Is There Beauty in Your Career?

Lately I've been wondering how our worklives would change if we measured success by how much beauty we create in the world. What if, instead of trying to improve employee productivity, you just sought to create a process that was elegant, simple, and easy to use?

What if, instead of seeing yourself as an office manager, you took on the role of "office beautifier"?

What if, instead of managing people, you focused almost solely on nurturing your team so much that their own beauty shone bright?

The natural world around us is full of beauty - full of colors, scents, shapes, and sounds that call out to our senses and make us feel at home again.

In nature, beauty is often (but not always) a reflection of health, strength, and good design. A beautiful flower has only bloomed because it has accessed the nutrients that it needs in order to grow strong. Creating beauty in the world blesses us, and it blesses others.

When was the last time you did something work-related that was just for the sake of creating or experiencing beauty? Beauty, whatever that means to you, softens us - it helps us stay present, feel comforted, and gives us the space to do our best work.

Whether or not there is beauty in your career (and that can look like innovation, eloquence, joy - whatever delights your senses) can be a good indication of how close you are to walking your right path. The Sufi poet Rumi wrote:

The only way to measure a lover

is by the grandeur of the beloved.

Judge a moth by the beauty of its candle.

What kind of candle are you drawn to and consumed by in your career? Is it one full of beauty and vibrancy? Is it a candle blighted by worry, negative thinking, or fear?

How would your worklife change if you sought to create one beautiful thing, conversation, process, or experience each day?