A ritual can be defined as a solemn ceremony of observance. It is a term often associated with religion. What I’m suggesting here, however, is that rituals can be a way to remind us to nourish ourselves every day, both on a practical physical level and whilst engaging our hearts in our work.
People
1. Express your gratitude each day to at least one other person involved in your business.
2. Ask for feedback and respect the opinions of others, even if you don’t agree with them.
3. Trust yourself and those with whom you work.
Planet
4. Perform one maintenance task each day on your working environment. Notice elements of beauty as you go.
5. Plan each week around minimising your energy use. Be realistic and accepting of mistakes.
6. Turn off all non-emergency electronic equipment at the end of each day.
Profit
7. Receive and open bills with gratitude for your ability to pay.
8. Over-deliver (i.e. go the extra mile) with grace for at least one client every day.
9. Block out a regular time in your diary for checking your financial situation. Do it with ease, gratitude and willingness to change.
For yourself:
10. Set your business intention every day and let go of the outcome.
What would be your top ten? Or what would you add to these?
This site seeks to explore the heart and soul of downshifting to a more sustainable, ethical and holistic way of living and working, in keeping with the needs of the planet, humanity as a whole and ourselves as individuals. 
These are a great top ten. Are you able to say a little more about number 10? I don’t quite understand what you mean by ‘let go of the outcome’.
One of my own rituals is to find ways to pause for breath. A smooth stone by my telephone, for example, which I touch before I answer the phone. It grounds me for the call.
Letting go of outcomes is part of surrendering to that which we do not have the power to change. The opposite, I suppose, is being attached to outcomes which can put us under immense personal stress and undermine our ability to do our best work.
Imagine I’ve had an enquiry from a potential client, I’ve had a couple of meetings to discuss how we might work together but no decision has been made. At this point I have probably done all I can to present myself and my business in the best possible light – the rest will be up to the client or something else. That’s the time to let go of the outcome. It’s no longer in my hands. (Some would say that I could let go earlier than this and work totally from my intuition and in co-creation with the universe – but that’s probably the subject of a separate blog – a longish one! lol!)
If I were to be attached to the outcome in this kind of situation then I might well agonise over it, spend mental energy on worrying rather than directing my energy to other tasks. My anxiety might well lead to anger and frustration with others I work with or with friends and relations.
So, I can set my intention for the day (or for individual events throughout the day). That’s within my control. And I can let go of the outcome, over which I ultimately do not have control. Interestingly, in most ancient spiritual texts I believe there is something along the lines of “Sew the seeds and surrender the fruits.”
Love your telephone stone idea. And, yes, great to find ways to pause for breath and to ground oneself before taking the call. I particularly like the fact that I’d need to touch the stone first. Thanks for that.
Excellent post!
I’d add learning to forgive. When we forgive, we forgift ourselves. Is there a colleague, someone you’ve done business with that would benefit from forgiveness?
The place to start is in our heart – the brain has its own agenda.
Oh yes, good point. Forgiveness is something that took me a long time to really understand (and maybe I still don’t fully) and so I appreciate your comment even more for this reminder. Thanks Marianna.
I’d be interested to know – do you have a physical kind of ritual, something that you do on a regular basis, to remind you to forgive?
Forgiveness was really hard for me. I find that by practising my heart techniques, forgiveness happens naturally without having to work at it.
One day I noticed that I didn’t have the anger I once did for a particular person…it just melted away.
It’s an on-going process though.
for Marianna – can you share what your ‘heart techniques’ are… I have issues with forgiveness too. Yesterday I discovered so much bitterness causing me grief that goes on and on, I’m ready to truly let it go.