SteveNobel.com

The Enlightenment of Work:

Transform your suffering; be more resourceful;

awaken to play, flow and bliss.

(This book will be published by Watkins Books sometime in 2011, date to be announced).

"If you’re in any way stuck in that horrible prison of a job or career you don’t love and feel you’re wasting your life away, I most strongly urge you to read this book - Steve is genuine, a master at what he does and this book is a veritable gem." - Barefoot Doctor - author of Super Charged Taoist

Introduction

This may seem an obvious statement but here goes anyway – many people around the world are now suffering in their work in some way. Not everyone suffers, but many do, millions, perhaps even billions. I know about suffering at work from personal experience. I suffered for many years. I have done my time! And so here is my message to you about suffering. Firstly suffering can come in many ways. It can come through feeling aimless and bored where the only reason for being there is to collect the pay cheque at the end of the month. It can come through stress, overwork and burnout. Sometimes it comes through overarching ambition, when we have tried too hard and for too long to climb up the corporate ladder only to find it is leaning in the wrong direction. There is always challenges at work and there will be the inevitable disappointment and frustration. Sometimes suffering arises through unrealistic expectations, when we are not able to see the truth in a situation. Wherever there are relationships there can be disagreement. Sometimes disagreement can be creative sometimes not. When it is not it can lead to manipulation, conflict, and even bullying. We can suffer when we are without work for short or long periods. Whatever our work there is always the possibility that we can feel exposed to being undervalued, criticised or harshly judged. Suffering can come through feeling trapped in a job that feels joyless or hard – we may feel we have little say in the content or context of our work. We may feel unable to follow a direction that gives a sense of meaning or joy. We may feel that we are incapable of making the kinds of changes to our work we would most like. Suffering can be physical, emotional, mental, and even spiritual. There is the kind of physical suffering that arises when the stress or joylessness of work creates ongoing tension in the body. This is turn can to ill-health and serious illness. There is degrees of emotional suffering when we feel anger, grief, misery, and unhappiness at work. We can suffer mentally by recycling thoughts around failure, insignificance and powerlessness – these thoughts can coalesce into fixed beliefs that say we cannot positively influence or shape our destiny in any way. Then there is spiritual suffering which is more commonplace than you may think. This arises when our work disconnects us from our true essence. Whatever the cause of suffering it can easily start in one area and then start to spread. Physical suffering will tend to lead to emotional, mental and even spiritual suffering. For instance if you have a physical injury that prevents you from doing certain activities then it can be hard not to have certain thoughts and feelings about this.

Suffering can be infectious. If you are long term unemployed then the stress of can so easily touch those you come into daily contact with. In our celebrity culture where the bright and the beautiful is good, suffering is seen as something bad, something to be shunned and kept at a distance. We can read about suffering in the newspapers and that is as close as it should get. Suffering is seen as an illness, as shameful, something that must be avoided at all costs. When it comes knocking at our door it can feel that we should hide away and not speak of it. Keep a stiff upper lip and all of that. There is a difference between pain and suffering. Pain cannot be avoided. Pain is something we will all encounter at some point. We may be the most optimistic affirming person on the planet, yet we will still encounter pain. We cannot keep it at bay forever with Hopefully when pain comes we will know how to use it for our upliftment and growth and move on. Suffering can be avoided. When we deny pain then we create unnecessary suffering. When we suppress the pain of certain feelings then we create suffering that may take any number of forms. This is like trying to force shut the lid on a boiling saucepan – not a very good idea. The good news is that we can unravel patterns of suffering. The good news is just as suffering happen, so too can inspiration, joy, love and possibility. Life can be an amazingly rich tapestry of experience and growth. This book has a simple philosophy: suffering happens; there is no merit in suffering; suffering can be embraced and transformed; when we truly transform suffering then something different can be experienced.

The Four Possibilities arose from personal experience - they are not just some abstract theory. I suffered considerably for the first ten years of my working life from a deep sense of meaninglessness and depression. I could see no point in the work I was doing. I had no real affinity with it. Worst than that I deeply questioned the ethics of some of the things I was working on. For instance each morning for a number of years I would come into work each morning to spend the first few hours processing paperwork dealing with the export of arms to various foreign regimes. There were other aspects of the work I was not sure about such as the financing of huge projects in developing countries. Money seemed to be thrown around like confetti and many of these developing countries paid dearly over the years in interest payments. Mostly I had very little say over my day to day work. I was a cog in a greater machine. Work was initiated elsewhere and some of it I got to process. It did not matter whether I agreed with it or not. I had to toe the company line. I was not in a position to argue the matter. The message was clear - do the work or get another job. And I could not find many people in the organisation that seemed to share my sense of disquiet or unease. My fellow workers seemed happy to get on with things and drown their sorrows with a few beers at lunch and after work. There was a lack of any real conversation that could help me make sense of my work or my direction in life. For as long as I remember in this job I had strong migraines that would just emerge unexpectedly. There were an assortment of other minor ailments, nothing serious but it went on for many years. I sought relief through changing my diet, Macrobiotics, Yoga, Tai Chi, and different forms of meditation. I discovered eventually that the source of my suffering was nothing to do with my lifestyle, it was everything to do with what I was doing and how i was being in my work.

In time the build up of tension and stress led me to taking time out, around a year in fact. The physical tension subsided but the depression stayed. My ten years in banking were at an end but where next. I could not see a particularly bright future. During this period of convalescence, and with the support of a psychotherapy group, I began to unearth much that was previously unexamined in myself. I found a new job working for an inner city borough in the Housing Directorate working with special needs and elderly tenants. I had moved from a structured conservative environment to a socialist idealistic and rather chaotic environment. This was not without its challenges but I felt more at home and discovered abilities I did not know I had. I discovered that I was good with people, that I was able to manage and problem solve. I started to trust myself and develop my intuition. My depression eventually faded and in its place emerged a latent passion for spirituality. I began to attend spiritual and personal development workshops, these helped me transform different aspects of my life but my work still felt out of synch with my heart and spirit. All in all I worked here for 10 years until once again I felt the winds of change once more. My heart was saying now was the time to leave but my head said stay. But since I was more spiritually aware I decided to ask my innermost spirit, Higher Self, the Universe (the name felt unimportant) a question. “Should I resign from this job?” I waited and within 48 hours I received the answer. During a lunch break as I was walking back to work one day there was a guy walking in front of me several feet ahead. On the back of his T-shirt there was the Nike slogan saying “Just do it”. The message hit me like a thunderbolt, but my mind cut across very quickly discounting the message. I was reminded by a stream of thoughts that I had responsibilities and should not to throw everything away because of some random slogan on a T-shirt. As I continued walking my attention was drawn to a nearby window and there was a sticker with the same message “Just do it”. Ok, That was it, I gave in, I surrendered and very soon after handed in my letter of resignation. I can still remember the bliss of that day and how grey everyone else in the workplace seemed.

Thus began my next adventure with work. Now I had let go of the ‘safe’ career and instead threw myself into every kind of job that I could find. I painted houses, I did landscape gardening, I sold books, I sold health products, I worked in an office, I made tea. I was noticing when I was in flow and when I was struggling. I learnt that chasing jobs put me in struggle. The more I trusted the process the more I felt in flow. During this time I started doing some part time work for an amazing organisation called Alternatives, based in St. James’s Church, Piccadilly, London. After a year or so they offered me the job of full time administrator. I was not so keen on doing administration but I loved the organisation and so I said yes. I continued doing personal development seminars and discovered interesting concepts such as values and untapped gifts. After a year of admin I was offered a directorship of Alternatives. In a short period of time two other co-directors resigned and I found that I was running the organisation alone. Not having much business experience I meditated and prayed. Fortunately the Universe was listening and responded. I was guided to employ the perfect people for the right jobs and take some important decisions to restore the organisation to a place of high morale and financial stability and abundance. As I write this I have been a director of Alternatives for just over 10 years. Here I learnt to play and be creative. I learnt more about the power of generosity and what goes around comes around. I learnt about the important of community and in finding the right tribe. In 2001 I started to write my first book and now I am a published author with this being my third book. Writing is something I have come to love dearly – both the research aspect and the creative aspect. Around 2004 I began to get interested in coaching and NLP, I trained and a few years started a personal and business coaching business which I now run part time. Also I have been running retreat and workshops for several years now. More recently I started a podcasting section on my website where I interview different authors and teachers in spiritual awakening, personal development, coaching, business and work and make them available as free resources. All of the above continues to be a great source of inspiration and joy for me.

This book has been a journey of tremendous discovery for me – researching and writing this book has changed my views on work and growth. And this is as it should be, as the Buddha says, nothing is permanent. This book draws on wisdom from a number of sources primarily Buddhism, Coaching/NLP and Taoism. Although I have presented many stories and ideas and meditations that are Buddhist this is not a book about being a Buddhist. You do not have to believe in anything that is written herein. I simply encourage you to try some of the ideas on for size and see what happens. I offer this book in the spirit of adventure, compassion, and service in the hope that it will help you find your own unique way to transform suffering, and navigate to the limitless possibilities beyond. You can use this book to transform your own limiting attitudes and perspectives on the work you do and open to new ways of behaving. This will certainly allow more peace, joy and possibility to arise within your existing work. You can use this book also to explore changing the work itself. Changing your attitudes and perspectives on what is possible for you will certainly help you. Learning to be more authentic, resourceful, intuitive, playfully creative, and in the flow will help you to this end. You may not know what you want as an end result, then the book is an aid to your process of gaining more clarity. May the ideas, and methodologies of this book lead you in the direction of your heart - towards the boundless experience of peace, purpose, passion, enthusiasm, giftedness, flow, wisdom, joy and bliss in your work.

Steve Ahnael Nobel, 2011

"It's not often a book manages to be so inspirational and informative, compassionate and practical, clear and thorough, simple and deep. This is the spiritual and compassionate path to finding your right work and loving what you do. Steve's approach to the world of work is inspired, insightful, practical, very real and truthful. A must read!" - Arielle Essex, author of Compassionate Coaching and NLP Trainer.

List of Book Contents

Introduction

1. Why Suffer?

2. Transform Your Suffering.

3. The Reinvention of Work.

4. Be Yourself.

5. Work Beyond Belief.

6. Reclaim Your Time.

7. Be More Resourceful.

8. Use Your Intuition.

9. Work and Play.

10. Love Your Work.

11. Bliss at Work.

To listen to some FREE audio on this subject click here

The book contains around 65,000 words and has a resource section at the end with recommended books and websites.