HerWork

Small changes and SMART goals

2007-01-02T11:10:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! This is the time of year we all kick off our new round of best intentions for 2007.

It's good to have best intentions, but studies show people abandon most of them somewhere in the new year's first quarter. Why is that? Maybe it's because the changes people are seeking are sometimes too sweeping or all-encompassing.

So what I'd like to propose is that we make the changes we want to see in small steps. Take the big goal and break it down into small segments, and do it in small time frames.

In my management days, I always liked the SMART goals concept. In a nutshell, goals are supposed to be:

Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Realistic
Tangible

So, rather than saying, "I want to lose weight," you say, "My goal is to lose one pound this week by performing a half hour of aerobics every day without increasing what I eat." At the end of the week, you see how you did, and you set a new goal.

A nutritionist friend of mine has a similar philosophy. When she works with a client, she doesn't dump all the changes needed on them all at once. She may say instead something like, "For every soft drink you have, try having an equal amount of water." She's clever—she doesn't tell them to stop drinking soft drinks. But in effect she halves the amount they drink with this new practice, because they're not as thirsty. Then, once that habit is formed, they take stock and decide on the next small thing to change.

Okay, there is a spiritual connection here. I know how discouraging it can be to strive to get everything right spiritually all at once. When we think we're already supposed to be walking on water and raising the dead, it can be way too easy to focus on what we're doing wrong rather than what we're doing right.

Maybe you have a goal to be less angry. If you just vow never to be angry again ever, you may be setting yourself up for failure. One misstep and you might feel like it's hopeless. But what if you instead framed the goal as, "This week, every time another driver on the road does something stupid, I'm going to remind myself that he or she is a child of God. In the car, I'm going to be patient and kind, and not angry." At the end of the week, you take stock, and maybe add another location where it's too easy to get angry to your list. Eventually, you eject anger right out of your life, one place at a time.

What if you want to be more happy by the end of 2007? It might be about taking "happiness breaks." Set a goal: "Each day this week, I'm going to take a one minute break every morning at 9:30 and every afternoon at 2pm to remember what went well in the last few hours. I'm going to acknowledge my happiness with those successes." Can you imagine how you'd feel after a few weeks of that?

Perhaps you want to feel a deeper connection to Spirit on a daily basis. What about setting this goal: "Every day this month, I'm going to take three minutes each morning to think about nothing but the Divine." Later, you could make it five minutes, or ten, or thirty. You could eventually weave this mindset into your activities, welcoming the presence of the Divine into your day, all day long.

What you might have noticed about the three spiritual goal-setting examples is they're mental goals. These are things you do in thought. Consequently, there's no barrier to doing them—it's as easy as changing your mind.

Another point is they're about adding something to your life, not subtracting. So many of our goals are about stopping something bad, when what we may need to do is add something good. Like my nutritionist friend with her addition of water, when we add the good idea to our thinking, this just naturally takes up the space and pushes out the bad.

My goal for everyone, myself included, is that we be kind to ourselves. That we are as patient with our own faults as we are with others', and that we embrace with joy the spiritual progress that 2007 can bring us.

p.s. If you want any help crafting a SMART goal for yourself, post it in the discussion area of SpiritOnTheJob.com, and we'll work on it together!

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Career

Soaring higher on the wings of Mind

2006-11-28T10:38:00.000-08:00

Have you ever watched a flock of birds in flight? One recent weekend was full of these sightings for me. It's been a mild fall, so perhaps now they're migrating.

The birds would swoop and soar, changing color simultaneously from dark to light as their wings shifted orientation toward the sun. One especially huge flock seemed to go from solid to aeroform from moment to moment. The shapes would merge and expand effortlessly. Total harmony of movement, total unity, but dependent on each bird doing its part.

This coincided with some prayerful work I'd been doing on God's will. Sometimes I find myself on my spiritual journey trying to puzzle out what God wants me to do. Does He want me to do this or that? Usually I'm the most puzzled when there's something in particular that *I* want to do, and I'm trying to noodle out whether God wants me to do it, too. It's that feeling of wanting something so badly that you just want it to be right, for a change.

Lately, though, it's that hungry feeling I've begun to suspect is the problem. I can't figure out God's will by asking whether He agrees with me or not. What I need to do is get my own will out of the way entirely. I need to silence that human will, put it aside, sacrifice it. Then God's will is simply what's happening. My willfulness keeps me from seeing God's will.

It's like the birds. We are ideas in the flock of divine Mind (to me another way of looking at God), and it's Mind that enables us to sing and soar. We spread our wings and fly on the currents of Mind. If we start thinking too much—left now, or right?—we might find ourselves colliding. But when we release our own will and simply feel the current, harmonious flight becomes natural and safe.

This "Mind-set" has had implications for how I run my business. I'm a freelance writer/editor, and when I launched as a freelancer a little over a year ago, I spent a lot of time planning exactly how my business was going to grow. I wrote a business plan, thought up strategies, devised clever tactics.

These were important steps in understanding my business and the landscape more thoroughly. But within a few months, I had set that plan aside. New ideas were coming to me weekly, daily, that I just had to act on. As I followed those ideas, they added up to a thriving business. I'm now thinking of expanding in ways I never thought of in that first business plan. Sure, when the new year comes I'll probably take a few days to craft a new plan, just to get my bearings and regroup. But if this year is any indication of how things are going to go, I'll have to stay flexible.

I believe now that God's will is that we exist in harmony, that we move through creation frictionless and free. I've seen that my own will often puts me at odds with others. I then try to get God to justify my position, to tell me that I'm doing the right thing. Funny, He seldom does. His message to me is instead, Peace, dear one. Trust Me. Then He sends ideas that get me going again.

Letting go of one's own will implies trust. Do we trust enough to know that the divine will is to give us all that we could ever want? Abundance and joy beyond our imagining?

Knowing that infinite Mind *wants* me to fly comforts me. I know I'll be able to soar higher on the winds of Mind than I ever could on my own.

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Job stress, pain and healing

2006-10-19T10:20:00.000-07:00

This story starts with a cracked tooth. No need to wince—it cracked one summer day, but then caused me no more trouble.

However, that next winter, my work situation snowballed into one of the toughest periods of my life. What had been a dream job abruptly became a nightmare. Upper management went through a shift in thinking, which was directly affecting my project. My team, who I cared deeply about, became confused and disoriented even as we tried to comfort each other and adjust. As manager, I felt responsible for the outcome. The stress was wiping me out and lowering all my defenses.

And right in the middle of this, my tooth decided to flare up.

At first I tried to handle it from a strictly physical point of view. No go. The pain, unfortunately, kept increasing. It became the focus of my world, I couldn't even think about work anymore. I went to a local dentist who informed me there was an infection and the tooth couldn't come out until the infection was gone. He prescribed antibiotics and painkillers, told me how I could clean the area, and sent me home.

When I got the prescription filled, the person behind the counter told me when I was on this medication, I wouldn't be able to "operate heavy machinery," meaning I couldn't drive. But I had an important family trip the next day that couldn't be cancelled. I had to be able to drive.

So I took the pills home and stuffed them in a drawer. If the pain was simply from an infection, I felt I could deal with that through my spiritual connect. I'd seen a healing of infection before without medication, so I was convinced it could happen again. I also did the cleaning the dentist recommended.

It was at this point that I also finally began to address what was the real root of the problem—the work stress. I had many significant conversations with family members and in-the-know work associates who were supportive and understanding. I drew on this support for a growing conviction that despite all appearances, all was well. God, Spirit, was in control. Of me, of my tooth, of work. I was not spinning somewhere outside of His control.

And His control was Love. My subordinates were also enveloped in that Love, which had always motivated all that we were doing and had the power to protect us now.

Throughout these several days, I had bouts with pain but also painless, Love-filled moments. When the pain was gone, I knew only a deep connection with Spirit. I'd use these breaks to shore up my defenses as much as possible with heightened prayer and conviction. I began to feel a sense of control over the pain as I specifically addressed both the physical and mental symptoms. I don't want this to sound like it was easy, because it wasn't, but it was productive and inspiring. I felt that God was with me.

We took the family trip, me driving most of the way, and it worked out. The kids had a great time anyway and I even got some rest. Within a few days after the trip, the pain eased off and disappeared. I took this to mean the infection was healed.

When the tooth removal date came, the dentist remarked that he was glad the antibiotics had worked, and I told him I'd never taken them. He extracted the tooth fairly easily (yes, at that point I used Novocain!), and a continued discipline of prayer and connection to Sprit in the aftermath made the healing process happen harmoniously. No further complications.

This experience strengthened me to face the work situation with more equanimity. I recognized I had been allowing the stress to affect me. I'd let it in, thinking something had changed for the worst. This was the real "infection." As I grew in my understanding that nothing good could be lost, that nothing had changed in reality and that my team and I were safe and loved and appreciated by Spirit, I felt a renewed harmony in the workplace. When my project ended shortly thereafter and I moved on to other things, I was actually grateful. My subordinates, too, made transitions that were completely right for them.

Moral of the story? If there's any moral, it's that we're holistic beings. We can't separate out physical wellbeing from emotional and spiritual. I needed to learn that harmony in one area supported harmony in another—that I am one, whole, loved child of the Creator, and that Creator adjusts things perfectly on all levels.

I lost a lot of fear in those two weeks, and gained a lot of Love.

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You can't help having a purpose

2006-10-17T11:01:00.000-07:00

Do you ever ask the question, "What is my purpose?"

Once when I was struggling with this question, I spent some time just thinking about the meaning of the word. Purpose is the reason something exists. It indicates something done "on purpose," or with intention, by design. It includes the concept of intended results, meaning there was a goal to accomplish in forming the purpose. It is also the object of the goal itself, the result of the plan, the outcome of the design. It can also be how you do something, as in doing something with determination, with purpose.

So to me, there's a lot of considerations when attempting to answer the question, "What is my purpose?" I think the question assumes an Other, a Someone Else, in charge and making things work. I mean, who are we actually asking? The fact that we're asking the question at all means to me that we're really trying to figure out who put us here in the first place, and what did that being intend for us.

It's an interesting notion—to be the outcome of my Creator's creative force, but not to be totally informed of what the plan was when I was created. And where I finally landed in all my noodling on this subject is the conviction that it's the feeling of incomplete understanding that we should actually be questioning.

Spiritual author Mary Baker Eddy writes, "Spirit, God, gathers unformed thoughts into their proper channels, and unfolds these thoughts, even as He opens the petals of a holy purpose in order that the purpose may appear." For our Creator is Spirit. And we exist as Spirit's image and likeness, so true to the original, so picture perfect, that there is no element of us that can be lacking in understanding. Being the full and perfect expression of Spirit *is* our purpose. It's Spirit's purpose in forming us. We are the result Spirit had in mind.

That infinite Spirit, flowing with infinite creative perfect gorgeous intelligent ideas, is creating us right now. We are, now, complete and finished even as we are being created. Simultaneous creation and completion of every idea, with no end or beginning. That's Spirit.

The feeling I want today then is my own conscious participation in that creative process, a feeling of unfoldment. The feeling the flower bud has as it opens, the feeling the sun has as it rises. A new day dawns, a new life springs forth. I want to feel myself as the springing forth of Spirit's conception of its own creation. I want to follow that path and experience all the wonders along the way.

My purpose then is to be the purpose of Spirit. I can't help it really, it's intentional on Spirit's part. All I can do is embrace it.

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Integrity essential to true power

2006-10-10T16:17:00.000-07:00

In today's sometimes murky ethical environment, where top executives do regrettable things simply because they can, it's refreshing to hear from experts on the subject who can make a clear case for integrity.

One such expert is Joseph White, President of University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana (my alma mater). White has a new book out, The Nature of Leadership: Reptiles, Mammals and the Challenge of Becoming a Great Leader. I just read about the book in my alumni magazine. He makes some exciting points about leadership and ethics.

White talks about leaders having to have both reptilian and mammalian qualities, i.e., order, stability and routine balanced with attention, nurturing and encouragment. But if these aspects form two side of a pyramid, the foundational qualities of ability, strength and, above all, character form the base.

Character, or high integrity, is fundamental to excellent leadership—you can't gain trust without it. White has developed four simple points to test yourself on your integrity level.

You will never knowingly violate laws and regulations in any consequential way.
You will be honest and not mislead others.
You will make commitments carefully and keep them faithfully.
You will avoid conflicts of interest, and when they are unavoidable, resolve them in favor of your duties and responsibilities, rather than by benefiting personally.

What I'm liking about these integrity indicators is that while they seem to demand a lot, they are actually liberating. By sticking to standards like these, you become free to succeed in every way possible, with no skeletons in your closet and no noose around your neck. The standards lead to freedom, and ultimately, power.

I've written before about honesty on the job. At that same job, I had a co-worker who lied all the time, even about little things. If he had even the slightest idea he might get in trouble, he'd lie to cover his tracks. He wasn't always successful, and often got in even more trouble with our volatile bosses. Finally, the bosses made him my subordinate, and told me to take care of it or they'd fire him.

I worked with him to build trust between us first. Since I had been a co-worker, I already knew a lot the shenanigans he was used to pulling, so I could joke with him about not being able to do that anymore. If I suspected he was lying to me, I'd lightly kid him into being more honest. I avoided getting mad or aggravated with him, and he became habitually honest with me. But he was still afraid of the bosses.

One day he came barreling into the office very scared about the fact that he'd just gotten a company car into a minor fender-bender while on a delivery. He came to me to help him make up a convincing story! Which of course I couldn't do. But I did help him calm down, and told him he'd get much better results by just telling the truth.

I knew that telling the truth not only makes you feel you're on firm ground rather than in quicksand, but that it's also related to embodying that higher Truth that connects us all. Lying betrays that connection; honesty solidifies it. If you think of divine Truth as our Creator, which is one way I like to think about it, it's clear that as its creation, we need to be honest with each other.

My work friend steeled himself, and went into one boss's office. He just laid out what happened, the boss figured these things happen and that our insurance would cover it, and that was it.

I laugh now when I remember how stunned he was that he didn't get in trouble. From that time forward, he more manfully admitted mistakes when he needed to, and also began to get more credit for when things went well. When I left that job a few months later, he had grown in responsibility and was in charge of many aspects of our inventory, including the company cars.

I love the simplicity of this maxim from spiritual author Mary Baker Eddy: "Honesty is spiritual power." My work friend experienced this increase in power from being honest. Joseph White shows in his book how leadership at its most powerful and effective is also dependent on being honest. It's actually natural to be honest, since we're all connected through divine Truth.

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You have all you need today

2006-07-19T05:32:00.000-07:00

It was one of those times I was petrified. When I thought, My God, what have I done?

The kids and I lived in Santa Monica, California, at the time, and I had the highest paying job I'd ever had. Even still, though, with two kids and So-Cal cost-of-living, we were just getting by. Then, my firm had lay-offs. Through a series of circumstances, I thought it was right to volunteer to be laid off.

This was a Thursday. On Friday, I found myself out of a job and at home for the first time in five years. The reality of the situation started to sink in first thing in the morning, and trembling, I got up to start the day. My biggest concern was money. How would we survive?

The prior several months, though, I'd devoted to stepping up my spiritual regimen. All my free time, along with down times at work, had been oriented toward spiritual study and prayer. I'd gained many significant spiritual insights and had been transformed from one who prayed only in a crisis to one who prayed for the sheer joy of it. I felt closer to divine Love than I ever had before.

The spiritual insights were almost like a bank account, and I'd been making deposits every day. The great thing about a spiritual bank account is that even when you spend your spirituality, the account doesn't get any smaller. In fact, the more you use it, the larger it gets. By practicing what I was learning, my spiritual reservoir was actually growing.

So that morning, as I stood at my sink getting ready for the day, I thought about what I'd been learning. I relaxed slightly, and felt a growing sense of trust. And then the moment came that has truly stayed with me in all the lean times since then.

I looked at the toothpaste tube in my hand. It was nearly full. I thought, "Hey, at least I don't have to buy toothpaste for a while." I thought of the full gallon of milk in the fridge downstairs. I thought of the full tank of gas in my car. I thought of our closets full of clothes and all the furniture we had. I began to feel rich.

I thought, "I have everything I need *today*. Why am I doubting I'll have all I need tomorrow?"

This startling declaration of trust turned me around. My confidence that all would be well grew in that moment, and colored my decisions and actions thereafter.

Well, obviously, we did survive. One day at a time, our needs were met, both through my own earnings and through generous help from friends and family. I've been encouraged to continue in that spiritual path as it blossomed beyond my own life to helping others. And it's proven true--I've had what I needed, every day.

Never ask for tomorrow: it is enough that divine Love is an ever-present help; and if you wait, never doubting, you will have all you need every moment.

--Mary Baker Eddy

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Dispatches from the Edge

2006-06-05T04:23:00.000-07:00

Could not put it down.

Anderson Cooper’s new (and first) book, Dispatches from the Edge, is riveting reading for anyone wanting to find some meaning in the many recent disasters our world has faced. From war to famine to tsunami to hurricane, Cooper was on the scene, not only reporting for us but coming to terms with his own demons.

Some excerpts that resonated with me:

As a boy looking at [the] globe, I grew up believing, as most people do, that the earth is round. … But in truth, the world is constantly shifting: shape and size, location in space. It’s got edges and chasms, too many to count. They open up , close, reappear somewhere else. … The world has many edges, and it’s very easy to fall off.

I feel like I’m “on the edge” or “on edge” all the time. Cooper’s words made me realize a lot of us feel that way. And I became filled with that compassion I wrote about a few days ago in my other blog. Just compassion for each of us, facing every day the things that trouble us, continuing to face them and move forward. That sensation of having to keep moving, again something Travis and I happened to write about last week, is elaborated in Cooper’s empathy with sharks.

The week after my father died, I saw one of those old Jacques Cousteau documentaries. It was about sharks. I learned that they have to keep moving in order to live. It’s the only way they can breathe. Forward motion, constantly forcing water through their gills. … Hurtling across oceans, from one conflict to the next, one disaster to another, I sometimes believe it’s motion that keeps me alive as well. … You run toward what everyone else is running from, believing your camera will somehow protect you, not really caring if it doesn’t. All you want to do is get it, feel it, be in it. … Keep moving, keep cool, stay alive, force air through your lungs, oxygen into your blood. Keep moving. Keep cool. Stay alive.

I can just feel that energy flowing through him. It’s an energy that fuels my own work as well. How is it I can keep moving some days? When things look black and I’m tempted not to care. I keep moving, I believe, through Spirit. Reading his book is making me think of Spirit as a shark. This is a new image for me, that of tireless roving, always there, always on its way, near at hand. Not as a sinister presence, but as an indefatigable friend, swimming right along beside me. Invincible. Strange, but somehow apropos.

And then something Anderson Cooper wrote made me laugh because I’ve also written about what he mentions recently. He’s on a helicopter in Iraq, with the Ambassador J. Paul Bremer, who is not talking to him. Not much is being accomplished by Bremer and his team diplomatically, and of course the situation in Iraq is a mess.

There were three Blackwater gunmen seated around us, and perhaps a dozen more in the choppers that followed. The guard next to me had a Maori tattoo on his arm and was reading a well-worn paperback. At first I couldn’t see what it was, but as he turned a page, I caught a glimpse of the title: How to Win Friends and Influence People.

The book is a fast read, taut, written in short bursts and vignettes. Check it out the next time you’re in a bookstore, it’s on the bestseller rack.

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Nice job, God!

2006-05-26T03:00:00.000-07:00

Right out of college, back in the early 1980s, my first job was as a clerical worker on a clerical team in a high rise office building. My first supervisor, a woman, was a doll. Taught me everything I knew, was very patient and professional. Of course, then she got promoted, and was replaced with a new guy. I’ll call him Phil.

My fellow clerks and I soon discovered Phil had strong misogynistic tendencies. We were all young women, unsure of our place in the world. Phil began to throw his weight around, asking us to do things that were inappropriate to make his life easier. Basically, we had to do our jobs and his job too. However, we weren’t authorized to do some of the things he was trying to avoid. He literally wanted to sit around all day just telling us what to do, but he offered no support or encouragement or management, really. Weird dude.

Well, we put up with this as best as we could. We all developed different tactics. One worker feigned incompetence so he would leave her alone. The other made herself very very busy whenever he was around. This left me. I simply refused to do what he asked whenever I deemed it outside the scope of my job description.

When I prayed about this, as I did occasionally, I tried to see him as a child of God. This didn’t work real well, meaning I wasn’t able to do it. But prayer did open my thought to the understanding that God would take care of it. I didn’t need to do anything, God would protect me and my fellow workers. I could feel secure in this understanding and not fear.

If I’d been more experienced I might have been more worried. But as it was, I had an almost childlike faith that all would turn out fine and that I should stick to my guns. I resolved to continue to express complete cooperation about doing my own job well but to also adhere to my own integrity in not doing things I wasn’t authorized to do.

Next thing you know, our manager, Phil’s boss, called the three of us into her office for a dressing down. Apparently *he* had complained about *us.* Well, then the proverbial caca hit the fan. The three of us let rip about what had been going on. Our manager was shocked, and Phil was out of there within a few days.

Nice job, God!

I was reminded of this story the other day while reading Psalm 64:

1 Hear my voice, O God, in my prayer: preserve my life from fear of the enemy.
2 Hide me from the secret counsel of the wicked; from the insurrection of the workers of iniquity:
3 Who whet their tongue like a sword, and bend their bows to shoot their arrows, even bitter words:
4 That they may shoot in secret at the perfect: suddenly do they shoot at him, and fear not.
5 They encourage themselves in an evil matter: they commune of laying snares privily; they say, Who shall see them?
6 They search out iniquities; they accomplish a diligent search: both the inward thought of every one of them, and the heart, is deep.
7 But God shall shoot at them with an arrow; suddenly shall they be wounded.
8 So they shall make their own tongue to fall upon themselves: all that see them shall flee away.
9 And all men shall fear, and shall declare the work of God; for they shall wisely consider his doing.
10 The righteous shall be glad in the Lord, and shall trust in him; and all the upright in heart shall glory.

“So shall they make their own tongue to fall upon themselves.” The principle revealed in this psalm has stayed with me all these years. When I’m feeling attacked, I don’t need to *do* anything. I just stay the course, acting under my own integrity. The Divine will cause to be revealed whatever needs to be revealed, and I will be protected. It’s happened time and again.

God’s pretty smart. You can count on it.

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Do it now!

2006-05-19T03:02:00.000-07:00

I’m having fun lately getting to know the works and ideas of a man we’ve all heard of: Dale Carnegie. As you may know, he wrote How to Win Friends and Influence People almost 100 years ago, and today thousands of people each year take courses associated with this book. (My family has a copy of this great little satire called How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, also a great read!)

Carnegie wrote another book, How to Stop Worrying & Start Living. As I browse through this book (I took a Dale Carnegie course a couple years ago—revolutionized my public speaking), I’m finding it laced with spiritual concepts.

For example, in his chapter “How to Cure Depression in Fourteen Days,” Carnegie gives Seven Ways to Cultivate a Mental Attitude That Will Bring You Peace and Happiness (he is very fond of capital letters). The first is, “Let’s fill our minds with thoughts of peace, courage, health, and hope, for ‘our life is what our thoughts make it.’”

Carnegie also quotes Theodore Dreiser, famed atheist of his day but also to my mind a spiritual man: “I shall pass this way but once. Therefore any good that I can do or any kindness that I can show—let me do it now. Let me not defer nor neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.”

Reminds me of a Bible passage I love: “Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it. Say not unto thy neighbour, Go, and come again, and to-morrow I will give; when thou hast it by thee” (Proverbs).

True in business, true in life. If you think of something good to do for another, do it now. Don’t wait. If you wait, next thing you know days have passed and you rationalize it wouldn’t have mattered anyway. Do it as soon as you think of it, though, and you build a habit of doing good and soon it will be second nature.

Lord, I’m sounding like Dale Carnegie! So let me be me for a second. I think this practice gets its power not from the results it incurs, but from the spiritual truth it represents. Divine Love fills all space. Infinite Mind is constantly coming up with ideas. Omnipotent Principle makes things happen. One moment of caring about another, having an idea to help them, and then following through enacts Love, Mind, and Principle all at once. That deed has the power of the divine behind it, giving it the force of good.

I think that’s what makes it all work. Check out this from Carnegie’s chapter on curing depression:

Here is the most astonishing statement that I ever read from the pen of a great psychiatrist. This statement was made by Alfred Adler. He used to say to his melancholia patients: “You can be cured in fourteen days if you follow this prescription. Try to think every day how you can please someone.”

This works not because of human will, but because it’s tapping into a universal spiritual concept: we are one with Love, and when we express Love, we feel Love.

Anyway, I’m enjoying Dale Carnegie’s writings. They’re worth investigating if you’d like practical tips on how to apply the ideas you’re learning on your spiritual journey.

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All you need are ideas

2006-04-23T13:52:00.000-07:00

God gives you His spiritual ideas, and in turn, they give you daily supplies.
--Mary Baker Eddy

Ideas. To get a business rolling or to create a new product, you need ideas. But what happens if you’re not feeling particularly creative or insightful? Your connection with Spirit can open the floodgates.

Some time back, I got laid off from a job I loved. For about a month, I was depressed, I missed my work friends, I had no idea what I would be doing next. It was even hard to pray. It was like my mind was shut off, and I kept coming up dry. But I know I had friends and family who cared about me and were praying for me.

My mom in particular never lost faith that I am governed by divine Spirit, which I also think of as infinite Mind. In retrospect, I think her knowing this truth about me helped a lot. It kept me receptive to what Mind was sending. And if there’s one thing an infinite Mind must have, it’s ideas. Mind is sending these ideas to its creation every moment.

Not surprisingly, one day I woke up with an idea. It was: Start writing. So I did. It was little things at first—Weblog entries, emails, short essays. This gave me a reason to get out of bed in the morning.

Then, I got another idea—to visit a local church I’d never been to before. This was pretty out of the ordinary for me, because I was already an active member at my own church. But, the other church’s services didn’t conflict with my own, so I decided to go the next weekend.

That Sunday, after the service, I joined their little social gathering. I met a man who overheard me talking about my denomination. He had always wanted to connect with someone of my faith because he had a particular business he thought would be a good fit. He asked what I did, and I sort of halfheartedly admitted to being a writer. He instantly recommended that I attend an upcoming business expo in our area. He insisted that it would be a huge help to me. I scribbled the information on his business card and looked it up online when I got home. It looked harmless enough, so I made up my mind to go.

The expo had several hundred vendors with booths. I wandered around with a fist full of home-made business cards, claiming to be a writer. I made eight or nine good contacts, one of whom invited me to his networking meeting that week. I thought, heck, even though it’s about a half hour from home, I’ll give it a try.

The networking meeting was a blast, and it turned out to be one chapter of a much larger organization. Several other chapters were closer to my home. I set out on a voyage to visit each one over the next few weeks. I met scores of new people, and even garnered some clients. One chapter in particular fit me like a glove, so I filled out an application to join. And suddenly, I was a professional writer with a new start-up business. More clients came on board, and income started rolling in. The business has continued to grow since then.

I used to think that a job was something I had to go out and get. A company or a boss would assign me a task, I would do it, and they’d pay me. Now I could see that there’s more going on. At about the time I joined the networking group, I came across the quotation at the beginning of this article: “God gives you His spiritual ideas, and in turn, they give you daily supplies.” I suddenly saw this is what had been happening to me.

At each point along the way, I’d had an idea. To go someplace, to talk to a certain person, to follow up on an invitation. It was almost like the ideas were breadcrumbs leading me to a destination, which would then turn out to be a step to another destination. My “job” was to follow the breadcrumbs—to take action on the ideas that were coming to me.

Now I think of that as my only job. Responding to ideas is all I have to do. The ideas lead to daily supply. Only following up on ideas after I’ve gotten what I need is doing things in reverse. It’s by following up on ideas that I get what I need.

Whenever I’m worried about running out of money, I remember that my supply comes from ideas. As long as I’m getting ideas, I’ll be fine. And I’ll keep getting them—because they’re coming from the infinite Mind, God.

Visit SpiritOnTheJob.com.

Why I love the IRS

2006-04-14T11:37:00.000-07:00

We were out of money—and the tax-man cometh.

Some months prior, I’d been laid off. But instead of getting back to the corporate scramble, I decided it was a good time to fulfill an old desire. I wanted to grow spiritually, to help my fellow man, and to serve God. I was sure this would not only benefit the world, but also myself and my two kids.

I volunteered, I headed up projects that allowed others to serve, I prayed for people, I began a ministry as a spiritual healer. Some projects allowed me to earn money, others did not. But every moment felt firth—I was growing in my understanding of the Divine, and my family was happier than ever.

When I dragged out my budget spreadsheet in preparation for doing my taxes and ran some numbers, it looked like we were make it through the spring. But when summer hit, my unemployment insurance would run out. In the fall I would start a new project (for pay), but until then, our negative variance would be $2,500—and this was before figuring out the taxes I owed.

I stared at that number, displayed in stunning red on my spreadsheet. It was such a little number compared to the income I’d had before going into spiritual service. Was this the end of my new career?

I’d been convinced that the best plan was to devote 100% of my time and energy serving God. But I still had the children to consider and our long-term well-being. Was I crazy to think that I could get very far in this money-fueled world without always knowing when the next influx of cash was coming?

Underneath all the budget concerns and bills was a deeper fear—that if I couldn’t make it financially, I’d somehow fail God. I was almost afraid to ask Him. The thought snuck in that maybe He’d never really wanted me to do this work in the first place.

But I went to Him anyway, in prayer. Where else could I go?

“Okay,” I prayed. “You’re in charge here. I know You love me and the kids. I know that if You want me to work for You, You’ll make sure I get the job done.”

In those moments of prayerful humility, I felt reassured that God was with me, that I wasn’t facing things alone. I thought about all the good I’d been doing, and got a sweet sense of God’s ongoing approval. The spiritual progress I’d been making was permanent—it could never be taken away from me. He wasn’t disappointed in me—I was still His beloved daughter.

With new confidence, I was able to let go of how I thought I should serve Him, and instead became more willing to consider other options. I could say in my prayers, “If You need me to get a part-time job for a few months so that I can then come back and serve You again full-time, I’m willing. Just let me know.” And it occurred to me that wherever I wound up, whatever job I’d be doing, I would still be serving 100% if I did it to glorify God. So for a few weeks, I just waited, knowing that the direction would come—because God loves me.

April 15 was approaching, and I’d put off finding out the bad news long enough. My financial situation had brought me into unfamiliar tax territory, so I asked an accountant friend to help me. He called me after a few days.

“Brace yourself,” he said. “You’re getting a $3,000 refund.”

The shock of gratitude I felt left me sputtering for a few moments. Then I laughed—then I almost cried. Not only were my next several months taken care of, but there was even a little bonus. God always had loved me.

For the next several years, the children and I saw similar examples of that love. My employment situation has changed frequently, but that love has never wavered.

Never eat alone

2006-03-29T05:27:00.000-08:00

Just finished a great book: Never Eat Alone, by Keith Ferrazzi. The ideas in this book resonated with me because I’m an avid networker. In my freelance business, networking has been the key to a growing bottom line. And Ferrazzi has crystallized how and why this works.

Some passages that especially rang true for me:

The great myth of “networking” is that you start reaching out to others only when you need something like a job. In reality, people who have the largest circle of contacts, mentors, and friends know that you must reach out to others long before you need anything at all.

Power, today, comes from sharing information, not withholding it. … We’re an open-source society, and that calls for open-source behavior. … [T]he truth is everyone has something in common with every other person. And you won’t find those similarities if you don’t open up and expose your interests and concerns, allowing others to do likewise.

Quoting Tom Peters: “I’m sick to death of hearing, ‘I’d like to, but they won’t let me.’ Be the CEO of your own life. Raise hell. Let the chips fall where they may.”

And, Ferrazzi’s sections on “pinging” and “Balance is B.S.” are nothing short of revolutionary. I’ll probably write more on these later.

It’s in the last chapter, “Welcome to the Connected Age,” that Ferrazzi reveals how he came to this way of life. He explored a spiritual path that took him to the meditation tradition of Vipassana, which he says contributed a level of clarity that allowed him to embrace joy every moment. I find in every one of these cool career or management books I read, there’s a spiritual underpinning. It’s everywhere!

Ferrazzi concludes the book with these thoughts:

Remember that love, reciprocity, and knowledge are not like bank accounts that grow smaller as you use them. Creativity begets more creativity, money begets more money, knowledge begets more knowledge, more friends begets more friends, success begets even more success. Most important, giving begets giving. At no time in history has this law of abundance been more apparent than in this connected age where the world increasingly functions in accord with networking principles.

The “law of abundance” is something I believe in. I’d like to understand it better, that’s for sure, but I know it’s real. I’m on the lookout for it today.

Love those clients

2006-03-05T13:07:00.000-08:00

My business is fairly new, and I’m just learning the ropes. One of the most aggravating aspects is when clients don’t pay me.

I’m always flummoxed by folks who want me to do some work, ask me my rates, agree to them, then take the work and don’t pay. And it’s never the big clients. It’s always the ones where it’s really just a few dollars. In fact, my very first client, who I was thrilled to get because I was sure it was a sign of great things to come, never paid me. My quote even included a new-client discount. I’d given her several hours of conscientious hard work, and then nothing.

Perhaps I’m sensitive on the issue. More recently, a friend referred a client to me, and I’m afraid I quickly pegged her as one who wanted my services but didn’t want to pay. Maybe it was because when I went to deliver the material, she first tried to talk me down in price and then wouldn’t write the check. She wanted to take what I’d done and “show it around.”

I left in a huff, only giving her a non-copy-able printout of her flyer and not the CD with the printable file. I figured it was a complete loss anyway.

Weeks went by and I sort of forgot about it. But then she called me and wanted me to do some more for her. I said, “Well, you never paid me. Send me the check for what you owe me, and we’ll talk.” So she sent me the check—hallelujah!—along with instructions for the next round.

It then turned out she wanted me to do work that I’m not qualified for—it was more design than writing. So, trying to be ethical, I called her to say I thought she needed to find a designer who could do a better job for her.

Well, she went off on me! Told me I was cheating her, that I’d cashed the check and wouldn’t finish the project. Man o man!

As we’re yelling at each other, I finally realized this whole thing wasn’t right. I couldn’t hope to succeed with my business if I couldn’t make things work in difficult situations. So right then while this yelling match was ensuing, I tried to collect my thoughts.

I realized that it was a frankly bad business tactic to indulge in thinking poorly of my clients. I had to see *everyone* as a child of light, as a creation of Spirit, not just those who behaved as I thought they should. I had to work from the basis of genuinely loving my clients and their businesses.

This slight change in perspective on my part brought the instant insight that she had a point of view, too. After all, she had already paid me, and all she had to show for it was a black and white printout. Usually I wait until I hear that the client is happy before I even invoice. Maybe I hadn’t handled this situation as well as I could have. Maybe I’d thought poorly about someone who hadn’t deserved it.

So, in mid-yell, I decided to change from thinking of her as someone who tried to cheat me to thinking of her as honest businessperson just trying to get by.

As I opened my thought to seeing her in a new way (all this happened in a flash), I suddenly had the words to say. I apologized, tried to explain that I had been worried about being paid, and expressed my earnest desire to make her a happy client. I agreed to finish the project even though it was outside of my normal skill set. (Let’s hear it for Microsoft Publisher templates!) And I inwardly decided not to charge her any extra for this work and instead to think of it as part of the original bid.

This just felt better. We got off the phone, and I finished the project. I think I did a pretty good job for her after all. And now there was peace where there had been resentment.

I learned a lesson that day—ya gotta love your clients. Actually love them. Love their businesses, love the idea of helping them succeed, love making their prosperity an absolute priority. And you know, they’ll feel the love. They’ll love working with you, and hey, then they’ll pay you.

So I’ve made love a part of my business plan. And receipts are up.

When my boss wanted me to lie for him

2006-02-19T10:20:00.000-08:00

New to LA, new to the entertainment industry, new to this job -- and now my boss wanted me to lie for him.

It was simple stuff, like telling callers he wasn't there when he really just didn't want to talk to them. And maybe most of Hollywood did business that way. I was freshly minted from out of state; this was my first entertainment industry job. And, I had only been hired on a trial basis.

But the lying just felt wrong. I mean, he'd be standing right next to me, saying, "Tell them I'm not here." Not being a consummate liar, I didn't think I sounded that convincing on the phone.

The whole move to LA had been a big gamble for me. The only thing that had given me the strength to do it was my connection with Spirit. I felt Spirit had guided me every step of the way. And now I was supposed to lie to get ahead?

Something in my spiritual study helped me figure it out. Mary Baker Eddy, in her book Science and Health, uses many different names for Spirit. These names, or synonyms, bring out the multi-faceted nature of the Divine.

Principle
Mind
Soul
Spirit
Life
Truth
Love

I felt that by lying I'd be betraying the concept of the Divine as Truth. But my irritated boss was convinced I was just being unreasonable. And when I tried to look at things from his perspective, I could see his point. If I strictly always only told the literal truth, I could do a lot of damage. With his temper occasionally flaring up, I could see I'd have to do more. In order to keep to my standard of honesty, I'd have to bring something else to the table.

That something else was another of the concepts of the Divine -- Love. Since I was learning that Spirit was also Truth and Love, I realized these all must work together for harmony. There is no space where Truth is that Love is not. There is no loving act that is not supported by being truthful; there is no genuine honesty that is not laced with love.

In order to keep my job, I would have to show my boss that honesty was not just some ideal I was sticking to, but something I was doing out of respect for him and for the company. I had to show over time that, in effect, I was doing it out of love.

This wasn't always easy. He had a short-term need for me to cover for him, and I didn't know if the long-term benefits of my integrity would show in time. One day, though, I hit on the idea of not actually saying he wasn't there, but instead saying as graciously as I could, "He's unavailable right now. May I take a message for you and be sure he gets back to you as soon as possible?"

At first, my boss thought this would reflect badly on him. But when he saw that the callers responded favorably to my politeness and respect, he agreed that I could answer the phone that way.

In the coming months, I worked hard to be reliable to him in all ways, not just in answering the phone. I proved that I could be discreet while still being truthful. As the months went by, he began to appreciate the honesty and care behind the refusal to be dishonest. We even started to joke about my keeping him in line. Ultimately, I was the person he always came to when wanting to know "exactly what's going on around here!"

Honesty is the best policy, and it's strengthened by love.

about this blog

2006-02-14T16:22:00.000-08:00

Ah, another day, another blog. I’m starting this blog because some friends and I are excited about the possibilities of Spirit and the workplace. What a great world it would be if everyone were doing jobs they love, blessing the community, and making a profit all at the same time! Spirit can make it all happen.

So I’ll be writing about times in my career I’ve turned to Spirit in my search for workplace harmony. I’ll probably talk about the business books that have inspired me, and maybe even movies or TV shows that demonstrate the ideal of bringing our better selves to work.

I’d love it if you would comment on this blog, or join the discussions on SpiritOnTheJob.com, the website community devoted to this new trend in business.

Best wishes,

Laura

SpiritOnTheJob

2006-02-07T10:33:00.000-08:00

So glad to be part of the SpiritOnTheJob network!