What’s your heart got to do with your career? #heartset

We hear people say "follow your heart” or “he has a big heart” or “her heart is in the right place.” We talk about "heart-centered entrepreneurs" and the "heart of the business." There are dozens of expressions that have the word heart in them. Only dissecting a few already gives us a wealth of insights about why heartset is important in business:

• Follow your heart: do what you really want rather than what’s expected of you; follow your intuition, your purpose, your calling

• Someone with a big heart: someone kind, caring, compassionate

• Someone’s heart is in the right place: someone generous, someone with good intentions

• Heart-centered: aware of one’s values, making choices aligned with those values, pursuing a livelihood aligned with one’s values and one heart’s desires

• Lead from the heart: lead with passion and compassion

Understanding and consciously using mindset undoubtedly has benefits, but our heartset is just as important, if not more.

First of all, don’t you want to do what you really want? Your mind might tell you it’s a good idea to pursue a certain career because it’s been successful for others, like your parents or some famous people. Or because it’s the most prestigious thing to do in the country or society you live in… just to get frustrated or feel unfulfilled over time.

Don’t we all want big-hearted bosses, colleagues, and business partners rather than cold-hearted ones? They are not just more fun to be around; they also are more prone to help us or stand by our side when we need support. If we could choose, we’d definitely prefer to work with generous people with good intentions, right? Just makes it easier to achieve common goals rather than wasting precious time and energy on conflicts and their resolution.

And last but not least, leaders who lead from the heart is what we’re missing not just in business but everywhere… or we wouldn’t live in the world we live in.

Now, let’s talk about values. I personally love to coach value-driven leaders… Admittedly, other people’s values aren’t always aligned with mine, and there’s no need for that. What I however do mean when I mention values, are those which are aimed at creating something beneficial for both self and others. For example, one of your values could be discipline. You could use this value to the detriment of others rather than their benefit, in which case, that’s obviously not the type of value I’m a fan of. But even though values can have two sides (just like a knife, which can be used to kill or to prepare food), it’s a good idea to be profoundly aware of what our values are so we can then figure out how they are aligned with our behavior, our actions.

Defending our values frequently may require courage, not just in leadership positions. Many have experienced this very intensely in their careers in the past two years. If they weren’t aware of this fact before, they may have learned that it was easiest to find this courage when they connected with their hearts. Because…

Fear is in our minds, and courage is in our hearts.

The word courage is derived from the Latin word cor (heart), and the words heart and courage have the same root in many languages, meaning there is a very strong connection between the two. Let’s look at some examples:

• English: heart/courage

• Italian: cuore/coraggio

• French: coeur/courage

• Spanish: corazón/coraje (can also mean anger)

• Portuguese: coração/coragem

• German: Herz/Beherztheit (another word for Mut)

And don’t we also talk about the faint of heart as those who lack courage or are discouraged?

The heart is a part of our brain. It has 40,000 brain-like cells that create their own neural networks and "think" independently of the cranial or head brain. Your heart also creates the strongest bio-electrical and magnetic fields in your body. Scientists have found that the heart’s electrical field is 100x as strong as the brain’s electrical field, and the magnetic field of the heart can even be up to 5000x stronger. This means our connection with the world around us happens to a large extent through our hearts. We could say our heart is a magnet because of this strong magnetic frequency it sends out, and that’s also why it has a huge role in relationships (also in business!) as well as in manifesting (attracting) what we want. The heart brain is quite a phenomenon!  It can even survive without the head brain for a little while.)

So, next time you find yourself in any of the following situations, consult your heart. Do this often. Over time, this will help you develop and strengthen your heartset, so it will become second nature to utilize its benefit.

Awesome opportunities to practice and benefit from your heartset:

1.           Decide on a career change

2.           Pick new business partners

3.           Select new team members

4.           Pick the best job for you

5.           Move to a different city or country for work

6.           Decide whether to move on to a new employer

7.           Accept a new role that’s offered to you

By the way, have you also found that pro-and-con lists are usually not helpful for these decisions? Try connecting with your heart instead. Open your mind to open your heart! It wants to speak to you… listen!

How can you hear what your heart has to share with you? – Well, it may respond in many ways, but most likely, it will send you certain feelings as indicators. Just like anything in our world, feelings are made of energy. All energy carries vibration.

Bruce Lipton says: “If when we were young, we were taught to be sensitive to those vibrations, we would not find ourselves in bad relationships and bad places. But we’re usually told not to go by our feelings but to listen to what people have to say. […]”

And that’s how we lose the ability to receive and interpret these valuable vibrations, and to listen to our hearts. 

But once you become aware of this, nothing is lost unless you declare it lost. You can re-learn this innate ability. It does take a little persistence and patience, but above all, trust. Trust that it works. Trust that you can hear it.

Want to know more about the topic? Check out my YouTube channel.

I just wish I had made all important decisions with my heart. I haven’t... Just a little over a year ago, when I already knew this, I let myself be blindfolded by a shiny object, and I dismissed the feeling vibrations my heart sent me… because the object was just too shiny. – I paid a huge price for it and I’m still in the process of resolving that situation. Just another lesson, but a very tough and painful one, for sure.

And yes, I should have known better! Absolutely! But you know what doesn’t take us ahead? Regret and self-resentment. In hindsight, it’s always easier to see what we “should have” done differently. It’s not about guilt; it’s about the lesson. I promise that from now on, I will always consult my heart for critical or tough decisions. – Cross my heart!