Despite how tough some people find it, doing work you love is a goal for many people.

The key word here is “love.”

You see, if you’re not loving your work right now, I believe you can transform it for the better.

So I dare you to to try an experiment for the next five business days:

(1) Every day, find something at work that you love. And if you can’t find anything to love, find something to like. And if you can’t find something to like, find something to appreciate.

(2) Write down the thing you are loving, liking, or appreciating. Spend three minutes with your eyes closed, feeling your emotions about this element of your work. And notice how your body feels, too.

(3) After the three minutes, write down any insights or ideas that arise for you.

(4) At the end of the five business days, notice if work feels any better? Even a little bit? What do you notice?

Join the community conversation: What happens when you bring the energy of LOVE to work?

Write a comment or note here, on the blog. Or email me directly.

With love,

I have an important question for you…

Why aren’t you doing work you love?

Or…maybe it will help to see this question another way:  Why do you stay in work you hate?

I care about these issues. Deeply. So I’m going to spend the next month talking about what’s holding you back, and what you can do about it. For the next month, every fourth day, I’ll share a lesson with you. Seven lessons in total, to show you how to move into work you love.

But just before jumping in, why does it matter that you do work you love?

Sure, you spend about a third of your day working. Of course, you’d rather enjoy those hours than hate them. That’s the reason I hear most often. But it’s kind of “heady,” more the intellectually appropriate “surface answer.” But dig deeper, and you’ll realize that doing work you love is good for your health – mental, physical, emotional, even spiritual. When you do activities that align with who you are and what you care about, you come alive. And, on a bigger level, what you do matters to the planet. When you’re doing work you love, you inspire others to do what they love. And collectively, we all feel better, we generate more love and creativity that makes its way into the products and services we offer. When you bring the energy of love to your work, deliberately and intentionally, you nurture yourself — and our world.

So if you can benefit so greatly, personally and societally, from doing work you love, then damn it, why aren’t you doing it?

Problem #1:  You don’t believe you’re worth it. You have self-doubts that you can actually do work that you love. You tell yourself things like, “I need to do something professional. I can’t be a baker. That’s frivolous.”

What you’re really saying, with all these limitations, is that somehow, you don’t fully believe in yourself. Yet.

When I was caught up in the world of management consulting, a job I did for five years (which was at least four years too long), I secretly pined to be a writer. I had visions of teaching creative workshops. I longed to know people deeply, rather than to sit at my computer, crunching numbers to advise big corporate clients about their long-term strategies.

I didn’t love that work. In fact, I often hated it, and felt trapped with the prestige and the money. But my managers and clients told me my contribution was valuable, including with phrases that now make me nauseous, “You’re doing high-value work,” which I now translate to “You’re making money for us.”

I wanted to leave, but I didn’t believe that writing, teaching, and connecting with people were valuable activities. How in the world could I see the value, when I was surrounded by people in my profession who didn’t value what I loved? I was seeing the world through their lens, not my own.

How are you devaluing what you love? And how is that devaluing you?

Action Cure #1: – Let’s get you out of this devaluing mess. First, please know that even people who love and adore their work have doubts. Yep. They wonder if it’s worthwhile, if it will make money, if it matters.

The thing is, they don’t let those doubts run or control them.  They recognize the difference between the voice of doubt and the voice of love. They train themselves to turn down the volume on the voice of doubt, understanding that the negative voice may never fully disappear, but it can get quieter, and can visit less frequently.

Write a list of the doubting voices you need to turn down. And counter each one with a positive refrain that moves you into more positive territory. Read the positive refrains frequently, especially when a doubt attack arises.

Second, let’s start to see what judgments are running you…fill in the blanks for yourself here:

“I need to do something _________ (fill in the requirements you demand of yourself…professional, important, high-paying, prestigious, intellectual, or whatever else).

I can’t be a _______ (fill in the title of your dream work).

That’s ___________  (here, you fill in your judgments about the work you really desire).”

Next, we’ll turn that icky thinking on it’s head. Let’s create a vision statement instead…

I want to do something ________ (fill in adjective(s) or descriptors that feel good, like “inspiring,” “fun,” “that makes me giggle.”)

I’d love to be a ______________ (if you know a title, fill it in. If not, start off with “a person who…” and add something that describes anything about what you’d like to be doing, or how you’d like to be working. It could be, “I’d love to be a person who has great flexibility in how I work.” Or “I’d love to be a more creative person.”)

That’s __________ (fill in a word or words that describe how it would be to do work that you love, if you knew it was totally possible. Maybe that will be “uplifting,” or “exciting,” or “calming.” Listen inside yourself for what emerges.)

Read this vision statement to yourself aloud, daily. See what magic it works on you. And let us know, here on the blog.

Third, look at the people around you. Honestly. And see if they are the community who will help you birth your new baby, the work you’ll love. For me, I had to start taking workshops with writers. Had to start hanging out with therapists, the kind of people who love listening to and helping people with really personal issues.

Make a list of the kinds of people who value the work you love, and where you might find them – like at meetings or conferences. Write three ways you can start spending time with those folks, and put those action items on your calendar or to-do list. Please know you’re likely to feel awkward as you start off as a newbie. Give yourself time search for – and hang out with — your tribe of supporters.

In the coming month, you’ll get six more ways to move past the blocks that hold you back from the work you love. I can’t wait to share them with you.

How do you devalue what you love (or devalue yourself) and how does that impact your work? What might you do to turn that around?

Valuing you, big time…

Want help reinventing or renewing your career? I’m here to help. Talk to me about your Working Wellness.

Do you ever hatch a great idea — and get all revved up to work on it — only to realize you’re not actually ready to follow through?

You know, the kind of whiz-bang idea that pops into your head and seems oh-so appealing. Maybe you formulate a business concept that sounds like a mega-money maker. Or you whip up the wild thought to go back to school to earn another degree. Or you wake up with a scheme to pursue a totally new job.

Ah, that new idea! It’s so sexy! It’s so smart!

Well, at least in theory. If you’re like me, occasionally, your imagination runs wild. And you announce, “I’m going for it!” only to walk away from the idea within a short period.

Why do we get so enamored of a seemingly great idea, only to drop it, or postpone it?

Let me share my thoughts through a quick story. A few weeks ago, I prematurely announced that I’d be letting go of my individual coaching to pursue corporate consulting. I had visions of running big workshops, speaking at important conferences, dropping the names of Fortune 50 CEOs as my clients.

But I got ahead of myself. I started to talk to managers and HR professionals in major companies about Smart Sensing. They were friendly, but didn’t share my excitement.

Maybe you’d tell me that I should have done my market research before so boldly declaring this new direction. But more importantly, if I had actually gone beyond the *buzz* of the new idea, I could have focused on something more important . If I had checked in with my heart and gut, I would have realized that my seemingly sexy, so-called new direction just didn’t feel right.

The more I spoke with corporate leaders, the more getting them to book Smart Sensing workshops felt like an uphill battle. Even with the help of a marketing coach, I had a hard sell on my hands with corporate clients, who want proof, case studies, measurable results. I was using a “push-push-push” strategy. I was ignoring or overlooking where I felt genuinely pulled, which is to help individuals navigate their careers.

I love helping people like you to trust your inner wisdom, so you can handle stress better, build stronger connections with yourself and others, and make better decisions. And, quite frankly, individuals already come to me for help, without much effort on my part. It’s not that I couldn’t do a huge effort to reach companies. It’s that I didn’t yet have the fire in my belly, nor the love in my heart.

So, here’s how to tell if you’re likely to follow through on your big idea…

1. You’re much more likely to succeed with your hot new idea when your head and heart are aligned. Sometimes, those stellar ideas are appealing more to your ego than your soul. You get lured in by money, prestige, or similar energies. It’s not that your ego is all bad. But on it’s own, without a connection to your heart, gut, and soul, you’re likely to run full steam ahead and crash.

So, ask yourself, does my heart really resonate with this idea? Put a hand on your heart and ask your heart, “What wisdom do you have for me about this idea?” And wait. See what comes. If nothing comes, keep asking. Or wait for your heart to tell you, honestly, “I love this,” or something along those lines, including, “It will be hard work, but I’m here to inspire you along the way.”

2. Start to discern the difference between a brain buzz and an a full-body “yes!” Often, fun ideas feel like a jolt, as though you’ve just had a cup of coffee, and you’re all stimulated. All synapses are firing, fast. But does that jolt last? If it does, what do you notice in your body? Are you buzzing fast, but really fired up and not allowing yourself to feel your emotions? Perhaps you have fears to work through? Or steps to take that you’re afraid to discover?

I’ve found that for the vast majority of people, when they are committed to an idea for the long run, that energy behind that idea feels more calm and peaceful in the body.

3. Allow yourself to imagine the idea from start to finish, not just the finish line. When you’ve got a jazzy new idea, you may be tempted to just see a vision of the idea it in its completed form. That can be inspiring, but it’s only part of the picture. The ideation process can be sparkly and seductive.

When you run a race, you don’t jump straight from the start line to the finish line, no matter how fast you are. Well, that’s the journey to take in your mind, too. Map out a few different paths from start to finish. How do those journeys make you feel? It’s fine to be nervous, if you are blank or vague about the steps along the way, maybe you have some inner reservations or concerns that need addressing first. Or perhaps you have to set some groundwork. Or learn some new skills. For me, if I wanted to implement Smart Sensing with corporate clients, I’d have to do a lot of educating. I’d need to learn how to market more effectively to corporate clients. I’d need to learn their lingo. I’m very good at climbing steep learning curves and taking challenges and risks. But in this case, those actions just did not speak to my heart.

4. Give yourself permission to embrace the new idea, and permission to let it go, too. Before realizing that I was dealing with an idea that needed more incubation time, I assumed my idea of working with corporate clients was a good one. And then, with each of the corporate clients I met, I was scrupulously honest with myself about the big challenges of addressing their needs.

When I saw that I was not aligned in head and heart, I asked my heart, “What are you passionate about?” and “What matters to you?” These are great questions to ask yourself to sense your direction. I encourage you to listen to your heart first, not your head. Life is a lot easier if you put your head in the service of your heart, and not the other way around.

My heart kept saying, “I love helping people find and trust their own innate wisdom.” And I saw how hard that would be to sell to corporate clients, at least for now. And so I allowed myself to let go of Sisyphus-like energy, pushing the big boulder up the hill. When I let go of the effort, new energy poured in. My heart and my head aligned and said, “I want to bring this Smart Sensing to individuals, to help them wake up their inner wisdom, so they feel phenomenally fulfilled in their work.”

So, please, if you’ve got hold of an idea that’s not fitting, give yourself permission to let it go. Nature abhors a vaccum. Something better will rush in.

How do *you* test if you’re really ready to pursue one of your great ideas?

Go ahead. This time, don’t wait. Share your thoughts here, on the blog.

How do you imagine the workplace would look if being sensitive at work was seen a good thing?

I’ve been curious to know how you feel about being sensitive at work. In my heart of hearts, I know that sensitivity needs to be redefined, re-imagined as the positive quality — and skill — that it can be.

Last week, I asked you if it’s acceptable to be sensitive at work. I also asked if you consider yourself sensitive? And whether or not you have seen that sensitivity as a liability, especially in the business world?  And I shared my journey of learning to love my sensitivity, and some ways that you could learn to love yours, too.

How I applied sensitivity with a bunch of MBAs

To help craft a snapshot of how the business world might look if we allowed sensitivity, I thought I’d let you in on something I rarely discuss:  One of the first times I intentionally listened to, trusted, and acted on my body’s intelligence in a business setting.

I was at UC Berkeley, where I had earned my MBA. MBA education tends to be pretty heady. Intellectual. Not very touchy-feel or embodied. It’s a Wednesday in February, 2002. To earn money while I’m pursuing my PhD in Somatic Psychology, I’m counseling MBA students back at my alma mater. At first, I was just working with the MBAs on preparing for management consulting interviews, which are a bit different than traditional “behavioral” interviews because they involve a business case, and being able to improvise the facts in a fluid way. But I was asked to improvise in a whole new way.

That day, three students in a row ask me a question that goes something like this:  “Susan, how in the world did you go from being a management consultant to getting a funky mind/body oriented PhD?”

I notice that when each of the three students asks, I feel a swish in my gut, a quickening of my breath, a tingle on my shoulders, and a dash of curiosity. It takes me until the third person to realize that although these students have some interest in my story, a deeper question lurks underneath. I feel that curiosity as a bubbly, joyful energy that moves rapidly around my body. I pay close attention to the sensations, listening in the way you might listen when you hear something moving around in a bush. You hear it, but can’t yet see it. I feel the sense of some new information, but until I “track” and follow the sensation in my body, just sensing around as though I can touch it, I don’t know what the sensation is trying to convey to me.

And then, when I simply surrender and tell  myself, “When I’m meant to know, I’ll know,” I experience a deep, instinctual knowing. An “aha” arises within me:  “Oh, I think these students want to know for themselves. They are curious about my story of career change because they are really wanting to know how to make a non-traditional career change.”

By tuning in to my body’s shifting patterns, the changes in my energy, breath, movement, and other factors, I am able to sense the next step. I blurt out to the third student, “Oh, are you wanting some help with blazing your own trail, finding your own work?”

“Yes! Can you help me with that? I’m pretty fed up with the assessment tests that tell me I should be a management consultant like you were. I have two kids and another one on the way. I actually would like to see all three of them grow up. I doubt traditional management consulting will afford me that kind of lifestyle. I’d love your help.”

Until that point, I had a growing desire to do counseling with the MBA students, but my assignments had been narrower, to help them with interview preparation, as well as resumes and cover letters. That same day, with a lot of gumption, I march into the office of the Director of the Career Center, and can feel the energy streaming up my body, as the words travel up from my belly to my mouth and tumble out with excitement.  “Abby, I want to counsel the MBA students. They’ve been asking me for that kind of help and I’m getting my PhD in psychology…”

“Go ahead. You’ll be great. I know.”

That was it. I start doing the counseling. And I love it, too.

How to use sensitivity to choose between two job offers

I also remember the first time an MBA student came to me with two job offers. A woman I’ll call Jenna says, “Both Bain and Deloitte have offered me jobs. They seems so similar. The salaries aren’t too far apart. But I can’t decide. And it’s Friday, and I have to give them both answers on Monday. How am I supposed to decide, beyond talking to a bunch of people at the firms, which I’ve done. I’ve spoken to over 20 people at each, but I still feel conflicted. What should I do?”

“I can’t tell you what to do. I won’t presume to guess what’s right for you. But I can help you sort it out. Can I ask you to be a guinea pig, so you try out something I’ve just learned in my Somatic Psychology classes?” I wonder aloud to Jenna.

“Sure, why not?” she replies.

“This might seem a little weird, so bear with me.” I tell her.

“Weird is good,” Jenna chirps, a big smile on her face, reflecting a willingness to try something new.

“OK,” I tell her, “I want you to imagine that you can put one company in one hand and the other company in your other hand. Which one goes in your left hand? Just check in with your gut, there’s no right or wrong.”

“Hmm, Bain’s in my left hand,” Jenna lets me know.

“OK, now, feel into your left hand. What do you notice?” I inquire.

“It feels hot. Clammy. Sticky.” She replies. I let her “marinate” for a bit in those sensations.

“OK, now, imagine you have Deloitte in your right hand,” I direct Jenna.

“Hmm, it feels light, airy, spacious. Funny, but it’s kind of making me want to laugh. It’s playful, if that makes sense?”

“Sure, that makes sense, in a sensory way. Maybe not quite yet in a mental way. It’s your experience.” I tell her. “But I wonder, does this seem random, or do you really think the qualities you feel in your hands actually reflect what you feel about the firms?”

“Yes, oddly, yeah. This is definitely a different way of getting information. But I’m still not sure I’m clear about which firm I want to go to.”

Next, I ask Jenna to hold her hands side by side, imagining she has Bain the left one and Deloitte in the right, and to compare what she’s experiencing.

“Hmm, the left one is wanting to stay above the right. Like Bain comes across as high and mighty to me, actually. Deloitte isn’t as stuck on its name. The people were more down-to-earth. But you know the Bain website is the one that says their people are down-to-earth and I think that…”

I cut Jenna off mid-sentence, “Can I please ask you, just for now, to pay attention to the signals in your body. It’s like taking the elevator down, out of your head. For a while. Can you do that?”

“Oh, yeah, sure.” Jenna looks a bit embarrassed, but I encourage her to start off where she left off, feeling into her body to see how “down-to-earth feels.”

“I feel that in my heart area. It gets warm. Like that matters. I need to be down-to-earth. That’s just me. I come from a non-profit background. I care about things that matter. And compared to Bain, Deloitte seems to feel more like the work matters to me. You know, it just feels more right. Wow.”

Jenna thanked me. And she told her fellow classmates about the exploration we’d done together. Over time, I built a reputation for helping these professionals to make decisions that were formed from the “insight out.” In other words, they could feel into their instinctual, innate, embodied wisdom, and find an insight, and express it out.

Jenna got an answer, an “aha,” that came not from her intellect, but from her inner wisdom.

Do you ever get stuck in your head, with a decision swirling and twirling, going nowhere? What’s your own way to get out of the turmoil?

Please share your tools and techniques for getting unstuck. We can all use some help to get moving again.

Susan Bernstein, MBA PhD
When you want to move more wisely through changes at work, check out Smart Sensing

Do you consider yourself sensitive? Have you seen that sensitivity as a liability, especially in the business world?

I know a lot of people who feel that way. But I’ve discovered how to hone that sensitivity, and use it in a positive way.  Let me share my story with you. Let me know what you think…

In my last blog post, I wrote about how my first consulting project was incredibly difficult, and how a managing partner’s harsh words made me stop trusting my impulses and instincts, and start living too much up in my head.

But that all changed, starting in November, 2001. Let’s visit that pivotal time…

It’s my first semester at the Santa Barbara Graduate Institute where I’m studying towards my PhD in Somatic Psychology. The coursework could not have been more different than in my Berkeley MBA. It’s so much more experiential, grounded in the body. I can feel what I am learning. It’s visceral.

It’s a Saturday afternoon, in a big airy conference room with lots of windows. The sunshine is streaming in, illuminating the pastel orange wall in front of me, and warming my back. One of my teachers, Judyth Weaver, guides our small class of 14 students  through a particular physical exploration, where we are to subtly notice how our feet feel as we walk, barefoot. And to attune our attention to the way our knees bend. And the way our head moves – or doesn’t – as we walk. I do not recall the all the specific details of the exploration, but I vividly recall the hot anger and distancing loneliness I felt inside.  We are debriefing that activity, and I am irked and frustrated that my experience of the exploration was not similar to what my colleagues are experiencing.  I truly feel left out, as though something is really wrong with me for being different.

As we move around the circle, I’m the last one so speak. I angrily blurt out, like a little girl wanting sympathy, “My experience wasn’t like anyone else’s!”

Surprisingly, Judyth smiles warmly and tells me with whimsy, “Congratulations, Susan!”

I’m baffled.

Gently, Judyth helps me to see that each person has his or her own unique perception of the sensations and emotions that arise from any activity. Essentially, circumstances are exactly as they should be.  A lightbulb goes off inside of me!  I do not have to conform to some outside standard in life.  My own inner experience matters.  This state, of knowing what is real and true and organic for me is perfect and natural.  My sensations and perceptions are supposed to inform me of my tastes and preferences.  What a joyful and life altering discovery!

Since that moment, my life has felt richer, more personal, more awake and aware. And, of course, I want to share with the world how the simple practice of noticing sensations can bring personal freedom.  Following my simple instinctual urges opened up my world and my energy.  By contrast, I had been pursuing an elusive, non-existent “objective fact” about virtually everything in my business life. Unfortunately, that error had closed me off in many ways.

I’m joyful to have an embodied awareness that my body is not merely a vehicle to transport my brain around.

And my brain is not merely some kind of computer filled with facts to be computed and analyzed.

When do you trust the wisdom of your body?  When don’t you trust your body’s messages? What would it take for you to listen to, trust, and act on your body’s intelligence?

In my next blog post, I’ll share how I started teaching MBA students to listen to their body wisdom, and how that shifted their careers. I think you’ll find it helpful for your own sensitive journey.

Stay tuned,

I’d like to know your thoughts: Do you think it’s a good idea to be sensitive at work?

I really want your thoughts about sensitivity in the workplace. So please post your ideas and feeling, below. In the next three or four posts, I’m going to share my perspective on this, well, touchy subject.

I grew up hearing a lot of the phrase, “You’re too sensitive!”

For years, I thought that was a bad thing. No longer.

As a kid, watching certain Hallmark commercials would reduce me to a crying heap. If I heard the news about a friend’s injury, I seemed to feel uncomfortable sensations in the same limb, a kind of “sympathy pain.” And I didn’t do a very good job of receiving constructive feedback, as I tended to already judge myself harshly. It took me years to realize that one of the women I worked for before business school was envious of me and seemed to delight in giving me lots of feedback, under the guise that “This will really help you in your career in the long run.” I bought her BS because I was so sensitive that I didn’t stick up for myself, even when her highly critical judgments stung.

Flash forward to the mid 1990’s. I’ve just completed my MBA at UC Berkeley. I’ve joined Accenture as a management consultant, focusing on retail strategy. I’m staffed on a project at Levi-Strauss & Co. Our two cultures couldn’t be more different. Accenture consultants wear suits (I relish wearing jeans on the days I work for Levis onsite), speak very formally and carefully, and seem to analyze everything in a financial model. The Levi’s people naturally dress in jeans and casual clothes, speak very freely and often from the heart, and have posted giant charts in our team meeting room with each member’s Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, family birth order, Enneagram number, favorite color, and even their astrological sign! I’m conflicted. On the one hand, it’s great to share personal information to get to know people. And on the other hand, my business sensibilities tell me this information is a no-no, or worse, woo-woo.

We can opt out of sharing any of this information about ourselves, and more of the Accenture team members are private about themselves. This poster is supposedly used to help us understand each other. But for me, the chart forces me to make an uncomfortable choice: Should I share honestly about myself, or not?

Much as I want others to know me authentically, I go against my sensitive nature and hide a bunch of details about myself. Why? I want to appear like a “good” Accenture employee, and be as “neutral” as possible.

The Accenture partner in charge of the Levi’s project, Mary, invites me to attend my first team meeting, with about twelve Levi’s and Accenture people in the room. I’m told to keep quiet, say nothing, just observe. After the meeting, we’ll debrief. I do my best to pay attention to all that’s happening, but this re-organization project’s been going on for about two years and I am missing a huge amount of context. I can barely keep up with all the acronyms, initiatives, analyses, and updates. Instead of all the data, I seem to be able to pay attention and track the interactions between the team members, so I pick up on subtle cues. I am aware of who likes each other, who is easy to work with, who pulls power plays, who strategically withholds information.

After my initial meeting, Mary invites me to talk with her privately about what I’ve noticed. I’m not sure how to encapsulate all the different information, so I reach for what feels most obvious and tell her, “Well, it’s obvious that the two top Levis leaders on this project — Bob and Tom — they don’t like each other.” Mary looks at me, kind of stunned, and cocks her head, furrows her brow, and challenges me. It’s as though I’ve seen a secret I’m not supposed to see, so she is compelled to ask “Wait, how do you know that?!?!”

It takes me a moment to poll my memory banks for the specific instances that clue me in on Bob and Tom’s disdain for one another. “Did you see that glance that Tom gave Bob when he started to announce that the initiative was doing well?” I ask Mary, rhetorically. “It was one of those glances that lasts only a millisecond that telegraphs “You’re not supposed to open your mouth.”" I follow up by pointing out the way Bob let out a sigh when Tom started to read the latest sales figures, “as though communicating, “You’re boring me.”"

Mary scowled at me, pointed a finger, and gruffly said, “That’s not why we hired you. I don’t want you concentrating on the interpersonal dynamics. You’re here to help with the strategy for how to roll out this change to the organization. You’re not here to fix the dynamics between Bob and Tom. Stick to the facts.”

In that moment, my sensitivity went into hiding, only to be excavated and recovered when I began studying for my PhD in somatic psychology nearly seven years later. In the intervening years, I came to believe that noticing subtleties, being attuned to the way people express themselves, to feeling the energy in a room — that these were all antithetical in the business world. I thought that success translated to “stay as objective as possible.”

In my next blog post, I’ll do a flash forward, to give you some perspective on how I got my sensitivity back.

For now, I’m curious about you.

So please share your wisdom. Have you ever had an experience, especially in business, where you were told not to be so sensitive? What was happening? How did you respond? And what did that experience teach you?

In business, we’re always talking about getting to the top.

But when it comes to navigating the future of work on a very personal level, staying at the top, at least when it comes to being in your head, is dangerous. So I want you to take the elevator down.

Whether you work on the ground floor or at the top of a gigantic highrise, you will need to cultivate a key skill for the future:  The ability to get out of your head from time to time, and tap into the wisdom within your whole body.

So, why should you care about getting out of your head and into your body?

Because really brilliant, flexible, resilient people know that raw intellect will only get you so far. You know super smart people who are ultra annoying because they rub people the wrong way. They share their ideas without regard to the impact they are having. Or people who get a fixed idea of what needs to happen, and because they are attached to this idea, they miss the signals (including the emotional and interpersonal ones) that it’s time for a change. Or people who are so wedded to the way things “should” be that they fall apart or shut down when change happens.

If you want to be have a positive impact on your business or organization (or a mission or venture that’s vital to you), you need to be able to pay attention to subtle signals, like the way you feel when your manager’s voice changes tone, and she’s expressing displeasure. Or the way you feel when you’re walking down the hall on the way to a meeting, and you bump into a colleague who looks like he’s going to burst. He asks for a moment of your time. If you’re paying attention “below the neck,” you may feel an urge to reach out, or an impulse to keep walking, but if you’re tuned in to your inner wisdom, you’ll make a good decision about your next steps.

The future of work is incredibly fluid, dynamic, and shifting. It’s more like improvisational jazz, less like a practiced symphony that’s been played hundreds of times. Are you ready for these times?

I believe that the people who have the greatest capacity to make the biggest impact in the future of work are those who activate their inner supercomputer, the laser-fast decision making, the intuitive assessment, and the trust-building that comes from tapping into the body’s inner wisdom. I’m not suggesting that you leave your head and the intellect out of your navigating. What I am suggesting is that you widen your base of power by using both mind AND body wisdom. Are you one of these people.

Over the coming weeks, I’ll be articulating a set of skills that I call Smart Sensing to describe this ability to pay attention to your instincts, impulses, and sensations, and to use them in making good decisions, connecting powerfully with others, bouncing back from adversity, staying positive and focused, and adjusting in a dynamic way.

When you activate your Smart Sensing capacity, you feel confident about to respond in complex and ambiguous situations. That confidence derives from from accessing more than just your intellect, but also trusting a deeper, innate wisdom

To navigate change fluidly requires picking up on the signs and signals that something is in flux, trusting the instincts and impulse that harken change, and then being courageous enough to move ahead when the path is not yet clear. This all requires well-developed Smart Sensing. Some people turn off their sensing — their ability to pick up on the information that’s constantly coming to them through their sensations. Like the way they feel a warmth around their heart when they’ve made a customer delighted. Or the way their chest tightens in the middle of a stressful negotiation. Some people learn to numb out, unable to feel these sensations, at least until they get guidance on how to listen to their own inner signals again. Others cultivate their ability to sense, even at subtle levels, so they can read the mood in a room and respond accordingly, or they can adjust their posture and gestures to make people feel welcome.

Those two groups of people — the low-sensing and the high sensing — are like the difference between a stripped down, basic cellular phone and a smartphone. The former only helps you make phone calls. The latter can tap into the weather, the traffic report, and restaurant reviews to help you select the right clothes, route, and venue to impress your new client. The smartphone gathers up-to-the minute information that makes you more adaptable to the conditions around you.

The good news is that you have smart technology built right into you. You have access not only to data and information, but to wisdom, so that you can respond flexibly to new conditions, new challenges, and even new quirks in people. With wisdom, not merely data, you can discern which way to turn. You can judge how your actions will work out. You envision the consequences of your choices. And you sense how you are feeling, moment to moment, so you can manage your energy and continuously renew yourself.

In tumultuous times, some executives default to gathering more data to analyze. Yet when change is so rapid, massive, or uncertain, access to more information tends to either impossible, or leads to analysis paralysis. Instead of analyzing, they need to be proactively adapting. Yet when you’re accustomed to knowing all the ins and outs of your business, and move into a role where no map of the territory exists, finding your way requires new skills. This is especially true when it comes to leading and influencing other people to come along. Instead of more data, you need access to a broader base of inner wisdom, so you can trust yourself and connect with the people involved in this new future.

The core skill in Smart Sensing is the ability to pay attention to what your body is telling you, by listening to your sensations. So let’s start with one activity to help you do that.

Try this activity:  Discovering the Connection Between Your Thoughts & Sensations: I’d like you to bring to mind a positive memory of something you’ve done in the last month or so. It doesn’t need to be monumental or extreme. It just needs to be positive. Remember as many of the details as possible, and bring them to your mind’s eye. Where were you? What time of day was it? Who was around? What was happening? How did you feel emotionally? What were you hearing? What were you saying and doing?

Now, take a mental snapshot of that, and then notice how you feel in your body when you bring this memory to mind. What do you experience? If nothing immediately feels noticeable, pay attention for energy, breathing, tension, and temperature. Write down all the sensations you can notice in your body.

Then, take a moment and shake out your body. Wiggle, jiggle, and imagine that you can cast off this memory, so you’re clear for the next part of this activity.

Next, bring to mind a recent negative event. Please don’t select something traumatic. Choose something only mildly upsetting. Once again, bring to mind as many of the details as possible, and visualize or sense them. Where were you? What time of day was it? Who was around? What was happening? How did you feel emotionally? What were you hearing? What were you saying and doing?

As you did before, create a mental snapshot of the negative event. Allow the experience to be fresh and novel and get curious about how you feel in your body when you bring this negative memory to mind. What do you experience in your body? Once again, pay attention for energy, breathing, tension, and temperature. Write down all the sensations you can notice in your body associated with this second memory.

Finally, contrast the sensations you felt in your body with each of these memories. What’s different in your body with each of these? What are your sensations telling you?

Sensations are your body’s signals, so you know what feels right, good, and positive for you, and also what feels wrong, bad, and negative for you. Certainly, there are subtleties and nuances. For example, some kinds of fear tells us to avoid danger, while others tell us we’re simply anxious about doing something new. Over time, as you start tracking your sensations, you will enhance your ability to discern these small differences and respond in ways that keep you aligned with what truly matters to you.

What are you sensing now?

Go ahead. Take the elevator down. It’s the thing to do if you want to be on your way up.

Sensitively yours,

Dr. Susan Bernstein, Work from Within