Another Reality is Always Possible…
“Yes, another world of work is possible and that may sound a crazy notion if you feel trapped in some meaningless, boring, or stressful job that seems to suck the very life out of you. Work is a major source of suffering for most of the beings living on this planet and this does not have to be the case. Work can be a vehicle for something radically different, but more about that shortly.
Do You Really Want to Stay in That Dull Job…
When you consider how much time you spend in work over a lifetime then you really should think about the quality of that time and effort. Yes, it may seem a scary thought to leave the safety and security of some boring or stressful job to step out into the unknown but consider the consequences of staying!
There are Consequences to Staying…
Feeling stuck in some meaningless job that feels joyless or hard can take its toll physically, emotionally, mentally, and even spiritually. Such work will create stress which will feel like an ongoing tension in the body as well as generating emotional and mental tension. Stress, over time, can often lead to ill-health and serious illness. Long term stress will lower our vital force energy, our vibration and this in turn will impact everything, what is possible for us to allow, accept, attract, and create in our reality….”
The Façade of Safety and Security…
These days most boring and stressful jobs have the façade of safety and security but really, they are anything but. In this volatile time on the earth-plane what once seemed secure is no longer so. My first career was in International Banking where I worked for 10 years, and this was a career that was considered super safe and secure. These days most of jobs that have been considered safe and secure are no longer so. It may seem strange but the work I am doing now, however weird it may appear to some, is more secure than most of the financial jobs you will find in the City of London or any other major financial centre. How times do change!
I Know about Suffering and Stress…
I know about suffering and stress at work from personal experience. My ten years working in finance generated a deep sense of meaninglessness, entrapment, hopelessness, and depression I couldn’t see a point in the work I was doing, I had no real affinity with it. Worse than that, I deeply questioned the ethics of some of the things I was working on. During that time, I explored different activities to find some healing and relief, such as macrobiotics, yoga, tai chi and hypnotherapy and more. I discovered eventually that the source of my suffering was nothing to do with my lifestyle, and instead everything to do my work. I took a year off work and entered a long phase of psychotherapy. I then moved to a new job in an inner-city borough, working with special needs and elderly tenants. I had moved from a structured, conservative environment to a socialist, idealistic, rather oddly aggressive, and chaotic environment.
Spirituality and Work…
On a more positive note, around this time emerged a burning passion for spiritual wisdom. I began attending spiritual and personal development workshops, which helped me transform almost every aspect of my life over time. The one area that remained out of sync with my heart and spirit was how I was earning money in the world. I was promoted to a middle management position earning more money, but I was feeling the winds of change after being there for 10 long years. My heart was telling me that now was the time to leave, but my head said stay. Since I was more spiritually aware, I decided to ask the Universe a question: “Should I resign from this job?” I waited, and within 48 hours I received the answer.
The Universe Answered…
During a lunch break, as I was walking back to work one day, there was a guy walking several feet ahead of me. On the back of his T-shirt there was the Nike slogan saying, “Just do it”. The message hit me like a thunderbolt, but my mind cut across, very quickly discounting the message. I was reminded by a stream of thoughts that I had responsibilities and should not throw everything away because of some random slogan on a T-shirt. As I continued walking, my attention was drawn to a nearby window and there was a sticker with the same message: “Just do it”.
Surrendering to the Path…
Okay, that was it, I gave in, I surrendered, and shortly after I handed in my letter of resignation. I can still remember the bliss of that day and how grey everyone else in the workplace seemed. Thus began my next adventure with work. Now I had let go of the “safe” career, and instead I threw myself into every kind of job that I could find. I painted houses, worked with a landscape gardener, sold books, also sold health products. During this time, I started doing some part-time work for an amazing spiritual organization called Alternatives, based in St James’s Church, Piccadilly, London. This organization promoted spiritual author talks and workshops. After a year or so working in the office, they offered me the job of full-time administrator. I wasn’t keen on administration work, but I loved the organization, so I accepted. In my free time I continued doing personal development seminars and spiritual workshops. (I had become a workshop junkie!) Then, after a year of admin work, I was offered a directorship of Alternatives.
I was a director of Alternatives for 13 years…
Within a short period of time, the two other co-directors resigned, and I found myself running the organization alone. Not having much business experience, I meditated and prayed. Fortunately, the Universe was listening, and I was guided to employ the perfect people for the right jobs and was also guided to make some important decisions to restore the organization to a place of high morale and financial stability and abundance. I remained a director of Alternatives for 13 years. In this position I helped organize around 2,000 spiritual events. I learned how to be creative and entrepreneurial, how to play and make inspiration a daily practice and how to turn one good idea into a successful income stream. I learned more about the power of generosity and “what goes around comes around”, and about the importance of community and finding “the right soul tribe”.
The Soul is Calling…
However, my soul was calling me to move on again around 2009. But I had found my spiritual home and family and so I resisted the calling. This led to a dissolving of many aspects of my life and in 2010 a dark night of the soul began. I left Alternatives at the Winter Solstice of 2012. I went on to do various work including business consulting and social media work. I also drove a London bus for a year and a bit.
In 2016, I began emerging from the dark night of the soul, I left the driving job and began my own healing, coaching and mentoring business which is called The Soul Matrix. This new work venture has been an incredible learning curve. Over the past several years I have written a few books, become a successful YouTuber, created a new energetic healing system, and begun running a series of online and face to face events. Now, it is my belief and truth that if it is possible for me to transform my work it is also possible for you.
The Hero’s Journey…
If the thought of finding more joyful and meaningful work excites you then you are ready for the hero’s journey. It is important to remember that the current volatile working climate does not favour conformity; it favours courage and innovation. When I talk about courage, I do not mean to encourage rash or impulsive decisions. Courage is not reactive; it is deeply contemplative. It takes courage to follow your heart rather than putting up with things that cause you stress and suffering. It is important to remember that if you are unhappy in the work you do, you have two choices: you can change your outlook to your existing work to change your experience of it or you can decide to leave and find something else.
A Free Heart and Mind…
Please remember that liberation from a dull job begins first in the heart and then the mind. A free heart and mind can envision a life that feels free; a trapped heart and mind is not aware of its true capacities, capabilities, gifts and potential. If you can envision a better working life, you can feel it and then you can create it. On the other hand, a trapped heart and mind is blocked by limiting ideas, beliefs and feelings, old stories, perceptions, and expectations. We cannot truly know ourselves or see the world through such emotional and mental distortions. When we transform our limiting ideas, beliefs, and stories, we will, in time, feel, see and experience a new world of work.
To Heed Your Calling…
When it comes to allowing, finding, or creating joyful, meaningful work the word vocation comes to mind. This word comes from a Latin verb meaning “to heed a calling”. In times gone by a vocation used to be a term used for someone feeling the call from God to enter a religious life, perhaps entering the priesthood. Nowadays the meaning of the term vocation is so much broader.
A vocation is not a job. A job is about performance reviews, promotions and salary raises. A vocation is about following your heart, and making a real difference, a real contribution in the world. A job is about a salary whereas a vocation is about liberating your inner potential, which is limitless because you are limitless. A vocation is about more than money, it is about experiencing true flow and true abundance.
The Nature of Resistance…
On this journey of moving from a job to work that aligns with your heart and soul you will encounter resistance. The impulse to find or create joyful/meaningful work comes from the soul, resistance comes from the small ego. Resistance will drive us to play small, chase diversions, engage in drama, conflict, procrastination, get in our own way, focus on what went wrong in the past, what might go wrong in the future. At the basis of all resistance is fear, and fear can take many forms.
When we embrace our fear, we can learn to take the journey anyway. Most fear is just an overactive imagination dredging up all the worst-case scenarios that will never probably happen. When I decided to follow my heart, my biggest fear was becoming homeless. At that time, I even went to a beautiful heath in London and found a spot that I would sleep if the worst ever happened. It never did!
You are More Gifted than You Realise…
This journey will expand what you believe is possible, it will help to bring more awareness and light to the small ego selves which in turn will help you activate more of your inner resources and abilities. You are more gifted than you realise. The important thing to realise is that taking the journey is the way to liberate your gifts, your inner potential. The soul is multidimensional and so are your gifts. When I was working in finance if anyone had told me I was destined to be the director of a spiritual organisation, that I would become a spiritual coach and mentor, that I would create a new healing system, that I would run workshops around the world, that I would become known on YouTube, I would have asked then, what is YouTube! No seriously, I would have thought they were crazy. All I felt I knew was paper shuffling working in some big office.
Embrace All of Yourselves…
To really undertake this journey, you need to embrace all of yourself and that includes the logical, linear, strategic parts of you and the visionary, imaginative, creative, and intuitive aspects. You need both the yin and the yang for this journey. It is only when you embrace both sides of your being that you can access a new level of genius and flow in your work.
I have a saying that many of you have heard me say in my online events, your weirdness is your brilliance. You are not here to follow the herd, you are not here to be formulaic, you are here to follow the impulses of your heart, your soul.
Travel Light, Miracles Happen…
The journey of following your heart is about being flexible and adaptable. Consider shedding what you do not need, downsize where possible, travel light. There is a saying, nature abhors a vacuum. When you let go of what is no longer needed then you create the space for what is truly useful and meaningful to enter your working life and your reality.
The journey of finding work in alignment with your core values is a journey of diving deep into the psyche into the Soul. Flow, bliss, grace, and divine providence are all spiritual experiences. Miracles can and do happen in this world. Your work can become a vessel for your bright Spirit.
If you are feeling the call of your soul to make some important changes in your work. If you feel at a crossroads. If you are feeling ready to take the journey to find or create more joyful and meaningful work then check out my latest book, Joy at Work published by Watkins Media, April 2023. This book outlines the ideas I have shared here and many more.
Much love
Steve Nobel.
3 responses
Joy at Work (UK) – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Joy-Work-Find-Happiness-Meaning/dp/1786787512/ref=sr_1_9?crid=19WUS1O77EE6E&keywords=joy+at+work&qid=1681997886&sprefix=joy+at+work%2Caps%2C76&sr=8-9
Joy at Work (USA) – https://www.amazon.com/Joy-Work-Find-Happiness-Meaning/dp/1786787512/ref=sr_1_5?crid=1PYDPQSZDTVU4&keywords=joy+at+work&qid=1681998064&s=books&sprefix=joy+at+work%2Cstripbooks-intl-ship%2C166&sr=1-5
Thank you for sharing that, Steve. As I read, I felt like I was a companion, of sorts, acting as an ear for what you were going through and thinking about. The Empath in me felt your struggles and revelled in your successes. Such a vivid and uplifting story you tell! It will no doubt serve many, perhaps even myself, in this my 65th year. I’ve asked the Universe to be reborn in this old, broken body in order to serve “properly” again, but in a body that’s been overhauled from head to toe, of course.
Thank you again for sharing, and for all you do for us.
Much love and light to you and Liz.
P.S. Have you ever considered coming here to Canada? We’re a much gentler people than our southern neighbour.
We have. maybe next year.