We are The Seekers, members of the workforce or career kingdom trying to live our truth while being the heroes in our survival; multi-generational, passionate beings in need of empowerment in the face of rejection.
Attention literary agents. I’m coming for you. I’m coming at you with words, thoughts, feelings and actionable ways to help readers find their power against adversity in finding their place in the workforce. How to maintain sanity in an insane world of competition during the “in-between” or periods of unemployment. How to find spiritual grounding when they feel their able-minded, talented, qualified self isn’t being heard against the din of resumes, LinkedIn silence and interviews that have gone nowhere. And my words are gonna start a new mindset on the challenges we all face in life – finding our purpose; finding our work; finding our tribe – and surviving.
Literary agents. I’m-a- gonna need you. Most of you are going to reject me with silence. Others are going to reject me with a written “no thanks”. But someone out there will know this book will touch a major swath of the workforce, rife with people of all ages who want a chance to shine and earn enough to live a good life. To life with power and lack of fear, to stand strong within their confidence while staying connected to spiritual guidance and love.
Some agent, somewhere will want this. Out of all the no’s will come a yes from the right one. And that person must give me support, guidance, editorial know how while selling my work to a terrific publisher. It will be the start of a beautiful relationship.
So, let’s do this.
Let’s party.
(As you can tell, I’m working on a book and looking for representation. After years of doing this on my own – it’s time to get serious. It’s on.)
“The waiting is the hardest part Every day you see one more card You take it on faith, you take it to the heart The waiting is the hardest part Oh, don’t let it kill you baby, don’t let it get to you Don’t let ’em kill you baby, don’t let ’em get to you I’ll be your breathin’ heart, I’ll be your cryin’ fool Don’t let this go to far, don’t let it get to you.”
Words and Lyrics by Tom Petty
Since Tom Petty passed away early last month, I’ve been listening to him and his words like never before. He had a spirit connected to a level of source that was wrapped up in leather, coddled in guitars and flowed through a weary, snarling voice that personified 20th century music.
Petty was my high school days. He was my early Los Angeles world (“Free Fallin'”). His music was always rollicking and rolling. Although his music with the Heartbreakers and the Traveling Wilburys was the soundtrack of my 80’s and 90’s, I never really HEARD his lyrics until the day he died.
Petty died on day one of a transitional period in my life. It was, and continues to be, an expansive, scary and amazing time of discovery, meetings with new people and some hard to ignore frustrations. With Petty’s untimely death making his music part of the zeitgeist, the words floated and landed with me at the most important time to hear them.
Especially the song, “The Waiting”. These past few weeks have been a test of patience. Waiting is hard, but part of applying one’s will toward the greater goal – the brass ring you know is coming if you just put in the work and let the powers that be take the wheel.
He was a sage. Just like Dylan or the Beatles – those touched by something that was beyond their comprehension. They opened the conduit to something other worldly. He translated the flow of a deep seed of knowledge we all find in the base of our soul. There were messages of survival and strength in the face of a cruel world. He opened the path and rendered words that would be understood by the human ear.
Songs like “Learning to Fly” and “I Won’t Back Down” have become anthems in my life at this particular time.
I take solace in “Learning to Fly” – how I’m starting out all alone on some dusty road, as the sun comes up day after day with new ways to find my wings.
And “I Won’t Back Down” is my mantra. This world will make you quake in your shoes, but I’m not gonna let it. I won’t give into fear. I will not give up my focus on success, and failure or rejection will not shake me for long.
I don’t mean to overstate this or make him out to be a god. He was only human, a man with a painful past that molded him into understanding the human condition so intensively, he could passively bring down some goodly wisdom from somewhere. Where that place is – we’ll never know until we’re no longer here.
When I was eleven years old, I fell in love. I first laid eyes on him inside an album cover. He was photographed within a crowd of people who looked off into the distance, as if there was an accident, or some guy who “made the grade” and “blew his mind out in a car”. He had cheek bones for days, a perfect shag, symmetric feathered hair cut and held an inner beauty with an essence of humor. The man was gorgeous to me. His name was George Harrison.
It was my pre-adolescent crush on the spiritual Beatle George that introduced me to meditation. The stories about the Beatles’ visiting a giggly, wise, (and apparently very handsy) guru named Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, fascinated me. Further obsession with Harrison introduced me to the story of Krishna. I’d read Rolling Stone, listen to Harrison interviews on the radio and on TV, marinate in the lyrics of his songs about finding inner peace and gaining a concept of how life “flows within you and without you”. All these bits of wild and wonderful wisdom have followed me, escaped me, and the returned during the most difficult and wonderful times of my life.
Too young to really understand how to meditate, I put it aside as a future tool I’d never realize I’d need. With maturity came understanding the technique of meditation and its value. When things get rough in this loud and crazy world – especially during a time of transition whether in your career, life, status or whatever is on your plate that’s stirring up the particles in your mind’s snow globe – the practice of meditation can help keep your mind balanced and on track to finding the peaceful room that lives inside you. It can also hone your intuition, allow you to make decisions with power, and provide a state of well being that will provide clarity while going out and accomplishing your goals.
The answers come when our mind is still. Live mindfully. That means, don’t give into fear. Don’t give into worry. Don’t believe in scarcity. Shutting off a few minutes a day to focus on the peace that lives inside you will autocorrect these feelings because we are not meant to feel this.
We are not running from wolves anymore. Our frontal lobe bullshit can only help us understand what we need to change and work on. But letting fear cloud our clarity toward success will only hold us back and manifest the very things we fear. It doesn’t have to be that way.
I’m like you. I’m constantly face to face with the fearful stuff life brings. The pitfalls come and the self doubt creeps in. Yet, I work hard, and encourage you, to transform fear into power. We are racing through life, family and career without thought or connection to our inner vibration. Time to slow down to help you tap into your gut feelings and live mindfully. It will help you and those around you be the best you are meant to be.
Here are some resources on meditation I’ve found helpful.
There are also plenty of guided meditations on YouTube to provide steps on how to calm the mind so you can think clearly and optimize your day.
If you’re like me and prefer atmospheric, brain soothing spacey audio to help you flow, like high frequency tones and vibrational sounds that reboot the electrodes in your brain – search for “Binary Beats” on YouTube. Play with some videos and stick with the ones that make you feel good. Plug in for 10 minutes – at your desk or in a quite corner at home – and clear those mind clouds. (Don’t do this and drive.)
The one great challenge is to make yourself do this everyday, and to not fall into the well of despair by forgetting that quiet peace inside you.
Thoughts don’t matter. What lays beneath does. George opened that concept to me.
Order of the Good Write 