Mistakes: A spiritual teacher

Let’s talk about mistakes.
The reality is that they happen in our lives whether we like it or not.
What I want to discuss today is our perception of them, and how we respond to them.

Running a business with a team puts me at the helm of not only my own, but the mistakes of others too.

In my opinion, mistakes happen for various reasons, including carelessness, tiredness AND also divine intervention. 💫

Yesterday, two of my team members each made pretty embarrassing mistakes.

One assistant sent out an email to you all with the wrong subject from the day before’s email. Then resent it without adding the acknowledgment of the mistake like I had asked. So everyone received two emails yesterday without an explanation. P.S. Sorry about that.

Of course I was disappointed and then the fear set in of “OMG, what if people unsubscribe.” 🙀

Then a few moments later I got a text message from another team member saying that she had been sending out the wrong link for The Ultimate Woman Program to women she had had consults with. She had been sending the link to the administration folders instead.  🤦🏻‍♀️

Ugh! I felt the fear of, “The women aren’t going to sign up now.”

PLUS, while all of this is going on I am in the midst of hosting a 3 day private retreat for a client in my Malibu beach home. And I’m just about to make us breakfast when I received all this news.

Then as I’m witnessing all the things I feel from disappointment to “oh well, there’s nothing I can do about this,” I have an epiphany moment that this is a spiritual test.

Was one part of me, aka my ego, feeling annoyed, frustrated, upset and like I wanted to yell? Yes.

But was another part of me, my higher self, also having a zoomed out moment of seeing this as an opportunity to trust, let go and know that everything is happening for me? Yes.

Here is where I put all of my spiritual practice and personal development work to the test.

My first priority became not to trap these emotions in my body but to feel them by making noises to express the feelings. I also shared what happened with my retreat client so that he was aware of my energy and the slight delay because I needed to respond to my team.

I then chose to find the lessons and the gifts in the situation.

But first I replied to both team members setting up steps to help prevent these kinds of mistakes from happening again.

As I reflected on what happened I knew this situation was an opportunity for me in three ways:

How can I keep my cool amidst chaos, mistakes and disasters that are not in my control? Can I not take them personally or allow them to affect me as much?
How quickly can I recover back to my center? How quickly can I let go of things I can’t control and move on?
How can I choose to perceive the positive outcomes that can come from this? Such as for the email situation, perhaps there’s a greater chance people will open the email and be inspired. And regarding the link, maybe this was a divine intervention that the mistake was discovered because now some of the women will sign up when they receive the correct link with the Program details.

I realized that someday, perhaps before getting on stage in front of a large crowd, or on camera to reach millions of people, a mistake or something less than ideal may happen. Can I keep my cool, trust that all is in divine order and keep on with my mission?

It would be quite funny actually if as a spiritual teacher I would allow such mistakes to make me angry and ruin my day. As if a mistake, especially done by another person, has this much power over me? The truth is I am grateful for my team and looking forward to hiring a manager and/or an executive to manage my team and situations like this so that I can focus on my clients, writing and creating new offerings.

Hence, I saw this as a moment of Jedi training and an opportunity to call in even more support.

I also saw the opportunity. “This is providing me with content.” I thought. A perfect thing to blog about. Because I know many of you are faced with mistakes and disappointments, but it’s what we make from the lemons that matters.

Luckily, yesterday I was facilitating several release rituals for energy and emotional clearing for my client, so I decided to join in to receive healing for myself around this situation and it worked wonders, inspiring this post. That’s something I really love about my work too. When I give a healing I receive one. When I write a post, I receive its wisdom too.

I trust you can apply the wisdom of this email to a current situation in your own life.

The takeaway is: whenever something upsetting or less than ideal happens, can you discover the lessons and gifts in how it can work in your favor? Can you keep your cool, let it go and stay in your center?
This is the perception of an alchemist.
This is reclaiming your power.
This is supportive for living your ultimate life.

With love,
Dr Nikki Starr