Look no further than the legal field.  Case in point:  Scott Rogers, creator of The Mindful Lawyer,” and his delightful “The Mindfulness Memo: the Motion for an Extension of Thyme.”  Here’s just one tidbit that is useful for any job:

Thoughts like “I don’t have enough time,” or “I’ll never get this done in time” have both a factual quality and a “fear-based” quality.  While it can sometimes be the case that poor planning or circumstances result in a genuine rush, more often than not, the perception of “not enough time” is a conditioned thought that arises and, when believed, creates a “false” sense of crises that undermines performance.”

Rogers’ solution: mindfulness or meditation practices that can “help provide greater clarity of mind, focus, and ease in dealing with procrastination and time deadlines.” For tips you can use right now to turn your day from harried to happy, click here:

For More Peace and Productivity At Work, Imitate Some Lawyers

“The Motion for an Extension of Thyme” is just one of 500 pages of tips and resources in J. Kim Wright’s Lawyers as Peacemakers, which has been a best-seller since it was published by the American Bar Association last spring.  It’s chock full of information on how to bring more creativity, problem-solving effectiveness  and spirit to any job, legal or not. There’s even a reprint of an article I wrote on how to create a sanctuary at work!

At least a dozen mainstream law schools like Harvard and Yale offer courses in meditation as part of a mindful lawyering practice, says an article on meditation in the October 2010 California Lawyer.

For information on contemplative practices and how you can bring a variety of contemplative practices to your work, see also the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society,  Cutting Edge Law, and Idealawg.

What Can You Learn From a Lawyer to Improve Your Work and Life?

What kind of hope and inspiration can you take from lawyers who meditate?

How can you bridge the need to be focused, clear and absolutely practical with your own drive for meaning, purpose and joy?

How can you create more productive time and pleasure in your life and work by being more conscious?

As always, comments are welcome!

Best wishes, Pat McHenry Sullivan
Appreciator of Lawyers

Check out my latest project:  a continuing education program for the California State Bar, “From Stress Burnout and Exhaustion to Energy, Resilience and Insight”

Coming soon, a workbook for anyone on this topic. Want a presentation on this topic?  Call 510-530-0284

Transforming Practices: Finding Joy and Satisfaction in the Legal Life by Steven Keeva is just as powerful a transformative tool for real estate agents, receptionists, doctors or people in any other profession as it is for lawyers, judges and legal staff. That’s because Steve wrote about how ordinary people, without permission from the powers that be, bring transforming practices (such as meditation) into their work and thus transform whatever is their work.  Plus, legal work touches all of us, and if lawyers can work more effectively by working more deeply from their souls, then there’s more hope for all of us.
Steven Keeva’s writing and speaking voice have been stilled for several years due to illness.  His website, www.transformingpractices.com, was hacked into some time ago and has not yet been restored.  His book was for several years out of print.  Now the American Bar Association has brought Transforming Practices back.  If there is only one book you could read to discover the heart and soul of your work, this is it.

Transforming Practices is full of juicy stories and practical tips that anyone can use to rediscover the values that drew us to our professions and to steer clear of ethical sandbars or to keep energy and spirit alive through difficult times.  As several attorneys noted in a tribute to Steve at a convention of the International Association of Holistic Lawyers, it’s a lot easier to make changes in a sometimes hidebound profession when someone else has helped make more creative and compassionate ways of operating better known and acceptable.

As you hear some of those tributes to Steve on YouTube, you can be inspired about the impact one person can have when we simply take time to listen, to reflect, and to articulate the longings in others’ hearts that they do not yet know how to speak.

Spirituality and law was not Steve’s original beat for the ABA Journal.  His introduction to the field came first from recognizing how dispirited many lawyers are, for when Steve had to consult with attorneys about a story he was writing, they often poured out their frustrations with the profession.  After discovering the field of spirituality and work about the mid-90′s, he started searching for signs of spirituality in law.  Soon he had enough examples to pitch an article on the subject to the ABA Journal.  Research on the article led to the initial publication of Transforming Practices.

I first connected with Steve while he was finishing Transforming Practices through my friend Judi Neal, Judi’s story of how her meditation practices transformed her experience as a whistleblower and legal client became the center of Chapter 11 of Transforming Practices.

It’s been a joy to speak to Steve over the years, to trade e-mails, and once to speak with him and Stewart Levine about spirituality and law at a spirit and work conference at the University of Massachusetts some years ago.

Steve may never be able to write again.  Those of us who have loved talking with him may never be able to carry on a conversation with him again.

Fortunately, the stories he has told and the simple, clear instructions he has given will endure.  So will his model for transforming a profession:  listen to your own heart.  Take good notes.  Listen to others.  Take good notes.  Open your heart to the hearts of others.  Take good notes, and when you are ready, share the best words that your heart can find to express what matters.

As always, many blessings,

Pat McHenry Sullivan

There are Many Ways Meaning Can Enhance All Your Bottom Lines

My book, Work with Meaning, Work with Joy: Bringing Your Spirit to Any Job, came out of months of workday hell on many levels: working in a high pressure corporate law firm during three downsizings, having to do a lot of overtime because my husband was out of work, three family members on the other side of the country were dying, and feeling my own entrepreneurial dreams go further away every day.

Fortunately, I had learned from earlier challenges the power of meaning, particularly from the works of Viktor Frankl, author of Man’s Search for Meaning. If he could find life-saving meaning in the midst of Auschwitz, surely I could find meaning at a safe workplace that I could leave when the workday was over.

Inspired by Frankl, I learned four key principles that can be applied to any tough situation:

• Tasks that are perceived as meaningful get done more exuberantly and effectively and therefore less expensively.
• Work that is perceived as meaningful is less stressful, which leads to less burnout, fewer sick days, less turnover, and higher productivity.
• The clearer our sense of meaning and purpose, the more resilient we can be in hard times. This can lead to higher productivity and ingenuity.
• Guided by our sense of meaning and purpose, we can more clearly see what’s essential to do and what is not. That saves a lot of time, money and energy.

Many People Benefit from Meaning in Work and Money Matters, But Few Are Willing to Talk About Its Power

For example, many business executives tout the benefits of running. After a run, they admit, they are much more efficient and relaxed, but few know or talk openly about the benefits of meditation, which could reconnect them with the source of ultimate meaning and wisdom.

One thing that makes meaning so powerful is that when we are connected to something truly meaningful, we are connected to something much bigger than ourselves, including God. Yet meaning also anchors us in what is most unique and true to ourselves.

My husband John instantly comes more alive when he experiences or shares his love of Satchmo, Native American history, Latin and Gregorian chant. I’m immediately more connected to meaning when I look at the clouds, sing old hymns, or listen to classical music. Both of us experience meaning with our cat, in church, in meditation, with friends or family, or in service.

If Lawyers Can Profit By Working with Meaning, Anyone Can

Things felt so un-spirited and painful in the mid-90′s at the job I described above that I reached out through the internet and friends for help. Judi Neal, now director of the Walton Center in Faith and Spirituality in the Workplace at the University of Arkansas,  connected me to Steven Keeva, then an editor for the Journal of the American Bar Association. Steve was working on what I still think is the greatest book on spirit and work, Transforming Practices: Finding Joy and Satisfaction in the Legal Life. (This book, filled with practical applications of spiritual practices in legal practice, is being re-published within the year.)

Steve connected me to Kim Wright, who refused to be just another unhappy lawyer. Her research and networking led her to create Cutting Edge Law,  where you can connect with many people and organizations who promote openly contemplative practices and spirituality in law.

Cutting Edge Law also has a You-Tube channel of videos with people who have been working to bring in more meaning to law, including my own interview on spirituality and work in law and all professions.

It’s been really exciting for me not just to have learned to find meaning in legal work — which led to my new work in helping bring more meaning and joy to all work. It’s also exciting to be a part of and to report this growing movement to bring more heart and soul to law. Here’s one of my favorite articles on the topics.

Where do you now find meaning in your work, finances and other challenges?

What practices help you connect more to what’s meaningful?

I dare you to share your thoughts with others and help increase the power of meaning in everyday life.

As always, many blessings,
Pat McHenry Sullivan