This is From The Balance Beam

[TheBalanceBeam] - Going with the Flow

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THE BALANCE BEAM
Ideas and Inspiration for Creating a Life that Works
Vol. 3 No. 10, May 11, 2001
Published by Success Builders, Inc.
http://www.SuccessBuildersInc.com
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"He who knows others is wise; he who knows himself is enlightened."
Lao-tzu
In this issue: GOING WITH THE FLOW
====================================================================== Dear Friends,
Are you going with the flow these days? More importantly, what does that question mean for you? In this issue of The Balance Beam, we explore what going with the flow at work is all about. What's that? Sounds like an oxymoron to you? Read on. And follow your bliss.

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Today's Topic: GOING WITH THE FLOW

Sarah is a nurse in the pediatrics ward of a large metropolitan hospital. She works the eleven to seven shift, which in some environments is known as the "graveyard shift." Of course, they don't call it that here, because, well, after all it's a hospital where both living and dying go on. Sarah works with some very sick kids and some very distraught parents. Still, she always looks forward to going to work, even on those nights when the ward is full and there's an overflow of gut-wrenching situations. And when she clocks out at the end of her shift, she has a deep sense of fulfillment and satisfaction.

Sonya collects bridge tolls on the George Washington Bridge connecting New Jersey with Manhattan. All day long she takes money, makes change and hands over receipts to the thousands of passengers making the commute into New York City. And she always has a smile on her face. If you ask her why she seems so happy all the time, she'll say, "Why shouldn't I be happy? I've got a great job, I'm out of doors all day long, looking at the Manhattan skyline across the most beautiful bridge in the world." Sonya proudly calls herself a "Tollhouse Cookie".

George is a rocket scientist. He spends his days poring over formulas and calculations and churning them into reports that would represent a cure for insomnia for most of us. Every day, George goes off to work with his eyeglasses askew and his lunch in a brown paper bag. He gets so absorbed in his work that he would forget to eat if his sandwich were not sitting next to him. George so loves his work that he often leaves the building late at night and is surprised to find that it's not still daylight outside.

What do all these people have in common? They are all in "the flow" at work. They love what they do, and it shows.

When I was coming of age in the 60's, the phrase, "going with the flow," meant taking it easy, mon - laid back, no sweat. Or, as kids would more likely say today, "chilled." In the past decade, the notion of flow has become the topic of a great deal of research, as psychologists have investigated what it really means to be in a "flow state."

Mihaly Czikszentmihaly, a professor at the University of Chicago, defines flow in his book, Flow: the Psychology of Optimal Experience, as being "the state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience itself is so enjoyable that people will do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it."

So what does all this have to do with a column on career coaching? The short answer is: everything.

For many people, the idea of doing something they love at work seems like a contradiction in terms. After all, work is work. It's not meant to be fun. You do what you love in your free time, right? Sally, one of my clients, has been exploring alternative career directions. One possibility she's been playing with would tie together two of the activities she most enjoys: interviewing people and writing. Sally admits that she's having a hard time moving forward with this idea. Why? Not because it doesn't seem viable, but because it seems like so much fun that it hardly qualifies as "work".

When you consider that most of us spend somewhere between a quarter and a third of our lives engaged in doing something for a living, it only makes sense that you consider not just what will pay the bills but also what will make your heart sing. For many people, their jobs have become so habitual that they have literally forgotten what it is that they love and feel passionately about. Which is all the more reason to periodically stop and take a reading on the flow meter.

In The Power of Myth, Joseph Campbell wrote, "If you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living...If you are following your bliss, you are enjoying that refreshment, that life within you, all the time."

So does all this mean that you should quit your job and go find something to do that would be more fun? Of course not. But it does mean that if you are at a professional crossroads, or in the midst of a transition, or pondering your next career move, you should consider what you would truly enjoy and value, along with the practical considerations like compensation and promotability. It may also mean taking a look at your current job to see if there are ways to build in more satisfaction and fulfillment.

Finding your flow at work is often as simple as working at something you love and find personal meaning in. So go ahead, go with the flow...and follow your bliss. And yes, that can qualify as work.
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Words to live by:
"A man is a success if he gets up in the morning
And goes to bed at night
And in between does what he wants to do."
- Bob Dylan