Recently I came full circle and accomplished something I’ve been dreaming about for over one year.
I hosted the first live Integrative Alchemy™ Practitioners Certification event.
*Pause for applause* lolz
Ohhhh, stop it, you’re too kind.
But in all seriousness, I’ve been waiting for a very long time to be able to hold this event. And believe me when I say it turned out to be even more magical, transformative, and expansive than I ever thought humanly (or unicornly) possible.
It not only radically changed the lives of those who participated, but it radically changed my own life. It forced me to uplevel in ways I never even knew I could. It admittedly tested me, it challenged me… And it paid off in magical proportions.
I want to share some of the things I learned over the course of the week.
Things I learned about myself.
Things I learned about following my dreams.
Things I learned about running a business.
And I want to be fully transparent with you because not only is this shiz #RelatableAF… these lessons can change your own entrepreneurship journey.
I’m going to dive straight in, but if you want a more detailed account of the event, including all the magical shifts that took place…
Or if you are just curious to find out what actually went into creating a transformative event like this one…
Then go listen to this podcast where I dish all the dirt. Then head back here to dive deeply into all the amazing learnings and how they can change your life, too.
This has been one of the biggest takeaways from hosting the Certification live event for me. Given the sheer volume of content I was covering, in the format I was covering it, I was bound to feel a *teeny* bit underprepared for the event.
To put it in perspective for you, we had back to back sessions from 10am to 7pm every day. That’s a lot of transformative, potent info I was covering. That’s a lot of stuff to store in the old memory bank.
In an ideal world filled with unicorns, glitter, and fairy dust (which I do the best to fill my world all the time) I would have liked to have gone into this teaching experience knowing the content I was about to teach back to front, inside out, without even looking at the slides. But realistically, I just didn’t have the time for that.
My sister – bless her – reminded me of something really crucial just as I was starting to #lowkey freak out that I wasn’t ready.
“Lexi, you already know this shit inside out, you live and breathe it. You are ready.”
I want to extend this wise advice to you too, witches.
There is an innate part of you who already knows what to do and is so freakin’ ready to just do the thing already.
I used to fall into the same trap I see so many others fall into… You feel everything – the program, the slides, the message, the speech – needs to be perfect before you can do the next step or the big scary thing.
But here’s the truth tea. If you keep putting off doing the live event, launching the retreat, hosting the masterclass or whatever else you are procrastinating from doing until you feel you are “ready”, you might never actually just freakin #dothething!
(Trust me… I’m speaking from personal experience.)
What I learned is, if you don’t just DO IT: You’ll continue to make up excuses that are frankly all a bunch of hocus pocus about why you can’t just do it now.
Excuses like:
Oh, I don’t feel ready to host an event, I don’t have the confidence yet.
There’s always going to be a million more excuses that your monkey mind is going to come up with at any given time to prevent you from just taking the plunge.
The truth is that you’re never going to be fully ready or prepared. And guess what? That’s totally okay!
Sometimes, we have to learn these things on the job. In the moment. During the magic.
Sometimes it takes the practical experience of actually diving in there and doing what we are so afraid of doing that helps us to level the F up at a cray-zee rate. You’ll learn so much more from actually just taking action and moving.
Otherwise you’re left waiting for the magical moment when the heavens are opening, the doves are flying majestically around you, and you’ve been given your golden ticket of permission to get started.
Nobody needs to give you permission or tell you that you’re ready… except for yourself.
This event stretched me more than I’ve ever been stretched and pushed me to transform into a whole new level of being.
It forced me to step up and fully embody the next version of myself who could run such an immersive live event and transformative experience for my people.
And you better believe it catapulted me to that place a lot quicker than if I was to dawdle for another couple of months or years, tell myself I wasn’t enough or I wasn’t ready to do it exactly how I was.
Taking the scary step even when you feel like you’re not ready IS stepping into the next level of yourself (and is operating from the Have-Do-Be model that I talk about in this blog over here… a model which rapidly collapses timelines and helps you to step into the life of your Quantum Co Creatrix self).
And sorry to say it honey boo-boo child, but occasionally taking that step can mean some painful lessons or ‘failures’… but they are just as (if not more) important to your growth than holding yourself back by not taking action.
I know it can feel scary taking a leap and not knowing what the outcome will be. It can feel scary possibly opening yourself up to failure.
BUUUUT… You and me both know witches, you need action in order to move forward. Even if it means it’s messy action that doesn’t quite turn out as expected.
And oooohhhh, lemme tell you, there was some pretty epic “failures” over the course of the week for me. Meaning things definitely didn’t always go according to plan lolz.
I’m about to tell you about them but FIRST I want you to understand this:
It’s time to stop seeing ‘failures’ as a horcrux to be found and demolished… Because in truth, ‘failures’ are actually powerful tools for transformation when embraced.
The fastest way to learn what doesn’t work… is to “fail”.
So I say: “Fail epically, fail often.”
Taking the big action and doing the damn thing – even if it doesn’t work out – is going to be the catalyst for you to say “Oh ok, I know what needs to happen next time. And now I have the confidence to do it next time.”
No matter what happens, you can only move closer to where you need to be when you do the thing, witches.
I also want you to know that it’s not going to feel good or comfortable, that you’re going to feel challenged and triggered when things don’t go your way.
Your ego is going to have a temper tantrum, run and hide and return to your cushy 9-5 because that appears to be waaaay less drama.
But this is all part of the process to help you step into your next level self.
I’d been envisioning this event for months and months and months prior to it happening. This was my big dream, my big vision for my next step.
Does that mean it was a smooth ride or that things went exactly the way I’d planned? Hellz no, witches!
There were moments when it felt like this big dream was crashing down all around me and I truly felt I couldn’t get it all back together.
You better believe things went wrong during the event. I’m partially chalking a lot of it up to Mercury Retrograde, given that it was a weird week with technology, communication, breakdowns and all of the wonderful things that Mercury can wreak havoc on.
(Damn you, Mercury Retrograde! *Shakes Fist*)
I had to do a lot of thinking on the fly. Calling on my support networks. Avoiding the ensuing emotional meltdown which felt it was just around the corner for me.
You better believe there were moments when I thought “What the fuck am I doing? Can I actually hold this space… is this meant for me?”
And in some moments all I wanted was to curl into bed, switch on Netflix and pull the covers over my head in avoidance.
There were moments where I was just about ready to give up, wondering what was wrong with me and why had I even gone down this path because it was so clearly not in alignment with all of these things going wrong and my dreams falling to pieces right in front of my eyes.
I’m telling you this, witches, because I want you to know that we all go through these highs and lows on our journeys. Nobody is exempt. Even the people you look at online and think to yourself “Omg they have all their shit together…”
No matter how ‘far along’ we are in our journey. No matter how ‘prepared’ we feel we are. No matter how much work we’ve done on ourselves.
Any time we reach a new level, there is going to be a ‘teething’ period where our ego – our instinctual Reptilian Brain – has a freak out because we’re stretching ourselves.
The Reptilian Brain is designed for safety and survival. So anything that is new or out of your comfort zone equals death to that part of your brain. Your ego literally thinks it’s dying, so you can expect to feel a *bit/shiz ton* of resistance. You can expect to feel a little bit triggered. You can expect that your ego is going to want to cause you to self-sabotage, run away or avoid.
I realized that all of these things weren’t going wrong because I wasn’t meant to be doing this event… They were going wrong to challenge me to rise above it, into my next level.
To show me where I still had niggling old beliefs or behaviors that didn’t align with the version of me who had the capacity to hold events like this.
All the emotional reactivity I felt was my Reptilian Brain, my ego freaking the fuck out because it was something new, uncertain, and uncomfortable.
And it was so magical and transformative to be able to realize that this was happening and give myself some grace and understanding. To be able to share this with my support team and work through the BS beliefs and emotional reactivity in real time.
So, if you take the leap (which if you’ve actually processed and read what I’ve been saying, you’ll know is the right thing to do) and shit goes wrong…
Causing you to flip the F out and spiral into chaos…
Know that it’s all part of the journey.
Use your emotional reaction to dig deep and uncover the beliefs that are holding you back. (This is what we’re all about in the Integrative Alchemy™ Certification Program. Not eliminating emotions… but actually empowering ourselves with the tools to observe and shift them.)
For the record, this process might also mean actually realising that what you’re doing is not what you truly want for yourself. That this path is actually not in alignment for you on a soul level.
Regardless if it’s Scenario A (your ego flipping out) or Scenario B (you realise it’s not actually what you want) – Your emotional reactivity will uncover a lot of potent information about what your next step needs to be. This is your opportunity to check in with yourself, trust yourself, and do what you are guided to do.
I hope you have gained some perspective from my sharing my experience of running this event so candidly and honestly with you. I never want you to put me on a pedestal or think that I “Have this shit all figured out” or that I’m above all of the challenges, “failures” or ego temper tantrums that come with taking a big leap.
We are all always progressing. Growing and evolving at every level. Even if my level is different to yours. It’s fundamentally the same experiences, the same challenges that we will face when we uplevel.
The key is to rise above them, learn the important lessons and keep moving towards where we want to be.
We got this!
Love and (potent) Magic,
Lexi
P.S. If you’re curious to find out more about this immersive, transformational experience I’ve been speaking about or want to get involved for the next round of the LIVE experience, then take a look over here because we are open for enrollment for 2020, witches.
Check out some of the #confettitoss style results just a few of the IAPC students have had.
Are you ready to have your own #confettitoss? Apply here now!
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