Happiness and Work: Your Life Depends On ItWritten by Craig Nathanson
Early one morning, Robert awoke, made his wife of 41 years some banana bread, took out garbage and called to cancel a doctors appointment scheduled for next day. He wrote a note to remind his wife to pick up dry cleaning. All things considered, it seemed like a normal day. Robert had “retired” four years earlier after nearly 40 years doing what he loved in banking industry. After retirement, his life took a challenging turn. While he remained friendly and encouraging to others on outside, on inside he was suffering a deepening depression. After retirement, Robert couldn’t find anything to replace meaning and fulfillment that work provided him. And this void was slowly killing him. So on that “normal” morning, Robert cleaned up kitchen after finishing baking his wife banana bread. Then he drove himself to parking lot of bank where he had worked all those years. After carefully parking and locking his car, he walked into a local store and handed a note to clerk behind counter. Then he walked outside and shot himself in head. He ended his life with one bullet at 1pm on a blazing sunny day. Robert was my dad. Your happiness is your responsibility A few years back, when I decided to leave corporate America after 25 years, I thought I had learned enough about mid-life and work. After all, I was in middle of my Ph.D research on what happens to mid-life adults when they leave security of nest to follow their hearts and their life’s calling. I had coined a new term, ‘’Vocational Passion,’’ to describe this alignment of passions, abilities and interests. I had started a new on-line community at www.thevocationalcoach.com, and I wrote a book, ‘’P Is For Perfect: Your Perfect Vocational Day’’ in an attempt to boil down this research in a practical 10 step model. Yes, I had thought, with my corporate background, various degrees, new clients, new office, workshops, public speaking gigs and a burning desire to make a difference in world, I had learned enough. I was wrong. The biggest challenges were still ahead. So as I struggle to make sense of his death, I also am finding new strength in my own work, helping others to find meaning and fulfillment in their vocational lives. This is especially so in mid-life, which can be most threatening period of all. When my dad lost his purpose for living, he also lost will to live. Fortunately, most people don’t take this action to end their own life but many people shoot themselves in head emotionally, continuing to work at jobs which no longer provide meaning or passion or fulfillment. It doesn’t have to be this way. With this article, I am hopeful, maybe one life can be saved as a result of acknowledging that depression may be a symptom of not living a life filled with purpose, meaning and fulfillment. As a result, a call to action is a must. As psychologist Carl Jung said, mid-life is a time to listen deeply to your heart. Whether we plan for this or not, midlife can be a period of transition and reappraisal. More inner questioning can occur. Career plateaus can be reached during this period, which drives a need for internal insight and reflection. Those who don’t invest in time for self-reflection in mid-life may experience increased stress and other distress signals. The sense of crisis may vary from one person to next. For those who do experience stress, making changes in mid-life is never easy or without challenges.
| | The Language of IntuitionWritten by Claudette Rowley
You have permission to publish this article electronically or in print as long as resource box is included. Please notify me of publication by sending a website link or copy of your publication to claudette@metavoice.org.Word Count: 710 Thanks, Claudette Rowley ============== The Language of Intuition Claudette Rowley Copyright 2004 "Like an ability or muscle, hearing your inner wisdom is strengthened by doing it." - Robbie Gass Last week I was speaking with a client about language of intuition, and how it's a language that we can learn to understand just like Spanish or Chinese. When we first hear a foreign language, it either sounds interesting but meaningless or we ignore what we hear because it doesn't spark comprehension. Deciphering language of intuition can be a lot like that. At first, you might not even be aware of what you're hearing. Or you notice something, but "it sounds like Greek" to you. For some of us, learning a foreign language comes easily. And for some of us, knowing language of intuition is innate. The rest of us have to work a little harder. There are general ways of tuning in to your intuition: for example, paying attention to a gut feeling, a dream, or a song lyric that pops into your head. However these are simply portals into your own knowledge of your intuitive voice. Intuition is truly a "sixth sense" - it's as available to you as your sight, hearing, taste, touch or smell. In other words, intuition is largely a form of sensory knowledge. Just like other five senses, it's a felt knowledge that has very little to do with your mental capability, and its interpretation is individual. For instance, how do I know that an orange tastes same to me as it does to you? What's dialect of your intuition? Becoming acquainted with your intuitive voice is a personal experience, and may involve a widening of your perspective about what intuition is. We often think of intuition coming in dramatic "flashes." Intuition may also come in form of strong physical sensations or images. For example, I had a conversation with a woman who recounted feeling strongly pulled to move to U.S. Whenever she resisted this urge to move from her home country to U.S., she literally felt punched in stomach. Once she made monumental decision to move, stomach-punching stopped. She firmly believed that this physical sensation was work of her intuition.
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