Welcome to episode #196 of the Own Your Best Life Podcast. There are times in our lives when we realize that something’s missing at work. The sense that we belong – truly belong – because our spiritual self is being fulfilled and acknowledged just isn’t there. Or you feel like you’re working for just a paycheck and not truly caring about what you do. Perhaps we feel that we have questions about the meaning of life or why we do what we do in our time here, and you wonder if other people you work with think or have the same questions that you do. Why do you get drawn to spirituality more so than others? Today’s podcast is on how you can be spiritual at work and how it can be one of your greatest assets.

In the workplace, we often confuse spirituality with religion. Religion is often accepted as a topic we do not discuss, like politics. We want to let people have their own personal beliefs and allow others to work with each other without the question of what we believe and religion creating divisiveness. We don’t want to offend or create any issues. 

You’re used to being professional, which means that you drive towards results. There’s such a focus on the outcome and what we’ve achieved – the tangible things we can see and measure, that we often forget about the way that we’ve achieved the results and the intangible nature of our motivations and what drives us. We forget that the spiritual part of us that is the source of peace, drive and selflessness. Life gets busy and over time, we put aside our spiritual practices thinking they’re a luxury. Yet, when life keeps getting harder and the going gets tougher and tougher or you start to hit a fork in the road in terms of priorities at home and in life, you realize that you need some type of inner guidance system.

You need a north star that keeps you going and gives you energy even when you’re tired, exhausted or overwhelmed. Life will give you many struggles and rejections that seem to push you off the solid path you thought you were on. As we start to forget our spirituality, we start to feel unmoored and adrift. Where do we stand on certain issues? What is our point of view? How do we handle stress? What do you do about your next move once you’ve achieved what you thought you wanted to achieve? How do we move forward despite the uncertainty and constant change that’s in our lives?

We want to lead and be the strong, confident leaders with financial freedom and options, but somewhere along the way we believe that in order to do so, we must leave our spirituality by the wayside.

The question however is this: What is spirituality? How is it different vs religion? How is life different when we ignore our spirituality? What happens when we stop using our greatest asset and the thing that drives and motivates us at our core?

I researched this topic when I was at Columbia completing my executive coaching certification. Specifically, spirituality in the workplace. What I have found through the research is that spirituality is different from religion. Spirituality is a set of individual beliefs that is your personal understanding of your gifts, what brings you meaning and connection to a purpose and a community. It is inclusive and individualistic at the same time because it’s personal, whereas religion is a set of common beliefs and practices, organized by a community or group. This inclusive nature is why spirituality is so helpful in the workplace. It’s about including yourself and others, not excluding. Not only that, studies have shown most people want more spirituality in the workplace. They want to feel connected to something that feels meaningful for their life. They want to bring their gifts and strengths to work each day. They want to be part of a community.

When we focus on spirituality, we go beyond what separates us and focus on what connects us. Connection in ways that allow more depth in relationships and different beliefs. People are allowed to have different ways of being and believing. True visionary and inspiring leaders are often the connectors – ones who can take divisive and separate thoughts and ways of working or being and bring us towards a connected vision of an inspired future. They believe solutions exist and then create those solutions. They believe they want to be part of a solution. They believe and use their time to care for others and the world around us.

These kinds of purpose-driven leaders create organizations and communities that people are drawn towards. It’s no longer acceptable to be results-oriented only. People demand to know what you believe and how you’re aligning your actions with your belief.

Every time we decide to leave our spirituality out of the equation, we miss out on the full amount of potential we can utilize. It’s our job to translate what we believe into words that connect and inspire. As a professional, when you believe that it’s just your job to execute and not your job to believe and create a place where people can feel purpose and meaning in their work, you miss out on another opportunity to demonstrate and work your leadership muscles.

It’s easier to only talk about getting the job done, but rarely is it transformative for the people around you. You miss the opportunities to practice being a compelling leader and opportunities every single day to create lasting change and to see yourself affecting others in positive ways. You never learn how to translate what you personally believe into a message that resonates and unites people together. 

So how does someone bridge the gap between spirituality and practicality? Through spiritual, high-performance strategies.

The first one is through your Superpower Edge. It’s often easier for us to take the personal and then apply it to the macro-level concept. When you learn how to figure out who you are and operate with those key guiding principles in mind, you start to see how you can get better results with less time and energy. You see yourself thriving in new ways that benefit all of your life because you’re finally up-ending the blind spots and facing the things that you typically want to hide from. You find yourself mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually stronger because you realize that your talents and gifts were meant to help you in all aspects of your life.

Then you start to do this with your teams, with your peers and then with those who you report into or are those you aspire to be more like. If you start to learn how to translate your uniqueness into new opportunities, you can then start to share and create a movement and community based on a vision where you are creating more leaders. A movement where others see you owning your unique style and brand which encourages them to step out of their comfort zones and do the same.

The second is through your flow rituals. This is the way that you work and the individualized structure to your day and week that enables you to take on bigger challenges and roles with less stress. Most of our income is capped because of what we believe about ourselves and how we overwork ourselves when we have more demands come our way. We find ourselves struggling with a lot of tasks and to-dos, and the anxiety of overwhelm becomes symptoms in the body of stress. You will learn how to alchemize hard situations, stress and increase your resilience to be able to create more energy for the work that needs to be done in your life. Whether it’s the work of deciding what’s next when there is incredible uncertainty for yourself or leading others through change, this level of inner resilience is a driving factor. It helps us create 5x more in 10x less time because you’re able to decide without as much drama how to navigate the harder choices in life that accompany age, tenure, experience and true growth.

When we don’t do work and live this way, we start to believe that the material and tangible world is more real and important than the spiritual one. We believe more strongly in where we are today, not why or how this has come to be. We find ourselves having difficulty making changes that might rock the boat in terms of our work or personal lives, and we often don’t do what we know would be the most helpful or important thing because we’re used to doing what’s easy. This is not the life you signed up for nor is it the leadership you want to exhibit. You wake up 10-15 years later thinking you’d be further along by now.

I’ve seen this unfold time and time again, and the options you now have are these 2 paths in front of you.

In the first path, you can decide to hide your spirituality and show up  as super results-driven but eventually, you burn out because the purpose and motivation is not as deep. You end up wanting to quit or you get laid off because when you aren’t as motivated and driven by purpose as the person next to you, whatever their reasons may be – it shows to you and others.

The other path is that you do the hard but simple work that most people won’t do, to have results that most people won’t have. This is to figure out how to bring all of yourself to work, your spirituality so that you can be the most engaged and fulfilled person in the room. You’re not hiding who you are and you’re no longer overworking to create outstanding results.

If you’re ready to take that second option, I want to invite you to watch the free training on how to Stand Out and Lead, using spiritual, high-performance strategies. You can access the training at https://may-empson.mykajabi.com/stand-out-and-lead.

You can then apply to join my Spiritual Achiever® program, where you’re going to create your next chapter with spiritual and high-performance strategies to achieve time and financial freedom using my proven method. It’s risk-free. You either start seeing results within your first month or I give you your money back. Schedule your call HERE. We’ll see you inside.

Want to know more about what happens when you join?

1. When you join Spiritual Achiever® Coaching you’ll be supported for a full year: Career Revelation Academy: A 5-step career change process (if you have a job you want to stay in, I’ll show you how to love it even more) that can launch you into your next career chapter in 30 days.
2. 2x/month group training and coaching on Spirituality, Achievement, Earth Energy and Harmony. You’ll know how to design your days for breakthroughs, create a personal brand and community, lead yourself and others through change, become more physically and mentally fit, reduce stress and reinvent what’s possible in this next chapter of your life.
3. Discover your Leadership Strengths and Branding Workshop: Increase your awareness of what makes YOU different from others and how to become even better at your genius zone.
4. Your Best Year workshop: Create your one year plan and design this next year, no matter what time of the year it is.
5. Your Next 5 Years one-day virtual retreat: Vision what’s possible 5 years from now and break out of your old routines so you can step into new habits, behaviors and routines.
6. Tickets to all in-person Spiritual Achiever retreats (accommodations not included): Highly immersive and intimate gatherings where we spend time in nature, experience energy work, eat and move well – all while making big decisions and committing to what’s next for us.
7. Monthly 1:1 Coaching Sessions: To help you break through obstacles, define your individual path, and to work on both strategy and mindset.

The next step?

Schedule a consultation to get clarity on how coaching can help you on your journey.

Once you’re accepted into the program, you’ll receive a calendar invite for a 2-hour deep dive 1:1 session to map out your personal goals and your own year-long journey.

You’ll have immediate access to the Spiritual Achiever process and philosophy – how to achieve your biggest goals and reinvent your life.

You’ll have immediate access to 5 modules of Career Revelation Academy – to love your career even more and launch that next chapter of your career in 30 days.

You’ll have the calendar invites for the upcoming group calls and retreats.

If this speaks to you, I can’t wait to talk to you live: Schedule a consultation.

Reach out at www.mayempson.com/contact for more information on my Spiritual Achiever coaching program. You’ll figure out what’s next and actually go and do it.

That’s it for this week. Have an amazing one and I’ll talk to you next time.