How to sell more

Dear Energy Lady,
I sell for a big company.  They just upped our goals, and for the first time, I'm falling behind.  Any energetic suggestions?

Signed,
Eager to make my numbers

Dear Numbers,
It's hard to tell from your letter what the definition of "falling behind" is.  In other words, were you the #1 salesperson before the goals were raised?  Or were you just a member of the pack, doing the same as everyone else and now they're ahead of you?

Either way, here are a couple of questions that might help unblock you energetically:

--If you've never been top salesperson, have you always wanted to be?  If so, you will need to break through the pattern of believing you're one of the pack.   However, if doing so would somehow make you lose the closeness you felt with the rest of the team, you might be resistant to breaking out ahead of everyone else.  That resistance would make it difficult, or even impossible, for new or bigger opportunities to reach you.

--If you were the top salesperson before but have now fallen behind, then ask yourself two questions:  1) what others are now doing differently that is helping them connect with more clients and/or 2) what has changed in either your own belief and behavior?  These are very left-brained, logical questions, but sometimes energy flow is blocked by something as simple as a few habits that just need to be aligned with the new reality.

Here are some other things that might help:

--Meditation.  Relaxing completely--letting go of thoughts and feelings--can open doors of possibility that you could never even imagine.   So if you have simply been stumped by who you might need to contact, this approach could help enormously. 

--If your thoughts are too wild for meditating, try exercise or doing any other activity that allows you to forget about work for a while.  Again, taking your attention off what isn't happening is a good way to release the blocking energy around it.

--If you want to use your thoughts productively, try visualizing.   Imagine yourself shaking hands with your clients.  See the signed contract in your in-box.  Hear yourself telling your manager about how the deal came about.  Taste a drink or the meal you'll have to celebrate your success.   In other words, bring the experience of success to life in your imagination until it becomes so real to you, you know it instinctively.  That's when you'll likely see it materialize.

--You can also stop making this about you.  If you reach the goal, what will be true in the world?  You didn't say what you sell, but if it helps your clients be safer, save money, save lives, make the world more beautiful or has any other positive purpose, then forget about the numbers and start thinking about the opportunity you're being given to improve life for others.  

--Finally, realize that life gives us situations that allow us to release our deepest fears, which are often that we are inadequate and unlovable.   If this rings true for you in any way, then maybe it's time to let this go.  And if it's not true, see if you can find whatever underlying fear is holding you back at this time.   There likely is something there, or you would have embraced the larger goal with open arms and reached or surpassed it with ease.  It would have excited you with its potential, not intimidated you.

I wish you renewed success!

Love,
EL

Breaking free

Dear Energy Lady,
I really need some help.  I understand the concept of energy bodies and the quantum field, so now I'm trying to access both so I can make my life fun and easier.  The problem is that I'm a terrible meditator.  I either fall asleep or get so distracted by my thoughts that it just doesn't work for me.   Got any suggestions?

Signed,
Yearning to break free

Dear Free,
I am smiling as I write this, because you don't need to meditate to interact with either your energy bodies or the quantum field.  You do both at every moment of your life, just by existing in physical form.  Neither is separate from you; they ARE you, in different vibrations.

So it sounds as if you might be yearning for something else--perhaps  freedom from your thoughts, or a calmer, more loving, more joyful or more peaceful state of being.   The fact that you've been trying to meditate suggests this.

While it's true that steady practice of meditation can give you all of the above, some people are not willing to be patient while they build up the time they spend sitting in meditation.  You can trying doing it for one minute, then two, then three and so on, but again, if you have tried that and find it impossible, then let me tell you a story.

I was coaching a reporter from a newspaper who was doing a story on meditation.  He said he had tried everything to meditate, including some kind of virtual meditation using specially rigged glasses to show him images and distract his thoughts.  He said that nothing worked for him--his mind was just too active.

I explained to him that the traditional way of meditation might not be for him, since he was naturally curious about everyone and everything.  God does not expect a rose to behave like a leopard; or a sparrow to thrive underwater, as fish do.

So I asked him where he was as he was speaking with me.  He said he was in the newsroom, at his desk.  I asked him to describe his desk to me, and then--one by one--everything he saw around him.  I had him tell me the colors, shapes and smells; the sounds and conversations; the action and the stillness.  After a few minutes of this, I asked, "How do you feel now?"

Suddenly, he was quiet.  "Actually, incredibly relaxed," he said.  "How did you do that?"

I explained mindfulness to him, and added, "you need to keep your eyes open to relax--the 'dropping out' kind of meditation is just not authentic to you.  You have to be who you are, as you are now.  Someday, you might want to be quiet and still, but not at this point in your career.  Tune in to life, and you'll tune out the thoughts and feelings that are distracting you."

And I would say the same to you.  If you can't meditate in the traditional way, give up trying for right now.   That way might become easier for you in the future...or not.  In the meantime, figure out what gets you out of your head and into the moment.  Do you sing? Dance?  Write news stories?  Take photographs?  Run?   Everyone has something that feels completely natural to them--something that no one and nothing could stop you from doing.   You know it's the right thing for you because when you're doing it, your thoughts disappear and you feel peaceful and happy.

Find and do whatever makes you feel that way, and you'll attune your energy to the energy you want to bring into your life.   Respond to whatever feels easy and fun to you, and it will both unblock your energy bodies and open up more possibilities from the field.

Enjoy!

Love,
EL