indwe magazine – July 2005

Beyond Positions & Possessions

Finding your place at work
Text: Christopher Parker
“For several hundred years the Western concept of work has been based on a belief in some kind of original sin. In many people’s lives, work has become synonymous with sacrifice, boredom and even fear – something to be endured rather than enjoyed. We’ve struggled on, thinking that if we grin and bear it we will be granted our eventual reward or happiness in the future (at the very least, perhaps, a decent pension),” says Nick Williams, author of the book The Work We Were Born To Do.
However, the tide is turning. Not only have we lost faith in the promise of a pension that, more often than not, turns out to be rather indecent but, individually, humanity has embarked on a quest for personal fulfilment and meaning.
There is also a commercial reason for this turning tide. Corporates have twigged on that an inspired employee is far more productive and stress-tolerant than one who merely shows up at the office in order to draw a salary cheque at the end of the month.
“A new work ethic is emerging – one in which success is created from the inside out, based on an awareness of our original goodness. It is motivated by our inner experiences, not just our efforts to keep up appearances,” says Williams.
For many of us this journey towards meaningful work is a perilous one indeed. We don’t quite know where to turn for a definition of our own life’s purpose. We are aware of a sense that something is missing, but we find it very difficult, if not impossible, to accurately describe what that something is. Yet, we are unlikely to lead a happy and satisfied life unless we can be professionally fulfilled.
“Work forms an integral part of most people’s lives. Work has become the fountainhead of values in our society and the place where we make our most useful social contributions,” points out Lizanne de Jong, a Gauteng-based life coach. “Studies suggest that the organisation where we work is becoming our most significant community and that work replaces family, friendship circles, church groups and social groups. People are spending more and more time at work and there are diffuse boundaries between work and personal lives.”
How then does one go about defining a direction towards a fulfilled life and a satisfying career? Martha Beck, internationally acclaimed life coach and author of Finding Your Own North Star, suggests that (ironically) self-sabotage often provides a clear compass in navigating towards our life’s purpose. The first step, she advises, is to start listening to the subconscious or, as she puts it, the essential self. Often the essential self speaks most clearly when it is saying ‘no’.
Beck recommends that we cultivate an awareness of situations, tasks or events that elicit such a ‘no’ response from our essential self. Examples would include: feeling drained and sapped of energy even at the prospect of something; situations that cause us to fall ill (stress decreases the immune response, resulting in a body that is vulnerable to disease); areas in your life where you are particularly forgetful; tasks where you regularly make unnecessary mistakes; situations in which you are prone to social blunders; situations that cause you to feel trapped or leave you with a yearning for something unnamed; situations that provoke substance abuse; and periods of inexplicable mood swings. These are all examples of the subconscious or essential self saying ‘no’.
Conversely, if we look for situations, tasks or events that we experience as energising, empowering, inspiring and fulfilling, we are on the track of finding our life’s work. Look for those things that make time fly by, the tasks that you can immerse yourself in, those things for which others seek you out.
As we develop a more astute awareness of our own responses, both positive and negative, we are likely to see a pattern emerging and thus we can get a first glimpse at who we really are and what particular value we can add to the human experience. This is the first step towards true success.
“When success is primarily measured by external criteria, positions and possessions, the split widens between the work we think we have to do to support the lifestyle we choose and wherever our heart really is – whatever we truly enjoy and feel inspired by,” says Nick Williams.
There is growing acceptance of the synergy that can be created between successful organisations and employees who are inspired and fulfilled by their careers in such organisations. “The onus is on leaders in the organisation to ensure that individuals develop to become fully functional individuals,” says De Jong. She goes one step further: “A critical point for individuals in [this] journey is to identify their core values. This process not only lets the employees investigate their own core values but also brings out differences between the individual’s values and the organisation’s values and objectives.”
However, in the global village the individual is no longer restricted to one organisation or even one career in order to build a meaningful professional life. Economist Charles Handy writes in his autobiography, The Elephant and the Flea: “Work, I believed, was a fundamental part of life. The mistake, my mistake, was to think that there was only one form of work, namely paid work – the job... Such a narrow definition of work puts the economic needs of society ahead of all the other purposes of our existence.”
Handy speculates that the work-place of the future might look very different from what we know today. “In order to entice the next generation of talent, organisations will find themselves allowing their key people to build their own mixed portfolios, which may include guaranteed time for home work at particular points in the family life cycle, periods of study work of one sort or another, opportunities for gift work in the local community and even a mix of different bits of paid work within the organisation.”
Defining our life’s purpose and creating a career in accordance with that purpose is uncharted, even frightening territory for many of us. Nick Williams points out: “You are not alone in your quest to discover the work you were born to do. We are all learning to work in true and equal partnership with everyone else around us.” The rewards are worth it and the territory not far away at all. Williams concludes: “Be willing to do whatever it takes, face whatever needs facing and risk your heart again... and realise that there is nothing to get, but everything to be; everything truly valuable is already in your own heart and spirit.”
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