But what if you could turn the outrageousness of the bankrobbing suggestion into a catalyst for absolutely ethical client-building or job-finding strategies? Here’s one set of tips you could discover with quick brainstorming questions.

Why rob a bank?  Because that’s where the big money is right now.

Why not rob a bank?  Everyone’s property, health, comfort and safety matter to you.  Your conscience and self-respect matter to you.

What does it take to rob a bank:  Audacity.  Careful planning.  Reliable sidekicks.  Not worrying about what others think.

What lessons can you take from bankrobbers to meet your financial needs in a way that’s absolutely ethical?

The first thing, of course, is to turn around the answer of why not rob a bank, and consider, “how can I support others’ property, health, comfort and/or safety so much that people will be grateful to hand me money in exchange for my goods or services?”  That’s going to take some research and careful planning.  You can do that!

Next, turn the rest of the bank-robbing strategies above into ethical ones.

1.  Go where the biggest money is. Example:  even if you need money fast because the unemployment is running out, don’t depend solely on temp agencies, like everyone else does.  Create a great spiel and sell your own temporary services at a higher price than the agency would pay you, but less than clients would pay an agency.  It may take a lot of calls, but it’s worth it.

2. Be audacious, beginning with brainstorming. Most of us censor out our best ideas way before even one good one hits consciousness. “Playing bankrobber” for a few minutes may make you feel daring enough to relax that censor.  Just for fun, get wildly creative as  you practice your spiel or draft a cover letter. Then rein in the outrageousness a bit so you can find that right mix of creative and sensible, daring and dependable.

3.  Plan carefully. Learn the habits of your target employer or market.  Know what keeps them up at night, what saves them money or time.  Research where they hang out and how they like to get information.  Network to discover someone who knows someone who has a personal connection into the market or company you want to penetrate. If your potential customers don’t read flyers or even beautifully designed bulletin board notices, don’t waste your time or money on them.

4.  Get some reliable sidekicks who can help you network, stay on track, brainstorm ideas, commiserate and celebrate. I love the Hub www.the-hub.net, a rapidly growing international network of people who love to help others create sustainable, socially responsible businesses.  If it’s not in your town yet, see what else is, or create your own.  A woman I know just created a great new group by putting an ad on Craigslist. Six committed heads who bring their laptops along to brainstorming and support sessions really are better than one.

5.  Stop worrying so much what others think. After hearing Dizzy Dean’s comment that “it ain’t bragging if it’s true,” I ignore a lot of “Patty, stop making a spectacle of yourself” voices from childhood and focus on “what does the client really want?” Then, I consider, “what can I offer this potential client?”  One of my favorite gigs came from adding a paragraph to my cover letter that began, “If this were my dream job.” It listed not just how I might meet their listed needs, but also some of their anticipated needs that came from my own meditation about what it would be like to work for the client.

6.  Finally, have fun. Again, I am absolutely opposed to anything unethical.  Yet, I love a good, non-violent caper movie, like the classic “Topkapi,” starring starring Melin Mercouri, Peter Ustinov, Robert Morley and others who cleverly seek to steal a priceless emerald-loaded dagger.  If you put even 1/10 as much daring and creativity in your search for ethical, quick money as this gang of thieves put into their jewel heist, how might you discover a new path to money, both quick and long-term?

Got any examples in your life to share?  Got a specific problem you’d like others to brainstorm for you?  The comment box below awaits you.

As always, many blessings,

Pat McHenry Sullivan

The Olympics are about so much more than winning or the feelings that go into it.

For me it’s about doing one’s very best after many years of focused practice and extreme dedication. It’s about the ability to be centered enough to perform at one’s peak in front of the world watching. It’s about the drive and passion to be the best we can be at something and going after it. It’s about the ability to perform with precision despite any pain or obstacles that get in the way. And these lessons are applicable to all of us, including the spiritual practices that we can bring to our work, money and other important matters.

My friend Marilyn King was an Olympic pentathlon athlete. About 6 months before the Moscow Olympics she was in a bad car accident and was hospitalized for months. Rather than give up her Olympic dream, she watched videos constantly of other pentathlon athletes performing at their peak and very consciously visualized doing the same.

Although she only had a few months of actual practice time before the Olympics, she placed second. Her practice of visualization was a powerful tool of success.

Marilyn then applied her Olympian wisdom to peacebuilding and education in a process she calls Olympian Thinking.   Her formula is passion (source of energy and creativity), plus vision (crystal clear images of goal), plus action (everything I do in alignment with vision) equals exceptional human performance (ordinary people doing extraordinary things).

What lessons can we derive from the Olympics for the workplace?

1. Strive for excellence - Excellence doesn’t mean perfection, rather the ability to focus and care deeply about our work to do the best we can. Striving for excellence motivates us; striving for perfection is demoralizing. We all make mistakes, but the opportunity is to learn from them and not repeat them. Excellence takes time, hard work, patience, practice and commitment. It doesn’t mean settling for just good enough.
2. Vision - In order to excel in something, we need to be clear where we’re going, what we want to do well. What drives us? What are we passionate about? It’s hard to excel if our heart is not in what we’re doing. Find what has heart and meaning and go for it.
3. Ask for Help or Guidance – All Olympic athletes have coaches – people who work with them, oversee their training, encourage them and keep them on track. We can’t do it alone. If we don’t understand something or are confused or overwhelmed, we need to be able to ask for help or guidance. Consider hiring a coach or finding a mentor.
4. The 3 C’s – Courage, Creativity and Commitment – Athletes don’t make it to the Olympics by being wimps. It takes tremendous courage and commitment to stretch beyond their limits and practice over and over, even when they are exhausted, until they achieve their personal best. It takes creativity to keep trying new routines (ice skating), faster runs (skiing) or new strokes (swimming) until they discover the best, fastest and most creative they can be. Do you practice the 3C’s in your work?
5. Ensure you have the right practical tools - We can never excel if we don’t have the right tools for the job. If you have an older computer, not enough staff, outdated software, need for training, slow internet, etc, be sure you take steps to upgrade. Yes, these cost money upfront, but in the long run save you time and money and enable you to get the job done. Prepare a brief proposal to your boss and explain why upgrading makes sense. Don’t waste time with outdated tools.
6. Don’t forget your spiritual tools! This blog is filled with spiritual tools and practices that can be applied to any task.  Just click on the “Spiritual Practices” category near the bottom of the categories list.
7. Use visualization - See yourself doing what you love at your very best. What does it look and feel like? Remember how Marilyn King used visualization to help her succeed in the Olympics. Use it for yourself.

What is your passion? Your personal best? Where do you excel?

Are you using Olympian thinking to combine your passion with your vision and action to achieve your best? If not, try it.

In peace,

Kim

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.

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

Over the past 14 years, it’s been my great pleasure to interview hundreds of people about how their work and their spirituality support each other. The great world religions scholar Huston Smith,  graciously granted an interview of some basic tenets in each faith. Individuals have added their own rich insights, providing a marvelous, ever-growing picture of the many ways to put spiritual values to work everyday.

All Faiths Promote Right Livelihood

The term comes from Buddha’s instructions to his disciples not to cause harm through one’s work and to work ethically. Over the past thirty years there have been numerous discussions and writings from people of many faiths on what this might mean. Just a few:

• Finding work that suits talents and to which one feels deeply called. The Christian concept of vocation and the parable of the talents Matthew 25:14-30 are particularly relevant.
• Working with the same integrity and other values in the workplace that you honor in your place of worship. The Muslim concept of being the same person in the marketplace as you are in the mosque is a marvelous model.
• Engaging fully with the task at hand without forcing your will or ego on it. The Taoist concepts of Yin and Yang and the Hindu concept of surrendering the outcome of your work to God are wise guides.
• Weaving time for reflection and rest into times of work. The Jewish Sabbath and Ecclesiastes 3:1-15 (a time for everything in its season) are prime examples.
• Working in a way that respects the needs of others, including the earth and those not yet born. Prime examples are the environmental movements and the wisdom of native peoples, such as the Iroquois commandment to consider the impact of one’s actions to the seventh generation.

All Faiths Promote Paths to Wisdom

Whether you call it meditation, prayer, reflection or just a walk to clear your head, all faiths suggest that you get out of your ordinary mind, out of the limited view of your ego, and into a more timeless, universal way of seeing the world.

Because this blog often covers these topics, we won’t focus on them today. Except to say, whatever your faith, you already know some practices for slowing down, breathing, and opening up to guidance.

Indeed, one of the most spiritual persons I know is a lawyer who is an avowed atheist. He’s famously kind, compassionate, and ethical, but he doesn’t frame his thoughts about life and meaning in theological terms. He won’t use words like meditation or prayer, but obviously he gets into a state of deep reflection when he listens to country music and gets out of his over-worked left brain, into his heart.

I’d rather live in a world with one man who finds guidance without spiritual words than with than dozens who speak the spiritual words and don’t walk the spiritual walk — especially those who grow rich by promising spiritual “miracles” the easy way.

For More on the Wisdom of All Faiths for Work and Money, Come Back for Part II.

As a writer, long-time researcher and missionary for integrating spirituality, work and money, I could go on. And on. But I need to earn my living, and people don’t read much at one sitting any more. Therefore, we’ll take a break here.

Still to be explored in Part II (and maybe more parts as I really get going):

• All Faiths Promote Service
• All Faiths Promote Wise Use of Money
• All Faiths Promote Integrity
• All Faiths Promote Peace and Compassion

For a great collection of resources on right livelihood, see this article from Yes! Magazine.

How does the Wisdom of the World’s religions Enhance Your Relationship to Work and Money?

What do you already do to keep spirit alive at work? In your relationship to money?

What wisdom does your faith have for work and money?

What can you learn from other faiths?

As always, please share your thoughts and question.  Guest blogger ideas are welcome!

Many blessings,

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.

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.

A participant in a seminar I taught several years ago on “Bottom Line: Integrity” said that if he never wasted any organizational resources such as time or supplies, he might stand out like a sore thumb. Another remembered the pain of being branded a “curve buster” or “teacher’s pet” when she had based her actions not on peer norms but on her deeper values. A third affirmed that by acting on our values, we could be role models.

It’s not easy to confront another’s wrongdoing, and it’s not easy to listen when someone dares say there’s something off with one of our actions or pet projects. But without honest feedback, organizations become like dysfunctional families who are run by those with the least capacity for or commitment to wise leadership.

Needed: Road Markers to Keep Our Work and Business in Integrity

My dad, the late William McHenry, said we are all called to guide each other out of dangerous ethical fogs by being like white lines on curvy mountain roads that can keep us from crashing into each other, provided we slow down enough to see those lines and are humble enough to heed them.

The problem, says whistleblower expert Don Soeken is that, though we are taught to tell the truth and act ethically, we rarely are taught how. Instead we are warned not to be “tattlers” or “snitches” and we’re overwhelmed with stories about how integrity is a poor career move.

Hard as it is to confront wrongdoing in self and others, it’s often harder to meet our own magnificent capacity for goodness and creativity. With each new hope comes the possibility of hurt should the hope not turn into reality. With each new creative possibility comes the danger that we will be less satisfied with the status quo or more threatening to those who are committed to a particular way of seeing things.

How can we build a culture based in integrity?

While I can’t pretend to have all the answers (except when I’m grandiose, which is way out of integrity), I do offer these practical starting points that hopefully will become common habits:

1. We could tell the truth more. Whether we need to blow a whistle against fraud, waste and abuse at work or whether we need to take on the even scarier work of reminding each other how magnificent we can be, we could dare speak the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Even when the truth is, “I’m scared” or “I haven’t the foggiest idea how to do what needs to be done.”

2.  We could dare to dream wishfully about what a culture of integrity would look like and how it would act, even though we know right now neither the final content of the dream or how it might possibility be realized. All great movements, like the civil rights movement, started with wishful thinking. Strategy came later, and the dream kept evolving, which called forth more creative strategy.

3. We could take each  integrity challenge as an opportunity to grow, to learn and to serve better ourselves and others. One gift of the current economic mess is a growing dialogue on the nature of integrity and how much it matters to us. If that dialogue is supported, it can come up with far better answers than any expert or politician could.

4. We could go dare to be mentally and emotionally empty more. As the Buddhist teacher Suzuki reminds us, our beginner’s mind can always see new aspects to old challenges. The Christian teacher St. John of the Cross reminds us that sometimes the faint light of a new vision can only be seen when we step away from the light of the status quo.

5. We could go through a ritual of honesty and transformation together. A great model is the Jewish New Year and succeeding the holidays that follow it. First, we eat apples and sweet honey and recall the blessings of what has passed and what is now. Next, we empty our mental and emotional pockets of all the beliefs and thoughts that keep us fully present to ourselves and others. We do our best to heal relationships and make clean those aspects of our lives that are off base.

The Jewish high holy day of Yom Kippur, or Day of Atonement, is a time of prayerful fasting, of laying open one’s soul before the Creator. It is followed soon after by the harvest festival of Sukkot, which honors the playful and creative child and by Simchat Torah, which celebrates the holy law as the framework for community. In some synagogues, the Torah (the first five books of the Bible) is danced throughout the community.

As a non-Jew, I’m awed by these ceremonies and what they represent. What kind of a culture could we build together if we honored what is already good and if we also dared be open to seeing our worst faults? What kind of culture could we have if we celebrated and valued those laws and mores that support a culture of integrity?

An affirmative prayer to consider: I choose to see clearly what is on or off integrity in my own life and work. I gratefully accept inspiration from any source in order to clarify my sight and to give me new perspectives. I welcome clarity that will help me discern when and how I am called to act with integrity, and when I am called to wait for further guidance.

As always, many blessings to you,

Pat McHenry Sullivan

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.