Working-World Success: is it over-rated?

This 3rd of 3 lessons also focuses on success, the Unity theme for July, and looks at what we do every day, in one way or another: work. Whether we are fully employed, part-timers, pleasantly retired, in charge of our home or our parents, we spend a significant part of our time and energy working.  (You can listen to the lesson by clicking here.)

Here are three related truths:

  1. We live in the world of work.
  2. It’s work to live in this world.
  3. We want to make that living in this world work.

Sunday I shared the story of my Uncle Harry, a lifelong mechanic at the Magnolia oil refinery in Port Arthur (other side of Beaumont, on the way to Louisiana). And when the new Montgomery Wards opened a story in Beaumont, Uncle Harry, Aunt Gladyse and I went to replace his work shoes. He told the clerk he needed a “pair of leather work shoes, rubber soles, size 9 triple E. Here, like these.” (I was 9 or 10 and remember it vividly!).

The clerk disappeared into the stockroom. Soon he came back, shaking his head. “Sir, I don’t have that shoe in black, only in brown.” In response, Uncle Harry shook his head. “Can’t wear brown shoes. They’ll give me blisters.”

A perfect example of how each of us defines our work, identifies with our work in our own specific ways.

Success is the Unity theme for July. How do we define success? In any of an almost infinite number of ways!

For most people, success is measured in terms of prosperity. And I suspect that for most of those people, prosperity means financial or material well-being. The more successful our work, the more succesful we are at our work, the more of that prosperity we experience. I also offer you this:

We also measure success in terms of what we accomplish and the successful emotions those accomplishments produce.

We count as a sign of success recognition for the work we do successfully. The human being is a proud animal and a pat on the back is a welcome reward.

We know that success brings with it satisfaction: mental, emotional satisfaction.

Success can be most easily achieved when we allow ourselves to be free from reality’s constraints. The childlike sense of awe, of the freedom to imagine — and so to “be” — whatever s/he chooses: an inventor, a superhero, a firefighter, a doctorlawyerindianchief, which I thought was all one job until I was 5! The Daily Word for 7/14 says:

I can keep that childlike sense of awe by simply choosing to do so. I can look with wonder at the world around me.
I can choose to wake up each morning with a positive outlook and an expectant attitude.

The beautiful tag line for the Unity theme, Success, is this: With Spirit as my guide, I am successful.

As our work – our “DO” – can and should make us feel good, our awareness of the Source of the Good makes us feel even better. As we take Spirit to work with us, see the blessings of being able to do our work, of enjoying our work, of creating and producing with our work, of impacting ourselves and others by our work, we experience first hand that success!

I told the story of the clerk I encountered at Walden Books in the Houston Intercontinental Airport a few years back. With unbridled energy she taught me how to answer the standard question we hear a dozen times a day: How are you?

Her answer, and she enthusiastically made it mine to this date!: I am great and you are too!

Whether she was conscious of it or not, she certainly had Spirit at work with her, in her, and for her! You are great, and you can too!

I love Psalm 77: 14 You are the God who works wonders.

Remember, you can hear the meditation and lessons here.

Posted on July 23, 2012 at 9:16 pm by Tim · Permalink
In: God, Happiness, Joy, Oneness · Tagged with: , , , ,