ALL WILL BE CLEAR

The Perfect Way is only difficult to those who pick and choose; Do not like, do not dislike: all will then be clear.

- Seng-ts’an

I am no Zen Master, bit I did spend nearly 5 years hating a job where I worked for 10. Having devoted half a decade to this negativity, I feel I earned a bachelor’s degree in unhealthy workplace attitudes. This week’s newsletter is a kind of 236 word graduate thesis on the subject. It is called: “Moving from Hatred to Acceptance in the world of work - The Transformational Power of Neither Liking nor Disliking.”

It is seductively easy to either like or dislike your job. Disliking your job could certainly supply the energy needed to move on. But with that negative energy what would you move on to? And who would want you when you got there?

If you choose to accept your job, a quiet intuition can let you know more about what you are called to do. Listen rather than react and it will slowly reveal means of expression that better suit ‘who’ you are. Accepting ‘what is’ makes it possible for a quiet inner place to assert what needs to happen next. With the quiet knowing comes the energy needed to take the next step.

Over-identifying with liking a job, funny enough, can be problematic too. Get too attached to work you love and it can block out an infinite number of ways of doing something differently. The job that is overly-liked may keep you from hearing a call to service that is even more suited to who you are.

Choosing to neither like it or dislike it, but rather to accept it, begins an internal dialogue that points you in the right direction. Quiet acceptance is a good start. It is the restful beginning place for moving on in life’s professional and personal journeys. The place of inner stillness will, from time to time, send us in the right direction toward ‘more’.

This week, neither like nor dislike your job. All will be clear.

(Interested in a really good book on work? See Zen and the Art of Making a Living, by Laurence Boldt.)

Have a great week!