Work is hard. But there is a way to make it good.
In his last Vocari presentation in the US this year, Michael Frost explores what Victor Frankl discovered carried him through his unspeakable torture in three WWII concentration camps. We can use this same truth to bring perseverance and even passion to our daily grind.
Phoning it in
Source: Seth Godin’s Blog
This was sort of shocking, at least to me:
I was talking to a religious leader, someone who runs a congregation. She made it clear to me that on many days, it’s just a job. A job like any other, you show up, you go through the motions, you get paid.
I guess we find this disturbing because spiritual work should be real, not faked.
But isn’t your work spiritual?
I know doctors, lawyers, waiters and insurance brokers who are honestly and truly passionate about what they do. They view it as an art form, a calling, and an important (no, an essential) thing worth doing.
In fact, I don’t think there’s a relationship between what you do and how important you think the work is. I think there’s a relationship between who you are and how important you think the work is.
Life’s too short to phone it in.
Stephen Green: Bankers Need A Moral Compass
Source NPR: February 22, 2010
With bank bailouts and executive bonuses in the headlines, it’s hard to find the connection between banking and ethics.
But it’s an argument that Stephen Green, chairman of HSBC — one of the biggest banks in the world — makes in his new book about banking: Good Value: Reflections on Money, Morality and an Uncertain World.
Green is also an ordained priest in the Church of England. In his book, he proposes a “new capitalism” that brings good business and good ethics together. He says moral and spiritual values should take precedence over immediate profit.
Making lemonade from, well, you know…
The Great Recession has ended millions of jobs… and disrupted the lives of each of those former employees. It has required a massive reset for each person to ask the tough questions about who they are and what they are supposed to do next. For some, that means considering their “calling”.
Some have been able to move from Company A to Company B and continue on. But many more have had to completely retool (to borrow a term from America’s manufacturing past). That’s because many, if not most, of those jobs are just not coming back.
The “Lemonade Movie” came from the journey of a handful of people (formerly) in advertising — a function that usually is one of the first to get cut. But these creative people did not just throw up their hands and go to the movies… they made one.
As is often the case in advertising — and in real life — there may be aspects of this story that are, well, untraditional. But regardless of its expression, the underlying tale is one of life and re-creation. We hope you are encouraged!
Living the iLife:Remaining human in a digital world
Email is the least of it. Now we have wikis, Google Wave, Match.com. We call these ”social media”, despite the fact that none involves actual, face-to-face human contact! Nonetheless, people are increasingly relying on these virtual connections for real human interaction… even for finding life partners! Welcome to iLife.
Vocari is dedicated to helping people discover and live their vocational & spiritual calling in the post-modern workplace. That is why we invited cultural historian and social futurist Dr. Leonard Sweet to share his observations with us in October 2009. He is author of more than two hundred articles and dozens of books, including SoulTsunami and The Gospel According to Starbucks.
His insights about living in the post-modem age bridged the worlds of academe and popular culture. Weaving together the intersection of post-modern culture, technology, and spirituality, Dr. Sweet characterized us as being either in the “Gutenberg generation” or “Google generation”, depending on you are born before or after 1973. The Gutenberg generation relies on the printed word with a sequential, left brained orientation. The right-brained Google generation is focused on simultaneous experience of images. To the Gutenberg group, it’s derogatory to say one is all thumbs, but it’s a compliment to the Google group!
Dr. Sweet observed that the issue is not whether the digital world will change our lives, but putting ourselves in a position to monitor and manage how we use the digital experience to express our humanity. For example, digital culture favors virtual relationships that are anonymous. An example is the development of online personas like Milo Natal for the next generation of X Box. Nonetheless, it is possible to create real, vital relationships, even in virtual worlds, if our spirits are grounded in who we were created to be.