Copyright (c) 2009 James RocheYou may be sabotaging your business...and not know why. You're not alone (and there is a solution!) Try as they might, many entrepreneurs are stuck: clients aren't coming in and new products or services fall flat. Business becomes hard work. Most entrepreneurs deal with their frustration by throwing money at the problem, "Maybe if I got another marketing tool or implemented another marketing strategy...THEN the business will come flooding in." But here's a shocking fact: many business problems have NOTHING to do with tools and techniques...but have EVERYTHING to do with the emotional, mental and spiritual wellbeing of the entrepreneur.Few business experts ever talk about this (or can)...but one of the secrets to experiencing explosive growth in your business is clearing up the personal issues that are affecting your business. Often, these "shadow" issues require you to come face-to-face with repressed, disowned and unclaimed parts of yourself that are the unwitting source of your self-sabotage and financial struggle.A shadow part of you isn't a bad thing. We've just made it into something scarier that it actually is...It's like a part of ourselves we put in the basement cellar a long time ago. Not only that, we've covered the cellar door with a thick rug and piled furniture on top...just to make sure we never have to face that shadow part of ourselves again. After a while, we totally deny its existence. We can't even see it - it's a shadow.But it doesn't help. Its effects show up in our lives all the time...often in our businesses.The Effects of Shadow in Your BusinessShadows are the result of misconceptions - beliefs that we think are true, but aren't. Here's a common way a shadow is born...Something happened to you as a child and you made it mean something. It was your way of dealing with a hard life situation back then. You made up an interpretation of how reality is...but it's just that, an interpretation! We forget this and turn our new belief into a real thing, "This is how life really is!"Then we carry our made up belief into adulthood...and into our businesses.For example, Jen is a coach who runs her own business. When she was a child her father died. She saw her mom struggle financially to feed Jen and her two brothers. Her mom worked hard...and was rarely happy.Jen was just a kid - life threw her a difficult situation. So Jen worked hard not to be a burden to her mom and to take care of her two brothers. In order to cope, Jen interpreted what happened as, "I always have to work hard. I have to do it all alone. I can't be happy AND successful."Fast forward twenty five years. Jen is working hard at her business...She hears the business gurus say to outsource your work to a virtual assistant, but Jen can't seem to bring herself to do it...and doesn't understand why. And what's more confusing, when she worked in corporate, she was very successful - but alone and never happy. Now that she's happily married - she can't seem to be successful!The "Hidden" Secret of Successful EntrepreneursWe all have shadow elements. Sometimes we think our shadows have nothing to do with our business or that we can hide our shadows from others...that they are invisible.But they're not!Ironically, we can't see them - but everyone else can!Another way we've seen the shadow manifest in business is when an entrepreneur actually pushes AWAY their target market. The entrepreneur is so passionate about the topic of their business - their cause - that they feel the compulsion to push it on others, "Everybody NEEDS to have this!"It's great to be passionate - of course. The challenge arises when the entrepreneur uses their business to try to impose on others the need to transform issues that the entrepreneur themselves needs to work on!The entrepreneur can no longer distinguish between what they think people need vs. what the market actually wants. The entrepreneur becomes blind to the fact that business is the purchase and sale of goods and services in an attempt to make a profit - not a forum to work out personal issues.Successful entrepreneurs separate business from personal.Having Said That... Okay. So business is business and personal is personal. But we're human beings! We're going to mix the two. Instead of forcing ourselves to separate business from personal, why not leverage your struggles in business as a vehicle for your own personal transformation?If we let our business experience show us where we're unconscious with our repressed shadow elements, then we can transform our life AND open up the floodgates in our business at the same time.When we face square on how our shadow is creeping into our business...only then can we truly separate business from personal.Overcoming Self-SabotageThe shadow is like a pair of glasses with an old prescription. You can't see clearly through these lenses, but you think, "These are my glasses! I need them to see!"It's very hard to work on shadow issues by yourself. To break free from the invisible bonds of our shadow it helps to work with someone outside of your life drama - a compassionate facilitator.The process is simple...When you re-experience the original pain from childhood that you've been fighting against, the issue gets resolved...fast! The shadow is let out of the basement and allowed to breathe in the light.This embodied experience happens energetically. Your facilitator, often an energy healer, spiritual teacher or therapist who understands the body and spirit as well as psychological theories, helps you integrate.What happens next is amazing...Once let free, the shadow becomes your ally - a huge source of power. The hose is un-kinked and the pent up energy flows freely again - giving YOU more energy.The floodgates of money and success are opened up to you forever.