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A journey of personal and professional growth

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#6 - 03 Jun 2022 - Read Online

Hello friends,

Thanks again for being here!

I’m back again after a few weeks out. We had some COVID in the family (all ok now) and then a (much needed) little holiday. I hoped to get a newsletter out, but it all became too much. Sometimes we need to say no!

Here’s an insight, a question, and a quote I reflected on over the last week.

The heartbreak of our work

I heard the poet/philosopher David Whyte speaking on how our work will inevitably break our hearts in the same way that a marriage will, for example, through death or divorce. This kind of struck me as I had never thought of work that way, especially in the comparison to marriage.

I reflected on previous jobs, and I found this insight true. There are the jobs I loved and some I came to dislike, which both broke my heart somehow. There was one job while in London, which I loved dearly, and I was sad to say goodbye to it when it was time to return home to Australia.

The Portuguese word Saudade comes to mind:

“Saudade is a deep emotional state of nostalgic or profound melancholic longing for something or someone that one cares for and/or loves. Moreover, it often carries a repressed knowledge that the object of longing might never be had again. It is the recollection of feelings, experiences, places, or events that once brought excitement, pleasure, and well-being, which now trigger the senses and make one experience the pain of separation from those joyous sensations. Saudade describes a feeling both happy and sad, and could be approximated by the English expression ‘bitter sweet’.” (Wikipedia)

What drove that Saudade feeling for me? It was a combination of the fulfilling work that pushed me to grow outside my comfort zone, the new friendships, being in my life’s prime, and hearing the ticking clock on my time living in the wild and wonderful London. I felt this amazing experience with these beautiful people wouldn’t happen again, and I made the most of it. This was a bittersweet heartbreak in the positive sense, where reflection leaves me feeling warm with a smile.

Then there have been other jobs in organisations that didn’t really click for me. Maybe I didn’t believe in the mission, the work didn’t match my strengths, the culture wasn’t right, or the leadership was questionable. Either way, those roles wore me down, burned me out, and led to some form of suffering. When I think back on these times, I feel some sort of pain inside. So yes, there is some more heartbreak, but in a negative sense.

In what ways has work broken your heart? Can you reflect on a time that triggers that Saudade feeling?

Watering our dreams

There can be two ways to water our dreams.

We could be watering them down to make them smaller or hide from the world because of our fears. This generally leads to some form of disappointment or regret.

Or we could be watering our dreams like we water a plant to make it grow. We keep them in the light, feed and nurture them, build them up, and make them strong.