That's the title of a training workshop I'll be giving in Bar Harbor today for the Maine Community Action Agencies. I typically plan too much to present in the time allowed, mostly because my style is to engage with the participants and facilitate discussion around the topic.

This particular workshop will have a blend of information and statistics on the factors that contribute to working with passion, those conditions that tend to block work satisfaction and exercises and focused writing to help participants recognize where their own work scenarios need attention.

The "simple steps to love your work" come down to something many of us are in need of today: increasing balance in our lives. Unless an individual slows down at times, they become oblivious to what is going on around them and within them. Theologian and philosopher Thomas Moore, in his popular book, "Care of the Soul", writes about our inexhaustible search for health and balance with lives that are essentially void of connection. "Naturally, we feel empty if everything we do slides past us without sticking."

I propose that being connected in our lives requires attention to four areas: Self, Others, Nature and Purpose.

Connected to Self, means we are aware of and address our physical, emotional, spiritual and intellectual needs.

Connection to Others allows for a flow of energy in our lives where we give as well as receive from others.

Because nature is all around us, we seem guaranteed to be connected to the natural world. However, in our hectic, over-committed lives, we forget to notice the beauty and wondrous changes in our immediate surroundings. Connection to Nature grounds us in our corner of the planet and reminds us that we are part of a larger eco-system.

Increasingly, people are seeking a greater sense of meaning and purpose in their lives and they look to work to fill this need. This is in sharp contrast to the fact that: "Twenty million Americans are staying in jobs they hate in order to keep their health insurance, when ironically it's the way they are working that is likely to make them sick!"
(Barbara Rinehold,
Toxic Work). Connection to Purpose is an alignment between what you most value and what you uniquely offer the world and can be a result of your paid or volunteer experience.

If you resonate with what I've written, take note of which area of connection needs attention in your own life. Identify an action step you can take within the next two weeks to increase a sense of connection with it.

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