I was able to
sit in on this interview recording which discusses the problems money can
create in our lives, and how it can flatten our passions and work when it
becomes the starting point of whatever it is we become involved with.
I will first share the questions addressed in the interview, questions which I
am sure almost every working person has asked themselves at some point in their
career. Next, I will share my own case study example of how I lived this issue
in my own life.
The
Questions:
Is the
quality of your work and your expression within it diminishing over time?
Do the things
that you once loved doing feel more like work and less like something in which
you are expanding and exploring yourself?
What happened
to that spark that was once there?
These are
often symptoms of when money begins to take over our lives and our expressions
to such a degree that we suffocate our passion, our drive, and our sense of
self-value.
Discover how
we can begin to change our relationship to money so that we can bring back the
spark and the inner passion of who we are within what we do, and not allow
money to override our work, our living, and our expression.
The recording can be found here:
The recording can be found here:
My living
example, and how I lived it for ME:
For me,
personally, I found myself in a corporate job in the back offices of a bank. I
got this job because I had just moved back to Canada after a divorce, and I had
bills to pay. I was working because of a need for money, I was working for
money. The job itself was robotic and repetitive, reading and correcting SWIFT
and other payment messages all day long… basically reading money codes and
finding where they are broken, why they stopped for repair instead of going
straight through into the recipient's account. I also did high volume settlement
transfers for large US corporations, monitoring for insufficient funds and
verifying that audit requirements are met for approval limits on transactions.
It sounds about as fun as it was, meaning, not at all! I felt like a real
robot, a cog in the machine, working inside the mysterious black box where your
money passes through when you send it anywhere.
This was NOT
my idea of living my passion or changing the world to any degree, and the
potential was there for me to become depressed, unmotivated, discouraged and
complain… in fact, before and even during my process of change, I did all of
these things! But the difference between living according to the automated
patterns and programs of the mind, and living in self-awareness with the tools
of self-correction, is that by using the tools of support I have been
practicing for some years now, I managed to change myself within the work I do,
find my fire, my passion and my spark of life, even within these conditions. I
will explain how I did this, which is also looked at from various angles in the
interview recording I sat in on.
The first
thing I did was to change my perception of my job and why I was there. Instead
of processing transactions and verifying payment messages, I made it about
self-development and acquiring new skills. At work, I pushed myself to practice
discipline, focus, and the ability to learn new things – all are qualities
which needed some attention and development within myself anyways. I viewed my
job to be more like a game, where there are moving pieces and every day,
throughout the day, I needed to put the puzzle together and solve the problems.
This is how I changed my perception and starting point of my job, and here are
some of the results:
In pushing
myself, I ended up leading campaigns, doing training and making presentations
to develop leadership skills and the ability to work within and direct groups.
I ended up finding and implementing process improvements to improve the running
of my department, and even changed the way our cross-departmental quarterly
townhalls were presented. I pushed for and achieved a change in terminology
within how the corporate announcements referred to employees, to a way that is
more aligned with my principle of respecting and honouring my peers as my
equals, and to not support the corporate hierarchy where employees low on the
ladder are seen as replaceable resources. In pushing myself to develop myself,
I also managed to leave changes in my workplace that will remain there after I
have left.
I also
developed qualities within myself the serve me to this day, leadership skills,
the ability to work with all types of personalities in a group, the ability to
be more direct and expressive, bringing myself as Who I Am into what I do.
Also, the ability to focus on tasks that may be perceived as mundane and
repetitive, discipline to push myself to do things that I might have otherwise
judged as overwhelmingly boring or unpleasant. All of these things are present
in daily life no matter what we do. The reality is that it is not always fun
and stimulating, there’s always paperwork, administrative tasks, bills,
budgeting, and things that repeat every day, so these skills I viewed as
essential to my future, no matter what my future brings.
It is easy to
list things here, years later, but the truth and reality is that at many
points, this process was difficult, challenging and I had many hard times.
Realistically, some skills can take years to develop. I spent the first year or
so feeling a bit shell-shocked and getting back on my feet after my move and
divorce. What I was able to accomplish there was planting the seeds within
myself, and nurturing them into seedlings that will require continued
maintenance, nurturing and support in my life. “If you don’t use it, you lose
it”, as they say.
The process is
far from over or complete. This is a living process of self-creation that can
and must be lived in all moments throughout life. Does this sound like a burden
or a lot of work? Maybe. But I don’t think so, because before I made the push
to change, as I mentioned, I was living as depressed, unmotivated, discouraged
and complaining. To me, THAT sounds more like a burden and a lot of hard work!
Both ways are using mental and physical energy, but one way leads to growth and
development, while the other leads to self-diminishment and misery.
If you got this far, thanks for reading! I will
continue in my next blog.
For now,
check out these links to learn how to change yourself to live your utmost
potential:
