The Bardo of Work
How you navigate work transitions determines what's next
“All bardo experiences are situations in which we have emerged from the past and we have not yet formulated the future, but strangely enough, we happen to be somewhere. We are standing on some ground, which is very mysterious. Nobody knows how we happen to be there.” - Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche
“How you end and how you begin are related.” - Gyodo Sensei
Hi friends,
I hope you are experiencing a good start to your fall season. Families are orienting around the academic calendars, and work projects — whether you are self-employed or working for a company — may be setting goals for the end of the year. This transition period can be very rich, but also anxiety-producing.
I’m finding myself very energized these days. My coaching work feels magical: four of my clients have had significant career advancements in the last two weeks. I’ve also recorded several new episodes of the Game of Zen podcast (YouTube, Spotify, and Apple), and we are rolling out a great new partnership program later this week (stay tuned!)
Today …. I’m excited to share with you a new program I have been developing over the last two months, which I call the Bardo of Work. It’s a distillation of the wisdom of life transition taken from the meditative traditions and applied specifically to work transitions. The material applies not only to those who are in between jobs (whether by their own choice or by being laid off) but also to those who are feeling the “push-and-pull” that arises when you are considering starting a new business or looking for a change.
This is a “mysterious ground,” as the Tibetan Lama Chogyam Trungpa taught. We are not quite sure where we are, or what’s next. (We might not even be clear about how we got there!) Yet mysterious does not mean we are powerless. Indeed, when we approach this territory with some degree of inner clarity, we can navigate toward a more favorable new form of being, or in this case, work.
Here’s how Trungpa Rinpoche describes how we work with the confusion of the “in-between”:
We are putting that confusion into a pattern. Confused nature has a pattern. It is methodically chaotic. This seems to be a way of seeing those patterns as they are. It seems to be a necessity of learning that you begin to have a sense of geography, a road map of some kind, so that you can relate with such patterns. That brings more solidity and confidence. So you don’t have to look painfully for some kind of stepping stone; instead a stepping stone presents itself in your life.
My intention with the Bardo of Work is to help you map out and navigate this geography. I can report from experience that those who work with themselves in this way do indeed experience the next step as “a stepping stone presents itself in your life.” It’s awesome.
If this is of interest to you, I’ve just published an e-book called “The Bardo of Work: Five Keys to Navigating the ‘In-Between’ of Work Transitions to Manifest Your Most Fulfilling Life” available now for download on my website. I’ve copied the Introduction below. (Thanks to my Zen senior Sam Sokyo Randall for the beautiful formatting!)
When you work with me individually I help you get right to the heart of where you are in the geography of transition and how to meet the specific challenges and opportunities of your current and coming phases. If you would like to explore personalized coaching, please sign up for a free Discovery session and we can chat about what you most need at this time, and if I can help.
As always … please share this newsletter with others if you find it helpful. (This one may be of special interest to those of your friends who are out of work!)
Take care everyone,
Paul
The Bardo of Work: Five Keys to Navigating the ‘In-Between’ of Work Transitions to Manifest Your Most Fulfilling Life
Introduction — The Pathless Path
Work transitions are among the most memorable and meaningful milestones of our lives. When we look back on our years, our job starts and stops often hold as much prominence as our major relationships and personal accomplishments.
Our strong identification with our work, and with the connections and resourcing that comes from it, make work transitions especially difficult. When we lose an identity – whether we have chosen to or not – we have lost key touchpoints for our psyche, and enter a place of openness and uncertainty that is fundamentally destabilizing.
How we navigate this terrain of uncertainty determines the new form our work will take.
If we act from a need to quell our anxiety, we will act rashly, take on unfulfilling work and reproduce old patterns that no longer serve us. But if we embrace the uncomfortable challenge of the “in-between,” we can emerge with a new work situation that in all the most important ways is deeper and more rewarding.
In this e-book, I offer some tips and tools on navigating professional transition in a way that will yield positive outcomes for your life and career. They are based on my own and my clients’ experiences with work transitions, and the full spectrum of emotions they generate: financial anxiety, self-doubt, worries about realistic employment prospects, questions about meaning and purpose. When we live into these questions and feelings, there are no mistakes.
I’ve adopted the word “Bardo” to describe this phase of work transition. In Tibetan Buddhism, the Bardo formally refers to the “intermediate zone” between human incarnations, but you don’t need to believe in reincarnation to get something from these observations. (I neither believe nor disbelieve in reincarnation!) They quite naturally apply to any “in-between” zone, where one identity has passed and the next is taking form.
My “Five Keys” outline the promises and perils of the Bardo of Work. Each Key presents a Challenge and an Opportunity. For each key, I offer a related Practice that helps you meet the Challenge and embrace the Opportunity.
The Five Keys have something of a linear sequence, but in practice we rarely “complete” one before moving on to the next. In the Bardo, things can get quite hairy. We may not know what’s going on or “where we are in the process.” That’s the fundamental nature of the Bardo, and it is the truth of the condition of job transition.
While it is a path, in the sense that you are traveling from one place to another, the landscape around you is constantly shifting, and you do not know how long the “in-between” will last. It is a Pathless Path without firm guideposts to indicate progress other than your own internal compass.
The reality is that you don’t know what your next professional role will be and when it will present itself. You may have a sense of what you would like to do, and a sense of the opportunities available, but when it comes down to it, no one knows when and where you’ll end up.
I want to note upfront the obvious truth that money is a major factor in our emotional responses to work transitions. Financial concerns may have the highest charge and be most on our minds. The essence of the Five Keys applies especially to money: when you “get real” about your financial situation – without catastrophizing or fantasizing – you empower yourself to create the life you want.
It’s possible to turn the sense of the Unknown that is the primary quality of the Bardo to your advantage, and use it for inspiration and motivation. This will allow you to navigate work transitions with grace and resilience.
It’s my intention to help all those facing the challenging conditions of work transition to turn the afflictive conditions of anxiety and instability into opportunities for personal growth and even breakthrough moments in their lives.
I hope you find it helpful.