Quit it
If love is the productive power, then living with less than that is not going to get you where you want to go.
If you hate your job, you need to quit. Quit doing it, or quit hating it. Either way, just stop it. There are no bonus points in life for being a martyr, and in the meantime you are just making yourself and the people who care about you miserable.
If your job is stupid, humiliating, silly, frustrating, and so on, I want you to think about the energy you are giving to the endeavor. Passion and focus are creative. So the job gets more ridiculous and even easier to hate; there’s potential for a really negative spiral here. Besides, I’d bet that one of the things that really bothers you about the situation is that it has the power to get under your skin. But you have a choice about that.
Let me put this a different way. If the job is really that bad, it doesn’t deserve the kind of energy you’re putting into it with your dread. No job is worth your hate. If you stop giving it so much power, you will start to find ways to either make it better or get out of there.
The world is a better place when the people in it are following their hearts. Not only do you deserve happiness, but you owe it to the rest of us to find your calling. What will it take for you to get moving?
-d.
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“Talk to the Mountain” - my 4/22 lesson about what it takes to make things happen.
(Source: unityofclearwater.org)
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My “March Forth” lesson, delivered at Unity of Clearwater. Bonus points if you can guess the date.
(Source: unityofclearwater.org)
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My 2/19 “This Place” lesson at Unity of Clearwater; thanks, as always!
(Source: unityofclearwater.org)
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My “Everything New” lesson, delivered yesterday at Unity of Clearwater. I’m overwhelmed by the responses I’ve gotten — thanks very much!
(Source: unityofclearwater.org)
Part of the New Year tradition for us Unity people involves writing
down a thought or feeling they are ready to be done with (in my case,
I wrote the word “bullshit,” because I’ve resolved to stop putting up
with it) and then burning the paper.
Because nature abhors a vacuum, we then write down a new idea we want
to fill that space with and keep the paper where we can see it all
year. I decided to make mine my lock screen image, so I will see it
dozens of times each day.
Why am I Here?
This is the question. Everything else stems from or leads to this point. I’m a big believer in the notion that we each have a purpose. I think all of our greatest problems can be traced back to ignorance or willful denial of our inherent job descriptions. I talk about this sort of thing an awful lot, as you know.
If you believe you’re here for a reason, it’s natural to want to know what that reason is, and, perhaps more importantly, what you ought to do about it next. This is something I chew on a lot in my own life, and I see the people around me thinking about it, too. In the work I do with teens, it’s a central preoccupation. Truthfully, the adults in my world don’t seem to have any better of a handle on it. It wouldn’t be hard to argue that our culture doesn’t do a great job of sending folks on their way.
But it’s not for a lack of trying. Job applicants are typically asked where they see themselves in five years. Kids are asked to declare a major, plan for college, and know where their lives are going to go at an ever-earlier stage. A person with a good sense of where the chess pieces are going to go is generally regarded as stable, secure, and wise.
And boring. But boring is good, or so we’ve been told. I’m convinced that our culture is better at planning and predictability than any other in human history, and the virtue of this is driven home at every turn. I’m just not so sure that it’s bringing us any peace. If you want a predictable investment, put some money into the companies that manufacture anti-depression drugs.
I’m also having a hard time seeing how this emphasis on seeing, and knowing, and labeling, and controlling something as invisible, unfathomable, intangible, and free as the What Happens Next is helping us to find passion, art, fun, or love. It’s an extreme example, but Orson Welles’ cuckoo clock line from The Third Man comes to mind.
I’m not arguing against peace, though. Instead, I’m trying to say that real peace comes from a release of any attachment to the outcome, and from the conviction that while we cannot know what is going to happen next, our security comes from the simple understanding that the universe takes care of its own.
I can’t know what is going to happen next, not really, and so it’s a little foolish of me to try and force my future actions and existence into something my current experience can deal with. That’s not really what I want anyway. I’d rather be surprised by a life that I can’t even imagine right now, and I know that to get there I need to be brave enough to let go of my ego’s desire to know what’s around the corner.
So here’s what I DO know. Who and where I am now is the direct result of the general trend of my previous thoughts and feelings. I may not always be conscious of it, but when I stop and really look around I can always find the causal relationship between thoughts and things in my world. In fact, I believe that this is never not true.
On a primal level, the thought IS the thing. More on that later. But for now, here’s what you need to know: there is no spiritual or ideal element without a physical/material counterpart. The mode of manifestation might not always be straightforward, and that’s part of the fun, but the expression of the idea is always there.
This means a number of things, naturally. It means that if you are having a problem, the work you have before you is more archaeological than therapeutic. Dig past the outer appearances, figure out the inner conception, and make your adjustments there. New results will inevitably follow.
You are a microcosm of the universe. We are made in the image and after the likeness of God, after all. As it works in you, so it works in the totality of existence. So while I have no idea what specific actions either of us ought to be taking next, I’m pretty sure that’s not the right question to be asking anyway.
The question we started with is “why am I here?”
The answer is that you are here because there is literally no other place for you to be. You HAVE to be here, because the spiritual truth back of material experience could only manifest in this place, at this time, as this person you see in the mirror.
This means that there’s really no point in ever getting mad or sad about what has come before. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t ever be allowed to be angry; only that it’s pointless in exactly the same way that seeing an action movie or going for a Sunday drive is pointless.
What’s done is done. What’s manifest is what’s manifest. What’s important is that every outer experience points back to its inner nature, and therein lies the charm of making.
You are here because you are an integral part of the universe’s expression. The better you get at honoring that truth and living up to that, the more easily and wonderfully the details will work themselves out.
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The “High Watch” lesson I delivered on 12/11/2011. Happy Christmas, everybody!
(Source: unityofclearwater.org)
When to Pick up the Phone, and When to Schedule a Meeting
(or When to use Instant Messaging part two: the revenge)
- almost never
- please see #1 above
As with the earlier article, the problem with immediate communication is that the folks you’re addressing to have to stop doing whatever they were doing and start working on you instead. There are certainly times when this is appropriate, but here’s when it is not:
- When somebody is working on something you need to have done right away, and you just want to touch base with them to see how they’re doing. Trust me, if they need help they should ask for it. If they don’t, you have deeper communication problems. Either way, you are driving them crazy.
- When you want to bring something to somebody’s attention. I know that for most folks writing is harder than talking, but if you take an extra ten minutes and write an email that folks can read on their own time instead of forcing them to do the work of fully formulating your thought for you, you will be showing respect instead of implying disregard. As a side benefit, you may find that composing your thoughts helps you solve problems before they arise.
- You want to tell them that you just sent an email. The bad karma generated from this will have you reincarnated as Newt Gingrich’s support undergarments in your next life.
Be nice. It will make you and your team more productive. Trust me.
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My “GPS” lesson delivered at Unity of Clearwater on 11/27/2011. Thanks!
(Source: unityofclearwater.org)
