The Heartbeat of Right Livelihood

At Plum Village Monastery, every retreatant signs up for working meditation where you practice mindfulness with daily chores. The monastics start the sessions with intention setting. Whether you’re washing pots, picking vegetables, or setting up meditation cushions, you are to ask yourself, What are the overarching values I want to bring to this work?

You even set intentions before doing toilet-cleaning meditation—the one job I avoided signing up for year after year until my friend Lucia asked me to join her.

“Come clean toilets with me! It’s the best. You’re in and out quick. No one wants to do it, but it’s actually pretty easy.”

I liked Lucia. She was from Spain, and our sons had been playing a lot of Ping-Pong together. I thought, Maybe if I join this working group, we can become friends, too.

So I followed Lucia and joined the toilet-cleaning meditation. “What is your intention in cleaning toilets?” the nun leading our group asked.

It may sound odd with a task as icky as cleaning public toilets, but reflecting on your values can help transform the yuck factor.

 Everyone’s intention was different:

• For years, others have cleaned toilets for me. This is my way of giving back.
• I want to become more comfortable with discomfort.
• I want to create a clean, welcoming space for the children and families who come here.

I thought about mine. My intention was to connect—to new friends and to myself. I had spent a lot of time in bathrooms alone, harming myself and away from my values. This was my chance to turn that energy around.

It turned out Lucia was right. That working meditation was the best thing I did all week at the monastery. We carried wheelbarrows full of disgusting trash to the dumpsters, but we sang songs while we worked and made those bathrooms sparkling clean for families to brush their teeth. Most importantly, we lived our values of giving back, being with discomfort, and connection. You never know why someone does the work they do, but if you scratch the surface, you just might find some treasure in their intention.

Your values are the heartbeat of meaningful work. Values not only drive what you put your energy into but are also the engine for why you’ve chosen that work in the first place and how you show up.

Your values are the heartbeat of meaningful work. Values not only drive what you put your energy into but are also the engine for why you’ve chosen that work in the first place and how you show up. Get honest with yourself and start looking at your values in the workplace. What is the bigger, overarching reason you want to work? Are you living that reason now? Are there ways you can bring wise effort to what you do? When you achieve that, you are practicing wise livelihood—a powerful way to be at work.

Open Up to Choice Points at Work

Choice points aren’t always dramatic, quit-your-job-and-move-to-Costa Rica choices (though sometimes they are). More often they’re small but powerful opportunities to adjust, realign, or reclaim a little more of your energy. Take Jane, for example.

Jane, like many of us, had had enough of the mounting disconnect, polarity, and widening disparities within our politics, society, and culture. At the same time, she was massively overwhelmed by the task of managing her family restaurant while caring for two young children. It all felt too hard, draining, and grim. She wanted to get through, sure, but she also wanted to be part of the solution, especially as a white woman in a position of privilege.

Jane’s particular genius had been passed on to her by her grandmother, also named Jane: the gift of gathering people around a table for meaningful conversation, fantastic food, and healthy dialogue—all were welcome. Jane felt energized by the idea of bringing women together over her love of food and hosting, creating a space for open and respectful conversations. It took courage to tell her parents she would leave the family restaurant where she had worked for over a decade and even more courage to start her own business, the Communal Table. It was a choice point—she knew she had something to offer, and there was a need in the community for her genius. It began with a few small gatherings at community gardens, artists’ studios, and open spaces and grew into regular sold-out events.

The concept was simple: Jane would cook an incredible meal from locally sourced ingredients, then gather women to discuss vulnerable and universal topics such as self-care, finances, pleasure, and creativity. Jane curated and asked questions like “How have you experienced grief, and what have you learned from it?” And she always kept a few seats open for people who didn’t have the financial resources to pay. Since she started, she’s hosted almost a hundred of these events and recently was acknowledged for her work by chef Alice Waters, who is known as an originator of farm-to-table cooking. It takes a lot of effort for Jane to put these events together—from the physical effort of making the meals to the psychological effort of holding the space with vulnerability and authenticity. But whenever she does, she leaves full and reenergized because of it.

Let’s take a closer look at what’s weighing you down at work—and where you might be able to intervene with wiser effort. Try this five-part exercise that I adapted from the book The Stress Prescription by Elissa Epel. Open your Wise Effort Journal and title this exercise “Choice Points at Work”:

1. Write down everything that’s draining your energy at work. Be honest. Big or small, if it’s weighing on you, put it on the list. 

2. Circle the things you have the power to change. Some of your stressors are set in stone, but not all of them. Where do you have agency to make a shift? Where could you ask for support, set boundaries, or take action?

3. Underline anything you could eliminate. Are there tasks you could delegate, taper off, or say no to? Sometimes stress comes from doing things we don’t actually need to do.

4. Put a box around anything important but unchangeable. These are the stressors you don’t have control over—at least not directly.

5. Look at what you circled and underlined—these are your choice points. This is where wise effort comes in. Making changes won’t always be easy. It means facing discomfort, stepping into your power, and sometimes taking risks. But you have the skills for this.

For the things you can change:

Open up to feeling: Name what emotions come up when you think about making this change. Are you afraid of judgment? Embarrassed about how things have played out? Acknowledge those feelings instead of pushing them down. Take care of yourself, offer some compassion, and center yourself in your values before you act.

Open your mind: Stress gives us tunnel vision. When we’re overwhelmed at work, our minds shrink down to the immediate problem, making it feel inescapable. But pause for a second and ask yourself, Are you sure? Are you sure this will be a disaster? Are you sure you’ll fail? Are you sure you know exactly how this will go? Keep your mind open to the possibility that you don’t really know.

For the things you can’t change:

Open yourself: You don’t have to carry the hard stuff alone. Find some Second Bodies to lean on who get it—colleagues, mentors, friends in your field—to support your work. Choose people who want the best for you but also who aren’t afraid to give you some feedback. But be wise in whom you share your vulnerabilities with, especially if they are related to your work. Use your wise mind to choose people who are positive energizers.

Open your behavior: Radical acceptance isn’t passive—it’s an active choice. Try filling in this sentence: When I accept _____________, it frees me to ______________. Maybe accepting a difficult boss frees you to stop seeking validation that won’t come. Maybe accepting that your job is temporary frees you to stop stressing about every little thing. Or maybe accepting that this job is a dead end will allow you to get out sooner rather than later. Unclench a little. See how it feels.

Open up to your genius: Are there better places to use your genius energy? If you are in a job that is unchangeable and making you miserable, it’s probably time to find better work that treats your values, skills, and genius with respect. Start looking at a brainstorm of possibilities. Are there places where you could live your genius and your values? Yes, there are! It might take some patience, flexibility, creativity, and support, but don’t give up on the possibility that work could be better.

Focus Your Work Energy

Even work that seems solitary is rarely done in isolation. We humans need each other—for feedback, for emotional support, and to refine our craft. Malcolm Gladwell’s ten-thousand-hour rule, which suggests that mastery requires ten thousand hours of practice, falls short if those hours lack purposeful guidance and feedback. With wise effort at work, you can better lean on others, embrace diverse perspectives, and work with integrity. And when you do, you’ll feel it. You won’t feel trapped. Work won’t suck. Instead, you’ll take pride in what you do and find great satisfaction in doing it well. That’s the kind of work you deserve. If you’re already doing work you love, you’re fortunate! Use wise effort to level up your genius energy. And if you’re not in work that fulfills you—and have the privilege and freedom to change it—go after what makes your heart sing. Don’t stay stuck; let your work evolve with you. We need your voice, your talents, and the impact only you can make with your genius energy. Remember that this energy is a renewable resource. Learning to direct it wisely can transform not only your day-to-day interactions but potentially your entire career.

♦

Excerpted from Wise Effort: How to Focus Your Genius Energy on What Matters Most (St. Martin’s Essentials / Sounds True; September 2025) and is reprinted with permission from the publisher.