New year. New school. New paradigm. New work.

This week I celebrate the anniversary of The New School for Inspired Work. I birthed this particular expression of my work just over 16 years ago. Back then, the idea of a “new paradigm” of work was so unheard of that when I spoke of it outside my inner circle, I mostly received looks of pity from others. They worried for my sanity. Inwardly, I worried for theirs. I could see what was coming. I’ve been a keen observer of this emerging era for almost two decades now. However, it has only been in the last five years that my blatherings about it have started to sound more like real life and less like “crazy talk”.

Anyone who is fully participating in life can see that the old paradigm is crumbling around us. We want it to. There’s nothing left to hang onto but disillusionment and disempowerment, anyway. Personally, I don’t believe it’s happenstance we are all alive on the planet right now. I think we chose to be here at this very special time in humanity’s evolution. Whether or not we were aware of the great troubles we would face in our lifetime, at least we had the courage to show up when we did.

We chose to be here at this very special time in humanity’s evolution.

This past year, many of us engaged in the deep inner work of letting go our “old” selves. We have been freeing ourselves from our limitations, challenging our beliefs around who we are and what we are capable of so that we can move through the world in a new, more empowered and enlightened way. And what goes on within must also be reflected without. Meaning that if we are claiming our sovereignty within, then our work in the world must also embody the same qualities.

Qualities of the new paradigm

As I said, I have been a student of the new paradigm for awhile now, and I don’t know if I’ve ever articulated it to myself as succinctly as I want to share with you here. At the heart of the new paradigm is the transition from sourcing our energy outside of ourselves to sourcing our energy within. This shift will have a profound impact on every aspect of our lives – our health, our relationships, our minds, our bodies, our finances, our communities, our societies, our creativity, and of course, our work.

At the heart of the new paradigm is the transition from sourcing our energy outside of ourselves to sourcing our energy within.

As we expand our awareness of who we are as beings, we are growing in our understanding of the true nature of energy and how we effect it to create our experience of reality. Our relationship with energy is becoming more transparent and more intimate. We are learning that each of us has access to a source of energy within. No longer do we need to seek anything outside of ourselves – be it love, recognition, or even riches. We have the capacity to realize these things for ourselves.

In our work, having access to our own energy allows us to:

• Operate as sovereign beings
• Collaborate with others, each in our true power
• Authentically express from joy
• Offer our gifts from desire, not necessity
• Make our genuine contribution
• Thrive with ease
• Live in a state of possibility
• Access prosperity
• Embody our full creative capacities
• Realize the beautiful world we want to live in

By accessing our own energy, not only do we free ourselves, we liberate others. No longer do we need them to help us fulfill our needs, we can satisfy our own. This enables us to interact in a way that is mutually beneficial while maintaining our own autonomy. We are all still in service to each other, but in a way that is generative rather than consumptive. This results in significant shifts in the quality of our work and the way we relate to work itself.

The old vs the new paradigm of work

As we continue to usher in this new era, in regard to our work, many of us are still straddling both paradigms – one foot dragging along in the old and the other leaping into the new. As with everything, there isn’t a single imaginary line that we step across and are instantly transported to the new paradigm, it’s more of a progressive journey. (Though, if you know of one, please spill the beans, I’d love to know.) This is all preamble to say that the concepts presented below generally exist at opposite ends of the spectrum, whereas most of us still live – and work – somewhere in between.

Old paradigm: Beholden to a job

New paradigm: Sovereign in our work

Throughout the modern age, it has been ingrained within us that we are reliant upon jobs for our survival. This has created a distortion in our relationship with our energy, making us believe we are dependent upon something outside of ourselves to have our needs met. Historically, this led many of us to making less-than-desirable decisions in what we were willing to put up with in our work because we felt we were limited in our options. However, as we claim our sovereignty (and thereby, our own energy), we free ourselves to work from choice, not necessity.

Old paradigm: Exchange time, knowledge, labour for money

New paradigm: Receive money through multiple channels, including that of work

Similar to the point above, we had been led to believe that the only way to “get” money was to offer up something valuable in exchange, namely our life itself. This myopia caused us to shut ourselves off from other channels of receiving and let our work drain our resources. As we now expand our point of view about energy, we also are able to tap into other potential channels for receiving.

Old paradigm: Earn money

New paradigm: Live prosperously

The phrase “earn money” or “earn a living” implies that we exist in a perpetual state of lack and that money is something we need to justify having through some means of return. However, to live prosperously is to accept that it is our inherent state and that everything we need already exists as ours. We need not “earn” prosperity, but live as though we already are it.

Old paradigm: Serve humanity because they are “broken” and in need of “healing”

New paradigm: Serve humanity because we all thrive when we are seen, heard, and valued for the whole beings we are

There is a difference between seeing others as “broken” and positioning oneself as the person who is doing the work of “healing” for them, and seeing others as having forgotten their wholeness and supporting them in their own work of healing. It’s a subtle, but very important distinction. One is energetically feeding off of another, the other is not.

Old paradigm: Offer products and services that meet our needs only

New paradigm: Offer products and services that meet actual needs

It was not so long ago that the general consensus was that the primary reason a business existed was to “make money”. This meant a business was deemed successful based on its level of sales whether or not what that business was selling met anyone’s actual needs. This created a culture of sales and marketing that artificially contrived lack within humans. In other words, we sold each other things we didn’t really need by making ourselves feel bad about who we are. That’s definitely old school. While it is imperative that our work serves our individual needs, it is equally important that it meets a genuine need within another.

Old paradigm: Grind it out through action

New paradigm: Allow our energy to serve us

We’ve all heard the sayings, “No pain, no gain” or “Hard work pays off”. This meant that whenever we were faced with a challenge in our work, we would dig deeper, push harder, and “overcome” our obstacles. Sure, we may have affected some results with these methods, but the experience itself was excruciating. That’s what was meant by “The struggle is real”. Not because it was actually real, but because we made it real by trying to do the work of energy itself. With new energy, we take our rightful place as the dreamer and allow the energy to do the work for us.

Old paradigm: Act from a state of motivation

New paradigm: Act from a state of inspiration

Whether we are motivated or inspired, both states of being yield action, however, the experience of that action and the results are not the same. Motivation is an attempt to overcome internal misalignment whereas inspiration arises from alignment. When inspired, we become a clear channel for the energy to move through us.

Old paradigm: Work to pass time

New paradigm: Work to be in joy

Time is precious. Our lives are precious. If we are to spend much of it dedicated to working, then let us make it special and devote our lives to that which brings us joy.

Old paradigm: Play power games

New paradigm: Play the game of life

Without understanding that each and every person has access to their own source of energy, then we are reduced to believing that we must “take” it from another, which leads to never-ending power battles. (If you watch the news, this is the ridiculousness we see playing out every day.) However, when we understand that each of us has access to our own energy, then we are free to play the game of life of our own making. We play with others for mutual fulfillment, not greed.

Old paradigm: Create from the mind

New paradigm: Create through imagination

The old paradigm was generated through the act of thinking with the mind. The new paradigm is realized through tapping into potentials with our entire being. This expansion allows energy to serve us in more innovative ways.

Old paradigm: Seek energy from outside ourselves

New paradigm: Receive our energy from within

To reiterate what I already said in the section above, the core shift in the new paradigm is the movement from seeking energy outside of ourselves to receiving it from within. To access our energy within is what it is to be inspired.

Inspired work is new paradigm work

Since I began this business over 16 years ago, I’ve been learning, creating, and sharing ideas about inspired work. In essence, our inspired work is new paradigm work. When we source our energy from within, our ideas are received from a broader perspective and serve humanity in a way that goes beyond our understanding. Our creative actions in the world are more effortless, more fluid. The results are more delicious, more joyful.

Our inspired work is that which comes from within us and wants to be expressed through us into the world, which becomes the foundation of an entirely new reality. We didn’t show up in this lifetime just to bear witness to the birth of the new paradigm, we are here to create it. Let’s go all in.