Donna Doyon Gilbert
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  • Ep131: Amazing “Whatever Ventures”

What is a "Whatever Venture"? It's what I call this podcast, my online courses, and my Walk with Me group. It's my heart's vision of what I have been called to share. Do you have an amazing "Whatever Venture" within you?

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Note: This is a computer-generated transcript. That means it's pretty good, but not perfect. If you read something weird or confusing, first laugh, then use the time stamp to hop into the podcast to find out what I REALLY said. 🙂

[00:00:02.950] - Speaker 1

Welcome to another episode of Finding My Way, a podcast dedicated to sharing the scattered thoughts and muddled musings of the 50 something year old woman. Each week, I'll share my experience, experiences, challenges, doubts, and fears, as well as the lessons I've learned that keep me moving forward toward my dreams. And yes, this is the podcast that was formerly known as Reflections of a Recovering Ugly Duckling. This is episode 131, and I'm your host, Donna Doyon. Last week, I published a special Thursday episode of Finding My Way.

[00:00:40.980] - Speaker 1

I wanted to recognize the first birthday of my Walk With Me program. In that episode, I made a confession and I shared the down and the dirty about this whatever venture I'm doing here with this podcast, with my courses, with that walking program. You can listen to that episode@donnadoyon.com one 30, but you don't need to listen to that episode before you listen to today. So you can just keep listening. I hope you keep listening.

[00:01:13.650] - Speaker 1

One thing I also hope I can play in that episode last week is the magic and the mystery and the wonder of living life with a whatever venture as part of your life. So I have called what I've been doing for the past two and a half years a whatever venture, and I started calling it that because calling it a business just sounds so icky to me. It's putting a label on it that takes some of the magic and the mystery out of it. It makes it feel high, pressured, and the expectations are just so strong. And I don't like what my accountant calls it either.

[00:01:56.960] - Speaker 1

He just calls it an expensive hobby. And so I just call it my Whatever Venture. And the reason I call it that is because I don't have the words to express what I'm feeling about what it is I'm trying to create here in the world. Now let me backtrack and tell you where the whatever came from. Four or five years ago, when my almost daughter got married, Earl came to the wedding with me.

[00:02:23.560] - Speaker 1

Now, at that time, we had been together six months, a year, maybe a year and a half. I'm not exactly sure, but when I was introducing him, you know, calling a 50 something year old man a boyfriend, just that didn't seem right. Calling him my lover, well, that just didn't seem appropriate. I could have called him my partner or my significant other, but at that time, he was neither. He wasn't a partner.

[00:02:52.280] - Speaker 1

He wasn't my significant other. So I just did this kind of dismissive hand wave gesture and said, he's my whatever. And as time has passed, he has been upgraded to my significant whatever. So for me, whatever just means that I don't have the proper vocabulary to accurately convey what it is about what I'm doing to put words to it. Just like I didn't have the words to accurately convey all that Earl is to me and means to me.

[00:03:28.190] - Speaker 1

I didn't have the words. I don't have the words to convey what I'm doing currently. What my passion is, what my mission is, what my purpose here on this planet is. I'm here at this moment in time for a reason. Now, one thing that I've only recently come to believe because it just seems so far fetched to me, but I have recently come to okay, we'll say that I accept it even if I don't fully believe it.

[00:03:59.130] - Speaker 1

I have come to accept that not everyone has this driving force within them, this heart yearning, this calling to do something. Not everyone experiences that. And I keep thinking as I'm trying to believe, trying to accept this, oh, my gosh, their lives must be so blah. What do they live for? What keeps them moving forward every day?

[00:04:25.620] - Speaker 1

And of course, I know that's ridiculous because people are motivated by so many different things and this inner heart calling, it's not something that everyone has. But if you have it this week, as I'm talking about my whatever venture, I challenge you to put a name on it, even accept that it's a whatever venture, you can't quite describe it. You can't define it. You don't know how to measure it. You just know that it's something that you're striving for.

[00:04:56.850] - Speaker 1

This is the theme of your life. This is your opus. This is what makes you unique. And it's a driving force and a driving factor in your life. And if you're not putting forth the time and the energy and sometimes, yes, a boatload of money.

[00:05:15.030] - Speaker 1

If you're not putting that energy into the world, there's a gap in your spirit, in your heart. There's a longing for something more. Walk with me. My courses on healthier habits, this podcast, as I talked about last week, financially, they serve no purpose in my life. If my goal is to get ahead financially, these are holding me back.

[00:05:39.770] - Speaker 1

But I can't begin to tell you how much joy I feel every week when I release a new episode. I am so proud of myself. I did the work. I showed up. I put it out there into the universe.

[00:05:52.550] - Speaker 1

My message on any given Tuesday might change someone's life. It might give them that spark. It might ignite that flame that says, OOH, yes, I have a whatever venture living in me. And if Donna can do it, I bet I could do it, too. Donna said she was scared.

[00:06:13.320] - Speaker 1

And it's hard, and it's messy, but I can do it, too. I can do hard. I can do messy, but we have to be willing to put ourselves out there. But so many times we get caught up on and stuck on the money part of it. Money is just another form of energy.

[00:06:32.510] - Speaker 1

It's part of that. Give and receive. In episode 111, I'll put a link in the show notes. Donnadoyon.com one one. In episode 111, I talked about give and take.

[00:06:49.460] - Speaker 1

And I have always had a hard time with that concept. People will say, oh, a relationship is 50 50. You give and you take. And I don't like the word take. And so I talked about this in that episode, but basically, I don't believe that give and take is the right way to think of it.

[00:07:08.640] - Speaker 1

I believe that it should be give and receive. When you receive, you open yourself to receiving gifts. You're not taking something from someone without their permission. You're not taking it without their knowledge. When you receive something, they have given it to you of their free will.

[00:07:28.130] - Speaker 1

When we think about money in regards to these whatever ventures, we are receiving money in exchange for the value that we are giving our audiences, our readers, whoever we are serving. Because I believe that most of our whatever ventures, there's a purpose, there's some pain we're trying to reduce. There's a problem we're trying to solve, there's a struggle. We're trying to lessen. And if we are giving a solution, the energetic balance is to receive something in return.

[00:08:00.590] - Speaker 1

And one of the easiest forms of currency that we have is money. So when we can receive money for the gifts that we are sharing that we are giving with the world, this will allow us to propel our whatever ventures to an even greater level. We are giving, we are receiving it's. That Yin and Yang. It's the balance, and it's beautiful.

[00:08:25.670] - Speaker 1

But sometimes we get caught up in the money part of it. We think we should be doing this for free. People think we should be doing it for free. People forget that we are spending our own money. We are investing our own time, our own energy.

[00:08:41.630] - Speaker 1

We are saying yes to these whatever ventures, these life purpose visions. And when we say yes to these things, we have to say no to other things. And it does seem unfair to me that people are willing to receive and receive and receive of our goodness and our sharing without giving anything in return. And that's where it becomes unbalanced. And that's when people that have these great whatever ventures, you start to feel like people are taking from you, but they're not giving anything back.

[00:09:17.880] - Speaker 1

And then that disturbs your positive energetic flow, and you start to feel resentment and resentment tarnishes your vision. And then this tarnished vision, you look at it and you say, well, that's just a piece of crap. Why am I even working on that? I just need to throw that away. And these beautiful visions, these beautiful whatever ventures that we're pursuing, they are at risk of falling out of our hearts.

[00:09:46.440] - Speaker 1

But as we know, they never fall out of our hearts because they're our purpose. And it can become this vicious cycle of trying to build something and then having it fall apart. And trying to build something and having it fall apart. I assure you that is part of the venture adventure. This is part of the miracle.

[00:10:10.050] - Speaker 1

This is part of growing into who you need to be to make it a reality. Yes, you will go through cycles. I have been through dozens of them, up and down and up and down, over and around. And all of it is magical. Because each time I can see that I'm a little bit further ahead in my game, it really is magical.

[00:10:32.950] - Speaker 1

You can't get so caught up in failing. And what will people think? People will think whatever they think. That's really none of your business. It's what you think.

[00:10:43.670] - Speaker 1

What are your thoughts telling you about your vision? And if your thoughts aren't making you feel like you can do anything, question those thoughts, because those thoughts are based on a belief system that is holding you back. That's telling you you cannot. And unless you question that, you will go through life thinking you cannot. What if your thought is telling you you can?

[00:11:11.450] - Speaker 1

What a difference. When you think you can do something, you experience hope, expectation, excitement. And you think, I can do whatever it takes. There we go with that. Whatever again, whatever it takes.

[00:11:29.090] - Speaker 1

I can do this. Nothing will stop me. Nothing will hold me back. It's an amazingly powerful feeling. And when you feel like you can do anything, you can take on the world and win, that's when the actions that you take are going to be big, they're going to be bold, they're going to be made with confidence.

[00:11:50.270] - Speaker 1

And you won't even be worried about the results because you are taking the best action that you can with what you know in that moment. And the results are going to be whatever they are. And then you can look at those results and you can say, not quite what I expected. What do I think about these results? How does that make me feel?

[00:12:15.710] - Speaker 1

Okay. And if the feelings are not filled with hope and enthusiasm and excitement, what do I think about that thought? So that thought is bringing me down. It's making me doubt myself. Is that thought real?

[00:12:31.200] - Speaker 1

Is it my truth? And if you can change it, to say no, that belief, that thought is not 100% true, 100% of the time, that means it's a lie. Work on changing that thought into one that you can believe. That also makes you feel full of hope, enthusiasm and excitement, because that's how you're going to make this whatever venture work for you. I want to tell you about a few people that I know that have these whatever ventures of their own.

[00:13:07.130] - Speaker 1

The first is a good friend named Julie. And for as long as I've known her, which is about 20 years, she has had this vision of creating beautiful whimsical, angel cards, greeting cards. For as long as I've known her, she has worked in a corporate environment and she feels one of her favorite things to say is paycheck in a chair. That's all I want is a paycheck and a chair. About 15 years ago or so, she invested in a good computer at the time with the graphics programs so that she could start designing her greeting cards.

[00:13:43.340] - Speaker 1

And when she was focused on the joy of creating these photographs and then the cards, oh, the pleasure that she had when she was giving these cards out, it was amazing. She was on fire when she was focused on what her heart wanted her to create. She faltered when she started focusing on the money, when she started thinking about how much she had paid for her computer, for the software, for printing costs, she faltered when she started thinking about what she didn't know and how she didn't have the time and the energy because her job was so demanding, time wise and energy wise, she did have dreams of earning an income from these greeting cards. To this day, that hasn't happened. But I know when I talk with her and she has been designing these cards, she lights up and there is a sparkle in her eyes that is unmatched.

[00:14:41.830] - Speaker 1

And then she'll tell me about the people that she gives these cards to. It may be a woman that's just had a miscarriage or an elderly person who just lost their spouse. She knows that her cards have helped ease some of the pain of these people in her life. That is an amazing whatever venture, and it's not revolving around money, of trying to make a profit from it. That's the magic of it.

[00:15:09.930] - Speaker 1

And at some point, she may receive monetary rewards for her efforts, but that's not her driving force. Another friend of mine, she had some health issues, and so she converted her diet experience to a plantbased diet. And she spent a lot of time researching and learning recipes and experimenting with things. And she's loving the changes in her body. It helped relieve the symptoms of her illness.

[00:15:41.450] - Speaker 1

And she just is so enthusiastic about this plant based diet, something I really have a hard time relating to. But not every whatever venture is going to be for every person on this planet. And that's the thing that's magical. It's just finding our people. So she's interested in starting her own podcast about this topic.

[00:16:04.580] - Speaker 1

She wants to make it easier for people to find out how to transition to a plant based diet. She has so much information, so much knowledge. What's holding her back, feeling like she's not quite enough yet. She still has so much to learn. One thing I told her was you only need to be one or two or three steps ahead of the people you're helping, because if you're too far ahead, you're speaking in a way that they don't understand.

[00:16:32.520] - Speaker 1

They're going to think you can't connect with what they're going through because you've been doing it for so long. She even wants to take some College courses on this topic and she's never gone to College before. There was nothing she was interested in learning before. But this has her so fired up that's a Whatever Venture. And then another friend of mine, she created online writing workshops.

[00:16:58.350] - Speaker 1

These support and encourage people to explore their own innate creativity. She's been teaching live workshops for decades. She recently started holding these workshops online. And I have gone through a couple of her programs and they are amazing. Her passion, her Whatever Venture is to support and encourage people to explore their own innate creativity.

[00:17:22.800] - Speaker 1

I remember she told me, Well, Donna, people come to me all the time saying, yeah, but I'm not a writer. And she doesn't argue with them. She just smiles. She invites them to join one of her classes and then she watches as they discover that they are, in fact, a writer. And then she just kind of smiles at them.

[00:17:42.630] - Speaker 1

She has a twinkle in her eye. I see a common thread with people that have these Whatever Ventures when we are talking about them, when we are doing them, there is a certain twinkle in our eye. It must be the magic and the spark of fire in our hearts that's just kind of coming up through our eyes. That's kind of intriguing, isn't it? Gives me goosebumps.

[00:18:06.130] - Speaker 1

But she loves seeing people realize and discover that they can be what they want to be, even if they think they are not. And she helps them become those writers. It's powerful. Money is not a driving factor for any of us. It would be nice.

[00:18:26.410] - Speaker 1

Again, it goes back to that receiving value in return for what we are giving. And sometimes for some periods of time, that value that we receive is just our own inner knowing that we are doing what we were put here to do. And don't discount the value of that. Of feeling like you are living your life's mission, your destiny, your heart's calling. That really is powerful.

[00:18:54.120] - Speaker 1

If you have a desire, a dream, a longing inside of you, don't discount the significance of that fire in your heart. Not everyone has it. Not everyone has been blessed to have one. You have one. And it's up to you to bring it to the light of day.

[00:19:15.770] - Speaker 1

If you have a Whatever Venture in mind, if you've already started it, or perhaps you're still trying to transition from just scattered thoughts and these breezy feelings about what it might be. I would love to hear about them so you can make a comment on the blog post that goes with this episode. Donadoeon.com one, three, one. I would love to know what's going on, what stage you're in, or what your Whatever Venture is all about. Holding a vision in your heart and your mind.

[00:19:53.490] - Speaker 1

It's a beautiful thing, bringing it into the real world that's messy, chaotic, and frustratingly. Magical. Go make magic.

[00:20:07.950] - Speaker 1

If you enjoy listening to this podcast, you have to check out walk with me. It's my monthly walking program that teaches self coaching practices so that you can start living the delightfully imperfect life of your dreams. Check it out@donnadoeon.com walk. I would love to have you walk with me. The music for this podcast is Drifting Upstream by Hyson.


More...

Show Notes:

I mentioned a couple of podcast episodes. Here are links if you want to go back and listen to them (again). 🙂

Ep130: Happy Birthday Walk with Me

Ep111: The Problem with Give and Take in Relationships

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The music for this podcast is Drifting Upstream by Hyson. The music was slightly remixed and fit to needed duration.
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0


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