If you’d like to listen to a narrated version of this essay, find it on the “A Wild New Work” podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, SoundCloud, or right here on our website.

As I discussed in Part Three of this series, many of us carry a cultural belief that there is a concrete place or status we need to get to in our careers. We buy into the idea that there’s a job, title, or salary level that, once reached, will bring us ongoing contentment and permanent satisfaction. Everything in our lived experience and in the natural world tells us that this is a lie, and yet many of us pine for it every day.

I’m here to tell you that there is nowhere you need to get to. There’s no rush. The contentment is available to you here, now, and that doesn’t mean that you need to stay where you are forever. In fact, you cannot stay where you are forever, because cycles of change are inevitable. Our work is to adapt to these changes in an aligned way so that, over time, the work life we build is one that sits upon a foundation of our own integrity and joy.

As a culture, we need to change our definition of success when it comes to our careers. We need to widen our perspective so that we can see that all throughout a healthy career, there are cycles of endings and beginnings. What matters much more than where we get to is how we get there, and it’s absolutely possible to create a career that’s healthy enough to offer you meaning, personal expression, and financial stability. But nothing lasts forever, and to create such a career requires your adaptability and connection to the deep wisdom that guides you.

Ecological succession is a wonderful, nature-based example that can help us understand the cycles of change that we go through as working people. Ecological succession is the process by which an ecosystem experiences a disturbance and then re-integrates after that disturbance. For example, let’s say that a mature forest experiences a naturally occuring wildfire. The fire is the disturbance, or the catastrophe, and the new life that sprouts after the fire is the beginning of the integration process. The ecosystem seeks balance after the disturbance, and pioneer plants and creatures begin to help it re-stabilize, eventually giving way to more mature plants and animals that can thrive until the next disturbance.

Many of us view disturbances like wildfires, landslides, or earthquakes as tragedies for an ecosystem, but the truth is that they are necessary ways by which the Earth remains balanced. They make room for new life, often bringing greater diversity to a place, and they ensure that nothing remains stagnant. It is also true that human-caused climate change has brought with it too many disturbances so large and disruptive that ecosystems aren’t able to recover.

We are also balancing the fact that disturbances in our career are natural phenomena and there is a tremendous amount of pressure on our inner ecosystems right now. It is inevitable that job opportunities will go away and new ones will surface, but you may also be experiencing the stress of living in a society without basic safety nets such as affordable medical care and access to education. I won’t gloss over these realities, but I also want to empower you to embrace the changes that are presented to you.

Using an ecological model, we can learn to work with change in a more natural way. Disturbances will always occur in our careers, whether they come in the form of job losses, promotions, choosing to start your own business, taking a sabbatical, having kids, or retirement. Disturbances are not “bad” or “good,” they simply are, even though the brain will want to tell you a story about them and what they mean for your future. A wildfire or earthquake isn’t “bad” or “good,” it just is. The ecosystem doesn’t wallow in the fact that a disturbance happened, it simply begins the process of integration.

When we experience a disturbance to our career ecosystem, how can we integrate it in a healthy way? In my personal experience with this and in my work mentoring others who are met with disturbances in their careers, I’ve seen three primary adaptive strategies:

1) Accept that the disturbance occurred and accept what it has done to your ecosystem. Without judgment, see if you can name objectively what has happened. For example, “My manager has quit five days after hiring me” or “I’m being forced to resign my position” or “I’m being asked to take on more responsibility in this role.”

Accept the feelings you have about the disturbance, letting them flow through you without getting stuck. Your feelings will change, so let them. You are always allowed to feel how you feel, even if it doesn’t make sense.

Immediately after the disturbance, you’ll want to stay very present with what’s arising. “No sudden moves” is a wise strategy at this time. Let your new reality sink in, noticing where you’re resistant to it and where you welcome it.

2) Monitor your perspectives about the disturbance. As your new reality sinks in, even if it’s a welcome one like a job change or fresh opportunity, your brain will attempt to pull you into fear about it. Change brings waves of unknown factors, and our brains can see that as a problem or a crisis.

In this state, the work you did to objectively name your reality in step one as “I am leaving this job and will find a better one” becomes “I’m an idiot for thinking I could ever do better than this organization, and I’ll never find another job.” Again, the wildfire isn’t a problem, it simply is. Of course we can mourn the loss of mature trees and animals that have been displaced, but if we stay stuck in the story that wildfires - or career transitions - are bad, we don’t have the energy to help the ecosystem become restored.

If you’re stuck in a story about the past that feels disempowering to you, write a new one. Return to your new story again and again until it lives in you. Notice where there’s new life in your ecosystem. If you return to periods of mourning the disturbance, know that that’s normal and a natural part of the process.

3) Take grounded actions to help yourself adapt. When we experience a disturbance, even if it’s something small like a project going differently than we expected, we’re offered the choice between resisting and adapting. If we resist the disturbance, we’re in denial about our reality and wasting our energy. If we can accept what’s happened (which doesn’t have to mean that we believe it’s okay that it happened) we give ourselves the spaciousness to move forward in a healthy way.

After a disturbance in an ecosystem, the creatures that have survived or come in afterward begin to grow and proliferate. They are focused on their primary survival needs: how can I feed myself, find shelter, and propagate new life?

This level of focus is helpful to us as well. After a disturbance, we need to get grounded and remember what’s most important to us at this time, which I believe is always our integrity. How can the actions we take be rooted in a solid understanding of ourselves and how we want to be in the world? For example, if you’ve experienced a disturbance such as losing or leaving your job, how can you take actions now that are an embodiment of the best version of yourself?

What would the wisest, most assured version of yourself do now that you’re on the other side of this disturbance? What’s most important for you to rebuild, nurture, or rescue? Aligned steps build aligned careers, and this is a practice that we can come back to each day, releasing perfection and remaining focused on cultivating our own integrity.

Change is inevitable for every creature on this earth, and the fact that you’re here today is a testament to your own resilience. No matter what the state of your career ecosystem is, whether it’s in disarray, re-stabilizing, or in a period of calm, you have the inner strength to manage whatever comes. And, you are not alone.

To approach work as a sacred practice can include the acceptance of help from others in your life and / or from the Divine. The Earth as a whole is interested in Life continuing, and change is a critical component of that. You are supported in the same way that an ecosystem is supported, given the sunlight and soil that it needs in order to thrive.

I want to thank you for joining me on this four-part journey into sacred work. I hope that it has enlivened you and shifted your perspective about what’s possible in your career. This week’s supplemental materials can be found at the link below, and you can always learn more about the services I offer, such as mentorship, workshops, and more, here at awildnewwork.com.

Thank you for being here and for sharing this time with me. I encourage you to check out the supplemental materials to support your learning this week, including:

* Journaling prompts
* A Tarot spread
* Astrological insights about the planet Jupiter
* External resources to explore

If you know others who would benefit from this course, you can send them this link to sign up for the series: https://mailchi.mp/6843ad029e7b/workasasacredpractice