EmployeeNext: Creating success and joy at work

At my Unity congregation, we are currently doing a study group on the Course In Miracles. This curriculum has been something I’ve wanted to pursue for a long time, but as is usual in my life, when I’m truly ready, the opportunity just shows up, and all I have to do is say “yes.”

So it is with the Course in Miracles. Years ago a friend gifted me with the book for the Course, and it has been in plastic on my bookshelf for quite a long time. The Course In Miracles is a commitment. I was always a bit intimidated by it — embarking on it is analogous to reading the Bible - takes a year, some willingness and determination, perseverance, and is best done with the support of a group. I’ve taken a few runs at reading the Bible, bought different versions, picked it up, put it down …. I’m a spiritualist, not a religious person, and have really looked for excuses to avoid the reading the Bible as I’ve often associated it with religion rather than spirituality.

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I’ve just returned from a few days of vacation to visit my aunt in Texas. We have a small family and she is the only one still living from my father’s generation. She is 93 years old.

My aunt Nell is an incredible woman. Originally from Missouri, she has that plain and direct style but without any aggression or stubbornness — just honest, direct communication. At the age of 93, she still keeps and cleans two homes, plays bridge, drives, is sharp as ever, and healthy. Not even one prescription medication.

She has lived an amazing life, doing many things that no woman had done before her in her quiet and modest way. She had a wonderful marriage to her best friend and enjoys the love of her son and grandchildren. She has more social engagements still than she can manage! A life well lived by a woman who is truly loved.

As I spent time with her, just being together, playing cards, and telling stories, I watched the simplicity and joy that is attached to everything she does. From the appreciation of simple food and good company, to the plants in her garden, the objects in her home each of which have a story remembered and told, she lives a life of gratitude and pleasure. Although she lost her husband shortly after they retired, she is never lonely and shows not a trace of self-pity. He is everywhere in her memory and she lovingly keeps him alive with stories.

How I aspire to be a woman like my aunt. Accepting and kind to everyone, always polite, not prideful, egotistical, or phony. Still open-minded. Spiritual and caring. Still teachable.

I truly believe that it is our attitudes that affect everything we do. When we are connected spiritually to someone, something, other than ourselves, when we are grateful and positive in our thinking, we infuse ourselves and those around us with health of the mind-body-spirit. I don’t think it’s any coincidence that this wonderful woman should be going strong without a medication in sight at 93. Her attitude of gratitude and joy in living surround her like a gentle, soft aroma. What a gift she is in my life.

Once of the things I’ve found to be a personal challenge is dealing with the past. Most of us don’t realize we make decisions everyday based on the past, and we even forecast our futures (thereby creating them with our actions and our thinking) by recreating the past. Our perceptions are dictated by the past, and not even always our own actual past experiences! Often our thinking is controlled by past thoughts — teachings from our families, employers, churches, schools, our cultural influences … the list is endless. So we “own” these opinions and judgments and create a set of beliefs and assumptions based on past events and opinions and then use them to guide our current and future decisions. Kinda like driving down I-95 today with a really old map — we’d get off the highway at the same old exit ramp not realizing that of course the new road goes all the way through!

This repetition of past behaviour, expecting different results, creates a myriad of problems for us. We do need to understand the past, observe it, and make sure it gives us a foundation of facts on which we can base opinions and decisions. But we need to direct the decisions using a firm understanding of present conditions — not allow the past to drive the car, read the map, and determine the route.

The past should be treated like a history lesson. It can be very useful, when we don’t attach emotion to it. It is best used to get knowledge about an event, place, person, culture, or organization that will give us good background and understanding, lay a foundation of knowledge we can build on. We can look at lessons learned without fear or judgment.

It’s when we get all caught up in it — the nostalgia, attempts at recreation, (funny how we do forget the bad times quickly and remember the good forever!) the attempts to return to it and “go home again” that we can feel victimized, hopeless, disenfranchised. This is not only a denial of the present, it can become a justification for failure to accept personal responsibility for our own attitudes and behaviours. We start to blame. Get inert. Paralyzed.

So how does this affect us in the workplace? How does this understanding of past employer/employee paradigms help us become “EmployeeNext?” I’ll start a discussion of that using my own personal experiences in my next post.

How I love the Latin based languages! Often I find the words can be broken down into parts and when we look at them differently a more profound meaning emerges.

I am a member of the Unity Church and attend Sunday services often — we have a wonderful congregation of really magical people with interfaith and new thought backgrounds — and a very inspiring and high vibrating minister to lead us. Today we had a beautiful service with a very moving christening and spiritual message.

We all have spiritual gifts. Often we are unaware of these - we’ve been listening to outside messages defining us in limited ways. But when we begin to seek our own spiritual truth in earnest - seek and ye shall find! I often perceive on an intuitive level — and I often find sources of inspiration everywhere, right out in the open! So today, I was thinking about these two words - Inspiration and Intuition - and their significance in my journey.

When I combined them - I created Inspirtuition - I define this as “to find inspiration intuitively.” And look at the syllabic breakdown — In-Spir-Tu-It — what a lovely interpretation - to “inspire” to it! To reach for something with our spiritual nature rather than our worldly view.

We are all spiritual beings having human experiences — souls with bodies, rather than bodies with souls. When I approach what I perceive with that view — leading with my spirit first — I find inspiration and my intuition is always my faithful, reliable guide.

Our Reverend Kyra shared some wonderful wisdom with us today I wanted to post — rules for living life “in spirit” –

1. Do no harm and start with yourself

2. Do everything you do with honesty and integrity

3. Find your human joy and be thankful for the opportunity

“Joy is the infallible sign of the presence of God” - Teillard de Chardin

It’s Saturday and I’ve been concentrating on trying to learn how to blog. Not yet able to get comments implemented correctly on the site so working on that today. Hopefully soon I’ll have the blog in a condition where I can open it up and start to participate in the active blogging community.

Coming from a corporate environment where I could just pick up the phone and call the help desk, I’m finding the open source forum environment challenges my desire for instant gratification! And that raises the questions of expectations — perhaps a great subject for a future post. What exactly do we expect as employees? Now that the rules of the game have changed?

Are unfulfilled expectations and the resentments they engender occurring because we aren’t communicating our needs honestly? Because we can be fearful of the consequences of asking for what we need? Would that require that we really know what we need and why we feel we need it before we ask for it? Which would then imply that we need to think through our needs and wants and what portion of those are our responsibility?

It brings to mind some of the challenges I face as a parent — I often find myself reacting to a request without thinking, just saying no, feeling my defenses rise and responding without thinking. Then, if my son asks me why, and I get calm and really listen and think it through, I’ll often find (much more often than I like) that I don’t actually have a good reason. I’ve acted from habit, or a desire to control and direct. Or from a past perception that has no relevance to the here and now.

Corporations are no longer paternalistic. We no longer live in a world of mutual loyalty and reasonable guarantees of employment assuming we perform as required. The rules have changed, the world has changed. The foundation on which we based our expectations has largely disappeared.

No longer does the large corporation resemble a benevolent parent who sets clear and fair rules which if followed ensure certain security and reasonable rewards. Long term strategies are often trumped by short term decisions to maximize shareholder value and stock performance. In this wonderful age of instant information and misinformation, often we feel we are on shifting sands.

In future posts this week, we’ll discuss the past, present, and future of being an employee. EmployeePast, EmployeePresent, EmployeeNext …….

I love Friday the 13th. I’ve always felt it was my lucky day. And today was no exception.

I’ve been wrestling with a particular spiritual issue and trying to solve it by applying intellect to it. One of the great cosmic jokes I’m particularly fond of is that spiritual problems just don’t respond to “figuring it out.” But figuring it out is what my mind loves to do!

So since my mind is mine, and changing it is a process, (losing it is an option!) — and I’ve grown fond of my mind with all its habits and ego — I’ve learned that I can pray too. And I’ve also learned that prayer takes time, practice, listening, and patience.

Today, this prayer was answered. A moment of clarity so powerful that the energy just lit me up with joy. A beautiful “A-HA”, a click, and then a rush of gratitude.

And to put the icing on this gift, it happened in the morning while I was reading, so I got to savor it all day. Writing about it now the electricity has my hair standing on end.

I’ve experienced a few of these powerful moments, and they are always life-changing. I wonder what the life-change that will evolve from this moment will be.

In the 24 hours since the birth of this blog, my mind has been whirling with thoughts — where to begin? There are so many topics to cover, so many mountains to climb! Perhaps then, just choose a jumping off place and jump!

I have been working in corporate structures for nearly thirty years. Despite a few opportunities for detours (lessons all), I have stayed the course and through intention, luck, and a good deal of hard work, have been blessed with a successful and rewarding career.

The ideas for EmployeeNext have come from my own experience in observing myself and others in organizations of all sizes over the years. Why are so many of us unfulfilled or frustrated by our work? Why is who we are at work often so different from who we feel we really are? How can I, as a single individual, help people in a constructive way to feel whole and at peace at work, even when they are not always satisfied with their circumstances?

If we can make the shift to being authentically ourselves at work, imagine the ripples! We’ll find ourselves improving our relationships everywhere, all the time. And not by changing others or their attitudes, but by changing the lens that is our perception.

I believe once we begin this process, the empowerment and authenticity we feel will energize us to new possibilities. We will feel in control without being controlling. Judgment will ease. Conflict can be transformed into problem solving. Anger and resentments soften, communications become more effective, and even if we ultimately fail or move on, we can feel we have succeeded.

These principles work whether we are self-employed or senior executives in large corporations. And anywhere in between! A matter a perception and attitude. A little balm of grace.

Of the many blessings in my life, one of the greatest is my friends, who often speak the Truth to me and show me my path in loving and caring ways. One of these friends, who is an inspiration to me, has helped me see that small steps can build the pathway to big audacious dreams! So I have cast my fears and doubts aside and begun this journey.

And so it is for us all — we begin to climb the mountain one step at a time, focusing on the present moment, which is where we experience our true joy.

Have you ever tried to freeze a moment in time? Stopping, breathing, and focusing, just for the instant you are in, on a cloud or another miracle of nature? Letting your eye rest there, quieting your mind, and realizing that in the instant, the moment — exactly where you are — you are totally safe, whole, complete, and free? In that instant, there is nothing wrong in your world, you are in the perfect now and perfectly who you are and who you were created to be.

Then little by little you can string these perfect pearls together — creating waves of gratitude and positive energy. Which enables the way to become clear and the flow to carry you gently, without needing you to manipulate outside circumstances in the hope of changing your inner world. Only your thoughts can change your reality, from the inside out. My work in changing my thoughts has completely changed my inner and outer worlds, absolutely for the better.

My vision for this blog is to begin a discussion of how we can improve our lives in the workplace, and by extension our workplaces themselves, by being authentically who we are at work. We can bring a spiritual awareness based on honesty, integrity, and open-mindedness to our work lives. Even if we don’t like what we do, where we do it, or who we do it with, we can be happy and fulfilled on a daily basis. We can be in the solution and walk with grace. We can honor our co-workers, even those we fear, by simply allowing them to be who they are. We can improve our communications and get our needs met.

I believe that all workplaces can be places of learning and joy, even if what we learn ultimately reveals choices which must be made that we’d rather avoid. We can be happy even when we are not happy. We can stop fighting.

As one of my favorite teachers, Dr. Wayne Dyer, to whom I owe an enormous debt of gratitude, says: “When you change the way you look at the world, the world you look at changes.”