By PatSullivan
While the official unemployment fluctuates around 10%, the real rate is much higher considering those who are no longer counted (e.g., benefits having run out) and people struggling with part-time work. Many economists feel there will not be a significant surge in jobs before 2012.
What to do? Perhaps its time to take a closer look at starting your own business. Continue reading this post »
By PatSullivan
Economic problems cause major stress (I hear you saying “no duh!”) Job loss, cut in pay, cut in hours, or failure at a business can put pressure on a people. Financial stress mars the spirit and makes even the healthiest person forget good relational skills. Too often these external pressures erode relationships inside and outside of work.
So, how do you safeguard all your relationships in these economically trying times?
Continue reading this post »
By PatSullivan
Small business loans used to be fairly easy to get. All my first business planning client in 1994 needed to get an SBA-backed loan was a well-thought-out idea and credit worthiness (she supplied that), writing skills (I supplied that) and some market research (we figured that out together). She got her loan, quit her day job, then turned her passionate hobby and part-time business of photography into a successful full-time business.
Today, the best most new businesses get from the bank is not a loan but the advice to start a business by bootstrapping. But what if your bootstraps are kind of puny? If just can’t get enough from your credit cards, your savings, your family, friends or any payout you got when you were laid off? Continue reading this post »
By PatSullivan
Many workplaces are run with less consciousness than a fifth-grade playground or an eight-grade lunchroom — but with way more power for the bullies and harassers. At the least this can create havoc for employees and everyone they impact, from their families, to and anyone the employees happen to encounter on the highway after work.
Employers also lose big-time when they don’t stop workplace bullies and harassers. As we recently reported here, attorney Stephen M. Paskoff notes that “uncivil, abusive treatment—whether legal or not—causes business risks that exceed the economic costs of employment claims.” The more we can help make employers see the business benefits of stopping workplace harassment and bullying, the sooner it can stop. Continue reading this post »
By PatSullivan
It’s amazing how little things can really fester, whether at work or at home. Someone speaks to us in a less than respectful tone and we jump to conclusion that they are a ‘mean’ person, or they interrupt us and we consider them rude, or they come into our office to ask for something and we think they are pushy or intrusive. Sound familiar? Continue reading this post »
By PatSullivan
If you want to find the heart and soul of a profession, pay attention to the pain as well as the joys in it. That was the method journalist Steven Keeva followed in writing the very best book I’ve seen — out of hundreds — in the field of spirituality and work.
Transforming Practices: Finding Joy and Satisfaction in the Legal Life by Steven Keeva is just as powerful a transformative tool for real estate agents, receptionists, doctors or people in any other profession as it is for lawyers, judges and legal staff. That’s because Steve wrote about how ordinary people, without permission from the powers that be, bring transforming practices (such as meditation) into their work and thus transform whatever is their work. Plus, legal work touches all of us, and if lawyers can work more effectively by working more deeply from their souls, then there’s more hope for all of us. Continue reading this post »
By PatSullivan
Humanity is our business, says the Ghost of Christmas Present in The Christmas Carol. Putting that in the terms of the spirituality and work movement, taking care of the economic and everyday peace of others is an integral part of taking care of our own business. Also, taking care of business in the outer world is best preceded by taking care of business in the inner, spiritual world.
Without spiritual practice, how can we possibly discern how best to spend our time and money on building peace when the needs are so huge and often contradictory? Without spiritual practice, how can we move from overwhelm and exhaustion, into the state of grace, where peaceful abundance can naturally escalate? Continue reading this post »
By PatSullivan
I used to pride myself on being an efficient multi-tasker. I occasionally bragged to my family that I could cook, speak on the phone, and listen to the radio at one time. At work, I’ve tried to speak on the phone while I straighten my desk.
I used to think I was being clever in getting things done quickly. But at what cost?
One of the most obvious costs of multi-tasking is the toll it takes on relationships. In earlier conversations, people might say after speaking for a while, “What do you think?” Because I couldn’t really pay attention while trying to do something else, I would blush and not know what to say, other than sheepishly ask, “Would you mind repeating it?” Continue reading this post »
By PatSullivan
Only a really nasty person would deliberately plan to create a business that’s unethical or harmful to employees, the earth and other stakeholders. Yet, following the wisdom of the old adage, “failing to plan is planning to fail,” then failing to structure our vision and values into our businesses or jobs is planning to leave out those values — at least as measured by too many sorry results.
“Can you give me more tips and resources for how to put more of my values into my business?” asked a participant in a class I taught on business planning at the San Francisco Small Business Administration www.sba.gov/localresources/index.html). That led to the following list, which I’ll use in tomorrow night’s class. Links are kept visible, in case you want to print out the list and share it. Continue reading this post »
By PatSullivan
Sometimes, your best efforts just won’t bear fruit. No matter how hard you pray, how persistently you network, how creatively you market, the right job or client just isn’t there. If you’re fortunate enough to have a job or client, sometimes things just don’t work out in myriad painful ways.
St. John of the Cross called times like this “the dark night of the soul.” However the challenge manifests, there’s a sense that you’re at the end of your road. Whatever spiritual practices worked in the past don’t work now. Just when you need clear guidance, you’re more clueless than you may dare to admit.
That, as St. John wrote, is as it should be. Sometimes, the only way to deal with pain is to stop trying to understand it, and simply experience it. It’s as if we’ve taken all our spiritual wisdom to its edge, and the only way to find our next step is to go past all we think we know, into the darkness of unknowing. Only then can we see the faint light in our own heart, guiding us to whatever wisdom we need next. Continue reading this post »
