An Ode to the Coalface (Part 1) (Interlude)

In every person’s heart of hearts, they yearn to make a difference or have a profound impact on the world, which no doubt is a noble aim that characterises a calling, but how a person thinks they can make this contribution is important to decipher. I say this because often our egocentric ambition can hijack this intention of our heart and have us believe that in order to make the contribution we are destined for, we need to be elevated to a higher station in society, where power, influence and our perceived wisdom to solve its problems will effectively enable us to serve a saving role in the world. When this idealised grandiose vision of the future is contrasted with our more modest present reality, we can be tempted to feel that nothing we are doing now really matters, and that it is only those who are celebrated in the media/social media and by the broader culture (who are where we want to be) that are making the type of difference that is worthy of us.

When we think in this way, the daily work we partake in can be seen as ‘small’ or beneath the limits of our potential, and therefore taken for granted with its significance. This way of viewing our efforts can also be amplified when we are working in one-on-one settings where our perceived reach to the broader units of society is limited. While this is understandable if within ourselves we know that we have so much more to give, we mustn’t allow this myopic yearning to blind us to the reality that it is at the coalface that the greatest difference is made to peoples lives. Teachers, doctors, nurses, paramedics, psychologists, mental health professionals and customer service roles are but a few examples of a broader range of professions that interface directly with the public to meet fundamental needs that these people have. While the organs of society don’t always honour the contributions made by these workers by compensating them properly, the immense value of the services they provide is clear to see.

Without these individuals being there as the backbone of society, doing this hard graft with little if any fanfare, its degeneration would be swift. For this reason, I highlight the paramount importance of not diminishing these professions or overlooking those who engage in them as a calling or vocation. In every field, we need committed professionals who love and care about what they do and whom they serve by their efforts. Not only does this make for a meaningful enrichment to the quality of life being derived by those who are served, but it also fosters an enduring sense of fulfilment in those serving, who we need sustained for their continued contributions to be made. This has become all the more important in the wake of the Covid pandemic where workers across professions are having to deal with increased workloads and demands with less support and resourcing for their core functions. While doing more with less appears on its face to be a paradoxical impossibility, in my experience those best able to manage it are the heavily invested and resourceful few who see their work as more than just a job or career.

Another thing that shouldn’t be overlooked is that as we climb the ladder of ‘success’ in our chosen profession which moves us closer to having the outsized impact that the ego finds appealing, we will often become disconnected from the core work that was cause for our involvement in the first place. When I was working in the law, and since moving on to academia, I have witnessed numerous instances of purpose driven and passionate lawyers/lecturers being promoted to executive administration roles that did not resonate with them at all, and drained them of the enthusiasm that infused their work at the coalface, dealing with clients in need and students who were thirsty for the knowledge they had to convey. Chasing the money or promotions in organisational life can have that downside, so if we don’t want to compromise parts of ourselves that keep us connected to and fulfilled in our work, we must be cognisant of the trade-offs involved in taking that course. What is often perceived as ‘levelling up’ by the ego’s measure of progress involves a spiritual regression as we relegate its call to the recesses of our being.

I have made the point on numerous occasions previously that the human spirit has an actualising quality to it, so when we live in alignment with it, our inclination will be to be more and do more of what it is calling us into, but this process of unfolding our latent potentiality and character is organic, and not forced or driven by the personal desire for gain or recognition. Thus, accepting a promotion can be a very natural course if it is something that we grow into by, for example, demonstrating the virtues of diligence or excellence in our work, integrity in our decision making, or responsibility in leading others. The associated increases in pay or other benefits we may receive are earned in this way, as they should be rather than sought as the primary means to be acquired.

Questioning the Utility of Affirmations

My intention for this piece is to look at affirmations and determine whether they are a useful tool in allowing those who practice them to create a more prosperous life. Affirmations are guiding or empowering statements that when routinely repeated are thought to change behaviour or one’s self-concept to better reflect a desired state of being. An example of such a statement could be, ‘everything I do either helps or hurts my prospects of success’. The purpose of such an affirmation would be to remind the person reciting it that each of their behaviours are consequential in creating a life that leads them either closer towards a desired outcome or further away from it. I must admit, when I was younger, I used to recite affirmations quite frequently as a part of my self-improvement regimen, but as I have gotten older and more foundationally aligned with the guiding purpose of my life, I have moved away from practicing them, principally because I have a more solid understanding of who I now am and how I should be orienting myself in the world. Despite this, I sometimes wonder whether I would be served by reintegrating them into my routine, so my hope here is that this examination will provide some clarity on whether I should do just that.

In what can often be a very shallow and opaque self-help environment, people can be led to believe that affirmations work like magic, and that if we put certain messages out into the universe, that an energy that is resonant with those messages will be returned to improve the quality of our life. I am not a subscriber to this kind of belief that was popularised by movies like ‘The Secret’. Where I think that affirmations are most useful is as an anchoring force towards an aspirational future state that we can effect by our own efforts. So in the example affirmation that I have stated above, when a person recites it, they are reminded that ultimately they are responsible for their actions, and that these actions have both positive and negative implications in the short and long term periods of their life. Centring them further in this reality as the affirmation is repeated, they are also led to become more aware and present to this locus of control that exists within, but is so often eschewed by the imposition of external forces which can convince the person that they are an impotent victim of circumstance.

For those of us who are inclined towards the self-help space, there exists a recognition of an ever present gap between where we currently are in our development and where we aspire to be at a future time after having worked on ourselves. Like the setting of goals that orient us towards those future points, affirmations serve a similar function but with less of the end in mind (depending of course on what the substance of the affirmation is). Being more concerned with the processual elements of who we need to become in order to reach those goals and beyond, they are perhaps more important in being able to ensure our sustained success towards that end. In my own experience, the affirmations that are most effective in altering our self-concept for the better are those that incorporate the first person ‘I’ into their wording. These types of affirmations also avoid the pitfall of relating to things that we have very little control over. For example, an affirmation like ‘others respond to me with enthusiasm and engagement’ puts the cart before the horse of what we can practically control through our own behaviour. While we can’t make others respond to us in this intended way because that is something that they exclusively have control over, we can affirm to ourselves that we are filled with the enthusiasm that engages us in something meaningful which others might want to follow if we are being congruous in feeling that enthusiasm.

Words are just that, words, but for affirmations to be given effect, they must be capable of being embodied. This is why they must be realistic and not pie in the sky or akin to a wish. An affirmation that would seek to have us win the lotto lacks the causative factor that is necessary to make it a reality. Yes, we can buy a number of lottery tickets as we go about affirming this desire, but too much remains beyond our limited control for this to materialise. Even if we were to adopt such an affirmation and somehow win the lotto, it wouldn’t bring us any feeling of fulfilment in what we have found because we would know that luck has played more of a pivotal part in something that we haven’t earned by our own efforts.

But, by contrast, with the ‘I’ centred affirmations described above, these require the cultivation of character or other deep seated virtues that are their own reward for the journey that the genuine embodiment of the substance of those affirmations enables us to take. These are the real, but often overlooked ‘riches’ that are more valuable than the end points that we seek out, often at the ego’s prompting (for the desired end state of winning the lotto, this can hardly be said to be motivated by benevolent purposes such as giving the money to charity or the advancement of other worthy causes – typically, this philanthropy is undertaken by those who have earned their money through entrepreneurial ventures or by other diligent means that have required sacrifice on their part). One form of these riches that affirmations can cultivate is the moving from a state of doubt to conviction in a domain such as the living of our life purpose or calling.

Maybe an affirmation that centres on our vocation reads as follows, ‘I serve and enrich others as I teach them about the importance of holistic (mental, physical and spiritual) health and well-being’. When you started out using the affirmation (or a more relevant variant of it), it was likely adopted because of a disconnect that you felt between your work and the meaning that it held for you. Engendering in you a sense of doubt that you were on purpose in your life, the initial benefit of articulating the affirmation in words is that it clarifies the ‘why’ component of your calling that constitutes a fundamental building block of belief as you resolve to recite the affirmation on a ritualistic basis. Whereas before you may have gone about your work without a conscious recognition of how your efforts were serving the needs of those others, by keeping a reminder of your daily impacts before your eyes, you gain a stronger faith in the difference you are making to their lives. Improving the qualitative experience of your lived calling, this manifests not only in greater levels of fulfilment as you go about your work, but also in better outcomes for those you serve and enrich. Begetting even greater faith in the necessity of your inspired work, the bridge to conviction won’t long be crossed to where you harbour no doubts about the path you are on and the capacity for positive transformation that it has in the world.

As with most things, affirmations can be adopted to serve shallow or substantive purposes. What I hope to have established here is their utility in serving the latter which enhances not only the individual life of the affirmer but also the conditions of the external world which our personal flourishing can’t help but permeate. For these reasons, I think that affirmations can be a valuable tool for future manifestation of a desired state of being if they are authentic to the person and animate them with the internal resources that are needed to actualise the higher version of themselves that is envisioned.

A Greenlight of my own (Part 1)

In his best-selling book Greenlights, actor Matthew McConaughey introduces the reader to his concept of the greenlight, being an event that paves the way for a person to live into a better version of who they are. When I read his book, these happenings resonated strongly with me as I looked back over the journey of my life, and one story in particular stood out as being quite pivotal to where I am now. Below is the extract from my diary that captures this circumstance and my learnings about where it has led me:

When the student is ready, the teacher appears. This pearl of Buddhist wisdom captures a truth that I experienced first-hand in my early twenties when I had my curiosity piqued by a friend who articulated to me his fascination with the spiritual dimension of life and the works which conveyed its wisdom. Perhaps sensing my desire for a deeper experience of life, he drew my attention to the book, The Celestine Prophecies, which he found to be an enthralling read. Urging me to take its learnings in, he told me enthusiastically about some of the teachings in the book and how they had helped him see his life in a more expansive and positive light. Wanting this for myself, I took the light from his eyes and made it my own, making a commitment to myself to get my hands on the book to learn whatever I could from it.

As I drove the short distance home from his place, I can remember worrying about how difficult the book would be to source (this was prior to on-line booksellers like Amazon being the go to for book purchases). Being naive to its immense popularity and status as a bestseller, I questioned which bookstores would stock this jewel of a work, but I was soon to find out that my futile questioning was not necessary.

When I arrived home, I went straight to my mother’s room and asked her if she had ever heard of the book that my friend claimed was life changing. “Indeed”, she said buoyantly, “It is an interesting and very insightful book. You should be able to find it on the bookshelf in the study.” “What!?” I exclaimed. “We have this book in the house?” “Yes”, she calmly replied. “I have many of those types of books in my collection. I bought them over the years to help deal with your father’s death, and to grow as a person.” “Okay”, I said perplexedly, “but why didn’t you bring them to my attention earlier? They could have been beneficial to my development.” At this she retorted, “True, but Christian, you had never shown any interest in these books until now, and I wasn’t going to force them on you as there would have been no benefit to that. Your journey is your journey, and I just figured that if and when the time came for you to explore the spiritual path, I would direct you to them.” ‘Good response’, I thought to myself, ‘I can’t argue with that.’ My mother’s reply here was so typical of the love and respect that she has for me as a son and a person. What she knew so well from her own journey was that meaningful learning which can penetrate the soul of a person must be voluntary and not compelled. In this, she was an advocate of the wise saying, “You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink.”

I cannot really describe to you what I felt as I walked into the study that day. I had walked into that room a thousand times previously, but with my eyes closed to the marvels of what it contained. Today I walked in there anew, with an openness that had eluded me in my prolonged habitual stupor. All I can say is that it was a feeling which truly captured the possibility that I was going to meet with something that was going to profoundly shape my life course. As I looked searchingly at the rows of literature held by that large antique wooden bookshelf, I felt a shiver of exultation that I had not felt in a long time. One by one, I would become acquainted with the titles that I would share my time with in the succeeding months and years. In that collection was A Course in Miracles and books by Wayne Dyer, Dale Carnegie, Norman Vincent Peale and Deepak Chopra. Rick Warren’s The Purpose-Driven Life was also there, as was The Celestine Prophesies. To have these works at my fingertips was truly awesome and I felt so blessed to have come to this treasure that was right under my nose. While I thought to commence with the book that had brought me to this collection, something else that I had found called out to me, so with that I would start my journey of transformation.

Offering a Generous Taste (Part 1)

When was the last time that you gave something to someone without asking for anything in return? In the ‘me first; what do I have to gain’ culture that we live in, this posture of generosity almost seems irrational doesn’t it. Angling ourselves to profit from our actions in one way or another, our pervading paradigm is one that would have us ask for something before we are willing to give anything in return. By wanting the harvest before planting the seed, we violate an essential law of nature which says that before we can reap we must first sow.

To truly prosper in life, we must be able to look past our own wants to deliver to others what they most need from us. For a great number of people this is quite difficult because they are not attuned to their spirit’s orientation to serve. Being ego driven in their quest for personal success, they struggle to see beyond the satiation of their desires in the moment to any longer term benefit for others that their contributions could help to facilitate. As a consequence, the misguided questions that they ask of life only deliver to them counterfeit answers in the form of fleeting pleasures and shallow freedoms that go no way to actualising the immense potential that they have been endowed with.

The question that they should be asking is ‘what can I bring to the world that demonstrates the unique contribution that I have to make to it?’ Each of us has an incomparable combination of giftings that others in the world would yearn to receive if we put them on display. As we unfurl these with our distinctive personality and enthusiastic spirit, we will reveal to the world something that is truly worth sampling. Whether that is the lessons we have learned from our life, a computer program that we have developed, or a feat of endeavour that inspires others and gives them hope, every person has something exceptional to share that no one else can replicate.

One of the people that I most admire is chef extraordinaire Heston Blumenthal, who has made his own mark in the culinary world in a big way. Educating himself in the art of cooking, his off the wall creations are regarded by many to be masterpieces of their genre. With reservations to his numerous restaurants always being in high demand, Heston would have every reason not to be generous with his recipes, yet he makes them freely available online and in books to anyone who wants to attempt them.

But this doesn’t make sense right. I mean, why would a genius at the top of his game share his recipes for little to no return? Because he wants others to experience the love that he has for what he does, and inspire them to bring forth new creations in their own kitchens. Being himself an artist, what he understands is that no one can do his dishes better than he can, no matter how hard they try. In this, the real value of his work lies not in the recipes, but in his mind that concocted them. Forming the essence of his brand, this uncompromising display of his unique quality is what clearly distinguishes him from every other top chef in the world.

Having mastered his field has allowed Heston to be a giver rather than a taker. By sowing the seeds of his harvest with courage, hard work and determination, he has a bounty to share with the world and each of us is better off because of it. An open and generous heart withholds nothing, whether it is a recipe, a piece of wisdom or a solution to a problem. By giving of this essence, we cast out fear and clear the room for greater levels of abundance, inspiration and gratitude to enter our lives. Just as we are inspired by Heston’s dishes, so is he inspired by our appreciation of them, and in the absence of the fear that he has of others making his contributions obsolete, so do we become less fearful of preparing a sample of work for the world that is composed of our spirit’s natural ingredients of virtue and purpose.