Finding Unexpected Purpose, Peace and Fulfillment at Work

In today’s depressed economic climate and shrinking workforce, there are a myriad of questions that workers ask themselves every day, and not just, How can I keep my job? Some of these questions include: How can I prosper while keeping my integrity? When should I say what's on my mind, and when should I let it go? How can I build up confidence, when not feeling confident? Can I possibly balance all the demands on me? Can I find meaning and purpose at work?

Five Minutes on Mondays: Finding Unexpected Purpose, Peace and Fulfillment at Work, written by Alan Lurie, Managing Director at Grubb & Ellis—a leading national real estate service firm—and a non-denominational ordained Rabbi, explores these questions through a series of five minute sermons given every Monday at Grubb & Ellis.

Lurie draws on millennia of philosophy, theology and science to discover answers, revealing how our best traditions all point in the same direction: to become better people, more connected to each other, and to the spiritual. Above all, Five Minutes on Mondays brings unity to the many lives we all lead, and helps us to function to our fullest, healthiest and highest potential—even, or most especially, in troubled times.

Following are five tips that Lurie provides in Five Minutes on Mondays from one of his "sermons" on confidence, which could use reinforcing in times such as these:

• Focus on Your Strengths: Know where you are most effective, be comfortable with your inclinations and limitations, and allow yourself to be supported by others with complimentary strengths. Above all, develop what you do best!
• Monitor Self-Talk: Catch yourself when you use negative talk. If you think positively and expect favorable results and situations, in time your mental attitude will change how you view the events in your life, increasing your opportunities to succeed
• Visualize: Visualization helps you to practice for and anticipate issues before they arise
• Evaluate Yourself Objectively: Having self-confidence does not mean that individuals will be able to do everything, but self-confident people set expectations that are realistic based on their own self knowledge
• Give Yourself a Break: Most importantly, have compassion for yourself– as you would for others. Stumbling is part of the journey, and make sure to pat yourself on the back for a job well done!

Alan Lurie shows you how to achieve honorable success in a troubled world and how to maximize who you are and what you can become. Five Minutes on Mondays will enable you to:

• Prosper while keeping your integrity
• Balance faith, honor and tradition
• Use your workplace as your "spiritual gymnasium"
• Find deeper meaning and purpose in your work
• Face your fears and failures, and keep going
• Live one authentic life- at work, and everywhere else