WHAT DOES YOUR ordinary day look like? For most of us, it involves some component of purpose, contribution, a feeling of accomplishment. Possibly meeting a significant deadline responsible for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Restacking the shelves to ensure customers have what they need. Serving up a meal that generates nutrition, belonging and joy. Giving relief to a person in chronic pain or despair. Teaching a child about the value of honesty or an elder about hope. Or teaching ourselves to know when to push for more or simply to surrender and give busy a break.
We wear our daily lives as casually as we throw on our favorite pair of jeans, mindlessly and habitually going about our tasks. Some days, we wrap ourselves up in heavy woolen scarves, burrowing down into our long days of ordinary, trying to escape the relentless demands and expectations of others. Other days we are stripped bare, yearning to refashion our mundane lives. Occasionally, we receive a day that is so extraordinary; we wear it forever, an heirloom of treasure adorned to our hearts.
Our ordinary days are comprised of countless tasks. In the business work world, we refer to them as skills, core competencies, strengths; in our personal lives we might acknowledge them as to-do lists, errands and chores. Rarely do we acknowledge many of them for what they exemplify — extraordinary gifts worthy of appreciation and celebration. Who knew our very ordinary lives were so exceptional?
Might we welcome 2014 as a year of honoring and recognizing our gifts? What would it take to intentionally illuminate the extraordinary within each of us? Each day. To allow our spirit to lead us, find joy in our work, kindness in our contributions, to receive from others in awe. How can we lean into our own light, the source of our magnificence, to brighten the familiar, highlight the unexpected, share our grandeur with all — in all ways.
If we work full-time during 2014, that provides us with 2,080 hours of opportunity to bring out the extra in our workplace ordinary. While leadership books, assessment tools, continuous training and teaming seminars have merit, might we simply consider fully showing up in our ordinary, authentic, significant selves? We could walk through the doors or log onto our computers joyously, desiring to contribute daily with passion, conviction and courage. We could choose to create and motivate using our hearts and souls as deliberately as we use our heads. There is no need to broadcast our arrival; rather we simply need to arrive genuinely, presently, fully — spiritually. It is through our spiritual self that we will quietly and assuredly convert the ordinary into extraordinary.
How is it that we bring our spiritual selves into the workplace, in a way that can’t be measured by performance improvement or strategic planning tools? How is it we lead a spiritual lifestyle that can accompany us no matter where we’re at or which gifts we choose to showcase? Spirituality is perhaps the most understated and important accessory we wear — often one that’s only pulled out for special occasions. Allow 2014 to be the year you take it out of the closet, dust it off and wear it daily. Guaranteed, it will put the extra in ordinary.
Try this on for comfort to ease you into wearing spirituality into the workplace more casually: See. Be. Do. Live. Give.
- Start using your perspective, your intuitive insight, to See more clearly. Trust what you are seeing is with greater clarity.
- Engage your emotions, your senses, your inner compass to Be. Trust the inner connection to your Source self, the essence of your Being is for your higher good.
- Use your head, heart, hands and feet daily to Do more. Trust your actions bring much value to many, even when many may be one.
- Give as much, as often, as kindly as possible. Trust your contributions are gifts that only you can give.
- Live. Choose to live and lead each day of your life joyously, purposefully. Trust your life is a journey of ordinary that leaves an extraordinary impactful legacy upon others.
May your ordinary 2014 days be filled with extra — in all ways.
