For some reason life is full of intractable – not easily solved or manageable – problems. The standard optimistic viewpoint on this is that it is for our growth, we will be given nothing we can’t handle, etc..
It also might just be the way things work, see The Root of Stress for a taste of the part we create ourselves. There is certainly the part we have no apparent control over as well, see 30 Blows.
In my practice we train with koans to find an appropriate response to situations that are not solvable by the rational mind. Such as, ‘What is the sound of one hand’, which you’ve probably heard of but with clapping added. Koan is an esoteric system, but one of the few tools that actually addresses this subject of meeting life head on.
This week I was presented with a life koan about this very blog. You see it seems LinkedIn would like me to:
‘modify my content to make it more in line with their professional network’.
This came right on the heels of another person from my old industry dying of a heart attack in his early 50s and as details were starting to circulate about the suicide the week before.
Corporate Rehab was started because:
people are dying from the lack of ability to deal with the end game of corporate life.
Wouldn’t the ‘professional’ thing to do be to acknowledge it?
I make no claim to be the most articulate or best council on this subject and would be happy to see the conversation and service expanded by others. However for now it is me and LinkedIn is the obvious platform. I will have to find a middle-way.
Much of what I have written so far is about looking inward which I know is a difficult step. For an easier first step may I recommend the book Everything is Workable .
If you are finding yourself out on a limb and feel like you have no choices … reach out to me, a priest, a minister, pastor a therapist … there is plenty of good living outside the corporate world view and it’s not that hard to find.
I hope this meets the censors criteria and sees the light of your screen.
May your lives go well