Unfold Your Wings and Watch Life Take Off

Part 1 - Your Calling

Your Calling Helps You Succeed At Work

The frantic helter-skelter pace of the typical modern office can alienate us from one another, from our environment and from ourselves. Consequently offices are not always the most promising places for solving problems and creating supportive, productive human relationships. To be guided from within we need to be in harmony. Our ability to work together harmoniously as a team increases, and our communication improves if we care about one another and are being supportive. Our productivity rises when we create the time and space to be guided from within. We are creating harmony by being supportive and solving problems in new and innovative ways as a result. Companies like Microsoft realise this. In Dublin they have time-out spaces in their office where their employees can go to be alone or to discuss problems informally.

You may say, "We don't have time to access inner guidance at work." When I worked as a management consultant I would bring the people who directed companies to my office once a month for three hours. At those meetings I would teach them how to solve their problems by communicating sensitively and by thinking creatively. I was teaching them how to be guided from within. Meeting once a month for three hours was sufficient to have a major impact on the strategy and success of these companies.

For example I had a client company which sold their product at the low cost, low profit end of the market. After learning the skills of inner guidance, they invented an entirely new way to market and present their product. Their improved marketing gave them confidence. They decided to price the same product they were selling at a low cost in Northern Ireland and as the second most expensive in the Republic Of Ireland.

If you have problems finding time to tune in to the call at work I suggest you start with yourself first. You could choose to do something as simple as come into work an hour earlier on Monday mornings. An hour spent in guided contemplation before work starts is not taking up any of your existing working week. Early on Monday morning will also be a quiet time of day. I suggest you learn to listen within in any way you choose. Perhaps you could use one of five approaches outlined earlier; relaxation, questions, contemplation, talking or meditation. After a period of inner listening you may find it helpful to express what you have heard by either writing down thoughts, drawing images or talking to a colleague.

If you find your early Monday morning quiet time productive and helpful, then you could create other times during the week to listen within by consciously creating space for inner and outer quiet. If you have a private office you could inform the secretary that you do not wish to be disturbed for an hour and hang a "Please Do Not Disturb" notice on the outside of your door. It would also be helpful to find a way to prevent incoming phone calls. You will be more likely to gain the co-operation of other people who normally relate to you, if you explain why you are taking these measures. This is especially true if you have a boss or line manager.

Once you have seen the effectiveness of harnessing inner guidance to help you with your work, you may wish to extend the benefits to others in your organization. If you are the manager of a department or business you might consider making inner guidance part of your organization's business culture. Four things are needed to make inner guidance part of your business culture. Firstly your staff need to be trained in how to listen within. You could do this yourself using this book and the personal development opportunities on the "Trans4mind" website as a guide.

Secondly your staff need an environment suitable for listening within. To provide this I recommend the creation of a quiet room to be used only for inner guidance and quiet discussions to assist inner guidance. Thirdly this room and its environment need to be properly managed. Finally your staff need to be encouraged to use the quiet room for the correct purpose. Please see the creation of your quiet room as a labour of love, to be enjoyed.

Once your staff have been trained and the room created, it is then essential that the use of the room be properly managed. I suggest a secretary be asked to manage the occupancy of the quiet room. It should be a rule that the quiet room is only used by members of staff who wish to nurture inner guidance. I recommend that people who are not staff, and are not members of your business or department, no matter how important, do not have access to this room. This is because people who do not understand inner guidance can ruin the carefully constructed atmosphere of quiet and love.

Finally you may have some work to do educating your newly trained staff to use the quiet room for contemplating problems and other matters. We have such an out of balance work culture that many people have it deeply engrained that to sit and not be rushing around is wasting time. They may even fear being criticized for doing nothing. You will understand what I mean if you see these tendencies in yourself, once you start taking your own quiet times.

	UNFOLDING YOUR WINGS
In a rapidly changing business environment we need ways of stimulating creativity and solving problems at speed. Paradoxically we need to learn to slow down so that we can become more efficient. The techniques in this book on using the inner call to solve problems and increase creativity are very powerful. I invite you to experiment by using them to solve problems. You will soon discover their effectiveness.

When I worked as a management consultant I used to tell my clients that 50% of my effectiveness was due to my input, but that the other 50% was because I provided a peaceful quiet room in which to meet, free from interruptions and the telephone. I'm not sure they believed me but I knew it to be true!

Envoi

I am the first.
All is quiet.
I enter the inner sanctum.

Gentle sunshine falls on the newly opened pink curtains.
The green of nature fills each corner.
The atmosphere vibrates with the old and loved.
I rest in comfort, remembering the day's tasks.
Closing my eyes I ask for help.

How can I perform these tasks?
How can I plan the day?
In the inner sanctum of the room
Resides the inner sanctum of my mind.
Images, feelings and thoughts form and dissolve.
I remain still...listening.
Slowly... slowly... the day is planned.

I emerge ready for action.