Star Reachers

Job, Career and Calling

According to a study conducted by Dr. Amy Wrzesniewski, there are 3 distinct categories of workers.
(1) The first group views work as just a job and their primary focus is on the financial rewards. Having said that, these workers will move on to a better job if the pay is higher.
(2) The second group views work as a career. These people are motivated by advancement, social status, prestige and the power that comes with titles and higher salaries.
(3) The final category is those who view their work as a calling. These individuals do the work for the sake of the work itself. People in this category tend to love their work and see it as meaningful, having a higher purpose, making a contribution to society or the world.

To start looking at your work as a calling, one that has a higher purpose, here are some techniques:

1. When you view your work as a calling, having a higher purpose, this can result in being more inwardly satisfied, thereby being less bored.
2. Whether you work as a labourer, nurse, doctor or lawyer, your view of your work and whether you see it as a calling, depends on your psychology.
3. Striving for excellence in your work and doing that with a sense of creativity, the high quality of work itself could be considered as work with a calling.
4. It does not matter how small or major your job is. If you view your job as making either a direct or indirect contribution to others, then you can view your work as a calling.

Star Reachers

Striking A Balance

Long distance phone lines once again are challenging. Furthermore the techniques under this chapter are rather long. For both these reasons I have decided to post the techniques in written form.

To enjoy maximum work satisfaction and performance, we must find a balance between two poles - too much challenge on one end and not enought challenge on the other. Either would not work. As such, here are some pointers when looking at Striking A Balance.

1. Renew your enthusiasm for your work and reawaken your dedication by reflecting on the wider purpose of your work.
2. When faced with non-challenging or boring tasks at work, which at times cannot be avoided, learn to deal with this dissatisfaction by focusing on bringing spirituality to your work to strike a balance. For example: be compassionate, show empathy and kindness to colleagues with whom you do not get along. This would, of course, be challenging and would require all your attention and focus. This challenge would in turn take your mind off your dissatisfaction with work.
3. If there is no challenge in your work, you can still strike a balance/gain a sense of fulfillment and satisfaction from work, if you approach each person with warmth and affection. This act does not require a lot of challenge, but offers a lot of satisfaction.
4. Remember that satisfaction at work and a job that is challenging depends on a person's willingness to respond to that challenge. Some individuals thrive on highly challenging work, while others may be less willing to take on challenging work.
5. As we seek to optimize our happiness at work, it is for each one of us to decide what level of challenge provides the greatest degree of growth and satisfaction.
6. Relating to others with love and affection is a rich source of satisfaction that can seem effortless. This can be practised not only at work, but also in every aspect of life.
7. Work on increasing your level of interest in the kind of work you are doing as this increased interest will lead to increased focus, concentration, and absorption, which in turn will mean "being in the flow".
8. Being "in the flow" means being so completely absorbed in your work that you lose track of time.
9. In life there are different levels and categories of happiness - pleasure and happiness.
10. Pleasure provides a temporary kind of happiness and arises on the basis of sensory experiences and depends on external conditions. This can make pleasure an unreliable source of happiness.
11. Happiness, on the other hand, is associated with a sense of meaning, and arises on the basis of deliberately cultivating certain attitudes and outlooks that can be achieved through a systematic training of the mind.
12. True happiness may take longer to generate and requires some effort, but it is this lasting happiness that can sustain us even under the most trying conditions of everyday life.
13. To find real happiness in life, cultivate other sources of satisfaction and fulfillment, so that you do not have to reply on work as a primary source of satisfaction.

Star Reachers

Techniques For
Should Money Be The Primary Motivation For Your Work?

My sincere apologies to everyone for the delay in posting the audio clip and now this posting. You see I have been challenged by long distance numbers always giving me the "busy signal" since Saturday, August 26, 2006. As such, I decided today not to wait for the signals and thus I have posted the techniques in this way. My apologies once again

As we have been discussing in other chapters, although the social aspect of work is important, for many people the salary they get is viewed as an objective measure of how much they are valued by their employers. Furthermore, it also reflects how one values himself/herself. The amount of money earned at work can be linked with our own sense of self-worth.

Whatever be your answer to this question, I hope the following techniques will give you further in-sight.
1. If we choose an external marker as the measure of our inner worth, whether it is the amount of money we make, others' opinion of us or the success of some project etc., sooner or later we're bound to be battered by life's inevitable changes.
2. Money comes and goes, and thus is an unstable source of self-esteem, an unreliable foundation upon which to build our identity.
3. Though the purpose of making money at work is to provide ourselves and our family with the means to accomplish something - a living, it is important to remember that money by itself is only a piece of paper.
4. As a piece of paper, it is worth very little. It is the value that we as a society agree to give it that makes it valuable.
5. Money does not give you genuine power.
6. Genuine power results from the respect that people give you. Real power has to do with one's ability to influence the hearts and minds of others.
7. Power based on one's wealth is artificial, it is only on the surface and is not lasting.
8. There is a lot of research conducted into the correlation between money and happiness. And even though it is clear that real happiness has very little to do with money, there still seems to be that sense in society that we would be happier if we were rich.
9. Yes, money is important, but there are also other factors equally or probably more important for one's sense of well-being.
10. It is the state of mind and the means by which you create wealth that seems to be more important.
11. As such, it is our attitude about money that is more important than the amount we make.

Star Reachers

Should Money Be The Primary Motivation For Your Work?

Some of us may be struggling with this important question and wondering if there is a right or wrong answer. Sure we all need money not just to survive, but to maintain our lifestyle and to enjoy life - that is reality. However, I guess the focus is on whether money should be the primary motivation. Listen to the techniques outlined in my audio clip and hopefully you will find your answer to this important question. Till Chapter 4 Striking A Balance, happiness always.

Star Reachers

How To Practise The Art of Happiness At Work

I hope the techniques outlined in Chapter 1 have been useful. Here are the techniques to learn To Practise The Art of Happiness At Work. Click on the audio clip above. Also check out the hardcopy of the entire book summary on my website: www.reach4yourstar.biz. This should be available by September 10, 2006. Till then, happiness always.

Star Reachers

Techniques For Dealing With Dissatisfaction At Work

As promised yesterday in my audio blog, here are the techniques for Dealing With Dissatisfaction At Work as summarised in the book The Art of Happiness At Work by The Dalai Lama and Richard Cutler, M.D. Click on the audio clip link above to hear the techniques. Till tomorrow, happy thoughts.

Star Reachers

The Art of Happiness At Work
- His Holiness The Dalai Lama and Dr. Howard C. Cutler. M.D.

Over the next few days, as a prelude to the visit to Vanaouver by His Holiness The Dalai Lama, I will be posting audio blogs of my summary of the above book. The intention is to bring this inspiring book to the attention of as many people as possible. So sit back and relax as you listen to my audio blog. At the end of the posting of all 9 chapters, the hard copy version will be available as a pdf file on my website: www.reach4yourstar.biz under the heading "Resources". Please also feel free to post your comments and views.

Star Reachers

Rules For Being Human (and Abundant)

1. You will receive a body. You may like it or hate it, but make the best of it because it's going to be with you for the rest of your life.
2. You will learn lessons. You are enrolled in a full-time school called life on planet earth. Every person or incident is the Universal Teacher.
3. There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of experimentation. "Failures" are as much a part of the process as "successes".
4. A lesson is repeated until learned. It is presented to you in various forms until you learn it - then you can go on to the next lesson.
5. If you don't learn easy lessons, they get harder. External problems are a precise reflection of your internal state; pain is how your sub-conscious gets your attention. First it whispers; then it yells. When you clear inner obstructions, your outside world changes.
6. You will know you've learned a lesson when your actions change. Wisdom is practice, practice, practice. And remember: A little of something is better than a lot of nothing.
7. "There" is no better than "here". When your "there" becomes a "here", you will simply obtain another "there" that again looks better than "here".
8. Others are only mirrors of you. You cannot love or hate something about another unless it reflects something you love or hate in yourself.
9. Your life is up to you. Spirit provides the canvas; you do the painting. There are three kinds of people: Those who make things happen; those who watch what happens; and those who wonder what happened. Take charge of your life - or someone else will.
10. You always get what you want. Your sub-conscious rightfully determines what energies, experiences and people you attract -- therefore, the only foolproof way to know what you want is to see what you have.
11. There is no right or wrong, but there are consequences. Corollary law: No one gets away with anything: Everything has a value - and a price; you pay now or you pay later.

- Dan Millkan "Way of the Peaceful Warrior"