Put In Your Time

In my job as a professional spiritual mentor, I work lots of different kinds of people, including other mentors, teachers and practitioners. I love that the New Thought movement encourages spiritual professionals to seek their own spiritual guidance in a regular way. It helps us to keep our own consciousness aligned, our hearts and minds open. As a mentor to other mentors, I get asked questions that can call me on the carpet about what I think is true versus how I sometimes act. This is one of those times…

A spiritual mentor friend and client asked me the following question: Is it possible to have 20 or more paying spiritual mentoring clients each week? (Essentially, is it possible to have a thriving, opulent income from private mentoring sessions alone.) My answer, without even thinking about it for two seconds, was this: Is it possible to see 20+ paying clients a week? Of course it's possible. Here's what I find. I've yet to find the spiritual teacher that spends more time per week with paying clients than they do in spiritual practice. The. End.

Uh oh. The minute I said it, I knew (I KNEW!!!) it was a direct download of Truth from the Universe. It was a ‘drop the mic’ moment. I knew that I could probably predict how many hours a mentor or practitioner spent in their private practice based on how many hours they spent each week in spiritual practice. And I knew that the best way to increase paying client base is to increase that spiritual practice accordingly. But before I could go into a Kanye West style gloat-a-thon about how I was the greatest Spiritual Mentor EVAH, I had to take a stark look at myself.

See, I’ve been telling anyone who will listen that I’m ready to transition out of my current career into full time spiritual work. I’ve told my minister. I’ve told my mentor. I’ve even told my boss at my current job. You know what I haven’t done? I haven’t significantly increased my spiritual practice. Now, I have a solid and anchored practice already. It’s not like I’m slacking off. But as I shared the downloaded wisdom with my client/friend, I was immediately aware that I needed to put in more time. If I want something – anything – the first step is always more spiritual practice: more prayer, more meditation, more chanting, more journaling, more time consciously in the One. I guess we’ll all know when I’ve reaped the rewards of more time on my meditation chair. We’ll know when I quit that job.

Update, One Year Later: As I enter my third month as a full-time spiritual mentor, I am my own best evidence that the above theory was correct. I have more than doubled my daily spiritual practice, and the paying clients have continued to roll in. Nothing makes me happier than when the Principles we teach ring true. Hurray for me. Hurray for us all. Namaste.