Love at Work

January 11, 2022

Many people ask me if it is possible to find our ‘Design’ or ‘special purpose’ in our work. Their experience of work is no longer satisfying, yet they long to feel well used in life. Recently I was sent an almost perfect answer to this question. Panache Desai, in response to a similar question, said, after a reflective pause, “Our jobs are the excuse we have to love people.”
That brings up questions, doesn’t it?
Should I stay in my ‘soul-crushing’ job?
How can I ever love the people around me at work?
What if I have no people around me at work?
Where can I find work that allows me to love the people around me?
There is no correct answer to any of those questions. However, even considering it might be possible to go to work intending to love people changes everything.
Love is a spiritual power. It is not intellectual, nor made up in our thinking. It is a feeling of warmth, connection and wonder, all rolled into one. And it is available ALL THE TIME!
When we love someone who is struggling, there is no need to accept their actions. When we can see them as human beings, caught up in the noise of their circumstances, we can remember when we, too, have been in a similar noisy place. And we remember not to identify with our worst-feeling moments. And we can be with people seeing them as something other than their worst moments.
Work will transform, the more we do this. Life will transform as we do this. The gentle power of not taking things personally, and reminding people they are loved for who they are born to be is transformative. And healing. Then, where you work becomes more and more obvious. And where to GO to work does as well.
Try this for a week and let me know how it goes.