In our last episode, The Purpose of Work: Joy, Bradley J Moore found that he had been so focused on what he didn’t have, or what he thought he should have, that he was missing the opportunity to make the most of what was right in front of him.

Dr. Payne and I decided we should meet regularly to work out my “career issues.” He gave me a homework assignment.

“Since you are so obsessed with your next big career move,” he suggested, “write down a description of your ideal job, including your work environment, the type of industry you are in, the types of people you are working with, the business results you are achieving, the talents you are using. Also describe what the non-business parts of your life look like: your faith, your family, your community involvement, your hobbies. Be creative.”

I hadn’t done one of these visioning exercises in a long time, so I agreed that might be a good idea, to take a big step back and ask those basic questions again:

• What do I really want out of my career?
• What do I want out of my life?
• Why have I not thought about these things recently?

The next month, I got together with Dr. Payne again to review the homework assignment. I proudly read him my Vision for My Ideal Job and Life, then sat back and waited for his approval. He had only one comment.

“It’s very nice, but where’s the fun in this?”

Fun? You didn’t say anything about fun! My career is Serious Business, man! And my family is a Big Responsibility! I don’t take those things lightly.

I drew his attention to the bullet point describing my European vacations. “That’s fun, isn’t it?”

“Your homework for next month.” he said, “is to have fun. You must have more fun in your life.”

After spending a few minutes discussing the definition of “fun” (Is the fact that I needed help to define “fun” in and of itself a bad sign? It is, isn’t it…), we narrowed down my fun interests to a few creative outlets. We also emphasized the importance of tapping back into the creative side of me. We decided I should begin to write.

“I would love to write,” I said, “but what do I have to write about? I don’t have any big ideas.”

”Write about your faith.” Dr. Payne replied.

My faith? What faith? I’m a business executive, not a pastor! What is there to say about my faith?

Well, maybe that’s the point. Really, maybe the act of writing about my faith, even with my doubts and struggles, would somehow be spiritually therapeutic and a creative outlet and fun all at the same time. I agreed to at least give it a try. I decided I would write ten minutes a day and see what came of it.

So now you know my backstory. I have started a prescribed course of action that includes writing about my faith and work by blogging, getting mentored by the good doctor, finding joy, having fun, and somehow opening my heart and ears to God’s mysterious calling and purpose for my life. I’m finding this is the hardest and easiest thing, at the same time.

Isn’t it funny: after just two meetings with Dr. Payne, I realized I have spent the last 15 years of my life so focused on my career and the next big advancement, the next promotion, the next ego-boost, that I forgot how to think about life in simpler terms: fun; gratitude; relaxation; joy. And in the process, I have kind of deferred God to a back seat in my life. But now I am sensing that God is challenging me to let him have more of a say in my life than ever.

Dare we say that Dr. Payne was sent by God?

Bradley J. Moore posts regularly on the challenges of business spiritually engaged at shrinkingthecamel.com. Bradley is an executive in a large corporation in the Northeast which shall remain nameless.