WORK AS A PLATFORM FOR PERSONAL GREATNESS

In this age of whitewater change, too many people see work as a means to an end rather than as a means to personal greatness and self-actualization. We see work as a place we go to "put in the hours" and to generate income to pay the bills and deal with the responsibilities that life presents to us. However, there is a different way that we can see work: as a platform to discover who we truly are and to play our highest games as human beings. If we choose to keep our eyes open at work, we will notice that every day, our personal resistances come up. Every time someone asks you to deal with a new process or embrace a new change, you have a choice: you can pay attention to your resistance or you can blame and point the finger. When you make the former choice, you are using work as a chance to grow as a human being. When you study your resistance and investigate it more deeply, you gain a clearer sense of the source beliefs that are driving it, to evolve into the higher version of the person you are meant to be. When you pay attention to the things that frustrate you at work and keep your eyes open to the things that you avoid dealing with as you go through your professional life, you gain clarity and a greater awareness of the things that are keeping you small. Then, if you make the choice to do the inner work required to move through these resistances, you transcend your fears and connect with your personal freedom. Great leaders are constantly confronting their resistances. And in doing so-during your work days-you will actually use work as a platform to become your best self. Imagine that? Seeing your work as a magnificent opportunity to "bump up against" the things that are limiting you in your life and to do the inner work required to rise above them. If you live from this frame of reference, work no longer becomes a chore. Instead, work becomes a place of possibility and individual enlightenment.

Work should be fun. As I say in my keynote speeches, "the job of the leader is to create a workplace where it’s safe to be human again." Elite performing individuals are those who take every apparent "problem" at work and use it as fuel for their forward success. When a client gets angry at them, rather than pointing the finger at the client and making it all about them, they look within themselves and pay attention to any irritation that may be surfacing within them. They then go deeper and evaluate the beliefs that are creating this emotional response. Just as shadows dissolve when placed in the sunlight, your personal shadows and your limiting beliefs begin to dissipate once you put them into the light of your conscious awareness. In terms of practical tools to do this, journaling is still one of the most powerful ways to personal transformation and self-leadership. The more you can journal about your behaviors at work and the things that you are resisting, the more you will take those limiting practices and bring them into the light of your mental awareness. And the more you can become aware of the things that are keeping you small, the more you can make higher choices during the moments of your days. Remember, the final freedom that every single one of us possesses is freedom of choice. Choose to play your highest game in life.

Here are 4 daily practices that you can engage in to use work as a platform for personal greatness:

1. Remember that the things that frustrate you at work also represent huge opportunities for personal evolution. Every time you get irritated, you are presented with a chance to become more aware of a personal weakness that can be transformed into a personal strength.

2. Find 10 minutes at the end of your workday to write in a journal. Writing in your journal allows you to become precisely aware of your motives, behaviors, as well as your fears. The more you can write about the things that are limiting you, frustrating you and keeping you from the work life you want, the more you will be able to create a richer experience on the job.

3. See yourself as an Evangelist. The word evangelist literally means "a person who spreads good news." While you are at work, keep reminding the people on your team that their work matters. Keep reminding the people on your team that they must treat each other with respect and dignity. Keep reminding the people on your team that work is a great place to confront one’s fears. Keep having conversations around the fact that every day at work is an opportunity to stretch, grow and evolve into our best selves. Be an evangelist and spread this good news about the possibilities that work represents.

4. Articulate a 1 paragraph legacy statement. The more you can connect with "a Higher Cause" the more you will be able to make authentic choices as you go through your work days. The deepest need of every human being is the need for self-transcendence. We all have a deep human hunger to know that our work matters and that the products and services we offer make a difference in people’s lives. The more you can focus on this legacy, the more you will be able to rise above any adversities that you encounter at work. The more you open not just your head but your heart to some kind of a central mission for your work life, the more you will emotionally engage around this "crusade" and do extraordinary work. And the more your work engages your personal talents as well as your human gifts, the more you will indeed be using your work as a platform for personal greatness.