Work and Comfort Zones

I am struck by an idea that the Venerable had mentioned this week during our group meditation, and that is the purpose and nature of work. Venerable talked about how many people prioritize profit or the final result over the actual learning process that could take place if we have a more present-moment attitude toward work. It is something like: rather than working for profit, work for the betterment of one’s personality. If work betters my being as a human, then work is good for everyone. If, on the other hand, my attitude toward work involves grasping at something, this only creates negative energies for me and others. I am testing out the idea in my own practice at work. Rather than thinking in terms of an end result to everything I do, I am thinking of work in terms of the value it adds to my character as well as to other beings. This is a tricky concept that I am still trying to work out in life.

I think it is tricky because, in reality, all people at work have different conditions and different affinities. It is also tricky, because I surmise that it can create a huge resistance if it is not introduced skillfully according to people’s conditions and personalities. Many years ago, when I  had tried telemarketing (this would have been in my early 20s), I felt myself forcing myself into a role I was not comfortable with. And I had a similar process in trying to adjust to what I thought others expected of me, particularly in socializing with others. As soon as I talk about ‘serving others, not myself’, a dominant idea seems to pop into my head which emphasizes over-accommodating others. And this gets to be to the point of being anxious. So I think that in some sense, serving others requires a good knowledge of one’s own strengths and how one best learns and operates in life.

Around the same time as those telemarketing stints, I recall seeing a lot of books that related to the term ‘comfort zone’. It might have been inspired by Wayne Dyer’s idea of ‘zones’ of being, but I am not sure. The point is, I wonder how much this idea of ‘stepping outside my comfort zone’ has really taken with people. If a person is truly not ready to accept a certain teaching or way of being, it often backfires to the point where they react to change with a sense of fear. It is like recoiling back into a shell after being violently pulled out.I don’t think I have experienced any moment where I was able to make changes in life without a good structure of meaningful support. Even in the case of meditative practice, it is not like completely going off the deep end. It is more that the method of practice creates a field of faith and trust that one already has a true wisdom and compassionate nature. So there is a sense that one is never left with some bare or naked experience of discomfort. Rather, the meditative practice itself gives me a greater tolerance for the particular discomforts I might face in life.

What I tried to practice at work this week was not attaching to the sense that work has to have some specific quantitative outcome that can be statistically measured.  Even though my work does place value on stats, there is a need to see past the obsession with numbers and start to see other processes I am learning in the process of working. Even the values of patience, waiting for answers, tolerating mysteries, and negotiating tensions, are all skills that can be developed through the process of working. But while I acknowledge that space, I also recognize that there are in fact places where I am not comfortable to go, and there are situations where I am of more benefit than in others. To truly benefit others or uplift myself, I have to have an intimate and accepting appraisal of the kinds of tendencies and experiences I have built up to the present point, in addition to expanding to include the present moment. So there is a balance there between not rigidly holding to one view of who I should be, and accepting/embracing one’s unique gifts to the workplace, which cannot be replicated by someone else.