Once upon a time, there lived an Ant.
Ant was hard-working, productive and industrious. All spring and summer, he toiled, hauling food back to his nest.
Each day on his route, Ant would pass Grasshopper, who always seemed to be doing something disgustingly joyful.
One day she was playing Freebird on guitar. The next, she was dancing the polka. Once, Ant even saw her flying a technicolor dragon kite!
Not once did Ant see Grasshopper working. Finally, he snapped.
“Why aren’t you working?” Ant demanded, watching Grasshopper draw hopscotch squares on the sidewalk. “Don’t you know winter is coming? If you don’t have enough food, you’re going to die!”
Grasshopper looked up and smiled. “Hello, Ant! It’ll be fine. It always is.”
Ant shook his head and trudged on, dragging an ear of corn.
Summer passed into autumn, and soon it was winter. Ant hauled his final kernel back to his nest…collapsed into a heap, and promptly died of exhaustion.
Meanwhile, Grasshopper cozied up in a tree hollow with her friends, Racoon and Possom. They formed a band, jammed all winter, and lived on food they’d traded for entertainment.
And they all lived happily ever after.
Well, Grasshopper and her friends did. Living wasn’t on the menu for poor Ant.
THE END
You’ve probably heard the parable of The Ant and the Grasshopper before, but this isn’t usually how it ends.
In the traditional version, Ant survives the winter thanks to his solid work ethic. Grasshopper starves.
The moral of the story: hard work and planning pay off in the end.
But that story feeds the propaganda that’s led so many to stress, overwork and burnout. We’re told that if we work hard now, we can enjoy ourselves later. Except “later” never comes because there’s always work to be done.
Let me share the moral of my twisted fairytale.
In my version, Ant works himself to death because he’s driven by fear, and ends up creating the very situation he was trying to avoid.
Grasshopper also knew winter was coming. But she used her talents to create value while doing what she loved – and got everything she needed.
Given the choice between fear or joy as your motivation, which would you choose?
Most people would say joy, but…
…they don’t believe you can survive, let alone thrive, by enjoying themselves. The only viable option looks like HARD WORK.
I’m here to tell you that it’s entirely possible to get your needs met with enjoyment.
Let’s get a little science-y:
Ants and grasshoppers both follow their nature. They don’t need stress or deadlines to get stuff done. It’s just natural intelligence-in-action.
Humans have that same inner intelligence guiding them…plus the gift of imagination.
We can use our imagination to create enjoyable solutions. Or to invent terrifying stories that drive us to exhaustion.
The intelligence of life serves up creative ideas in service we focus our attention on.
Want ideas for making money? Focus on it with curiosity, and intelligence will serve up creative solutions.
But put your attention on fear and scarcity and you’ll get more of that.
The bottom line:
You don’t need fear to fuel your business, and you don’t need to hustle to prove your worth.
You can simply follow your nature and know that it’s enough.
That’s what we discover in the IMPACT membership.
This month, we’re playing with creative content and sharing our message joyfully. Next month we’ll dive into our new work-and-play-shop, “How to Turn Connected Conversations Into Clients.”
Read to stop grinding it out like Ant and start jamming like Grasshopper? Join us here:
https://www.theawakenedbusiness.com/impactinvite/
Yours in love and play,
Steph
