Changing the Narrative: Work Doesn't Have to Be a Struggle
How to Achieve Success Without Constantly Battling
Peace Overtures Today is a weekly newsletter dedicated to guiding individuals on their personal quest for inner peace. Each week, I share a movie that helped me discover balance. It’s a process of awareness and healing that leads to sparks of joy. I’m sincerely grateful to have you here with me.
My passion is to assist individuals and teams in realizing a whole new level of success while maintaining balance in their mental, physical, emotional, energetic, and spiritual aspects of life. I refer to this balance as peace of mind.
We have created over 700 Alignment Movie Process (AMP) sessions to help discover this balance in these key areas of life. When one aspect is out of balance, it affects the others as depicted in this graphic.
Discovering balance in all of these important areas of life makes everything better. You become more creative, sleep better, maintain connected relationships, have better health, and overall, become more successful.
For the purposes of this post, I want to focus on the energetic aspect of life. When I think of the energetic dimension, I am referring to human energy in your body and the energy of money and business. For many of us, our work is our life, and it is increasingly becoming more difficult to find balance. We are expected to push hard, work even more, and then find a way to work even harder. There is no end to this pattern, it is not sustainable, and it usually results in burnout.
If you are someone who feels stuck in this pattern of pushing too hard, then this AMP session is for you. Check out the excerpt from our book, It’s Just Commerce: Returning Balance to Business, for some new insights on how to break free from this big human pattern.
Business is a Struggle—A Belief That Impacts Commerce
When David was in the car business, he worked with a Ford dealer who had a huge photo of a giant man. This photo faced him each day as he sat at his desk. In one hand, the man in the photo held two steel balls on a string. The picture inspired this dealer and he referred to it many times when having to make a decision regarding the business. He’d say,
“Son, you gotta have a pair of these if you want to make it in the car business.”
This belief is certainly common and not unique to the car business. Increasingly most business activities require courage and fortitude at all levels—not just the executives. The pace and complexity of business is intense and it’s a struggle to keep up day after day. It’s so common that many of us have accepted this as just the way it is in business and life. It just seems like business and struggle are the realities of surviving in the world.
In the movie True Grit (Ethan Coen, Joel Coen 2010) Mattie Ross (Haliee Seinfeld) learns her father has just been shot and she has to go claim the body. She’s a scrappy young girl who’s become self- reliant at the early age of fourteen. Mattie knows that life is a struggle as she says,
“You must pay for everything in this world one way or another, there is nothing free, except the grace of God.”
Mattie knows that her father was killed by a hired hand named Tom Chaney. She’s determined to pursue him and ensure he’s brought to justice. She tells the local sheriff, “I intend to see Papa’s killer hanged.” Mattie hires her own marshal to track down Chaney. When she learns that Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges) is fearless and the meanest lawmen available, she pursues him for her mission to avenge the death of her father.
Mattie is stubborn and insists on doing things herself and in her way. She negotiates with grown men and threatens legal action when the transactions don’t please her. Charm and patience isn’t a quality displayed by Mattie. Each transaction is met with struggle, threats and clever maneuverings.
Mattie’s lawyer tries to encourage her to leave the legal matters to him and in a letter writes,
“Your headstrong ways will lead you into a tight corner one day.”
She pays no attention to his prediction and continues to call all the shots.
Mattie won’t leave the manhunt up to Marshal Cogburn either and insists on making the journey into Indian Territory. Even when Cogburn tries to stop her, she still forces her way on him. It’s irrelevant that she picked an experienced and skilled marshal to do the job, she still wants to actively participate in the apprehension of Chaney. She’s unwilling to let Cogburn do what she’s paying him to do without her oversight. When Cogburn tells her “this ain’t no coon hunt”, she says,
“you’re just trying to make your work harder than it is.”
Hunting a fugitive is a dangerous job filled with many risks including weather, strangers and outlaws. It doesn’t seem to faze Mattie; she continues to endure regardless of the situation. Her true grit at first is admirable, yet as the movie progresses; we see her get into several experiences that are just harder and more dangerous than they need be. When Mattie learns of Cogburn’s plans to collaborate with Texas Ranger Laboef (Matt Damon), she won’t have it and demands he stick to their agreement. “I did not want him brought to Texas to have his punishment administered for a Texas crime”, she orders. Mattie wants him punished on her terms and in her way because she’s the one paying the Marshall. Clearly it’s a two-man job-hunting a fugitive but her stipulations make things harder for everyone involved.
Work is Supposed to Be Hard
Mattie gives us an example of how many of us approach our work regardless if we’re in management or not. Business over the years has become an endeavor of struggle that just seems normal. The more the struggle, the greater the reward seems to be the natural formula. Mattie’s approach is common for most of us and many times it’s expected—especially from new and inexperienced managers. Just the thought of allowing people to do their jobs with confidence and trust can be hard for some. The whole concept of empowerment is sometimes seen as a sign of weak leadership. Managers are supposed to know all the facts and have all the answers. As a result, team members and the managers waste time and effort trying to live up to this standard that makes everything more difficult.
Does work really need to always be about struggle? Perhaps this mindset is an old belief that doesn’t work anymore. With the rise of technology, we’ve become more productive than anytime in history. Maybe it’s time we look at this belief that work and life is about struggle so we can discover a different way: one that leads to more collaboration, less effort, and maybe a work environment that’s enjoyable.
True Grit (2010) is an excellent AMP session for anyone seeking to unwind the resonance around pushing too hard at work. If you want the benefits of this AMP film, just do The Intention Session first (see below) and watch True Grit (2010) in it’s entirety. The belief that work has to be hard can be changed and this session will help you discover how to do it in your life.
The Intention Session
Getting started on aligning with the Alignment Movie Process (AMP) session is easy. All you have to do is review these statements and do the modality at the end. Once you’ve completed these, you’re ready to benefit from any Alignment Movie Process (AMP) sessions you choose. This includes any movie referred to in our books, podcasts, and blogs.
Say These Statements Out Loud and Then Do Modalities At The End
I allow the changes in my timing and only integrate what I’m ready to.
I have faith that I’ll receive the benefits I desire.
I’m patient with myself as I make my changes.
I let go of feeling I’m too busy to take the time to read these books and watch these movies
I let go of having to understand how these Alignment Process movie sessions work, allowing me to get the full benefits on my terms and in my timing.
Modalities:
Please do all three of the following actions to integrate this intension session. All three activities are a good habit to embrace prior to beginning an AP movie session.
Nod your head up in down as you would when saying yes.
Drink some water
Slow rhythmic breathing through your nose
You’re now ready to watch your AMP film. Cheers!