This week we feature two related excerpts from Robin Wheeler's "Insights" series of books, on the nature of our concepts of jobs and moving into doing what comes naturally, as opposed to simply working to survive.

Jobs are going out of fashion. If you have left them behind, you have probably seen for yourself what I am about to say. If you are re-inventing yours, either through personal awakening or market pressures, you are on track. If you are stuck in one, stay open to possibility.

Unintelligent jobs are in the interests of others. They are designed by the economic machine, which has profit at its heart, rather than your wellbeing, that of others or that of the planet. So having a job may look as if it is serving your needs, like earning an income and keeping you busy, but it is more destructive than it is beneficial.

Jobs like that cost you your freedom, intelligence and soul in exchange for something that is already provided for by the whole. We do not realise that we are taken care of because the world as we know it is such a distortion of the natural order. That distortion is within us too, and working in a job that does not ring true for you just keeps the cycle going.

Most jobs disempower you, and sap your ability to discern and decide what to do with your life. People I speak to who have jobs so often don’t know who they are, what they want, or how to change. Before they can get a grip on something real, they are back at the office wasting their time and expending their energy in a downward spiral. Even when they try to follow their truth, it is one step forward and ten steps back. It is very difficult to help them.

Jobs arose in history as part of a certain era of evolution and are not conducive to the emerging consciousness.

Being Paid For What Comes Naturally

It’s easy to negotiate for more money when you are trading what you resent doing for getting paid. The difficulty comes when you begin to do what you love for a living.

If you dislike what you do, trading money for it makes sense. This is how most people relate to their income. However, this way, everything is upside down. You approach a promotion in the same way as going to war and feel deflated after receiving it because the next one is now a long way off. You get reinforced for being unhappy. When you shift into doing what comes naturally, your whole world, including your relationship with income, changes. One of the challenges becomes charging for your work. That’s because you feel you are now charging for who you are. What is that worth? Your personal identity is at stake and the value of your true self cannot be costed.

You can use market-based pricing for similar services as a guide and pitch yourself on the scale relative to others. You can use your experience and brand reputation as benchmarks, or you can develop a value-based measure. Still, it may not feel quite right to you. In the last 13 years, I have never felt comfortable when setting my rates. On the one hand, my work feels priceless. On the other, I’ll happily do it for free.

So I am trying a new arrangement where I accept work only when my heart is in it, work that I find intrinsically rewarding and that I will postpone my other passions for. I invest in relationships and projects without attachment to money, and let that fall into place as we go. It takes some courage and trust. It seems to be taking me and the people I work with into a new place of sincerity and honesty, where we do business in a more conscious way.

Being paid for what you love doing is an awakening.

• Add New

Comments (0)

Write comment

Name:

Email: do not notifynotify

Website:

Title:

Message:

Please input the anti-spam code that you can read in the image.