Fortunately, life can become deeply meaningful for loving persons who are maturing, who are meeting needs of their spiritual unconscious that Frankl wrote about -- which is as vital to satisfaction as our psychological unconscious that Freud discussed. It is this spiritual unconscious that is so often neglected by persons who live with secular values and too pragmatic choices -- which is why we combine psychological and philosophical in our books and articles. After all, every society from primitive clans with be-feathered shamans chanting spells around campfires, to building mysterious Stonehenge, to completing towering European cathedrals, and even attending Billy Graham’s relational campaigns, has been trying to meet spiritual yearnings throbbing within every human soul. These hungers are universal and repressing or neglecting them causes spiritual bankruptcy or what Frankl called existential frustration.

We have researched emotional and spiritual aspects of satisfaction for half a century, drawing from brilliant existential philosophers, theologians and psychologists of whom Soren Kierkegaard, Carl Jung, Karen Horney, Tielhard de Chardin, Otto Rank, Melanie Klein, Paul Tillich, Viktor Frankl, H. Orton Wiley, Laura Perls, Rollo May and Carl Rogers are representative. Wayne Dyer, who remains a contemporary existential seminar leader on Public Television, has an excellent approach for improving spiritual health. We have learned beyond a shadow of a doubt, that fulfillment is never won directly but always by product of a maturing life-style. We didn’t stop with concepts, however, but hammered issues of life out in real world, getting down into mud and blood of existence with people experiencing differing degrees of emotional and spiritual failures. We have also discovered that human existence can indeed be filled with purpose and permanence for perceptive women and men. However, there is a major Catch - 22 in search for consistent satisfaction. There is nothing automatic or universal about succeeding in our quest. There is no single approach to Fulfillment with a capital F that meets every person’s needs. Each one of us has to open personal channels by applying our own powers along lines of excellence. We must move beyond theoretical to practical.

Despite assumptions of so many persons, our search can seldom be for happiness per se. Happiness is a fleeting emotion that will always fade and eventually vanish. We all need times of joy, obviously, but it is far more satisfying to create lasting sources of meaning in our lives -- in those places of heart where we belong, connected to persons with whom we share love, acceptance and support.

We all hold values, attitudes, expectations and beliefs and make choices that are relevant to our lives. These key aspects of life affect us according to our inherited traits, environmental experiences and formative choices. Naturally, not one of us is exempt from civilization’s pressures. All men and women inherit homosapien angst and rage, resist childhood socialization, and struggle to break apron strings during adolescence and to remove emotional scar tissue in unconscious aspects of our minds. We are indeed forced to deal with tragic elements of suffering, guilt, rage and death. It doesn’t end there, fortunately. We are pleased to report that despite many existential frustrations, spiritually-minded persons who convert their earthly meanderings into purposeful, love-filled quests can enjoy consistent fulfillment. Women and men who cultivate faith, hope and love do find joy even as waves of complex change batter society relentlessly.

We recently had this approach confirmed by an unlikely source in an entirely unexpected setting. The carnival barker on Minnesota State Fair Midway didn't look like a philosopher. His fingernails were ragged and dirty and a broken tooth gave him a cynical and somewhat sinister leer. Tough-Tony Gallo seemed too rough-hewn a man from whom to learn much about a meaningful life. Nevertheless, Tony went right to a major aspect of fulfillment when he said;

Life’s sorta like ridin’ a bicycle uphill. Ya gotta keep pedalin’ along or ya gotta stop and get off. There ain’t no reverse gear and ya gotta keep yer balance.

How marvelously well expressed! There you have it -- much knowledge and wisdom in a nutshell! Tough Tony had just relieved Jard of six dollars in a futile attempt to win a stuffed panda for a granddaughter at his milk bottle-toss game. Neither Jard's arm nor his aim is what either was in his youth but he was delighted with transaction. After all, in these days of expensive therapy, that was a bargain price for such excellent counsel about living successfully. As our philosophical friend with dirty nails so succinctly said, a satisfying life has an ongoing flow that must be embraced if we are to find consistent meaning and belonging with powers God through nature has given us to invest in spiritual growth. To sum this up even more succinctly than Tony did, we use this simple equation;

PERSONAL FULFILLMENT = f (Heredity x Environment x Choices)

Everything we inherit from all of our ancestors is acted on by our environment whether it is good or bad. And that product is multiplied by excellent, mediocre or disastrous choices we make about life and our place in it.

Through these articles, we use word existential to mean that something relates to cultural and personal life-style humans choose to follow or have thrust upon them by society. It has nothing to do with grim European philosophy of Existentialism taught by Sartre, Camus and others in desperate decades of World Wars, murderous Holocaust and long, debilitating Cold War. To us, existential just means that something being discussed is related to life-style we follow.

Please visit http://www.fulfillmentforum.com

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Secondly, people who truly love their work and get a lot of satisfaction out of it have specific goals or accomplishments that they are always working for.

It may be developing a new product, leading sales force in sales, touching a student's life every week, or getting that promotion you've always wanted. Whatever case, my personal experience and my observations of others is that as soon as you stop working towards a specific goal, passion you have for your work begins to fizzle and fade away.

Set goals regularly and review those goals in order to keep yourself on track. I recommend setting daily, weekly, monthly and yearly goals in addition to having longer-term goals (1-5 years, 5-15 years, and 15+ years).

Review your goals on a daily basis and update your goals at least monthly.

Finally, work on your self-image and self-confidence.

I think many would argue that these two attributes are a result of success and fulfillment at work - they would be right in a sense. The more you succeed, better self-image and confidence you will have.

However, positive self-image and self-confidence are self-fulfilling prophecies. You have to have them before you can have them… you know!?

Let me explain. The way our subconscious sees ourselves is way that our actions will project to others.

In other words, if you believe yourself to be lacking in necessary experience and expertise to manage division that just opened up, then powers that be who are interviewing you for job will notice that you project a lack of experience and expertise needed for job.

Conversely, if your subconscious sees yourself as knowledgeable and confident, then image you will project to others is one of being an expert in your field.

Your actions justify your belief.

As you project and gain a more positive self-image and more powerful confidence, your work will begin to become more fulfilling and enjoyment is never far behind true fulfillment.

I know that your work can truly become a labor of love when you prepare yourself, improve yourself, and put yourself in a winning position. Hopefully, next time someone asks: "How's work going?" you can answer: "Never been better!"

To Your Success, Joel S. Nelson _______________________________________ Joel S. Nelson operates Harvest Mind Enterprises, an operation targeted to individuals interested in developing personally by harvesting power of subconscious mind. For more articles on topic, go to http://www.harvestyourmind.com/newsletter.html