The average person will spend 90,000 hours at work over a lifetime. Over a 50-year working life that’s almost 35% of one’s total waking hours. In other words, your job (and how you do it) can make a huge impact on your life and overall happiness. Unfortunately, another powerful statistic suggests 80% of people don’t like their jobs. I don’t know about you, but that is a lot of time spent being unhappy.
Fortunately, there is a solution. And, no, it’s not winning the lotto and retiring to your own private island. Tempting as that may sound, work is part of living in this world. We need to pay our rent and put food on the table. However, and this is the beautiful part, work can also be an avenue to finding purpose and joy. Work can lead us to become conscious and living our true mission. And yes, it is possible to find peace at work.
In short, we must return to Zero.
I have traveled the globe sharing my message of how to live at Zero Frequency®. I have taught the importance of 100% responsibility in our lives, which is always the first step in returning to Zero — knowing we have the power to change our lives, including our work life. Sometimes, this might mean we change jobs; other times, it means we change our relationship with our job. As Wayne Dyer used to say, “change the way you look at things and the things you look at will change.” Of course, how do we know what’s right for us?
Being at Zero requires that we find the stillness that lives in each moment. This stillness — part of eternity — also lives within each of us. It’s where we learn to trust ourselves and begin following our heart (the higher part of who we are). In this place, we do not need to be perfect; we need to be our authentic selves, to start accepting ourselves the way we are, and doing what we love and what we’re good at.
I remember the first time I found this quiet spot and truly started to trust who I was and what my true gifts to the world were. I also realized I was okay just the way I was, and that I didn’t need to be perfect in the eyes of the world.
I was a tax accountant at the time. One day, I went to the partners at the CPA office where I was working and told them I would not be doing tax research for them anymore. They were surprised and asked why, telling me I had done amazing work in the past. I explained that, although I could do it, tax research was not one of my unique talents, and surely there were others in the office, naturally good at precisely that job, who would probably be far more expeditious than I was. My true talent was preparing taxes and doing accounting. I could also solve problems and accomplish more in less time than others could. However, when it came to tax research, others were far more qualified than I was.
We each have our unique talents and are naturally gifted in certain areas where we can surpass others. It’s good to recognize this. As you start accepting yourself, you start accepting and admiring other people’s talents. From that moment, I truly began to live my life with one-hundred-percent responsibility, always listening and trusting that quiet voice that was my own inspiration.
I also began to listen to the voice that wanted to love what I was doing (essential for all those who aim to return to Zero). A couple of years later, I remember being asked at a seminar, “What would you be doing, even if you were not paid to do it, but only because you loved it and it gave you so much satisfaction?”
At the time, I was still committed to my work in tax preparation. But I wasn’t happy. I wasn’t living my passion. Instinctively, I stood up and answered, “I would travel the world sharing with others what has helped me.”
Some years later, I closed my accounting practice to do exactly that, finally, trusting and living my soul’s purpose. There is always a part in us that knows what we should be doing.
To find peace at work, we must return to Zero — responsible for our actions, listening to our heart, and always following our authentic self. It is the only way we will do what we love in service to our soul’s purpose.
To be clear, this doesn’t mean you have to leave your current job. Or maybe it does. Only you will know the language of your heart. But you must listen first.
And regardless of where you choose to work, you can always choose to love what you do, and how you do it. You can bring light, love and happiness to your workplace for yourself and others. And in doing so, you will be your authentic self and give permission to others to be themselves. More than that, you will be happy and at peace, and that is contagious.
