Find meaning in your work

  Toronto's Center for Work and Spirit is asking people to consider how they feel about their jobs.  They've opened the dialogue with these questions: Does your daily work inspire or exhaust your spirit?  Is it mostly about making a living and getting things done? Or can it be more than that, so you have more life, so you have work that matters and helps create a better world?  How can all of us do our jobs with more love, soul and purpose--so we raise up and inspire each other and deepen our humanity? 

       In the US, corporations are discovering the Buddhist concept of right livelihood. More executives consider work to be a spiritual practice, and companies like Apple, Prentice-Hall, McKinsey, Procter & Gamble, Nike, and Time-Warner now offer  meditation rooms as perks  along with cafeterias and gyms.  

       In a survey taken six years ago, 85 percent of American workers report that their leaders' spirituality has had an impact on their company.

Globally we're seeing the rise of the B-Corporation (B stands for "Benefit") that encourages businesses to give back to the community.  Today there are more than a thousand certified B-Corps in 33 countries.  Charter members include Patagonia, makers of outdoor gear; Badger Balm, producers of natural cosmetics; Ingage Partners, management and tech consultants who give a quarter of their profits to employees plus time off to volunteer for social causes; and Etsy, an online global market for handmade goods that provides loaner bikes and organic meals to employees and donates office compost to local farms.  

These are pretty impressive gains. But what if you don't have the good fortune to work for an enlightened firm that offers Insight Meditation on your lunch break and actually cares how much you like your job? 

What if you’re just scrambling to hold your place in a volatile economy?  How do you find meaning in your work—or in your daily search for it? These are issues of special interest to Late Bloomers who are trying to find their niche in a crowded and chaotic marketplace. 

In a world where companies fold overnight and entire industries are prone to creative disruption, holding onto your spiritual purpose can be challenging. At that point, however, standing by your inner values is even more important. Spiritual grounding is essential if you have to give up your familiar work identity and find new ways to use your skills. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson considered the effects of the marketplace upon the soul in in his essay, Compensation:  “The changes which break up, at short intervals, the prosperity of men are advertisements of nature whose law is growth. Every soul is, by this intrinsic necessity, quitting its whole system of things, its friends, and home, and laws and faith, as the shell-fish crawls out of its beautiful but stony case…and slowly forms a new house.” 

As the old forms break down, we start searching for the fundamental talent we draw upon  no matter what job we do.  There is no denying our vulnerability in the moment we cast off that outer shell and leave behind everything that is safe and known. Yet Emerson believed discomfort accompanies each stage of evolution—that the economy itself is nature’s tool, requiring us to surrender the old so we can discover an unexpected gift or calling and somehow be made anew.

It is good to remember that what we view as loss or failure, or decry as an unwanted change, is strongly allied with the archetype of growth.  

Keeping the big picture in mind is helpful. And so is the daily practice of gratitude.  Last week I found this comment on a website dedicated to our changing workplace: “We started talking about how we practice spirituality at work when we realized that Mary Ann was bowing to her computer at the end of the day."  When asked about this ritual, Mary Ann explained that it was a gesture of thankfulness, similar to what Brother Lawrence, a 17th century monk, did when he praised his cooking pots for helping him serve God.

Simple acts can provide a sense of authenticity and presence, enhancing the way we relate to routine tasks.  This kind of ballast is essential as we reinvent our organizations and ourselves.   

Today’s questions:

Is your job aligned with your core values?  Try this test

What personal changes are you being asked to make to keep pace with the New Economy?

Are you gerbiling and always living at the mercy of a deadline, or are you living in real time, and consciously connecting with the spirit of your work?

Can you pause for five minutes to simply be here now?