Let's make 2020 the Year We Work With Love

We humans are funny in many ways. Take our relationship with work, as an example. The Gallup employee engagement polls consistently show that on average only 15% of the global workforce are engaged in their work. The rest are either disengaged or actively disengaged. So most of us don’t enjoy our work. Not really.

American comedian and social critic George Carlin famously captured the sentiment of our relationship with work: “most people work just hard enough not to get fired and get paid just enough money not to quit”.

It’s easy to check how engaged we are by asking this simple question: if I had 10 million dollars in my bank account, would I still be happy to do the work that I am doing today? 

At the same time many of us are worried about robots and technology taking over our work, not only in factories and other manual jobs. Today, accountants, consultants, doctors and other highly esteemed knowledge workers have joined the ranks of the professionally concerned. And sure enough, robots, AI and machine learning are making inroads in each and every industry.

It’s understandable that we ask ourselves if one day we will be kicked out of the office by our own inventions.

So on the one hand we don’t like our job. And, on the other hand, we are afraid of losing it. Interesting paradox… 

Of course, we can all follow the reasoning:

1. We need money to survive
2. We assume we cannot make money by doing what we love to do 
3. We are told that life is one big compromise, and work is no exception 

As the great poet, Kahlil Gibran, remarked: “in your weariness you echo what was said by the weary”. Without even realising, we adopt and re-affirm words, beliefs and sentiments that we have heard from others, often without running them through the filter of our deeper wisdom. This is also the case when it comes to our relationship with work and the workplace. The result is that work worries become self-fulfilling prophecies. 

There are countless studies and statistics that reveal an unsettling (and sometimes gruesome) picture of our experience of work. Many of us have witnessed, or perhaps felt first-hand, some of these effects. Work-related fatigue, burnout and stress have become the new norm. And did you know that the risk of heart attacks happening on a Monday is 15-20% higher than any other day of the week? It is no surprise that younger generations are deserting mainstream career paths, opting instead for the gig economy, or working in startups. 

But, the startup ecosystems are no exception. Across the world, the term “entrepreneurial terror” has emerged to describe the effects of the terrible lows, unrelenting stress, fear and anxiety experienced on a daily basis, not just by founders but also by their teams. 

In the current paradigm, for many of us, work is quite literally making us sick, and in extreme cases even killing us (slowly or not so slowly).  

How did we get here? And, why do we work? Why do we give so much of our precious life-force, and the majority of our waking hours to our jobs?   

We have been conditioned to view work as a necessary undertaking. Of course there are numerous exceptions, you are hopefully one of them. But for the majority of the human family, work is a drudgery. A means to an end to provide for our physical, material and emotional needs, and the needs of our loved ones. 

This conditioning happens over time, and fear is systematically programmed in, every step of the way. We see our parents and their relationship with work, which is often not encouraging. We might even develop a fearful notion of what it means to have a job, as was the case for a friend’s 4-year old boy who cried out “Getting a job!” when he was asked what he was most afraid of.  

Then there’s the education system with its ideals of monetary success, job security and career advancement. The bombardment from social media and news outlets about people losing their jobs, corporate scandals, and scary predictions that other nations will outcompete our own. Confiding in our peers will not bring us any comfort. Most likely they will offer concerned looks and words of caution if we dare to share dreams that are bigger than our current reality. 

It’s no surprise that the growing narrative around the rise of the robots would stir up even more fear of disruption and job loss. In other words, fear of change, fear of the unknown. 

If we were to look at this situation from what we like to call ‘the E.T. perspective’ (meaning a view that is detached, and from above), we would be amused to see our willingness - indeed insistence - to hold on this enshackling.   

The workplace definitely has the potential to facilitate profound transformation, empowerment, and the discovery of what it is that makes us feel alive. Yes, even healing as is well documented in the highly inspiring new book from Raj Sisodia and Michael Gelb, The Healing Organisation: Awakening the Conscience of Business to Help Save the World. This might sound lofty at first, but when we think about it, most of us know someone who has made this their reality. And maybe we have experienced it ourselves. 

If we are not fully there yet, then the question becomes if we can allow ourselves to intend such a reality. As Walt Disney said, “if you can dream it, you can do it”. He clearly wasn’t only a man of imagination, but also a creator of reality, and of bringing the two together. 

So how do we break free from these patterns, so that 2020 can become the year we learn to work with love? 

Here are seven practical steps that have worked in our lives. 

1. Take some time for yourself. Don’t wait until you get time, simply take time. 
2. Switch off all electronic devices. Use a notebook instead. 
3. Be in nature. A park bench is a good place to start. 
4. Close your eyes. Take some slow, loving breaths in, and dive deeply within the calm regions of your inner self. Notice the movements of the mind. Become aware of your mental attitudes about yourself, about your life, about your work, and purpose here on earth. What are these mental attitudes? What kind of stories does your mind churn? Are they positive, uplifting and empowering, or are they negative, limiting and disempowering? However ‘real’ a problem may look, however ‘justified’ a sense of victimisation, hardship or disempowerment may seem, endeavour to create distance between you and these stories, and just observe. 
5. Whatever shows up in this inquiry, simply notice without judgment. Notice how your emotional and physical systems react to this exploration. What causes the body to tighten, what causes the heart to contract? With every breath, let go of anything that feels constrictive. Let go of anything that closes the heart. Fear, doubt (of self and others), anxiety, worries - with every breath, let them all go. It is a choice to release, or to hold on to these energies. So do yourself the loving favour and choose to let them go. 
6. Then invite a deep sense of gratitude. Gratitude for every bit of fear, every ounce of anxiety and every shred of doubt you managed to release. Register how the system is feeling - is there more lightness, is there more clarity? Know that even if progress seems imperceptible, progress is indeed taking place. Every effort counts, and the effort is cumulative. 
7. As the mind settles, begin to connect with these important and beautiful questions: “Why am I here?” “What makes me feel truly alive?” “What lights me up?” “When I feel in flow with life and work, what am I doing?” “What is my mission in this life?” “What is it that I love to do?” It’s extraordinary to see what emerges when we ask these powerful questions from a place of heart, when the mind is still. Write down everything in your notebook. If at first you experience that no answers come, keep going. And one day, before too long, you might just live into the answers. 

Whatever our skills and experiences may be, the greatest potential for a truly joyful life is to discover what we love to do, and to be that impeccable love in every aspect of our lives. Work then is no longer a drudgery and toil of the flesh, but the perfect expression of the highest in us. 

For the world to change in ways that enable our beautiful planet to survive and the human family to thrive, all of us, one by one, must learn to work with love. And what better opportunity to make this happen than at the dawn of a grand new decade!

With love,

Martin & Cosmina

Illustrations by first time freelancer, 13-year old Mynte :-)