ASK THE COACH
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Steps to Spiritually Transform Your Workplace
By Dr. Ray Angelini
The Saratogian
February 10, 2003
Dear Dr. Ray,
I consider myself to be a spiritual person, yet over the years I have had great difficulty finding spiritual meaning and reward from my work. What would you recommend to help me discover more spiritual significance in my job?
— C.C. in Saratoga
Dear C.C.,
It is indeed true that for most of us, our work is anything but a spiritual experience.
In her book Everyday Grace, Marianne Williamson wrote an excellent chapter on transforming the American workplace into a more spiritual environment. What follows is an outline of her recommendations.
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Transform your sense of purpose regarding your work.
If we are to develop a more spiritual focus in the workplace, we must shift our focus from serving our own needs to serving the needs of others. In the spiritual realm, we are all ministers with our own ministry. The challenge is to discover that ministry and then live it out through our work.
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Change your definition of success.
We are often confronted with the choice of advancing our own careers at others' expense. We must recognize that this win-lose situation is in actuality a lose-lose situation, because what we do to others we ultimately do to ourselves.
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Remember our basic interconnectedness.
We are not separate from each other but deeply and intimately interconnected. Once we realize this, we become enlightened and there is a "flow" to our work that was absent without this realization.
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Transcend the ego's perspective on employment and career.
Our ego's perspective is finite and is based on fear. Our soul's perspective is infinite and is based on love. Fear causes us to build up our own kingdoms of money and power, often at others' expense. Love calls us to transcend self-centered ambition and aspire to love-centered service.
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Focus more on giving than receiving.
Developing an attitude of giving will ultimately attract more material and spiritual wealth than an attitude of getting. Our ego screams at us that we live in a world of scarcity and thus should grab for all we can. Our soul tells us that the pursuit of success solely for personal gain will never truly satisfy us because it denies the truth of our basic interconnectedness.
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The true purpose of business is to minister, not to exploit.
In the movie A Beautiful Mind, John Nash discovered that Adam Smith, the great economist, was not entirely correct when he theorized that capitalism works best when everyone does what is best for them, Nash agreed that capitalism works best when everyone does what is best for them and best for society.
The current business tenet that puts short-term economic gain for a few over long-term economic security for the many is based on fear, not love. To make our workplace more spiritual, we must move beyond the ethos of control and competition to one of sharing and creativity.
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Remember, there is more to work than money.
Work is not only about achievement, but also about spiritual learning and growth. We need to call into question many of the fundamental values that drive the modern workplace and gradually transform them.
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How we do business is as important as the business we do.
If we are to spiritually transform the workplace, we must change our bottom line from that of money to that of love. We must become less concerned with what the market wants and more concerned with what God wants. It boggles the mind to imagine how different the face of modern business would look of this change occurred.
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Remember what truly motivates people.
It is an established fact that money alone does not motivate people. A workplace that encourages feelings of respect, honor, and involvement helps people realize their highest potential.
The workplace is a better place when we connect to our common humanity first and our common business goals second.
Our current business landscape is often very dry and soulless. Our deeper human needs get lost beneath the ravenous demands of the "economic necessity."
Most businesses have things backward. When we approach business with an ethos of service and compassion, we open up new horizons for unlimited abundance and prosperity for everyone. Many companies claim to put "people first," but for many this is merely hype. It is only when each and every one of us dare to make this a reality in the workplace that the face of American business, and American society, will be spiritually transformed.
