1) the potential to be visionary is in all of us, though visionary potentials like instincts, imagination and intuition are more likely to be quashed than developed;

2) the worlds of work and money and everything else that affects us are in sore need of real vision, not just same-old strategies or the newest shiny thing; and

3) being the visionaries we were born to be is a lot simpler than trying to live without vision.

Forget old notions that we’re not visionary unless we do something spectacular

… like finding a cure for cancer or being at least as innovative as Steven Spielberg was in his least groundbreaking film.  Forget the impossible idea that to be visionary, we’ve got to foretell the future, not just pay attention to what is and notice what’s likely to happen if we keep moving in the same direction.

Also forget the notion that being very imaginative or making lots of money or impacting many people makes you a visionary.  That definition includes the people who built up the housing bubble and the banking crisis, plus terrorists like the underpants bomber.

Consider this simple, more beneficiary definition of visionary:

We are visionary when, with the help of others, we

1) see clearly what is,

2) imagine what can be,

3) discern which possibilities have integrity in all its meanings:  honest, just, naturally ethical, on true with our deepest values, and on the level with others (including the natural world) and

4) engage in a process of turning into reality the possibilities that we have deemed to be filled with integrity.

What Could Happen By Playing with This Definition of Visionary?

If you were more visionary at life and work, would you see more clearly how you can create the career that calls you in spite of obstacles that now block you?

Would you find new ways to serve yourself and others in your current job, in your community, or through volunteer service?  Would you see better the ways you now create unrest in your relationships, then envision how to build a least a little more peace in your small corner of the world?

What about money?  Could you see more clearly your true financial needs?  Could you discern better what’s really important to you and what’s not?

An Invitation to Investigate Your Visionary Potentials

Several of the posts on this blog relate to being more visionary; some are listed at the bottom of this post.  I hope you check them out.

Several years ago, I wrote “Finding Visions for Work and Life,” which is at www.workwithmeaningandjoy.com.  I hope you check that out, and choose a small paragraph a day from the article as inspiration for your meditations.

Next week, January 20, I’ll be facilitating a webinar for my undergraduate alma mater, William & Mary ,called ” How to Know and Do What Matters Most in All Your Life and Work.”  You don’t have to be an alum to attend, and it’s free.  Please consider joining us at:  https://www.wmalumni.com/?Webinarhome.

Your comments and ideas here are welcome.  Just imagine if each of us opened up our hearts and minds just a little bit more, then shared our ideas and dreams — no matter how big and scary they seem right now.  That’s actually what happened in Williamsburg, VA (the home of William & Mary) and other colonial towns where people dared to dream that their lives could be much better, then dared to follow their dreams with effective, caring action.

As always, many blessings

Pat McHenry Sullivan

Imagine, to use another John Lennon pet phrase, that it’s true.  Love IS all you need to bring more integrity, more purpose, more joy, more peace in the world through the ways  we work and deal with money.  Actually, I’m far from the first person to pose this idea.  One of the best discussions of love, business and money was Tim Sanders’ wonderful article, “Love is the Killer App” in Fast Company Magazine.

Imagine the Most Powerful Force in Work and Money is Love — Not Greed, Fear or Unbridled Competition

It’s been almost 8 years since Sanders wrote this in the “Love is the Killer App” article:  The most powerful force in business isn’t greed, fear, or even the raw energy of unbridled competition. The most powerful force in business is love. It’s what will help your company grow and become stronger. It’s what will propel your career forward. It’s what will give you a sense of meaning and satisfaction in your work, which will help you do your best work.

Since Sanders wrote this, there have been more examples of how disastrous the results of greed, fear and unbridled competition are for everyone than anyone could have imagined in 2002.  Yet, there have also been numerous examples of a movement toward sustainability.  The field of spirit and work (which one prominent publisher told me around 2000 had peaked and was dying), has grown and become mainstream.  Movements in socially responsible capitalism are growing. Millions, probably billions of us, have put our finances on sounder footings of reality and meaning rather than fear and the chase for the latest shiny thing.

Today, Market Forces are Moving Us Towards More Integrity — An Essential Element of Love

Workforce Management recently published “10 Ethics Trends for 2010“  by attorney Stephen M. Paskoff which started with the trend towards even greater public scrutiny for the misdeeds of corporations and their celebrity spokespeople.  I was most excited by the impact of the last two trends he noted:

• Organizations will increasingly come to recognize that uncivil, abusive treatment—whether legal or not—causes business risks that exceed the economic costs of employment claims. These must be reined in during a period of diminished resources. This realization can be found in the health care field and will continue to spread to other industries.

• “Lean and clean” will replace “lean and mean.” Too many people and organizations have suffered too much because of greed and corporate corruption. There will be a renewed focus on values such as integrity, and these will replace the “greed is good” mentality prevalent in many organizations over the past 25 years.

“All You Need Is Love” May Sound Simplistic, But It’s a Great Starting Point

I discovered the “All You Need Is Love” singout through an e-mail from my friend Francine Brevetti.  “All You Need Is Love” certainly works for our friendship.  Not love in a passive “I think nice thoughts about you” kind of way, but in an active relationship where we are there for each other professionally and as buddies, for richer or poorer, in laughter and pain, in sickness and in health.

This morning, while I was viewing “All You Need Is Love,” my husband John joined me.  Later, we came up with these thoughts:

• All you need is love to guide you from hate or confusion towards caring and clarity.
• All you need is love for yourself to give you the courage to speak out when others harm you and to get help to deal with workplace bullies.
• All you need is love to create a richer foundation for any workplace or financial challenge that just your left brain or business as usual.
• All it takes is love to move from a state of “my heart just isn’t in it” to a commitment to do your best for yourself and others.

How Can You Put Love to Work Right Now?

Obviously, I hope you listen to the video and let it move you.

I hope you savor the articles listed above, as well as an earlier post in this blog, “True Love of Money is the Root of Many Blessings.”

To repeat the blog post’s  central thesis, what if  true love of money returns many benefits spiritual and material, including a more sane, kind and profitable economy for everyone? What if you love money according to the definition in Paul’s 1 Corinthians 13, where love is defined as patient, kind and many more wondrous things?

As always, many blessings, and please add your comments.

Pat McHenry Sullivan

Distorted positive thinking can cost you money, sleep, your job, peace of mind, and maybe your life. It can also be a catalyst or enabler of fraud, waste and abuse on an individual or social scale.

Even the best models of positive thinking, like The Little Engine That Could, can be distorted. Yes, many obstacles can be overcome and dreams can be built when we affirm, “I think I can,” then follow through with action and stay on track. But sometimes, wisdom and integrity call us to accept what we can’t do. Sometimes, our best path is to go off track, even if we don’t yet know the best path to follow next.

However, if you anchor positive thinking in reality, then give it due diligence, you’ve always got the start of something great.

Real Positive Thinking is Grounded in Reality

Thanks to Stephanie West-Allen, JD, a very compassionate lawyer and creative person, I’ve just discovered Bright-sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America.

How exciting it is that people are now confronting the many distortions about positive thinking! Here are some thoughts after pondering Stephanie’s post about the book:

• It’s positive thinking to affirm that the world is filled with many options and opportunities.
• It’s positive thinking to affirm that in following options and opportunities, we look past what’s already known or customary.
• It’s positive thinking to be guided by the truth and wisdom of our souls, not by fear of fear or by pride, self-will, or a search for the easy way out.
• It’s positive thinking to celebrate a faith that recognizes we can deal with any challenge, including things we really don’t want, like death.
• It’s positive thinking to practice a faith that calls us to use challenges as a stepping stone to meaning, growth, and the capacity for joy.

That’s the kind of positive thinking that allowed Randy Pausch to have a breakthrough life filled with joy and service, both before and after he received a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer.

That’s the kind of positive thinking that has supported all sorts of breakthrough lives and contributions, including Auschwitz survivor and author of Man’s Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl.  That’s the kind of thinking that guided a group of mostly uneducated market women in Liberia to overthrow the rule of a corrupt government and competing warlords, then initiate new vitality for their country.

And that’s the kind of positive thinking that you can employ any time to make sweet lemonade from the best possibilities and bitterest challenges of life.

Too Much of What Purports To Be Positive Thinking Isn’t Positive, Because It Isn’t Real.

The bliss bunny version presumes that if you think only good thoughts, only good will come to you. This distortion of positive thinking seems to fear even mentioning anything “negative” (seemingly defined as anything unwanted).

Of all the bits in the movie “The Secret” that irk me, none hits my buttons more than the scene where a man is worried about losing his bike, so he locks it to a post and “of course” someone saws off the chain and steals it. Yes, obsessing about what can go wrong can destroy possibilities and sometimes invite what we resist, but too many people take the “only positive thinking” idea way too far. E.g., comments like “we shouldn’t admit our financial deficit because that’s a downer” or a business owner’s statement that planning represents a lack of faith.

The bliss bunny distortion has been around for ages in many forms. In the fifties, when I was a child, it wasn’t nice to talk about racial injustice, religion, anger of any kind (especially the anger of women), or doubts that progress was really as wonderful as it seemed. In fact, all doubts or angers or fears were taboo. We’re still recovering from the fallout from this kind of thinking at home, the workplace, environment, economy, and places of worship.

Having spent many years as a paralegal in employment and business law, I’m steeped in stories of how often the “see no evil, think no evil” mantra leads to either the doing of evil or allowing it to happen.

I can’t count the number of stories I’ve heard from employees who avoided help from abuse or harassment for years because they just kept hoping it would get better. Or people like the church member who had been so pressured to think positively of her pastor that she allowed him to lead her into a contract that eventually cost her to lose her home. Or a man who ignored his doubts that Madoff’s promised returns could be so great, because he trusted the friend who connected him to Madoff.

Due Diligence Plus Hope — a Foundation for Real Positive Thinking

Due diligence in the legal sense means to provide the kind of attentiveness and research that’s necessary for a wise decision. It means to get curious.

Instead of assuming and hoping everything will work out, take the time to clarify what you really want and research what it would take to get there. Face what can go wrong, then take necessary precautions so you can move optimistically and realistically ahead.

“Diligence,” from the Latin “diligentia,” is connected to the word “diligo,” which means to love, value or appreciate. Diligence includes the meanings of care, attentiveness, and regard for.

Due diligence is a great spiritual practice as well as a powerful creative practice. It helps strengthen dreams and visions so they can live in the real world. It supports financial abundance with integrity, purposeful work and loving relationships.

Due diligence at work leads away from fraud, waste or abuse to a workplace filled with compassion and efficiency. In business, due diligence is a foundation for more conscious capitalism and a critical key to socially responsible investing.

You probably already practice some form of due diligence. Before you let your child drive, you take the time to ensure that the child has proper training, proper attitude, and as safe a vehicle as possible. As a host or hostess, before you invite people into your home, you make sure your home is safe and that the food is prepared and served safely.

Due diligence is a perfect partner to hope. Put hope and due diligence together, and we have really positive thinking.

What Are Your Thoughts About Positive Thinking and Due Diligence?

• What’s your definition of real positive thinking? Of due diligence?
• How have you acted with real positive thinking so far and thrived?
• How have you distorted positive thinking into something unreal? What has that cost you?
• What happens when you practice due diligence combined with hope?

As always, many blessings. Please comment below and help others learn from your thoughts and feelings.

Best wishes, Pat McHenry Sullivan

I spent 13 years in the Discalced Carmelite monastic order, which traces its origins to hermits living on Mt. Carmel in the 13th century. As is the case with most religious orders, the Discalced Carmelites prayed together at least six times a day on a regular schedule, using Latin names for the hours. These were also known as Canonical hours, because they have been used by all orders in the Roman Catholic Church for many centuries.

As our Muslim friends have so ably demonstrated, prayer can also provide the framework for secular life, including busy workdays. Inspired by what I learned in the monastery and from the example of Muslims, I adapted the canonical hours to my spiritual practices.

Here is the structure of ancient and universal canonical hours:

6:00 AM Lauds (Morning Prayer): The morning begins with praise.

9:00 AM Terce (The Third Hour):The community pauses in its work to remember God.

12:00 PM Sext (The Sixth Hour): The community prays before the noon meal.

3:00 PM None (The Ninth Hour): Mid afternoon prayer.

6:00 PM Vespers (Evening Prayer): Praise and thanksgiving as the day ends.

Bedtime Compline: The community prepares for sleep in peace.

Prayer Can Provide a Framework For Divine Order in Today’s Fast-Paced Secular Lives

Following the intent and inspiration of the canonical hours, here is my version of prayers for a contemporary workday:

As I rise I set my intention for the day. I will live fully in peace and with compassion.

As I begin my work, I bless my space and my tools. I pray that all my work today contribute to the good of all those I meet and brings me the resources I need for my life.

I pause for lunch and recall to mind the presence of the divine. I nurture myself with material and spiritual food.

During an afternoon break, I rededicate myself to doing well by doing good.

As I prepare for the evening, I give thanks for events of the day.

As I prepare for bed, I reflect on my actions of the day and their alignment with my true nature.

When I was in the religious order, I followed these prayers every day without fail. It’s not so easy to remember to stop for prayer in the contemporary day, but it’s definitely doable and rewarding. When I first adapted the hours, I wrote prayers and quotes on file cards that I could carry with me throughout the day. They helped me focus and get grounded at those times when I wished to pray and meditate.

I am now returning to this prayer practice, using as a mantra the Hebrew word for peace, which is “shalom.” This means to pause from work for a few minutes, breathe in on the first syllable, “shal” and breathe out on the “om.” I repeat the practice several times, then center into silence.

How Can You Build Your Workday Around Prayer ?

What are your thoughts?

How do you weave moments of prayer into your work day?

What can you learn from the prayer life of religious orders?

We welcome your thoughts and questions.

Many blessings to you,

John Sullivan

John Sullivan was resource director of the first major directory of spirituality and work resources, published by Spirit of Health! In 1995. With his wife Pat, he is the co-founder of the Spirit and Work Resource Center, www.spiritandworkresourcecenter.com.

Just What is Conscious Capitalism and Why Is It So Beneficial to Us All?

The conveners of last summer’s conference on conscious capitalism at Bentley University offered these three key elements of conscious capitalism:

• companies have a purpose that transcends profit maximization;
• companies are managed for the benefit of all stakeholders in their ecosystem, not just shareholders; and
• companies are led by spiritually evolved, self-effacing servant leaders.

Companies that practice conscious capitalism embody the idea that profit and prosperity go hand in hand with social justice and environmental stewardship. They operate with a systems view, recognizing and benefiting from the connectedness and interdependence of all stakeholders. They tap into deeper sources of positive energy and create greater value for all stakeholders. They utilize creative business models that are both transformational and inspirational, and can help solve the world’s many social and environmental problems.

Over Half the Fortune 500 Companies Are Already Profiting by Embracing At Least One Aspect of Conscious Capitalism

That’s the view of Patricia Aburdene, author of Megatrends 2010: The Rise of Conscious Capitalism (Hampton Roads 2005).  As she recently reported,  whereas the unconscious form of profit-worshiping, short-term profits mentality has led to economic meltdown, conscious capitalists are profiting now while creating a sustainable economy that “responsibly embraces all of its stakeholders- – investors, customers, communities, employees, and the environment.”

In her groundbreaking Megatrends 2010: The Rise of Conscious Capitalism, Aburdene reported seven powerful trends (backed up by statistics and compelling stories from many Fortune 500 companies) that are at the core of conscious capitalism:

• The Power of Spirituality – From Personal to Organizational;
• The Dawn of Conscious Capitalism;
• Leading from the Middle;
• Spirituality in Business;
• The Values-Driven Consumer;
• The Wave of Conscious Solutions;
• The Socially Responsible Investment Boom

Missed the Bentley Conference on Conscious Capitalism? See it Free and Online.

The conference featured a who’s who of leaders in the field of conscious business and spirituality in the workplace. Among the themes the conference covered are:

1.   The Need for a New Approach to Business
2.   Business and Higher Purpose
3.   Stakeholder Management and Alignment
4.   Feminization of the Culture
5.   Work as Calling
6.   Conscious Marketing
7.   Measures That Matter
8.   Contemplative Practices in Management
9.   Reforming Business Education

To view the various topics, click here, and scroll down the list of topics and presenters. Click on a program you’d like to view, and you’ll be privy to the wisdom of people like John Mackey, founder of Whole Foods, or Judith Neal, the founder of the Association for Spirit and Work and now director of the Tyson Center for Faith and Spirituality in the Workplace.

Needed: a Way To Better Way to Measure Value

One thing that’s holding the growth of conscious business back is the shyness of many prominent business leaders to speak openly about such matters as spirit and work, out of the fear that such thoughts will be considered flaky or unprofessional. Another is the lack of solid, respected ways to measure the impact of consciousness to the bottom line. This blog recently covered that topic and will cover it often in the future.

What are your thoughts on how conscious capitalism could benefit you and your world?

How do you measure what matters most to you?

As always, many blessings, Pat McHenry Sullivan

Over the years, I’ve integrated many spiritual practices into my life and work: meditating, taking a moment of silence, being grateful, walking, visualizing, spending time in nature, or journaling. Some of these practices I learned from others; some I invented or adapted. All have led to rich and sometimes surprising insights for work, money and the rest of life — provided they fit my life, not some idealized notion of what the spiritual life ought to be.

The best practices are those that work for us — whether or not they are normally defined as “spiritual.”

If you’re like me, you have to live your spiritual life in the midst of your ordinary real life, not a monastery. I really look forward to my early morning walk with my dog, and to my practices of finding some quiet moments during the day (yes, during work – particularly when I can step outdoors and go for a brisk walk), some free space for dreaming when I ride the subway, spiritual reading at night, or to our family evening meal together. Each practice helps ground me in my fast paced world, and provides some calm, solace and perspective. I am disappointed when I need to skip any of them.

Another practice is gratitude. I find the more I practice gratitude for the big events, the more I’m also grateful for the little things (the subway arrives just as I do), and also not only what happened (I finished my report on time), but what didn’t happen (my flight arrived safely). Each of these gives me a sense of calm, acceptance, and inner peace.

If we just do a spiritual practice because we “should,” it probably won’t work. True practices aren’t requirements, but life-enhancing tools. Yet, it’s too easy to treat them like yet another thing we are “supposed” to do, and find ourselves outwardly agreeing but inwardly resisting. When we do, the practices probably won’t happen.

I often hear the comments “I’m too busy to exercise” or “I don’t have time for a practice.” I’ve found it’s important not to just remind myself to make sure I have time for practice, but to also affirm why this is so.

We can always find time for what is important to us. I have learned as a mother that if I don’t take care of myself, then I have less to give my children and husband. If I don’t take care of my body and nurture my soul, I can feel grumpy, tired, unhealthy, and agitated, which affects my work, my relationships and my attitude. I have less to offer at work, with friends, and with family. Yes, practices are good for our life; when I remember the good in the practices, I am more likely to embrace them.

It’s amazing how powerful just a change of attitude can have.

When I began working at the World Affairs Council many years ago, the hours were long and I found myself grouchy. Much as the purpose of the Council was aligned with my own, I was so focused on the high pressure of the situation that I lost the joy of the work. I became frustrated that I wasn’t being paid enough to work such long hours, and I was hungry and tired each night when I went home. About a month later someone said to me, “You are so lucky to get paid to be at these amazing programs that most people have to pay to go to. You have one of the best international positions in the Bay Area!”

I went home and thought about it and realized two things were true: I really did enjoy my work so I needed to shift my attitude from what wasn’t working to what was working. I also needed to take better care of myself at work. I decided to eat more for lunch, and have a healthy snack in the afternoon. From that moment onwards I began to love my job, blossomed in it, made many connections, and grew in many ways. The only thing that I changed was my attitude, but that made all the difference.

I’ve learned about many practices from many people.

1. Start staff meetings with a moment of silence.
2. Decorate our work spaces with items that matter to us, and create our own workplace altars.
3. Take a day off periodically for nurture and renewal.
4. Initiate a conversation with colleagues about what spirit at work means to each person and how to live it at work (there are many resources for this conversation).
5. Review your company mission statements, policies and procedures to ensure they include a triple bottom line of focusing on people, planet, and profits.
6. Create an evolving mission statement employees are proud to live by.
7. When possible, hold at least some meetings outdoors.
8. Encourage creativity, openness and honesty.

What practice do you have that works for you?

If none, what draws you from the list above? Am you willing to try it?
If you have other practices that work for you, we’d love to hear them.

Kimberly Weichel

Kimberly Weichel is a social pioneer, educator, author and specialist in global communications, leadership and peacebuilding. She is co-author of “Healing the Heart of the World” and director of the Institute for Peacebuilding. www.kimweichel.org.

Never has it been more obvious that real life can’t be broken into categories such as work, life, money, children or fun. Everything important always happens right when we’re smack dab in the middle of seeming contradictory challenges. How to do the tasks that need to be done versus the work our soul calls us to? How to find time to mourn and reflect in the midst of work that needs to be done and life that needs to be lived right now? How to follow one calling, complete one task, when there are dozens or hundreds or thousands to be done?

Organized as Our Datebooks and Files May Be, Only Spirit Can Provide True Order

Guided by spirit, it becomes more clear what’s essential and what is not, what’s ours to do and what is not. Anchored in spirit while doing one task, we see more clearly how to handle another. Because spirit takes us into the essence where such realities as work, money and the rest of life organically interact, we find that working well on any task enhances the others.

This means that the same consciousness that helps us deal gracefully with a nasty boss can also help us end the workday with more time and energy for family. While working out the intricacies of a due diligence document, we’re in an orderly state that helps grief or old pains heal, that makes personal issues fit better together.

Sometimes Spirit Calls Us to Stay Focused and On Track …

Remember the Little Engine That Could? By focusing on her calling, she overcame obstacles that bigger, shinier engines avoided. Yes, a big part of her success was her internal motivation and her constant self talk, “I think I can,” but an equally big part of it was sticking on track.

I’m one of these people who always has a problem staying on track. I could, for instance, turn out 47 blog posts in a few weeks and none for months. Discipline for me requires not just getting past the resistant part that just won’t do what anyone tells me to do — even me. Worse, I’ve got to say no to those voices that say before I post again, I’ve got to create the perfect explanation for why I stopped so long, the perfect entrée back into the stream, the perfect apology, the perfect whatever.

… and Sometimes Spirit Calls Us to Create a New Track, or Return to Our Old Track with Renewed Insight.

My favorite people have always been people who have created new tracks, like attorney Kim Wright,  who was mentioned in the last post. Kim is so loaded with contagious excitement about the lawyers, judges and law students she knows who are recreating the field of law that I could listen to her all day. Fortunately, she doesn’t have time to just tell stories to one person all day. She’s such a great listener and her laugh is so hearty, that after a few minutes on the phone with her, my own dilemma soon became clearer.

Sometimes the answer to life’s challenges is kind of like the Nike slogan, “Just do it.” Just sit by the computer, and start without apology. Just pick up where you left off without feeling like you have to make it a big return of the prodigal son production. Just keep doing the ordinary, nitty gritty real work of every day and let the deeper wisdom flow as it goes.

In my case, a quick coda. My favorite people, I realize, include those who have never moved far away from the home where they were born, who live awesome lives in such ordinary titles as teacher or factory workers. My favorite views are not just the stunning sweep of the Shenandoah Valley from a foothill of the Massanutten mountain where longtime friends now live, but also the loquat tree outside my office window that I see every day. My favorite tasks include not just writing something new or creating something new, but also seeing old things in a new way.

It’s all rich, all blessed, including the ability to be with a friend as she lay dying.

There are Many Ways Meaning Can Enhance All Your Bottom Lines

My book, Work with Meaning, Work with Joy: Bringing Your Spirit to Any Job, came out of months of workday hell on many levels: working in a high pressure corporate law firm during three downsizings, having to do a lot of overtime because my husband was out of work, three family members on the other side of the country were dying, and feeling my own entrepreneurial dreams go further away every day.

Fortunately, I had learned from earlier challenges the power of meaning, particularly from the works of Viktor Frankl, author of Man’s Search for Meaning. If he could find life-saving meaning in the midst of Auschwitz, surely I could find meaning at a safe workplace that I could leave when the workday was over.

Inspired by Frankl, I learned four key principles that can be applied to any tough situation:

• Tasks that are perceived as meaningful get done more exuberantly and effectively and therefore less expensively.
• Work that is perceived as meaningful is less stressful, which leads to less burnout, fewer sick days, less turnover, and higher productivity.
• The clearer our sense of meaning and purpose, the more resilient we can be in hard times. This can lead to higher productivity and ingenuity.
• Guided by our sense of meaning and purpose, we can more clearly see what’s essential to do and what is not. That saves a lot of time, money and energy.

Many People Benefit from Meaning in Work and Money Matters, But Few Are Willing to Talk About Its Power

For example, many business executives tout the benefits of running. After a run, they admit, they are much more efficient and relaxed, but few know or talk openly about the benefits of meditation, which could reconnect them with the source of ultimate meaning and wisdom.

One thing that makes meaning so powerful is that when we are connected to something truly meaningful, we are connected to something much bigger than ourselves, including God. Yet meaning also anchors us in what is most unique and true to ourselves.

My husband John instantly comes more alive when he experiences or shares his love of Satchmo, Native American history, Latin and Gregorian chant. I’m immediately more connected to meaning when I look at the clouds, sing old hymns, or listen to classical music. Both of us experience meaning with our cat, in church, in meditation, with friends or family, or in service.

If Lawyers Can Profit By Working with Meaning, Anyone Can

Things felt so un-spirited and painful in the mid-90′s at the job I described above that I reached out through the internet and friends for help. Judi Neal, now director of the Walton Center in Faith and Spirituality in the Workplace at the University of Arkansas,  connected me to Steven Keeva, then an editor for the Journal of the American Bar Association. Steve was working on what I still think is the greatest book on spirit and work, Transforming Practices: Finding Joy and Satisfaction in the Legal Life. (This book, filled with practical applications of spiritual practices in legal practice, is being re-published within the year.)

Steve connected me to Kim Wright, who refused to be just another unhappy lawyer. Her research and networking led her to create Cutting Edge Law,  where you can connect with many people and organizations who promote openly contemplative practices and spirituality in law.

Cutting Edge Law also has a You-Tube channel of videos with people who have been working to bring in more meaning to law, including my own interview on spirituality and work in law and all professions.

It’s been really exciting for me not just to have learned to find meaning in legal work — which led to my new work in helping bring more meaning and joy to all work. It’s also exciting to be a part of and to report this growing movement to bring more heart and soul to law. Here’s one of my favorite articles on the topics.

Where do you now find meaning in your work, finances and other challenges?

What practices help you connect more to what’s meaningful?

I dare you to share your thoughts with others and help increase the power of meaning in everyday life.

As always, many blessings,
Pat McHenry Sullivan

1. What hurts?
2. What would it look like to be whole again?
3. What would it take to be whole again?
4. What can I learn from this challenge?
5. What allies and resources are available?
6. How am I called to serve?

Turning Challenges into Opportunity Can Be a Powerful Exercise in Practical Spirituality

Questions 1, 2 and 3 clarify current reality. They help you generate a new vision and the creativity you need to make it real. Question 4 opens all your mental resources and anchors your power of intention. Questions 5 and 6 connect you to a source much greater than yourself.

A friend I’ll call Joe first thought his answer to question 1 was only, “I get a pounding headache at work.” After meditation on the question, he discovered, “My worst headaches come when I am working with a boss who reminds me of the worst aspects of my father.” Further reflection showed him exactly how his body tensed in response to stress. He also wondered if his habit of skipping lunch when he felt pressured for time might be part of the problem.

All this changed Joe’s original answer to question 2 from “I just want the headaches to go away,” to “I envision responding to stressful situations with an alert mind, pain-free body, and peaceful heart.”

Reflection on questions 3 and 4 inspired Joe to deal with his issues around his father, not project them onto the boss. At the same time, he knew he also had to practice better boundaries and personal caretaking.

Question 5 led to an intuitive flash: “Talk with my friend Betty (a nurse).” She taught Joe that whenever he skipped lunch, he depleted the amount of blood sugar his brain and body need to work well. Headaches are a common side effect of low blood sugar.

Soon Joe’s workday headaches were gone and the problems with the boss were eased. His performance improved, and so did his relationship with his boss.

Instead of going home from work exhausted or dulled by painkillers, he went home with a spring in his step and more time to be with his family. He eventually got a better job with a more appreciative boss.

Question 6 led Joe to the simple conclusion that by taking better care of himself and giving his best to any task, he was best able to work compassionately and purposefully. He used some of his increased time and energy for fun with friends and family and some for increased service to the community.

Every spiritual tradition is loaded with practical spiritual wisdom.

My all-time favorite wisdom teacher is Brother Lawrence, a 17th century Catholic monk who spoke of practicing the presence of God. Whether you are sweeping the floor, making an omelet or working with today’s high-tech equipment, do everything gratefully, as if it were for God. Bring your full self to the task, right here, right now.

I’m often stunned at how powerful this simple practice can be. Once my husband and I were helping his mother rake leaves. It seemed utterly natural to give thanks for the opportunity to be with this wonderful woman and pray for her continued health and safety while we worked.

Sometimes we laughed and joked; other times we were silent enough to hear leaves being chased across the pavement by our brooms. This is the kind of joy that can be so easily missed when we treat tasks just as something to be done, not as an experience of service with the potential for joy. Just remembering the joy of that morning makes my heart sing again.

That joy led to three more questions:

1. What joys do I now feel around work and money?
2. How can this joy benefit me and others?
3. How can I learn and grow by expanding the blessings in my life right now?

As always, many blessings, Pat McHenry Sullivan

This post was adapted from an article I wrote several years ago for my column on practical spirituality that ran for about a year on myprimetime.com.

There’s a world of spiritual practices just right for your workday. Pick any one of them and practice it!

I recently asked my network of clients, colleagues and friends: “What spiritual practice is in your business toolkit?”

Here are some of the spiritual practices business people like you rely on. Some you may be familiar with and even use, others will be new to you. I encourage you to play with these practices to enhance your work performance and make your life more rewarding and fun. Meditating

• Observing
• Spiritual Reading
• Mentoring
• Praying
• Fasting
• Being Grateful
• Smiling
• Trusting Your Intuition
• Affirming
• Refraining from Judgment
• Deep Breathing
• Walking a Labyrinth
• Staying Present
• Practicing Yoga
• Journaling
• Spending Time in Nature
• Visualizing
• Dreaming
• Clearing Clutter
• Being Silent

At times of change and uncertainty, it’s reassuring to follow a practice. Please feel free to contact me with questions or comments about your own practices.

Namaste,

Tricia Molloy

Tricia Molloy is the author of Divine Wisdom at Work: 10 Universal Principles for Enlightened Entrepreneurs. She offers Working with Wisdom programs, like “CRAVE Your Goals!” to empower employees to be more positive, focused and productive. Learn more and sign up for her free e-newsletter for valuable information and inspiration at http://www.triciamolloy.com/

Note from Pat Sullivan, the Spiritworkandmoney.com blogger: Please comment to this post in this blog. Simply click on the word “comments” that’s preceded from a number at the lower right of this post.

What are your favorite practices?

Which would you like to know more about in future posts?

What new ideas come to you by playing with and praying over this list?