Color Your Life

Have you ever arrived at place in your career and wondered how you got there? Have you found yourself stuck, not liking your job, yet not seeing how you can change after investing 15 years at it. Let's take a different perspective and see if you can solve your dilemma through this colorful full spectrum exploration of job and career.

Think back to when you began working. You looked at options and explored different ways to make money soon, you may have transitioned into a new career as a way to create a lifestyle change or to remodel your work life. This move expresses power and taking charge. It is strength and energy, and the color is red, the base chakra. It doesn't matter if you found yourself a corporate job or built your own business. You are inspired and motivated.

Your career move brings networking meetings, web sites and all the social issues. You contact buddies or former business associates to promote your business. If in a corporation you meet your co-workers and the leaders. It is stimulating, social and the color is orange, the second chakra.

At this point your career is a craft based on a set of skills or a model. You work based on memorized processes or protocol. You work from your left brain.. This is the third chakra, and the color is yellow. Your experiences are formalized, routine. Some people stay here, feeling the strong hold of golden handcuffs.

Others naturally transition to the next level, the heart center. You link to an evolving growth cycle both for yourself and your work. Perhaps, like so many people these days, you began your career at a very young age, tinkering in your garage, participating in Junior Achievement, or selling lemonade. You work with a passion, a mission. Your training comes from this place and you learn the techniques and lingo of your career path.

Do you move back to the heart after your training? You never leave this heart center, for that is who you are. The color is green for balance and you give it your all, from your place of authenticity. This is the fourth chakra.

Your next transition may be the most difficult, for this is where you express who you are and what you do. And where routine trips up many. At this level you integrate your job into a career and into your body, losing the memorized skills. You are "in flow" as you meet new people, change companies and encounter new opportunities. Life becomes an art form. This is the fifth chakra, blue, and it is the throat or communication center. As you speak from this place, you begin to experience the law of attraction. This is where you clarify or redefine intentions based on who and what you want to attract and how you want your career or business to expand.

Your next shift is integrating your intentions into your inner knowing, the intuitive self, so real flow can begin. You assume leadership roles. You work with the intuitive voice, let go of ego, the need to be right and bring in fresh ideas through synchronicity. This is the sixth chakra, indigo, also called the third eye. It is the center from which shamans and healers work.

This could be your last step, for this brings you to the spiritual level -- a vital step in the big picture. It is where, through your work, you connect to the Divine in all things and you become aware of your impact on others' environments. You connect with yourself in a different way. You experience integration of your life on all levels. Here is where balance really begins. It is the place where you experience the "Big AH HA". This is when things become mystical. It is the crown, or seventh chakra, and the color is violet. For you this may be the "be all and end all".

I believe, however, that there is a next and final step. It is here where you can get off track again. It is also here where you are free to express who you are to the world. You reach a place of trust and knowing, and your career and life become an art form you have finely crafted. It resonates in your body, in your mind, and you move freely in this knowledge. It is where you walk your talk, and paint, write, design a house or build a boat. It is a place of freedom, and it is not age or retirement related.

It is here where you bring the strength and power of your base chakra, red, and blend it with your crown chakra of violet so that your spirit speaks from deep within your being. This blended color is magenta, the auric color, which becomes your magical, mystical attractor. It is where you express your uniqueness and become grounded to your being in your heart. You may wonder why there are so many in business with a "poor me" attitude. From my vantage point, this comes when people are working from the lower chakras and are experiencing fear, lack and competition. No matter if you are an entrepreneur or an employee, you have the power to move beyond the "poor me" place. To vitalize, color and reshape your world, step aside for a moment, walk around and reflect on where you stand in the world of business. Better yet visualize where you stand in the world.

Look back on these eight levels and examine where you stand today. Where have you been in the past and to where are you moving your career and your life today? Take your time, for these are growth steps. These concepts may be a bit edgy, unique, and certainly out of the box. May you find your place on the edge too.

© 2004 Susan "Sue" Bacon Trumpfheller

Sue Trumpfheller is the author, teacher and a coach, Sue supports her clients by helping them "paint a picture" that illustrates their current situation. Using shapes and vibrant colors is central to her intuitive coaching style and to making the coaching relationship a living, breathing supportive environment. Contact Sue through http://www.ecoentrepreneur.com

In The News:

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Palestinians pray over the bodies of  people killed near a United Nations school Tuesday, during their funeral in the Jebaliya refugee camp, in the northern Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2009. Israel's military paused its Gaza offensive for three hours Wednesday to allow food and fuel to reach besieged Palestinians, and the country's leaders debated whether to accept an international cease-fire plan or expand the assault against Hamas. With criticism rising of the operation's spiraling civilian death toll and Gazans increasingly suffering the effects of nonstop airstrikes and shelling, Israel's military said it opened 'humanitarian corridors' to allow aid supplies to reach Palestinians.(AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)AP - Israel resumed its Gaza offensive Wednesday, bombing heavily around suspected smuggling tunnels near the border with Egypt after a three-hour lull to allow in humanitarian aid. Hamas responded with a rocket barrage.



President-elect Barack Obama gestures during a news conference at his transition office in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2009, where he introduced Nancy Killefer, not shown, to the newly created position of chief performance officer. (AP Photo/Lawrence Jackson)AP - Pointing with concern to "red ink as far as the eye can see," President-elect Barack Obama pledged Wednesday to tackle out-of-control Social Security and Medicare spending and named a special watchdog to clamp down on other federal programs — even as he campaigned anew to spend the largest pile of taxpayer money in history to revive the sinking economy.



Illinois U.S. Senate Appointee Roland Burris, left, meets with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nev., Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2009, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)AP - Senate Democrats beat a hasty retreat Wednesday from their rejection of Roland Burris as President-elect Barack Obama's successor, yielding to pressure from Obama himself and from senators irked that the standoff was draining attention and putting them in a bad light. Burris said with a smile he expected to join them "very shortly."



In this photo provided by the Washington State Department of Transportation, water rushes past a washed out road near Blewett Pass on U.S. highway 97 in Washington State on Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2009 in Washington State. (AP Photo/Washington State Department of Transportation)AP - Rain and high winds lashed Washington state Wednesday, causing widespread avalanches, mudslides, flooding and road closures as the heavy snowfall that has buried parts of the state began to rapidly melt.



President-elect Barack Obama is welcomed by President George W. Bush for a meeting at the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2009, with former presidents, from left, George H.W. Bush, Bill  Clinton, and Jimmy Carter.  (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)AP - Confronting a grim economy and a Middle East on fire, Barack Obama turned Wednesday to perhaps the only people on the planet who understand what he's in for: the four living members of the U.S. presidents' club.



Workers put bullet proof glass on President-elect Barack Obama's Inaugural Reviewing Stand on Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House in Washington, Monday, Jan. 5, 2009. (AP Photo/Ron Edmonds)AP - The upcoming inauguration of Barack Obama is an attractive target for international and domestic terrorists, but U.S. intelligence officials have no information about specific threats to the Jan. 20 event.



AP - You've heard of making cheese from goats' milk, but prescription drugs? In what would be a scientific first, an anti-clotting drug made from the milk of genetically engineered goats moved closer to government approval Wednesday after experts at the Food and Drug Administration reported that the medication works and its safety is acceptable.

Christian Bale accepts the favorite action movie award for 'The Dark Knight' at the 35th Annual People's Choice Awards on Wednesday Jan. 7, 2009 in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles)AP - Holy, People's Choice Awards, Batman! "The Dark Knight" soared away with every trophy it was nominated for Wednesday at the 35th annual fan-favorite CBS ceremony. The caped crusader flick won five awards, including favorite cast, superhero, action movie and on-screen matchup for Christian Bale's Batman and the late Heath Ledger's Joker.



Harvard's Jeremy Lin (4) drives for the basket in front of Boston College's Rakim Sanders in the first half of an NCAA college basketball game Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2009, in Boston. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)AP - Jeremy Lin scored 27 points to lead Harvard to an 82-70 upset over No. 17 Boston College on Wednesday night, three days after the Eagles upset previously top-ranked North Carolina.



In this  Sept. 28, 2008 file photo, New York Jets coach Eric Mangini gestures on the sidelines during the third quarter of an NFL football game against the Arizona Cardinals at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. The Cleveland Browns have agreed to hire Eric Mangini as their head coach, a person with knowledge of the negotiations told The Associated Press, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2009. (AP Photo/Bill Kostroun, File)AP - Eric Mangini is the new head coach of the Cleveland Browns, a week after being fired by the New York Jets. A person with knowledge of the negotiations told The Associated Press that Mangini will be introduced Thursday at a news conference at the team's headquarters in Berea.



An Israeli soldier stands next to blindfolded Palestinian prisoners after they were arrested during an Israeli military operation in the northern Gaza Strip January 7, 2009, in this picture released by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF). U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Wednesday she had pressed Israel to seriously consider an Egyptian ceasefire plan as the U.N. Security Council weighed action to end Israel's attack on Gaza. (IDF/Handout/Reuters)Reuters - Israeli warplanes bombed the Gaza Strip on Thursday and tanks pounded Palestinian guerrillas on the ground as U.S. backing for a proposed truce raised expectations of an end to the offensive.



Senate-designate Roland Burris talks with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in Reid's office on Capitol Hill, January 7, 2009. (Larry Downing/Reuters)Reuters - In an abrupt switch, Democratic leaders began talks on Wednesday to swear in Roland Burris, appointed by embattled Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich to replace President-elect Barack Obama in the U.S. Senate.



President Bush greets President-elect Barack Obama at the White House, November 10, 2008. (Joshua Roberts/Reuters)Reuters - The U.S. budget deficit will swell to a record $1.186 trillion in fiscal 2009, congressional forecasters said on Wednesday, the result of an economic recession that has cut tax receipts and caused massive government bailouts of banks and automakers.



Reuters - U.S. cities are vulnerable to an attack like the gun-and-grenade assault that terrorized Mumbai for three days and killed 179 people, the White House homeland security adviser said on Wednesday.

Ali al-Marri, who has been held for 5-1/2 years at a U.S. military prison in South Carolina, is seen in this undated photograph released to Reuters on January 6, 2008. An early test for President-elect Barack Obama will be the case of suspected al Qaeda 'sleeper' agent Marri, which will force Obama to take a position on his predecessor's claim that anyone the president deems a national security threat can be imprisoned indefinitely without charges in the United States. (Handout/Reuters)Reuters - The case of Ali al-Marri, accused of being an al Qaeda "sleeper" agent and held for 5-1/2 years at a U.S. military prison in South Carolina, will be an early test for President-elect Barack Obama.



Eggs are stacked up at an egg farm in San Diego County, July 29, 2008. (Mike Blake/Reuters)Reuters - An outbreak of salmonella food poisoning has made 388 people sick across 42 states, sending 18 percent of them to the hospital, U.S. health officials said on Wednesday.



Bernard Madoff is escorted in a vehicle from Federal Court in New York, January 5, 2009. (Lucas Jackson/Reuters)Reuters - Accused swindler Bernard Madoff should be jailed for violating a court order by mailing $1 million worth of diamonds, watches and other jewelry to friends and family, U.S. prosecutors told a court on Wednesday.



An Austrian hotel owner lights a gas stove. Envoys from Russia and Ukraine go to Brussels on Thursday for emergency EU-brokered talks to resolve a bitter gas fight between the two ex-Soviet giants that has engulfed Europe in a major energy crisis.(AFP/Joe Klamar)Reuters - Russia and Ukraine argue their case to Europe on Thursday in a gas price dispute that has choked off energy supplies to EU countries beset by bitter winter weather.



A Palestinian protestor flashes the V for 'victory' sign in front of an Israeli soldier near Damascus Gate in Jerusalem's old city. Israeli warplanes bombed suspected arms-smuggling tunnels in southern Gaza early Thursday, as diplomats worked to secure a ceasefire in an offensive that has killed 700 Palestinians.(AFP/Ahmad Gharabli)AFP - Israeli warplanes bombed suspected arms-smuggling tunnels in southern Gaza early Thursday, as diplomats worked to secure a ceasefire in an offensive that has killed 700 Palestinians.



A woman looks at a manometer set on a gas pipe at a compressor station in the Ukrainian city of Boyarka. Envoys from Russia and Ukraine go to Brussels on Thursday for emergency EU-brokered talks to resolve a bitter gas fight between the two ex-Soviet giants that has engulfed Europe in a major energy crisis.(AFP/File/Sergei Supinsky)AFP - Envoys from Russia and Ukraine go to Brussels on Thursday for emergency EU-brokered talks to resolve a bitter gas fight between the two ex-Soviet giants that has engulfed Europe in a major energy crisis.




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