Spiritual Growth and Work
April 16, 2008 at 12:41 am (Uncategorized)
What is the connection between our spiritual growth and our work? Most people keep them separate. It’s pretty common to feel that work is work and the spiritual stuff shouldn’t be mixed in with our professional lives. A contrary view of what it is to be a working professional and an effective leader is emerging.
Aren’t we most fulfilled when our life’s purpose and our work are aligned?
Robert Frost says it brilliantly in the last stanza of “Two Tramps in Mudtime”
My object in living is to unite
My avocation and my vocation
As my two eyes make one in sight.
Only where love and need are one,
And the work is play for mortal stakes,
Is the deed ever really done
For Heaven and the future’s sakes.
Aren’t leaders most effective when they inspire those around them to their best work?
Inspiring others isn’t something that comes from authority. Authority produces compliance. Inspiration is not something that we can fake or think through with our minds. It is the ability to access the deepest parts of ourselves; and in so doing touch the hearts, as well as the minds, of those around us. Accessing the peace of the heart, speaking from that sacred place, and touching the hearts of others is what makes great leaders. It is a spiritual journey that we take for ourselves and those we serve.
Aren’t we most effective when we can stay grounded and present during chaotic events at work?
This is more than just ’staying calm’, it is the ability to let our purpose guide us, to be totally present to what is happening, and to take appropriate action. The deeper we feel our purpose at work the easier it is to navigate chaos. Our purpose is our GPS system. The more we can stay present in the midst of chaos and not let our minds run away into judgments or worry, or thinking in general; the more we can see the situation clearly and the better the chances we will act appropriately.
If we connect with people and we are truly present with them, aren’t we more apt to build trust with them?
Being present means not thinking about what we are going to say next, nor is it having silent judgments about what they are saying, “That’s not right.” “That’s naive.” “That’s a great idea.” It is listening, actively and openly. Training our minds to be present is the underlying concept of meditation, a deeply spiritual endeavor
Perhaps the workplace is the best place for us to engage our spiritual selves. The connection between our spiritual journeys and the effectiveness of our work lives is impossible to sever. We may think we can compartmentalize our spirit from our work, but over time the artificial barriers break down. After all, we can’t help being who we are.
Aren’t we most effective and most fulfilled when we are fully human…even at work?
pete
Harmony said,
April 16, 2008 at 1:32 am
You know Pete, I can’t agree more about how we don’t allow a person to really communicate to us without pre-judging what they are saying, or assuming we already know the answer. In all my zenness and with all the focus I have on my practice, I gotta say, this is a big one for me. My quiet mind get’s to really chatting when someone else is speaking about something I am “engaged” with on a personal level.
Let’s just say I am “fully human.” (eeeks!)
Thomas White said,
April 16, 2008 at 4:19 pm
I like what you have written. I have found it interesting that we believe that there are spiritual actions and non-spiritual actions. How can anything not be spiritual. Aren’t we all connected and at essence one?
Thank you for fanning the flame of this conversation.
Pete Reilly said,
April 16, 2008 at 5:04 pm
Harmony,
This is a hard one for most of us. It’s why when we speak with someone who really listens to us it feels so strange.
pete
Pete Reilly said,
April 16, 2008 at 5:08 pm
Thomas,
I believe this but it in my experience it isn’t the ‘common view’. I’ve seen people opt out of opportunities to reflect and explore their hearts because they didn’t believe it had anything to do with their work.
pete
Heidi said,
April 18, 2008 at 7:01 am
I think that we believe that “spirit” and “work” are separate only when we are operating from our ego - doing what we believe we “should” be doing, what others expect of us, what will lift up our feelings of inadequecy with false prestige (the corner office, the expensive car, the fancy watch, etc…).
And I’ve found even the areas where we think we are connecting to the spiritual (i.e. at church), it’s limited by the ego when we follow the rule of the law. Again, doing what we’re “supposed” to do (as a Protestant, or a Catholic, or a Jew, etc…).
Only when I began to find my way out of the ego and towards my true spiritual being did I truly realize (at a level of feeling, not of thinking and “should”
that, as Thomas points out, we are all connected.
Now there is no way that I can separate my spirituality and my work - I automatically bring my authentic self to work. It’s in how I interact with people, it’s in what I care about, it’s in the projects that I choose to work on, it’s in the energy and passion I bring to those projects! I can’t close a door that has opened - I can’t un-learn what I now know!
Do you think that people separate spirit and work because they see spirituality as something that you “do” as opposed to it being something that you “are”? I wonder…
Pete Reilly said,
April 21, 2008 at 6:14 pm
Heidi,
Maybe over the years ‘professional’ and ‘professionalism’ has come to mean rising above our personal concerns and issues to get the job done. In the past, if I we’re feeling sad or there was some trauma in my personal life I used to say to myself, “C’mon, your a professional. You’ve got to go to this meeting and perform.”….and I would.
I see it much differently now.
pete
Heidi said,
April 23, 2008 at 3:40 pm
Thanks Pete!
Your comments really hit home for me right now, as I struggle with exactly that issue!
As much as I’ve found new ways to honour myself and my unique strengths (way of doing things) at work - that kind of peace has elluded me in certain aspects of my personal life.
So much going on personally, but how do I keep doing my work - and be “professional”? Don’t feel like I can talk about it without it sounding like an excuse - yet it affects my performance when I try to keep it all in…
I’d love to see a post from you at some point on your thoughts on this dilemma!