growth and building a body of work that's around for years to come.

We start back up this month. If it calls to you, send me an email.