90K Hours
Intro
“Work’s not a four-letter word for nothing,” my late mother.
I come from a family of workers, entrepreneurs, creatives, and leaders. ‘Work’ was often discussed around the dinner table: struggles, triumphs, and everything in between. Frequently, my husband says - you are talking about work again! To which I rebut, my astrological Sun is in the 10th house, just like Kim Kardashian and countless other celebrities and leaders. I love work and business: talking about my own and others, studying, learning, playing, and using it as a point of awareness.
What shows up in your 40 hours can not be separated from who you are as a person.
Funnily, one of the first paying clients for energy work spent her sessions talking and focused on work. As a chef, the stress, interpersonal conflicts, and need for creativity plagued her during her off hours. It wasn’t just her. From top-level executives, founders, CEOs, tenured professors, coaches, consultants, doctors, chefs, therapists, educators, influencers, astrologers, EAs, and more that I have supported through the years, all can tell you how you are, what you feel, and what shows up at and in work are the keys to unlocking greater levels of satisfaction, self-confidence, and fulfillment in your WHOLE life.
What are your professional pursuits?
I am an optimist.
Yes - we have massive systemic issues.
Yes - there are grave tragedies and brutally horrific things happening across the globe.
Yes - capitalism is a hugely unfair system - if what we currently live in can even be called capitalism.
There is MUCH to get hopeless about, no doubt.
But, I also believe in the ingenuity of the human spirit and the ability of folks to affect great change when they are lit up from the inside out - for change to happen like a domino effect from one undimmable folk to the next and on and on.
Did you know you spend an average of 90K hours in your professional pursuits? Start working young, pulling lots of overtime, working multiple jobs, and having your own business, and then that number skyrockets.
NINETY THOUSAND HOURS - let that sink in.
The way you show up, feel, and be in your professional life really IS your life. You can’t separate the two. Also, reflect on how many weekends your thoughts are consumed with work, or you are decompressing from work, or dreading work.
Occasionally, you hit the jackpot, and your purpose or dharma happens to align with your career; most of the time, your job pays your bills. And yet, see above - how many waking hours are you consumed with your professional pursuits? Be honest with yourself.
We have an opportunity here.
What if you don’t have to spend most of your life waiting, dreading, trapped, and exhausted? What if work is an opportunity for your whole life to be filled with joy, confidence, clarity, connection, and strength? And, business owners, what if you can create, grow, scale, and sustain your business from a place of plentitude that allows all who touch your creation to be positively affected?
Here is what I know.
It comes down to this: if you want to utilize your professional life for greater whole-life satisfaction, success, connection, and joy, affect change, and leave a legacy. Conscious values-first leaders make a difference. On the reverse side, leaders stressed and activated with lopsided priorities often create widespread havoc, affecting anywhere from small numbers of folks to large-scale disruption.
Business is personal.
How humans show up and interact with their professional pursuits frankly has a greater impact than we all give it credit. Conscious leadership can come whether you are an entry-level employee to the CEO of a Fortune 500 company.
It's a way of moving through the world and an energetic signature - it fosters grounded success, and it is based on business energetics.
Old business is not going to cut it anymore. I feel a rumble happening within the collective consciousness. It’s low but growing. The old bill of goods revolves around the role of work, how you work, the depletion, the sacrifice, and the playing of someone else's game.
Business Energetics
Do you think about your purpose? I know people who have spent years identifying and locking in on ‘their purpose.’ That is what gives them meaning and focus and allows them to create a difference in the world. They often feel trapped in a job that doesn't feel close to their purpose.
I have a different take.
What if your purpose, truly, is to be you thoroughly and completely? And what if your work, profession, or business is a vehicle for self-discovery? I mean, who doesn’t like to make money while becoming a more integrated version of themselves? That's what we call a win-win, kids.
Welcome to the world of Business Energetics. It is clear that the old ways of depletion, consumption, and drudgery with work have got to go for our planet, heart, communities, and children. It starts with each of us doing the work to create a new internal reality that ripples out brightly. It’s how we spend our time, dollars, attention, and energy. It is rolling up your sleeves, getting support, and knowing that you CAN make a difference no matter how you spend your 90K hours.
Business energetics is a term thrown around and is the name of a modality I created. After working with countless clients where work or business was their primary focus in their energy and coaching sessions, I saw a need. People were floundering in the old paradigm of business. It was feeling dry and depleting, and their souls had been crying out for a more embodied, empowered, nourishing, holistic relationship with work.
With business energetics, business is personal, and it also isn’t personal. It is about individuation and embodied leadership that allows you to speak up for your beliefs, lead from a deeply rooted core, and change lives through your presence. I will be speaking more about business energetics in coming blog posts, but in the meantime - how do you feel when you think about the 40 hours you will spend in your professional pursuits? With that in mind, would you take a different approach?