Table of Contents
As a writer on personal and spiritual development I am deeply interested in the issue of finding meaning in work. Let me say at the outset of this article that the word work and the word job are not to be considered synonymous. Let me also say that it is quite possible to be doing a job that is the work that you are born to do.
In my experience of our everyday world of work I find many individuals who spend much of their work day longing for the weekend.
This has deep implications for their health and well being and the health and well being of the community. It has consequences for their work colleagues and their employer. In order to have a balanced and aligned energy system it is important that you find meaning in work that you are here to do. One of the best audio learning programs that I have listened too in relation to finding the work you love is The Ultimate Anti-Career Guide: The Inner Path to Finding Your Work in the World by Rick Jarow.
You don’t have to go out looking for a job, Dr. Jarow says. The job you were born to do will unfold in time, like a tree from a seed, as you let go of self-limiting concepts and open to the energy of creation—with The Ultimate Anti-Career Guide.
Nick Williams writing in the introduction to The Work We Were Born To Do: Find the Work You Love Love the Work You do says:-
To many of us raised with the Protestant work ethic, this desire to find the work we were born to do can sound either selfish or impossibility dreamy, for we have come to believe and experience that suffering in our work is our natural state. The feeling that work should be difficult, boring and even a struggle is normal but not natural.
What is Natural Work?
Natural work is the free flow of creative expression that loves to express in the world. It is the way in which creation intends you to express in the world. To begin with it may not lead to you having a so called normal career. You need to at least be open to being able to find meaningful in work and love the work you do. There are many requirements to being able to find meaning in work but the first requirement is to set the intention. The problem for many of is that setting the intention is often a very lukewarm experience. There is no feeling of passion and this is indicative of a lack of self love. All chakra imbalance and non-alignment comes done to our blocking the way in which Love’s Message is intended to express through us.
Learning to Love the Work You Are
Work is not simply to be equated with money or production. If this is were you begin then you will likely not find the work in which you discover purpose, meaning and passion within your working life. Your work will not inspire you because it will not engage your spirit. This is why it is essential, especially after the age of 40, to find work that expresses the spirit within you. Carl Jung stated that after the age of 40 most all major problems in life were related to finding meaning and purpose. Creation created you as a unique work of art. You find the guidance for finding meaning in work through connecting to the energy of the heart. When you are aligned with the heart passion fuels the energy you need so that you are able to focus on the way in which you find the work you love and love the work you do.
Everyday Practice Your Work
Your work is to express as Love in form. You put out into the world the joy you experience in creativity. This does not have to make you money but it can become the vehicle for the medium of exchange called money. It is there to give you enjoyment. Finding meaning in work is there to express your sense of being. It is an antidote to doing and the do-do of many peoples lives. It is an antidote to the compensation of rampant consumerism. Do not consider a focus on finding meaning in work to be a waste of time. It is the portal to the experience of the timeless. Paradoxically speaking it is your ability to access the timeless that allows you to know the true meaning of “having the time of your life.”
Any job will do or will it?
The focus in much of the media is on the creation of jobs. The problem is that for politicians and the public in general the creation of any kind of job will very often do. It is simply a matter of changing the unemployment statistics. However, any job won’t do. A sustainable job needs to allow the individual to meaningfully contribute to the society they live in otherwise it is simply another form of exploitation which impacts the society in a negative way. The focus in our educations system is to make each one of us productive consumers. The focus is not on making each of us creative, fulfilled passionate, purpose filled expressions of Love in form. This would really lead to a true in-form-ation revolution driven from the revelation of who we are. This would move us far beyond our present technological revolution. There is no reason why they cannot go together and they should. This would be the alignment of the masculine creative principle with the creative principle of the feminine. This would give us a full brain focus and open us up to the union of the intelligence of the rational mind with the mind of insight. Finding meaning in work and loving the work that you do is not work in the way in which we normally understand the experience of work. Business over the last number of years has got a very bad name. I think this is because so many at the top of the money cycle are driven by the will to power and not from the will to Love. Unconsciously they then destroy what they seek to create because it has no connection beyond what they see as their sense of the separate self.
No-one is born into the world whose work is not born with him – James Russell Lowell (1891-91)
FREE Global Telesummit
It interests me to find that The Shift are sharing FREE Global Telesummit that includes business people whose focus is on creating the kinds of business that are driven from finding meaning in work.
I believe in entrepreneurship. Even more, I believe in social entrepreneurship. But most of all, I believe that today’s emerging movement of independent conscious entrepreneurs can change the world. I believe they can help stabilise the economy and bring social justice to all people. I believe they can stop environmental damage and raise awareness about healthy lifestyles. I believe they can bring back TRUST within the business sector. I believe they can help heal humanity and planet by changing the way we do business. Social Entrepreneurship – Moving From Visionary to CEO Leader – Lynne Serafinn, MAED, CPCC
The way in which you know that you are finding meaning in work is that you do it for the joy that you feel within it. Writing about personal and spiritual development is the work that I do and love. It isn’t always enjoyable. It is challenging but that is what work should invite. It should challenge you to take quantum leaps in consciousness. It can be, and should be, vehicle for finding the answer to the question posited by the poet Mary Oliver when she asks
Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life? The Summer Day – Mary Oliver
Are you going to wait for the retirement that might now never come given the demographics of the Western world? Or are you going to make it your intention to commit to becoming the most passionate, prosperous (in the real meaning of the word) and purpose filled individual you can become? Or are you going to play safe and rarely if ever live in the sunshine of your Love? At least take time to listen to an alternative understanding of what work can mean for you and the way in which you can find meaning and a grater sense of energy balance and alignment. In this way you need not be so focused on trying to find a work/life balance. Your work will give you the balance because it is in alignment with the creative force of Love that is expressing through you. The best time to start is now. Commit to consciously engaging in what you Love. Learn to dwell within the heart chakra and if you are stuck then journal about feeling stuck.
To learn more simply click on the graphic above This will begin the process of learning to trust the heart which is your true guidance system to becoming the work of art you are intended to be. In this way you get to find the work you love and love the work you do. May you be blessed in finding meaning in work and love the work you do. I recommend you listen to those who are focused on creating business and work that are not just about jobs but jobs that are meaningful, purposeful and passion filled.
