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Integrity- your greatest asset and knowing how to navigate and accept opportunities and jobs from a

Ever since I started this journey, and began to awaken to and question, the true meaning of life, my focus has and always will be, truth. The ability to recognise and translate the purity of truth. Integrity is, and always will be, your greatest asset. Integrity is the ability to live by the words that you say so that your underlying intentions, actions and words always work together as one congruent, beautifully communicating team.

I accepted those terms and also accepted to write the truth, even in the face of adversity, knowing bravery and courage and the acceptance of potential rejection from those that were not ready to hear what I had to say.

I made a pledge not only to myself, but for the sake of others, to always do what was right, which 99% of the time I can assure you, is not the easy route.

We have for a long time, been conditioned to follow where we feel security (my previous blog details how to remove the fear associated with security). The truth of the matter is, we are engineered in a particular way that though any period of transition or change that we go through, the human mind needs some sort of constant or security, which translates into a chosen and active part of the person’s identity that it can attach itself to through the transition state until the other parts of the person that are going through the change or transition have stabilised enough to be able to comfortably release the previous identity attachment if, after the state of transition has stabilised, it no longer needs to be an active part of the person’s identity. The ability to do this is a mastery and has to be understood in order to be carried out successfully as it is only by recognising this process, that the human being can expand, grow and change in a balanced way and truly learn the skill of ‘letting go’.

This is something I have experienced personally, but also see regularly when I work with clients as a very important part to their experience and basic survival. To detach and disassociate from every part of the ‘identity’, which has become a very popular concept in modern spirituality and mindfulness, shifts the person completely out of reality and is a one way ticket to extreme psychological or physical imbalance as stepping into this place, detaches the person completely from their physical form and the mechanisms associated with being ‘human’ and into a space where you actually split yourself into separate parts. Schizophrenia being one of the main psychological repercussions of separating yourself in this way.

Dissolving the ‘ego’ has become become very popular to those that have embarked on this journey but I can assure you, to separate yourself in this way will make things a million times harder for you. This means isolating yourself from society completely and trying to create something outside of that, rather than using what already exists as a springboard. The reality of the situation is, if you try and create something completely outside the realms of what the masses would be able to cognize and understand without any relatable media, they won’t physically be able to ‘see’ you. This is all down to human engineering so is never personal. Many a business have failed due to this very reason. The very term genius itself is the ability to take something complicated and make it relatable and translatable to the masses.

Particularly in recent years, we have come to associate freedom with being self employed. There is a huge rise of individuals embarking on this route as being self employed denotes the idea of making all your own decisions when it comes to your own life. In truth, the beauty of self employment, and the true integrity that lies within it, is the ability attract others to you, knowing that you are offering them something genuine and life enhancing in return that you yourself have developed. It doesn’t matter in what capacity you are doing that, as long as what you are offering holds integrity. That means, say for example you are selling a product, the value of the product and everyone associated with the creation of that product, are paid a balanced and fair amount for their time and work. You are thinking not only about the return, but how everyone else that made your vision possible, benefits as a result. That is integrity in work. You are not only concerned about your ‘lifestyle’ and the status and ‘respect that billions of followers and falsified idolisation it brings you, but the wellbeing of everyone involved.

I have worked in various customer service roles for officially half of my life (I started working at the age of 14 and i’m now 28) and it has, been the greatest teacher and springboard in the line of work I am pursuing now, than any other route I could have chosen for myself. The most recent place of work and endeavour was the biggest learning curve for me and held the greatest bit of wisdom that I have ever taken from any role in customer services and is something that is too valuable not to share.

Never work for anyone, or any company whose intentions are not aligned with your own. To break it down, if you are someone that does think about the bigger picture concerning others, don’t ever agree to work for anyone or any company that only considers themselves. Not only will you feel undervalued as an employee, but you will end up selling products or a service that is also compromised on integrity. My partner and I were offered, and decided to take a live-in hospitality opportunity. For us, on the outset, it seemed a perfect set up, as we work very well together and had always talked about running our own business and it seemed like the perfect opportunity, but once we were fully on board and involved in this ‘opportunity’, we quickly came to realise what we had signed up for and what we were getting in return was astronomically unbalanced. I also accepted the position on good faith as I had worked for the individuals that offered us this position for some time and always hope for the best from others, even if I have experienced and seen things beforehand that were unfavourable. I always give people a chance and the opportunity to change.

The living arrangements were unacceptable, we had no operating kitchen and worst of all, the office for the entire building was located upstairs, meaning we had no personal space and were subject to anyone and everyone coming and going as they pleased at any time of the day. There was no urgency to change the situation and we ended up spending most of what we earned, only being paid minimum wage for positions that lent themselves to much more responsibility and experienced based roles then what minimum wage covered, on having to eat out and constantly wasted food as we had nowhere to store anything. We also had no working Wifi which meant I wasn’t able to do any of my own line of business either as much of the work is done online and through remote readings. At the beginning, we were completely dropped in the deep end to figure things out as we went along, with what felt like no support from others including management. What we had hoped would be a team, quickly unravelled and to say I was shocked and saddened with how things were operating and at the true intentions behind the business, would be an understatement.

The products and what was being served were also compromised on value meaning I was having a constant mental battle with the integrity of selling something I had no personal investment in and thought was completely unbalanced value for money. My partner and I were so run down in the environment as we are both engineered to want what is best for everyone involved and were at a constant state of infliction, that we felt very drained and fell ill quite a few times and completely isolated. Not only that, we received quite hostile behaviour on a number of occasions directed as us from being a whipping post for others stress.

It was, hands down, the most unpleasant experience in a customer service position that we had both experienced but it held the greatest lesson that applies to any position of work and means we can offer that advice as a result.

Not everyone wants to be self employed and that is also a wonderful thing because we always need others to support our vision. No endeavour is ever isolated to one person. You have the visionary and then you have everyone else with their excellent and valuable skill-sets that are all part of your team. If the visionary/ies considers themselves more important than the others, you will never work for someone that holds integrity in their work. No business can operate without its team. YOU are valuable, and knowing what you can offer is key.

Never undersell or undervalue yourself, not only for your sake as working with a sense of purpose is always more rewarding, but it is also very valuable to others that need your skill-set. State what you need from your employer outright in the initial agreement and don’t be afraid if it gets you turned away, there will be someone else that recognises and honours those needs. A mistake that we ourselves made and learnt from, having found we lost out on things that we should have accrued in the time we were there.

Being a visionary is a skill.

Being a builder is a skill.

Being a chef, is a skill.

Being an engineer is a skill.

Being a waitress is a skill.

Being a cleaner, is a skill.

Anyone that undervalues you or your skillset, does not deserve you as an employee, but there will be someone out there that does, just know which opportunity to take and don’t be afraid to hold out for a much more aligned opportunity, even if it takes a little longer. You will always be supported, if your heart is in the right place. It also goes for those of you building your own business, remember that no man is an island and that when you have to pay out for others skills, or products to support your business, they are offering you services you are not an expert in and they deserve a balanced, honourable exchange too.

If the world is going to come to a balanced state where we all trust each other and cooperate effectively, we have to honour each other for the things that we can do and the skills that we have. We also have to know how to recognise true intention and to train our own intuition to the extent where we can recognise true intention because once we know how to say no to the people that only see what they can obtain for themselves and grow the businesses of those that think about everyone involved, will the ‘out for themselves’ businesses collapse.

We all have a responsibility to this and in a consumer world, this is the true crux of change.

Even in the face of adversity, as long as you hold your nerve and don’t give into the fears that present themselves associated with basic survival, you will always be presented with opportunities and jobs that hold great integrity that are fully aligned with you, at the RIGHT time. Even if that time frame is right down to the wire. Its physics.

You are brave, courageous and amazing. Own it.

Stef

 
 
 

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