what 10x misses + why this matters for you
I picked up a popular personal development book last week - it's one my clients have mentioned in passing and I've had it on my list.
The main premise of the book is that 10x-ing everything in your life is fundamentally easier than keeping it at 2x.
The message is clear and inspiring and yet, I found myself after 2-3 chapters in sitting with a question the book never seemed to speak to.
And that simple question is >>> Why??
This question comes up often when I look at the coaching industry and the personal development space.
And as a business coach who is also a poet - I have a fundamental belief that being alive, itself, is the grand prize and that getting to experience the fullness of who we really are is the grand mystery.
I've come to learn that the more we negotiate with the preciousness of our life force - the more coming up feeling empty - in the end.
And as someone who glimpsed the end of the book of life with an NDE when my daughter was born...
It is crystal clear to me that everything we are doing here is really about wanting to experience more love, more life, more abundance, more joy - more of what being alive is here to offer us.
That being said...
It's the main premise for why I believe building a business is truly one of the greatest growth opportunities available.
Even thinking about yourself as a free agent/entrepreneur - even if you're still in a more traditional job arrangement can change your life.
There is a phrase that comes directly from the Buddha’s Noble Eightfold Path, one of the foundational teachings of Buddhism - called "Right Livelihood."
The Eightfold Path lays out eight practices to end suffering (dukkha) and live in alignment with the Dharma (truth).
“Right Livelihood” (sammā-ājīva in Pali) is the fifth element of the path.
My favorite therapist of all time introduced this concept to me as I sharing with her what I believed about helping women build their own businesses.
The Buddha taught that livelihood - how we earn our living - must be practiced ethically and mindfully, so it does not cause harm to oneself or others.
In the contemporary context, teachers like Thich Nhat Hanh expanded this by saying, "Right Livelihood is any work that nourishes compassion and mindfulness, that is aligned with your deepest values."
Here's the interpretation:
Right livelihood is not about the scale of your success but the integrity of your success.
As I continued to read the 10x book, what I found myself coming up against, again and again, was that glaring question - "But why?"
This is where our "main premise" comes in.
I talk about this constantly with my clients.
They are used to me asking them, "But why?"
The answer to that question always leads us to the next right move - for their business and for the people that they are uniquely qualified to serve.
Right-Sized is our modern day answer to Right Livelihood - most especially as women, mothers and care providers.
Right-sized asks, What is the equation that sustains you, your family, and your clients - without extraction, without distortion, without losing your self and your soul along the way?
It’s not about shrinking or rejecting ambition.
It’s not about mindlessly chasing “10x” for its own sake - even when it makes great sense on paper.
It’s about finding the Right Number where:
Your growth deepens your peace.
Your presence expands your possibility.
Your work becomes a vehicle for compassion, creativity and financial freedom.
I believe that this is the revolution - building businesses that are life-led, ethical by design and sovereign at the root.
And the beautiful thing about right-sized is that the equation is built for your one, precious life.
xo
Amber