Spiritual Business Plan

I recently attended a class called, “Creating Your Spiritual Business Plan”. If that title doesn’t pique my interest, I don’t know what would! Miss List Maker here loves a good business plan so I was definitely curious to find out how to go about having a Spiritual Business Plan.

Let me tell you – this class was awesome and I came away with a main goal for the year and then supporting goals in a wide variety of categories. It’s pretty fantastic, if I do say so myself. I have this lovely list with bullet points and subcategories all lined up.

Oh, it was a fun assignment to complete and I was basking in the glow of all this spiritual goodness I’d planned for the year. A few days later though, things got interesting when I happened upon one of my regular annual plans… you know those plans you create when you get super motivated and line out all your goals and actions steps to accomplishment for the next year?

The problem was, when I compared the two lists it was if they had been written by two completely different people. One list was all about spiritual growth, character improvement, connection and personal growth. The other list was all about, well, money, ladder climbing and business growth.

The contradiction set me to wondering. Which one is me? Is one more me than the other? Are these two lists in conflict or can they work together?

This isn’t the first time these types of questions have come up for me. Maybe you’ve experienced it to – an activity or interest that you used to be passionate about but that you left behind because it didn’t fit with the spiritual life you were beginning to lead. It’s common for us to do – to walk away from something because it doesn’t fit with the mold we are attempting to fit into. But, as much as you try to ignore it, that activity is still there in the back of your mind and you sometimes wish you could still do that thing. I’ve experienced it in several areas – weight lifting, boxing, solo-travel, music, literature, movies – and now I was seeing it in my life planning.

As emuna teaches us, there is a reason for everything.  I’m often finding that the less I try to stuff my past interests into a closet because they don’t “fit” who I am today, the more opportunities Hashem brings my way to connect with others based on those interests. Connections that would have been difficult to make if we did not have that point of common interest.

I was once so passionate about business, about building companies and maximizing the bottom line. Now I’m passionate about sharing emuna, connecting with and teaching people about being Noahide, getting closer to Hashem, hitbodedut, family, and home. What is the point of commonality, of intersection, that would reconcile the two planning lists?

Emuna. That is the answer.

Hashem gave me those business interests for a reason. Instead of ignoring those interest, I now have the opportunity to lift the hidden holy sparks within business opportunities.

So, instead of two very separate and apparently conflicting lists for the year, in reality we all have the chance to create one beautifully combined list – where business, or whatever other interests we have, is viewed through the lens of emuna and spirituality.  A true Spiritual Business Plan.

* * *

Jennifer invites you to participate in a regularly held Noahide on-line study group that reviews the garden series books of Rabbi Arush. You can contact her at jenniferjwoodward@gmail.com to be added to the weekly newsletter for dates and times. Visit the blog at noahidenews.blogspot.com