Author: Janae Bower

What do you yearn for? Our souls yearn for the things that make us most happy. Some of the words that describe yearning is to crave, long for, want very much. What do you really yearn for?

This has changed for me over the years and right now my soul seems to be yearning for time to slow down and let go of constant action and accomplishment. It feels great not to be so scheduled that I can take extra time after a training to stop by a store to check out the deals. Or I can spend extra long conversing with a friend because I’m not rushed to do the next thing.

Often times the work that we do provides us with what our souls are craving for. Or our work can do the exact opposite, it can give us the craving for other work that we hope one day we can do. Whichever the case is for you, take the time to really ask what your spirit is yearning for.

The daily devotional and journal that I’m reading is called God Calling. One of the recent entries shared how God wishes we yearned for Him, just like we yearn to take in fresh air on a beautiful sunny day. This really hits home for me living in MN as we’ve had a streak of “warm weather” (around 40 degrees) and everyone has been outside yearning for the day when all the snow will be melted. Being outside more this week than I have this past month, has created that burning desire for spring to arrive. So the same can be with our spirit. Our spirit inside of us longs to be heard, given a breath of fresh air.

How to listen to your yearnings

So I’ve been trying to breathe more and give my spirit the chance to come alive again. How do you do this you might be asking? I’m trying to figure out the same thing! All I know is that I’m taking the time to slow down, be more quiet and just listen to the yearnings that come my way. So far what I’m hearing is that my spirit is yearning for simple and easy.

One example is the “self love” date that I mentioned I would be checking in on from last week’s entry X is for eXtra special. I craved to have some time for myself doing what I loved in whatever way it unfolded. While my day consisted of volunteering, praying, writing, reading, shopping and connecting with loved ones, I especially enjoyed just spending the day without any expectations or deadlines.

Another example is that I tend to over prepare when it comes to my trainings. I’ll bring a bunch of props, books, and other resources to share. I’ll spend extra time working on my PowerPoint presentations. I’ll time out my agenda to make sure that I cover everything. I’ll get to the training an hour beforehand so I can set up the room and be totally ready before any of my participants arrive.

Listening to my spirit, I was getting the sense to make this training I had today more light and simple. It was telling me that I didn’t need to bring all this extra stuff and take all this extra time to get ready. I just needed to TRUST that I knew this material and to let it unfold as it needed to during the class. So today’s training went great and it felt so easy. I was there only 20 minutes before it started, brought only 4 books/props and only used 2 of them. I remained open to the flow of the class and let the energy of the 32 participants drive where the class should go. I spent more time discussing some aspects than I thought and other times I covered areas I didn’t intend on covering. I had a man who worked at the help desk in my class, so he helped when there was a computer issue and I didn’t have to stress about that. It was so fun, easy and effective. Having had this experience of it being easy and light makes me want to have more of these opportunities. However, when I’ve approached my work like I mentioned before, it was not the case. It felt heavy and a lot of work.

Again, what are you really yearning for? We would love to hear from you!

p.s. I actually thought all week that I would be writing that y is for yielding. Yet when I started writing, I didn’t feel the yearning or ideas flow. Right then, yearning came to me and I started writing about that. It can be that easy, if you take the time to go within so you can let your spirit guide the way.

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For more resources, see our Library topic Spirituality in the Workplace.

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Janae Bower is an inspirational speaker, award-winning author and training consultant. She founded Finding IT, a company that specializes in personal and professional development getting to the heart of what matters most. She started Project GratOtude, a movement to increase gratitude in people’s lives.

How can you be extra special to your spirit this week? How can you show love to your soul? The work that we do in our lives whether on the job, at our home, or on the stage, we need to be extra special to ourselves. If we don’t replenish, renew and refresh our spirits, then we won’t be able to give the best of who we are to others.

Overstretched

We get the importance of this, yet many of us don’t put it into action. Remember me writing about the bungee cord hitting me in the head and needing to get stitches (see V is for Vulnerable)? The symbolism of the bungee cord is relevant. We like to stretch ourselves to the limit, which is what is great about a bungee cord. You can take this little cord and amazingly stretch it to great lengths. Yet, when it’s been overstretched, it can snap back in the fiercest way (my nice scar proves it). I, like many of us, have been overstretching myself for years. If you’re like me, you have many things you want to do, relationships you want to nurture, and goals you want to achieve. And all of us only have so many hours and only so much capacity to achieve it all in a day or in our lifetime.

Permission slip to stop working harder

I was listening to my Divine guidance (see D is for Divine) and heard the message that I need to take some time off and stop “working hard”. So I gave myself permission to stop working harder this month so I can focus on being extra special to my soul.

So this is what I did. Another phrase on my vision board says, “God does His best work when you do no work.” I let all my work worries go. This “permission slip” to stop working harder has given me this extra special freedom. Freedom from expectations on what I should be doing or accomplishing. Freedom to be extra special to myself and pursue the work that inspires me.

Show yourself some love

I was inspired to write this entry while I was giving myself “some extra love” because of the upcoming international day of self love on Feb. 13. This amazing woman, Christine Arylo, created this day to help all of learn how to “fall madly in love with ourselves.” I do have on my vision board “goddess of unconditional love” so I thought this would be a good time for me to live that out and who best to start showing more love to – me.

I encourage you to check out her resources, including inspiring songs, self-love kit and audio interviews. I’m making a self-love date with myself on Feb. 13. I’ll check back in with you next week to let you know how this extra-special day for my soul went. How about you? What can you do to show yourself some love? We would love to hear from you!

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For more resources, see our Library topic Spirituality in the Workplace.

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Janae Bower is an inspirational speaker, award-winning author and training consultant. She founded Finding IT, a company that specializes in personal and professional development getting to the heart of what matters most. She started Project GratOtude, a movement to increase gratitude in people’s lives.

Wholeheartedness: Strive for being whole in work/life through body, mind and spirit

The best way for me to explain what I mean by the above definition is to share with you this Wholeheartedness Assessment that I developed a few years that will help you assess your current and future effectiveness for living a harmonious work/life in these three key areas:

• Body – physical and social
• Mind – intellectual and financial
• Spirit – emotional and spiritual

The assessment provides you the opportunity to record what you already do in each of these areas, provide suggestions on what you could do, and determine an action plan for what you will commit to doing.

Download the assessment here: Wholeheartedness Assessment

Please share with us in the comments your insights on you can live with more wholeheartedness.

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For more resources, see our Library topic Spirituality in the Workplace.

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Janae Bower is an inspirational speaker, award-winning author and training consultant. She founded Finding IT, a company that specializes in personal and professional development getting to the heart of what matters most. She started Project GratOtude, a movement to increase gratitude in people’s lives.

I struggled with this entry for a couple of reasons. I wasn’t sure is vulnerable was the “right” word to explore and I wasn’t sure what I would write about it. Now I know why I struggled, I needed to live it not write about it.

Last week I had two things happen to me that being vulnerable is the perfect way to describe how I felt. When we lead with our spirits in our work, we open up the risk to being exposed to criticism, rejection or other tough things that can deflate our spirits. However, our vulnerability can help others in a profound way.

Setting a good example in a disappointing event

I wrote a gratitude reflection called from Entitlement to Enlightenment about the experience I had with thinking I was entitled to have Lasik surgery to realizing how disappointed I was to find out that I probably won’t be able to. The enlightenment came when I was vulnerable and realized that lack of gratitude I’ve had for years of my eyes. Focusing on this new gratitude enabled me to experience not new eyesight, but new insight. I shared my reflection with a friend who also was planning for Lasik surgery as well this month. She just emailed how sharing my initial struggle to eventually gratitude helped her. She wrote,

Janae,

Ever since reading about your experience with the eye doctor and not being able to have the surgery I have really thought about how lucky i was to have contacts. (Not thankful for glasses as they give a headache. 🙂 )

Today I went for a second consultation. This doctor with much more experience and education has told me that I am not a candidate in his opinion. I was shocked; I didn’t expect to hear this at all. I was told that if I go and have a certain test done at another clinic that has a special machine that perhaps it could be an option, but didn’t look promising. I am not doing this test.

If I had never read your experience and how you handled the news with such grace and gratitude I think I would have cried at the doctor’s office. I am disappointed, but it could be worse. And thank god that I can wear contacts.

Thank you so much for setting such a wonderful example of how to find good in a disappointing event. You are a blessing to me. – Shelley

Don’t wait to get hit in the head to “get it”

I know that we need to live our messages, but I didn’t realize to what extent! I was the presenter for the first annual Women Connect retreat at my alma mater, the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota. Nearly fifty women signed up to spend the morning with me learning how to live a grateful and inspired life.

Excited to share my life’s work and passion, I’m getting set up for the morning. The last thing I have to do is to set up my booth of books and products. I go to unstrap the bungee cord that has my two crates of products secured to it and it flings up and smacks me directly above my right eye on my forehead. I’m shocked and not quite sure what happened. The blood gushing out indicates that it was serious. Safety and Security inform me that I’ll need to get some stitches and will need to do so now.

I’m confused as to what’s happening as I’m supposed to be the one leading the retreat. So I start sharing with wonderful Women Connect team how they can get started while I go to urgent care and get stitched up. Well urgent care didn’t work out so good and we needed to go to the ER instead. The doctor there confidently gives me three stitches. While waiting for Sara in the ER lobby, who has been graciously escorting me all morning, I’m thinking about my husband’s response that I’ll have to find something witty to share back to the group with what happened. I open the newsletter/magazine called Essential Wellness. The first page article is the one titled as this tile. I couldn’t believe it, this was my witty opener when I came back.

I arrive back at St. Thomas with 15 minutes remaining of the presentation. I walk into the room and receive a standing ovation. I’m in awe and share how I received my only standing ovation for not saying a word! Then I share my witty “getting hit on the head/getting it” opener. The audience laughs again.

I’m still reflecting on what happened and why it happened. Throughout the whole experience I felt vulnerable as something like this has never happened to me before. I believe everything happens for a reason yet it hasn’t all been revealed yet why this has happened to me. Was it that I didn’t need to say anything but to just live the message I was saying? Was it that the morning needed to take a different direction that I had planned? Was it that I needed to come back for a follow up? Was it that I needed this to happen so that I can get it? Was it that now I’ll forever have a great opener for other audiences? For whatever reason it was meant to happen, I’ll trust God’s plan.

Later that evening I take the time to actually read the article. The author/editor talks about her experience of getting hit on the head and the importance of “getting right back on the saddle again.” Was this the reason it happened, to encourage me to get back on the saddle? She also shares later how she hit her head again and then she learned she needed to do something different. Was this hit on my head a wake up call for me to be doing something different?

Was it a way to reinforce my mission encouraging people to get it – the heart of what matters most to them? Was it so that I could write this gratitude reflection and share it with you? Often times we don’t know why things happen, we just need to be grateful that it’s something that’s suppose to happen that will help us “get it” – and hopefully for you, you won’t need to get hit the head like me to discover it.

In what ways has your vulnerability benefited others?

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For more resources, see our Library topic Spirituality in the Workplace.

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Janae Bower is an inspirational speaker, award-winning author and training consultant. She founded Finding IT, a company that specializes in personal and professional development getting to the heart of what matters most. She started Project GratOtude, a movement to increase gratitude in people’s lives.

In the issue of Parade Dec. 26, 2010 it featured Oprah and her biggest dream yet – her new OWN cable network. In the issue she talks about the power of her name. She shared how at first when she was a child she felt lonely that no one had her name. She said she would watch Romper Room hoping every time that they would “see her” and call out her name. It never happened. She reflects, “I would have to say that my deepest feeling about myself growing up, the word that would describe how I felt, would be lonely. And alone. It added to the feeling that nobody’s like me.” She shifts into the present and adds playfully, “now that’s a pretty good feeling!”

Talk about being one of a kind, someone who is known around the world by just one letter even – O! Oh, how unique Oprah is. She has created her life by following the unique mission God has given her to be herself and live her best life.

I’ll explore three symbols that are often linked to one-of-a-kind.

Heartbeat

The phrase walk to the beat of your own drummer is one that I’m sure you are familiar with. But did you know that each of us actually does have our own unique heartbeat? Our hearts all beat differently both physically and figuratively. When we are expressing our spirit, the core of who we are, is when we are in tune with our heart beats. What makes your heart sing or beat? Cari Vollmer, referred to the as the passion to profit mentor, has found that her heart beats faster when she follows her own brilliance and helps other soul-inspired women find their brilliance.

Snowflake

This is pertinent for me right now as I live in Minnesota and we’ve had a lot of snow already this season, more than normal! As I see mounds of snow everywhere, it’s hard for me to imagine how each snowflake can be unique and different. I think of this symbol as how we tap into our uniqueness during different seasons of our lives. One season in our life we were known for something and another we were known differently. This year I’ll be celebrating my 20^th high school reunion. If you asked many of my other fellow classmates, yes all 40 of them, many would probably say that my uniqueness was my enthusiasm. I loved sports and showed my enthusiasm on the court or track. Now, 20 years later, my uniqueness has changed seasons into one of being enthusiastic about helping people get to the heart of what matters most.

Fingerprint

Our fingerprints are another way that we are unique and leave our marks. This is how criminals are identified and this is how we can be identified with what we touch in life. Each of us who choose to listen to our heartbeats will have the opportunity to express our spirits in a way that is unique only to us. How we live out our spirit is through the fingerprints we leave along the way. Oprah is leaving her fingerprint on the legacy of 25 years of the Oprah Winfrey show to now her expressing her uniqueness through her OWN network.

Share with us how are you uniquely leaving your mark on the world?

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For more resources, see our Library topic Spirituality in the Workplace.

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Janae Bower is an inspirational speaker, award-winning author and training consultant. She founded Finding IT, a company that specializes in personal and professional development getting to the heart of what matters most. She started Project GratOtude, a movement to increase gratitude in people’s lives.

In order for us to express our spirit in the work that we do, we must carve out the time to do it. At the date of publishing this blog post, it’s the first week of the New Year. I don’t know about you, but I’m carefully deliberating how I’m going to best spend my time in 2011.

It seems that time is the one commodity that we all have an equal access to, yet many of us spend it so differently. How will you be spending your time? You will invest it by working on bringing you more financial, relational or spiritual success? Or will you be filling your time with miscellaneous fillers and wasters?

The Slight Edge

How you spend your time is a daily choice and decision to make. How we use our time, can give us that “slight edge” in life that we are all hoping for.

The idea of the slight edge is a powerful concept. According to Jeff Olson in the book The Slight Edge: Secret to a Successful Life, every decision you make, which you have 2,500 decisions a day to make, are either a slight error in judgment or a slight step in discipline. “The thing that will make all the difference between achieving the quality of life you want and settling for less than you deserve and desire, lies 100% in which of those little “insignificant” actions you choose to do. The slight edge is always working – either for or against you. It’s working in you right now, every day, hour and moment. We just need to be aware of it so that we can be conscious of it.”

In whatever way you decide to chose your time, my hope is that you will do so intentionally and consciously. To help give you that slight edge, here is a one-page worksheet I’ve created for you to download (Click here: TimeAnalysisWorksheet) that will help you analyze how you are spending your time based on the main roles in your work and life. It will help you analyze the amount of energy you exert and what type of attitude you have. By doing so this will help give you that slight edge to figure out the best way to invest your time this year!

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For more resources, see our Library topic Spirituality in the Workplace.

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Janae Bower is an inspirational speaker, award-winning author and training consultant. She founded Finding IT, a company that specializes in personal and professional development getting to the heart of what matters most. She started Project GratOtude, a movement to increase gratitude in people’s lives.

My hope for you as 2010 comes to an end is that you will be inspired to be of even more service to others in 2011. Here are three quotes that have inspired me this year and hope that these reflections encourage all of us into leading a more service-focused upcoming year.

Happiness consists in giving and in serving others.

–Henry Drummond

Two main focuses that I had for my 2010 goals was giving and gratitude. I knew that if I kept these as a priority for my year, it would bring me and those I connect with more happiness. According to Cami Walker (author mentioned below) this is her formula for success too. “Giving mindfully and being actively grateful for all I am receiving has become a part of my daily spiritual practice.” Here are two ways that I practiced giving and gratitude.

The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”

– Mahatma Gandhi

Giving. Around Thanksgiving I found out about this amazing woman Cami Walker and how she is being of service to others. Her book 29 Gifts: How a Month of Giving Can Change your Life and her website www.29Gifts.org explains how she is giving to others. She found out that in her 30’s she was diagnosed with MS and soon her health and life was falling apart. A spiritual teacher encouraged her in the midst of this madness to stop focusing on herself and to give to others – 29 gifts in 29 days. Once Cami was ready to do this, it transformed her life. Her health, relationships and outlook on life improved. She continued her mission and gave gifts for a year straight, setting up the website and writing the book.

To challenge our family to remember that the holiday season is about giving, our family did the 29 days of giving challenge together starting Dec. 1. At least one of us as family would give a gift to someone each day. We are keeping a video blog of our giving. Some of the favorite gifts that we did included:

• my husband spending 2 hours snow-blowing (we live in Minnesota and have gotten a ton of snow already) three neighbors driveways (which his snow-blower broke after he was done)
• myself volunteering in my son’s first grade classroom teaching them how to write a book and then giving each of the students one of my books as they shared with me their special books they made
• my older son, Gavin (age 6), sharing with a classmate about how God is good when his classmate said that God only makes things worse in his life
• my middle son, Grant (age 4), giving compliments and making special pictures for others
• my youngest son, Garrett (age 14 months), giving joy to others with his excitement learning how to walk
• a special thank you to our letter carrier for all of his daily service

Today is December 29 – our last day of giving as a family. This entry is my gift to you today. And I want to say a special thank you to Linda Ferguson, co-host of this blog, for all the wonderful posts she has given all of us this year!

Do what you love, give it back in the form of service, and you will do more than succeed. You will triumph.

– Oprah

Gratitude. Sept. 13 is the day I started Project GratOtude a challenge to encourage others to increase gratitude in their lives and as a way for me to give back in the form of service of something that I love doing and learning about. The first four months of the challenge have been special, highlights include:

• The 300+ members who have joined the community from around the world and the dedicated members of the Dream Team also being of service to the project
• The inspirational resources, gratitude-related products and free gifts donated to our community
• Eight recorded interviews with experts on gratitude. One of the gifts of gratitude include the gift of education, in which our very own Carter McNamara is our expert. Carter has been in service to all of us for many years as he is the one who created the FREE management library in which millions of us are all benefiting from. You can listen to the 25-minute interview with him by clicking on the link below.

http://www.audioacrobat.com/play/W1QJLkPL

Share with us how you’ve been of service in 2010 and how you plan to do so in 2011!

 

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For more resources, see our Library topic Spirituality in the Workplace.

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Janae Bower is an inspirational speaker, award-winning author and training consultant. She founded Finding IT, a company that specializes in personal and professional development getting to the heart of what matters most. She started Project GratOtude, a movement to increase gratitude in people’s lives.

“Eighty percent of life’s satisfaction comes from meaningful relationships.” – Brian Tracy

You can’t have spirituality if you don’t have a relationship to share it with. Let’s look at three different relationships that are important to fostering our spirituality.

Relationship with your higher power

Many studies state that those who are passionate and believe in spirituality in the workplace, have a deep connection with a higher power, something greater than they are. For me that relationship is God, so that is how I’ll describe it here. I foster this relationship every day, sometimes every hour and am working on this being more of a every moment type of relationship. This relationship is the most important relationship that I have in my work and in my life. In fact, it is at the top of my personal mission, vision and values (MVV), the MVV I have with my husband, and the (MVV) for my business. The first value that I list in order of priority for my personal MVV says God is Number One: Remember daily that God is my center and light. Our number one value as a couple states: Keep God at the Center: Unite our spirituality and faith For my business the first value I have is Lead by Faith: Pray for God’s purpose and guidance.

This relationship is fostered with the two previous blogs that I’ve written about, D is for Divine and Q is for Quiet (if you haven’t read them yet, I highly recommend it). It is a relationship that keeps growing as I become more familiar with how to connect and communication with God. I’ll never forget when I was conducting a teleseminar interview with Janet Hagberg, an author, healer and of my one spiritual teachers and mentors. She spends quiet time daily – hours at times – connecting with God. She says she’s “in tune with God” enough to know that he is speaking to her though her body, i.e. different aches or pains give her messages. I thought that was fascinating. We receive guidance from our higher power or divine team all the time, we just need to prioritize this relationship and remember to ask for it.

Relationship with ourselves

I’m a firm believer that if we don’t know thyself and nurture the relationship we have with ourselves, we won’t be able to nurture the other important relationships in our lives. How we do this, is a personal choice, but we all know what we need that will help us feel, look and be good. The relationship with myself is like a water pitcher. Many evenings late at night when the rest of my family is sleeping and I’m alone I try to ask my source, God, to fill me with his water (I can only receive this blessing by nurturing the relationship above). I also then use this time to do things will nurture my soul. This usually means that I’m reading, writing, listening or creating something inspirational. I’ll stay up however late I need to fill up the water pitcher. What happens is that I become so full that my water pitcher is overflowing so I’m able to pour out my love and joy to other relationships. I then get up in the morning and I’m ready to give to all the other important relationships – like my husband, boys and work clients. The cycle repeats itself each day as I’ve poured out my water and need to fill it up again.

Relationship with others

In the new book by Simple Truths, called The 100/o Principle: The Secret to Great Relationships, author Al Ritter talks about how we are to manage the most important relationships in our lives. It’s about taking full responsibility (the 100) for the relationship, expecting nothing (the 0) in return. Here’s what Ritter has to say about this paradox: “When you take authentic responsibility for a relationship, more often than not the other person quickly chooses to take responsibility as well. Consequently the 100/0 relationship quickly transforms into something approaching 100/100.”

We have all at times given 100% to a relationship and then gotten nothing back, which usually causes us to feel bad about the relationship because we didn’t get anything in return. Over the years, I’ve been learning how to foster this 100/0 principle. Through gratitude, I’ve been able to give more unconditionally in some key relationships without expecting anything in return. I noticed how much better I feel when I don’t expect a certain outcome from the relationship. It’s also amazing how then you’ll receive 100% from some relationship in your live without them expecting anything in return.

The beauty of all these relationships that we build with our higher power, with ourselves and with those who matter most ignites our spirit and brings meaning to our lives.

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For more resources, see our Library topic Spirituality in the Workplace.

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Janae Bower is an inspirational speaker, award-winning author and training consultant. She founded Finding IT, a company that specializes in personal and professional development getting to the heart of what matters most. She started Project GratOtude, a movement to increase gratitude in people’s lives.

I remember being in college with the assignment to be alone and quiet for 25 minutes. We were to do this and report back our experience. One of my friends, a major extrovert, could not do it. She said after 5 minutes, she was done! I remember completing the project, but wondered about its value and purpose. Little did I know that in order to tap into our spirit, the heart of who we are, we need to be quiet to listen within.

The Wisdom

Stephen Covey, best-selling author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, once said that we live three lives – our public life, our private life and our deep inner life. Our public life is the life everyone sees and knows on the outside. This is what most of us would describe as our work – engineers, teachers or community activists, etc… Then the second life we live is our private lives, the life we have at home. This is what our family or close friends experience who we are at home. We might be pursuing a hobby or acting another way that the majority of people don’t see from an outside perspective. Then the third life we live is our deep, inner lives. It’s our spirit, who we are from the inside. This place holds our greatest desires and wishes for our lives. It is a secret place that very few of us share with others. And the way to access and nurture this deep inner life is by being quiet.

The Whitespaces

Now, almost 20 years after my first encounter with silence, I love the quiet. In fact it is so quiet right now as I write this, all I hear is the tapping of the keyboard. The silence allows me to channel the wisdom from within to the wisdom I want to share without. So many times this channel is blocked or clogged with the noise of life. Great musicians say that their music is created between the notes, in the white spaces. It is these white spaces, the silent notes of their music, that bring life to the notes. Great inventors share a similar thought through the importance of incubating ideas. To incubate an idea is to detach from our previous conscious thinking, allowing our subconscious mind to come alive. When we are able to tap into our inner wisdom, our spirit soars. It is known that Albert Einstein, considered one of the most knowledgeable and greatest thinkers, spent endless hours in quiet – just thinking and imagining. These quiet moments of his life are when he was known to have manifested the greatest potential within him. It is also said that Einstein wanted to know how to think like God. So in order to do that, he needed to be quiet to hear God sharing His wisdom.

The Whisper

One of my favorite phrases is by Oprah who said that we need to catch God on the whisper. Hearing the whisper is about being quiet to hear the wisdom that our greater self and the higher power has for us. Many times I have used this philosophy and catch these messages when they come as a whisper. It was a whisper encouraging me to write my first book. Other times I have not listened and I’ve missed out on some good opportunities or learned some hard lessons. Yet when we don’t have those white spaces in our lives, we won’t have the space or capacity to find out what these silent messages are that come to us in the form of a whisper.

Martin Luther King would usually spend an hour each morning in prayer and meditation to get his day centered and on track. When the day would be extremely busy, while most of us would then skip this time to get a jump start on our busy day, he would spend not just one hour but two hours in quiet!!! Can you believe that? I’m always reminded of his approach when I try to fit as much in as possible. When I go without the quiet time, I don’t hear the whispers for my life. Also the music notes of my deep, inner life then don’t have the white spaces it needs to make the music I want to sing in my heart. How about you?

p.s. Because I’ve been quiet, this is probably one of the fastest and easiest blog entries that I’ve written so far. I didn’t really have to think and make it happen, it just came pouring out of me and my deep, inner life.

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For more resources, see our Library topic Spirituality in the Workplace.

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Janae Bower is an inspirational speaker, award-winning author and training consultant. She founded Finding IT, a company that specializes in personal and professional development getting to the heart of what matters most. She started Project GratOtude, a movement to increase gratitude in people’s lives.

Wanting to have a sense of purpose at work is one of the key drivers for the spirituality in the workplace movement. You might have heard this question before, “What gets you out of bed in the morning (especially Monday morning)?” Those with a sense of purpose, who have a reason for being, want to get up in the morning. It might not look like they are doing anything more purposeful than anyone else, it’s just that they consciously choose to bring purpose to their work and life.

How did you find your sense of purpose?

For me, I’ve always been on this search to discover my purpose. As a little girl my father would tell me that God had a special purpose for my life. I had no idea what purpose meant, but it sounded important. Then I grew up to understand what purpose was and wanted to find out what mine was. Hundreds of books and hours later, I’ve come to a much better understanding what it means to live with a sense of purpose.

We have thousands of little choices to make each day. How do we know that we are going in the right direction? We don’t, unless we’ve put some thought into the direction or purpose we want for our lives. I have found that having a sense of purpose has changed my whole perspective in how I see my work. The long hours, tedious tasks and endless emails make it all worth it because I’m striving toward a fulfilling a great sense of purpose with my work. I know this vision won’t happen overnight, so every day I take pride with whatever work I’m doing. When I choose to look at my work as just what it is on the surface – just menial tasks or busy work – that is all it becomes. It then begins to feel something that is “beneath me” or something that I shouldn’t have to do. However, when I shift my perspective and see that the one stone that I’m laying right now – that tedious task – is part of this incredible mosaic that I’m purposefully creating.

Do you do have purposeful work OR do you bring purpose to your work?

I say the answer is both. The most ideal is when you can do both, often times it’s a harder journey to find the first one – the purposeful work – that will also pay the bills. Yet we always have a choice each day to bring purpose to our work. For example, maybe you are cleaning an office building. You can see it as just that – that you clean offices OR you can see it as you help create this incredible environment that allows others to tap into their greatest potential at work. Let’s use the analogy of an mosaic. Up close, cleaning an office, is like one plain stone. But when you step away to see how your work fits together in the bigger picture – you can see the beautiful mosaic.

An example

I’ve been working on a project redesigning some curriculum, a program called Renewing Life, for Pathways, a nonprofit organization. It’s a nine-week program that integrates the mind, body and spirit created for those (and their caregivers) with serious or life-threatening illnesses. My main contact at the organization is a volunteer, Sharon Bertrand, who is leading the redesign process. She is an incredible writer and very passionate about what she does. This project is purposeful to her, it is one of the programs that she used in helping to heal herself from MS five years ago. It has such a deep sense of purpose for her that she is willing to volunteer her time not just 10 or 100 hours, but close to 1,000 hours just this past year! She sees the purpose of this project to bring it to the world and knows it can change lives like it changed hers. The completed manual, superbly written and beautifully designed, is the gift given to those who experience the program. The stones were each of the hours she put into reading, researching, editing and piloting this program. Had she just looked at these stones while working, it would have not given her the drive she needed to finish the project. But she saw the end result, the gorgeous mosaic that has not only help fulfill her purpose, but will bring purpose to all the lives who touch it.

Final thought

My hope is that you will take time to appreciate each step or stone along the path of your journey. As you step back, reflecting on your life’s journey, you will see the purpose of your life coming together in a beautiful mosaic.

Janae Bower is an inspirational speaker, award-winning author and training consultant. She founded Finding IT, a company that specializes in personal and professional development getting to the heart of what matters most. She started Project GratOtude, a movement to increase gratitude in people’s lives.

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For more resources, see our Library topic Spirituality in the Workplace.