Connecting with my purpose is a powerful and rewarding journey. Yet, I still met tensions that made me ponder, am I too spiritual for my professional work? I had an AHA moment yesterday; it is about connection and not separation.
In an effort to bring purpose driven approaches to life, we’re delivering purpose discovery workshops from the #grains community. So the facilitators decided to pair up and do an individual purpose discovery exercise based on Simon Sinek’s “Find Your Why”.
It is a simple yet powerful process, which goes like this: the coachee first need to reflect deeply on several stories that are most important in shaping his/her life, in my case I prepared 10 stories. Then the facilitator and the coachee get together to explore the stories. The facilitator will listen not only for details of the stories, but also emotions, impact/deep underlying meaning. Making notes about key themes, recurring key topics etc. After the facilitator draws attention to key themes, then both the coachee and the facilitator would propose a draft statement of WHY, which captures the deepest themes. The statement reads:
To … (contribution) … so that (impact).
My session was both inspiring and cathartic, having the opportunity to capture my life in 10 stories, and connect with my deeper meaning and propose, the value of it is beyond words. After juggling between 3 versions, I’ve come to my first draft of WHY statement:
To create space for compassion so that freedom will flow.
During my session I noticed a tension between my being and my professional work. I’ve been pondering this for a while now. When bringing the spiral dynamics training to my coaching network, I already noticed that I have such a strong spiritual side. I do believe that every being on this earth is connected, and compassion is such a powerful way to connect hearts and bring us together. I therefore find myself using words that are emotional and spiritual. Meanwhile, I’m also a professional who go into business discussions day in and day out. When I stay still and ask myself, what drives me to work every day? I have to admit, I care less about the profitability or competitive edge per se. What I truly care about, is to foster an environment so that people could bring their true self to work, so that people will collaborate instead of working in silos, so that people will bring their natural creativity out to find innovative solutions. I believe that when people are authentic, they are naturally creative, when we truly connect with our deeper meaning and purpose of life, the joy of working will naturally flow. The profitability and competitive edge come as by products.
Still in today’s largely tayloristic world, I meet many tensions. Sometimes I ask myself, am I too spiritual for my professional work?
My session with my peer coach yesterday brought a big Aha moment. It is about connection not separation. My struggle is not about whether or not if I should fit in, it is about what level of consciousness I activate when I meet people at that consciousness state. Like in spiral dynamics, we all have many colors throughout our lives, if speaking the language of business bottom line will foster positive changes to happen, then why not?
So how can I phase this in my business context?
To create space for an ecosystem so that innovation can flow?
To be an architect of fostering an ecosystem of innovation, is every bit the same thing as to create the space, so that freedom will flow. It is the language I use in a business world, but inherently connected to the deeper meaning. This is another learning milestone for me.
Thank you @barbaraengel @IngoBanski. Not many people can go home today, having known that they’ve touched hearts; they’ve made some powerful influences. But I know you can. The work you do, in my eyes, is truly inspiring and meaningful. And I’m honored to work with you:)
