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
After 20 years of studying how people either block or shape visions for work and life, I’ve concluded that
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. Continue reading this post »
By PatSullivan
You wouldn’t know it from the major media, but more compassionate, more sustainable and way more ethical capitalism is thriving. Or, as many call it, “Conscious Capitalism.” Now there are some very easy ways to bring yourself up to speed in how the conscious capitalism movement can impact your individual work, your business and/or your finances.
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. Continue reading this post »
By PatSullivan
If all the expensive fallout from corporate, political or other shenanigans could be traced to a few greedy rotten apples, then it should be easy for all us good, non-greedy apples to toss out the rest.
But greed is just one variety of fraud, waste and abuse that have long been rampant in our world. All are supported by a culture that makes it equally hard to confront wrong-doing or to envision a culture based on honesty, sustainability, and compassion. Continue reading this post »
By PatSullivan
“The love of money is the root of all evil.” What if that ubiquitous saying is flat-out wrong? What if, instead, 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?
If love is one of the most powerful forces for good in the universe, then loving money must also be a powerful force for good. Continue reading this post »
By PatSullivan
Do you ever feel called to say something and don’t know exactly what it is? Or wish someone else would say that something that could cut through anything from confusion and fear-mongering or overwhelm to a quiet truth? A truth that could get you and others, just for a moment, to stop? To listen? To find clear wisdom for whatever ails or calls you?
I really want that right now, not just around the ever-present health care financing issue, but around everything else that’s dominating the news today, like how hard it is for many of us to make a living right now. Like how many people we know are stuck in painful jobs they hate but don’t dare leave. Or for those of us who are entrepreneurs, where the next clients are coming from in a time when so many are still cutting back. Continue reading this post »
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comedy,
economy,
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By PatSullivan
Tao. Dow. Both are pronounced “dow,” but here the similarity ends.
“Tao” means the way, path or guiding principle for working with faith, integrity and meaning in a mysterious universe.
The concept of way, path or guiding principle is central to all religious faiths and secular philosophies — not just the ancient faith of Taoism. Continue reading this post »
By PatSullivan
The Bible and other sacred texts are filled with prophets who blow the whistle on danger, fraud, waste or abuse of power. Other prophets alert us to the good news of hope and possibility.
Now that we finally have cable and decent streaming capability on our computers, my husband and I have become faithful to the late night fake news shows of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. We’ve also maintained our loyalty to Bill Moyers on PBS, whose prophetic guests are not always amusing.
The big difference between prophetic comedians and the people we usually think of as prophets is that we’re more likely to listen when we get to laugh first. Continue reading this post »
By PatSullivan
The older I get, the more grateful I am for people whose individual choices have led to widespread movements of hope and creativity today.
Much spiritual wisdom today comes from how people dealt with war, racism and other pain decades ago.
In July 1942 when I was born, the world was at war. Now many who went through the worst of that war are guiding us to a more peaceful and meaningful humanity, like Auschwitz survivor and Nobel peace prize winner Elie Weisel and Hiroshima atomic bomb survivor and peace activist Takashi Tanemori. Continue reading this post »
