244: Light Your Next Business Lantern

If you want to achieve important things in your business without getting depleted or exhausted, this episode is for you.

In it, Erin and Steve introduce you to a new way of thinking about your goals and milestones: lighting lanterns. 

You will discover:

• Why lanterns are more soulful, inspiring, and human than goals, and how this small change in wording can help you align your business with your deeper calling in life
• How to create a worthy lantern for your business with 3 steps
• Why lighting lanterns with others makes the process easier, faster, and more fun, and how to get exceptional support for your next milestone

In the podcast you'll also learn about the Light Your Lantern Summer Challenge, which will help you understand and deal with the Static in your mind that slows progress, and show you how to take the most empowering path for the Challenges before you.

You will walk away from the 3-week experience with a reliable method to achieve just about any milestone in your business and life.

Episode Transcript

Steve Haase  0:02  
Welcome to the Superabound podcast with master coaches Erin Aquin and Steve Haase, where business owners like you learn tools that help you clarify vision, clear up static and overcome challenges. You are listening to episode number 244: Light your next business lantern. When we talk about lanterns, we're not talking about the things that go on the street. We're talking about a new way of thinking of goals or milestones or things that you want to do in your life. So before you say, I'm not into public works, don't need any lanterns in my life, we are thinking about them in a different way. And today's episode is all about why that is powerful to use this framework of lighting lanterns in your life. And in this case, particularly in your business. What that is going to unleash for you as a business owner, and how it can really help you align the dream in your heart with your work in the world. I'm joined by my lovely co-founder and business partner and life partner, Erin Aquin. Hello, Erin.

Erin Aquin  1:14  
Lanterns are a big part of our particular business vernacular with what we do at Superabound Coaching. Because I don't know goals just seems kind of boring, a little dry. And I think a lot of us definitely myself included, are pretty maxed out on the number of approaches out there to achieving your goals. When I was a yoga teacher, I actually went on quite a rant on one particular blog post about why New Year's resolutions are stupid and why goals really suck. And that was because I think the approach that most people teach and most people use is not very human. We actually are talking about this a lot in our upcoming book. And I think that goals are made for robots, not for humans, because if you think that all it takes to achieve something is following step by steps, pattern, blindly following the plan, no matter how you feel, no matter what's going on in your life. And then presto, you're going to achieve your revenue target. And presto, you're going to get all those new leads into your business that you wanted. You know, the reality is that often not how the story goes. So we use the imagery of lanterns here. And we want to help you light your next lantern. So this is for you if you kind of have trouble following your own self made plan, or the formula that other people give you that is full of self shaming and scolding, or you know, paying your accountability buddy $5 For every day, you don't show up for your task. This is going to be a different approach. And we hope a more soulful and inspiring one.

Steve Haase  3:16  
And if you'd like what you hear in the framework of lanterns, you are in luck, because we're going to be offering a light your lantern summer challenge. During the second half of the month of June, we would love for you to join us, you can learn more at besuperabound.com/lantern. And it's going to be a great way to have fun and move towards that next important milestone for your business in a way that is soulful, that is supportive, that is energizing, rather than what goals tend to be, which is kind of the opposite, they tend to be depleting. And even when you do hit them, you feel a sense of emptiness because you were working not from your own sense of purpose and inspiration. But from a drive that is often more external than intrinsic. So we hope you can join us for the light your lantern summer challenge. It's going to be a full three weeks of working with me and Erin with a supportive community. And at the end of it, not only will you have made progress towards where you want to be, but the way you do it is by becoming the person who will light that lantern. And the significance of lanterns is the whole point of the show today.

Erin Aquin  4:42  
Yeah, if you are seriously ready to learn how to stop trying to use blind willpower for the important things in your business and your life. That is a great place to do it. And we're offering this at a ridiculously low price. I don't have to didn't talk about like the pricing on the podcast. But this is going to be like kind of a one time only thing where you're gonna get a lot of access to us for less than $200, which we will never offer again. So this is the one and only time you know, if you've been listening to the podcast for a while, you're curious about what it's like to work with us more closely. This would be the best opportunity of all time to do that. So head over to besuperabound.com/lantern. And that will also be in the show notes. So you can find it there later if you are driving. Okay, the very first thing you have to know, in order to light your next business lantern is what that lantern is. The problem with the way that many of us have learned to do goal setting is that often we're following a framework that has us choosing goals based on what we think will be most impressive to other people, or maybe it's a standard thing that you've got to do in your industry to be considered successful. So as Steve said, often we try to achieve goals using some kind of external motivation. But often we're even choosing our goals based on something external, that's not personally meaningful. The difference between a goal and a lantern is that a lantern is something that is a natural progression, a natural milestone, on the path to your big vision, we're not going to get really deep into how to choose your vision today. That's something we teach in side of our programs, for sure. But basically, it's all just a fancy way of saying it has to be something that is meaningful to you. Because between you and that next lantern is going to be all of your mindset, drama, we all have it no shame, we've all got it. It's going to be your worldview, your beliefs, the things that you think that are very helpful, and the things you think that are not very helpful. And on top of that, you're going to have the real tangible challenges that exist between you and that lantern, there's going to be shit to do, you're going to have to learn things that you don't know, you're going to have to run experiments that are probably going to fail. So if the lantern itself, the place you want to get to is not personally meaningful, you're going to have a really hard time keeping up the energy that it's going to take to get there. And I'm not trying to be doom and gloom about this. I'm trying to be real.

Steve Haase  7:57  
And on the upside, when you choose something that is personally meaningful to you, you have power from within that will be able to move you forward. One of the big issues with achieving goals is that you need to summon willpower, right? You're like how am I supposed to wake up early? How am I supposed to follow this diet? How am I supposed to send these many emails and come up with all these ideas, you're looking outside yourself to achieve a target that you're not behind in the way that you could be. So the first step with lanterns is to discover that thing that is meaningful to you, on your path as a business owner. And the added bonus, it's not even the added bonus like it's an integral feature to doing that is you will find the willpower. It's not even willpower. At that point, you will find the energy, the creativity, the engagement with that goal with that plays in the future with that milestone that will surprise you. When you're connected with something that is meaningful to you. Creativity starts to flow. intuition becomes a natural part of the process, it suddenly makes sense to say, how do I feel about this? What might I be missing? The curiosity, the creativity that flows from focusing on something that matters not just to your business, but to you. And to you as the owner of your business becomes part of the process. It's almost a process of Revelation where you discover what matters to you, who you are as a business owner and what kind of magic you can bring to your work. So let's use

Erin Aquin  9:43  
an example and I'll share I'll share the example we're working on we're going to be doing this during the challenge. We're going to very candidly share this with with folks inside the light your lantern summer challenge. We have the draft of our book, just about ready to go to Our potential publisher, and we would like to get that done before we head out on our vacation before we go on our summer vacation. So over three weeks, we are going to attempt to finish writing this thing, get it ready for the, for the publisher. Now, what's between us today, and that particular milestone is a lot of hard stuff. Right now we're at a process where we are co writing a book. So this is my first time co writing a book, this is going to be my fourth book. I've never co written a book before, Steve, this is your first book, you've never written a book before. And right now, the process that we're in, is we are reading the book out loud to each other, getting real time feedback from each other on our work, we're doing rewrites together at the same time. And it is taking some time, it is really sitting down for an hour to get through maybe a page or two, to come to a consensus till to read the book and feel like yes, I like this, do you like this? No, you don't like this, okay, let's find a way that we can say what we're trying to say here, make it very clear, and both be really happy with it. Until the next week, when we read it again, and someone's not happy with it again. So the editing process is emotional, it is slow, there is a lot of mental static, because we've both worked very hard on this. And we want to make it the best book possible. And there's also the terrain of read reading a book and editing in real time out loud to one another. So trying to do this in three weeks is definitely going to be a feat, it is going to stretch us there's built in resilience, if we are up to the task to doing it. And we are going to grow as a result, because quitting is not an option.

Steve Haase  12:15  
I can attest to everything Erin just shared. So many emotions, so challenging. And yet, during this three week process, and even as we lead up to it, it is going to happen, right it is the thing we're focusing on is the thing that matters, that's what makes a great lantern is you will know when you're done. For one, when we have hit send on the email that includes the attachment to our potential editor and publisher, we will be done. The lantern will be lit of having finished the draft of the book. Lots of people have aspirations, a lantern is not an aspiration. So in your business, it is a discrete step that lets you know you took you made progress towards where you want to go. It could be a revenue milestone, it could be a project that has been launched, it could be a new hire, any of those things could be a lantern for you. But what matters is that you set it out ahead of time. And then you bring the resources to bear that makes that thing reality. And so your process of going from, wouldn't it be nice, I sure would like to, in our case, write a book, when That'd be nice. It's not nice. But when you go from the wouldn't it be nice to now it is done. That is transformation. That is when you have brought that inner light. Because that's another way of looking at your wish, right? That little sparkle, that whisper in your ear that says wouldn't that be nice? That is your inner light that wants to shine. And when you turn that into something that has become real in your business, in our case, manuscript sent, which is one step on the path towards book in hand and then book in your hands. You aren't lighting in lantern. That's how you build your business, one inspired moment at a time and then that's how you actually end up with a business that you love. Because the big issue for so many business owners and entrepreneurs is they have a business that they feel kind of trapped by. Maybe they're not totally in love with it. Because they took steps that were not aligned. They might have had a big goal, but it wasn't a lantern because it didn't bring them that sense of purpose of satisfaction. It didn't like seal the deal for the kind of business that they wanted to create. So that's what we want to help you with and that's what you will be doing If you follow even just these first two steps of creating something that is for you, in your business, and being clear when you have achieved it.

Erin Aquin  15:12  
And I think that that's also why having a community, having a coach to support you as you light a lantern, especially if it's a big one is really important. You know, we didn't just sit here, the two of us and try and write this book together, we're both coaches. But we're both very close to the project lanterns, very important to both of us. So we had our own coach, he was on this podcast, David Meerman. Scott, to help us write the book, keep us accountable in like the most loving, supportive way, and really help us create a book that someone would want to read. So having that third party of support someone who's not in on the project with you, like a coach, like a mentor, or if you're up for our light, your lantern summer challenge, that is also really, really helpful. And that is also in my opinion, essential, because there is going to be points where you're not going to feel particularly motivated, you're not really going to want to do the next challenge or task in front of you, there will be static, there will be, you know, moments where you feel tired, and it's so helpful to build in the support, so that you can figure out how to how to navigate those tough moments and that tough terrain with a group of people who really believe in you and see the possibility of your lantern being lit.

Steve Haase  16:44  
So if this approach resonates with you, and you want support towards your next business lantern, and loving smart accountability for your own intrinsic motivation to get there, we'd love to have you at the light your next lantern summer challenge. Head over to besuperabound.com/lantern to learn all about it and to sign up today. Thanks so much for listening. We'll see you again next time.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai