Chapter 1
The energies associated with this sector obviously will speak to your job, your income, and how you make a living and grab your paycheck. But it’s so, so, so much more than that. This sector is about how you feel about yourself, way deep down inside. It goes directly to your sense of who you are, your self-esteem, and your confidence in your ability to take charge of your life. It’s about who you are at your very core and how much you, individually, have to offer the world. See, every single solitary soul born on this planet brings with him or her something entirely special and unique to and for that person only. Gifts and talents, things that only they can do better than anyone else because those gifts and talents define their very identity and ideals as well as bring bright expectations and fuel to their dreams.
Mrs. Fields evidently can bake a better chocolate chip cookie than I can (but, to be honest, that’s not very hard to do). That’s her gift, her talent, and, BONUS, she loves doing it. You get it, it’s the old Joseph Campbell admonition to always “follow your bliss,” because if you do what you absolutely love and are good at it, then the money will naturally follow.
The harder question then remains: “What is my bliss?” “What am I better at than anyone else?” Uh-oh, is that a self-esteem issue I hear creeping into the Career area? Seriously, sometimes I have clients who have become so far removed from themselves and whatever their special gifts and talents are that I have to ask them to take a moment to answer this invasive but oh-so-illuminating question: “Okay, if I called your mother (or whoever raised you) right now, dead or alive, and asked her what you LOVED to do as a kid, what would she tell me?” Because chances are really, really high that whatever you loved to do as a kid is something shy of how you should be earning a paycheck now.
Or, we can take the more “holistic” route where I ask, “What would happen if there were no money in the world and we all had to barter with one another to exist? Obviously your neighbor Joe the plumber could fix your broken pipes, but what, then, could you possibly offer him in return?”
These are the really hard questions. In fact, they are standard Psychology 101. Why am I here? What’s the point? To live, work, pay taxes, and die? NO! So, you see, although this energy has a name called Career, it’s really all about YOU! Your gifts! Your talents! And your making money from them (because, let’s face it, Joe ain’t fixing your pipes for even anywhere close to free anytime soon). Your special gifts are there, that much I know. They sometimes get buried by the need to pay the mortgage, the tuition, the monthly telephone bill, but they exist and they are calling you nonetheless.
So, maybe someday you can stop to answer that call (and smell the roses while you’re at it, especially if you have a talent for floral arranging), and give some thought to what it is you’ve always dreamed about doing. Then take some of the time-tested and success-filled suggestions that follow and go get yourself the job of your dreams. If that’s a bit too much of a leap for you at this moment, just start thinking about what you’d love to be doing day in and day out and do something, anything, to get that party started.
In the meantime, the adjustments and cures included herein will bring you to the ladder and help you climb it, higher and higher, until you are at the tippy-top rung and ready to start all over again. And when that happens, try to give some thought to what the world would love from you. And see if you can use some of these cures to get to that place because then, my friend, you will have come home.
Career is primarily located in the bottom, or front, middle of the main floor, the living room, and especially your office, or any space you spend a lot of time in. In the tic-tac-toe-board analogy, it is the center bottom square, or sector, of your Bagua map. The element here is water and the color is black. If the energy of Career also asks “Why am I here?” then it might follow that to place water in this space represents the eternal mother, the womb, and the water from which we are all birthed. Water itself deep down is black (the only reason it appears blue to us is the reflection from the sun). So from the dark depths of the womb we emerge alone to forge our potentially perfect path. Alone. Therefore the number associated here is 1. Place one black frame here with a picture of moving water in it to create your own flow—soon you will find yourself floating in a space of personal peace and bliss.
FINDING A NEW JOB
Anyone actively searching for a new job is in so many ways about to embark on so many new beginnings on so many different levels that this time of life can be both exciting and nerve-racking at the exact same moment. This is true even if you aren’t the one who made the decision to leave the old employ. Either finding a new job or looking for one that is far more fulfilling taps our reserves of courage, our sense of security, and, of course, our self-esteem. It’s imperative, then, to find the positive in each and every job-searching situation and, most important, to keep every interview, rejection, and/or offer in as perfect a perspective as is manageable.
My client Josh first called me from his office on the West Coast to complain about what he felt was a lack of recognition and reward for all the effort he was “constantly contributing” to his job. Although he was considered part of a comprehensive team, his individual input (due to his own experience in this field) was critical to finding his financial institution new products to sell to their customers. He really was looking for some personal acknowledgment from his superiors, but, since I didn’t fully understand (because—as we’ve all heard more than once—there is no I in team), I wanted him to get much clearer about what it was that he truly wanted from his job. I felt he wanted out but just couldn’t let go because of the twenty years he had invested in that bank.
He needn’t have worried quite so much because three weeks after our consultation, his bank was bought out and he, along with most of the senior staff, was let go. He was both angry and relieved at the same time, but with a wife and baby at home and another on the way, he needed to figure out his next steps before his bitty daughter took her first ones.
One of the initial things that I told Josh to do was to Find a New Job (or add HUGE opportunities to an existing one) at its finest. Traditional dictates tell us that it’s crucially important, while we’re outside searching for both the right and the perfect job, that we leave our own outside lights on—on the front door entryway, on the front walkway, or, even better, on both. (If you have no outside lights, keep on the first light inside the front door.)
You should leave them on for at least three hours a day (preferably during the daytime, when they would not normally be on), illuminating, or actually “calling in,” job opportunities. I actually have a red light outside my front door. My neighbors always know when some sort of big business is cooking around here because that light will stay on until the deal is signed, sealed, and, because that red light makes it much easier to find my house, delivered. Josh not only enacted this cure but did some of the others I am about to include herein, and inside of two weeks opportunity came knocking and he took a job as a freelance consultant to several local lending institutions. At last count he was making three times his previous salary. And the new baby was a bouncing and now well-supported boy. Here are some more tips for creating luck as you Find a New Job:
•In Feng Shui, WATER is the element associated with how well everything in your job world is flowing. If things are coursing along exactly the way that you would like them to, then you should place some symbol of water directly inside the front door. Literally, a moving-water fountain will hasten the hallelujah when you come home with the perfect offer, but any symbol, such as a picture of the ocean or even of fish swimming inside a bowl, will also do the trick. Water is the element that represents career opportunities and advantages. Energetically, you can now influence a positive flow in the job search as well as bring in helpful contacts and, finally, job fulfillment. (If you are using an actual fountain, or any other physical water, be sure it’s flowing INTO the house and not pointed out the front door, as that’s where all your opportunities will go as well.)
Another client, Kara, a graphic designer looking to put her imprint in the workplace, put a full-fledged aquarium (eight goldfish and one black fish is the ticket) inside her front door when her own client list unexpectedly began to dry up. Within weeks of watching those little job seekers do their job, she called to tell me that she was doing a lot of traveling and was worried about taking on too much work and that while she was away her little fishies would perish. I told her to replace the aquarium with a picture of a meandering stream (less powerful than the actual water, but still potent enough) in her Career area and move the aquarium to her Wealth sector (back left-hand corner and entirely apropos). Soon her client count settled at exactly double where it was when she first called me, and she was easily able to afford a caring fish sitter and keep up with the workload!
•Hang metal wind chimes (with hollow rods or prongs) just outside the front door to help control movement within your career (and your life!). When hung with this particular intention, chimes will ring a breath of fresh air into your job search. If you don’t have the wherewithal to hang chime...
