A process improvement approach is more directive, structured and performance-based than spiritual direction. These differences are reasons why the Project-Transform method may be a useful complement for spiritual direction. A process improvement approach may help support spiritual direction, as well as psychotherapy and pastoral counseling, in four ways.

First, the individual may utilize a process improvement approach to analyze their whole life, their activities as well as their thoughts and feelings, for how well the individual is following the “direction” received from spiritual direction. Based on the review, changes may be made to optimize the individual’s adherence to the “direction.”

Second, the individual may focus on any specific activities or situations identified during spiritual direction as obstacles to spiritual growth. A process improvement approach can help:

1. Determine the root causes of the obstacles.
2. Identify action steps for removing or mitigating those obstacles.
3. Facilitate executing the actions.
4. Provide an ongoing mechanism for alerting the individual should those obstacle begin to reappear.

Third, the individual may enhance the quality of their participation within a spiritual direction session by identifying what hinders them from more fully participating in the session and then removing those hindrances. The individual may find that eating lunch before the session leads to drowsiness or they may find that an hour of meditation prepares them to be fully present to their spiritual director. The individual may treat the preparation for a spiritual direction session as a process and identify the steps that best prepare the individual for being truly present during the session. For some individuals, the process may be as simple as not eating lunch right before a session to prevent drowsiness. For others, it may be that they need to eat so that a growling stomach does not distract them. A more involved process might also be created and include activities similar to the following list. For example:

1. Review their to-do list so that they won’t be worried about what obligations they have to fulfill.
2. Review notes from the last session.
3. Journal about what to bring up in the session.
4. Meditate for 30 minutes to improve the ability to listen.

A process improvement approach provides the benefit of systematizing the preparations and may enhance the individual’s readiness for their session. Systematizing the process also provides the benefit of making it easier for the individual and director to discuss and optimize the preparations.

Fourth, a process improvement approach may help the individual evaluate the effectiveness of the type of spiritual direction they are involved with. Additionally it may provide a framework for deciding when it is time for the individual to end spiritual direction with their current spiritual director.

Several people have asked me about why I applied the Project-Transform method towards enhancing spiritual growth. Spirituality has always been a large and enjoyable aspect of my life. Spiritual growth represents an ongoing opportunity to deepen the experience of my relationship with God and discover new ways to respond to that relationship. Despite the joy I felt in pursuing spiritual growth, I became increasingly uncomfortable about the disconnection between my spiritual and my business lives. I kept asking myself the question: “How can I improve my spirituality during work hours?” I read many books, such as Brother Lawrence’s The Practice and Presence of God, that discussed how to combine spirituality and work. Yet my work as a project manager and process improvement director did not seem to lend itself towards spirituality. Then one day I had an “aha” moment when I realized that there might be a different approach for satisfying my desire to link work and spirituality. Perhaps I could use the expertise gained at work to improve my spiritual growth?

I wondered whether a goal of improving my spiritual growth could be managed in the same way that I managed my business and personal goals. I experimented with a process to optimize my spiritual activities and spiritual growth. More specifically, the process was designed to identify and mitigate obstacles or distractions that were negatively affecting my spiritual growth.
As I used the process, I quickly realized that many of my routine activities served as distractions from optimally performing spiritual activities. In some cases the activities themselves, such as surfing the Internet, were distractions. In other cases, my inefficiencies in executing the activity were wasting resources that could be applied towards spiritual activities. As a result, I expanded my focus into a process improvement approach that assisted me with funneling all of my activities and thoughts towards spiritual goals while improving my ability to reach those goals.
In time I began successfully sharing the process improvement approach with clients and continually refined the process based on lessons learned.

I wanted to really understand why the Project-Transform Method worked so well. So I decided to use my graduate level Psychology classes to build an academic foundation to support the process. I used the material from each class, as well as getting feedback from my professor’s, to continually refine the method. It is amazing how much help it has been to have PhDs helping me solidify the method. As part of the ongoing refinement process, I wrote a psychology graduate thesis to explore and articulate the application of a process improvement approach to spiritual life.

Currently, I am working with a publisher to expand the Project-Transform method into a published book. The writing process is helping me to refine the method and I have been pleasantly surprised at how many new insights I have received. I am going to modify the process so that I can capture these insights into posts and more easily share them with my friends and clients.

One of the striking aspects about the past weeks of early morning quiet time has been the degree to which the disciplines of reading the Bible and prayer journaling can work together. Reading a devotional and/or the Bible as a lead-in to journal time enriches the experience of both disciplines. It seems that every day either my devotional reading, the Bible passage that it cites, or both, provide some teaching or concept that resonates with me and that I can include as part of the prayer that I want to take to God in the journal. That something in my reading– and it may be just a word like “encourage,” can be a spark for freely speaking from the heart in my prayer journal.

And speaking of “speaking from the heart,” starting a prayer journal itself has helped me to just put myself out there to God, with less and less self-consciousness about how I am articulating my thoughts. I have often thought about the Psalms in the Bible and how much they exemplify the revelation of the heart to God, without filtering out what may be perceived as “good” or “bad,” and with faith that God knows what’s in the heart anyway. As I practice the discipline of keeping a prayer journal, I find that I am doing less filtering, and as a result, being more open to what God has in store for me during the day. But I still catch myself sometimes trying too hard to say the right thing — in other words, I need a lot more practice, but that’s what spiritual disciplines are all about. In the time ahead, I look forward to sharing other perspectives on spiritual growth as experienced from these practices.

Stumbling In the Dark and Turning Out the Light – Clay’s First Post
The Wrong Side of the Bed – Clay’s Second Post

About Clay

This is part 2 of Clay’s insight into his spiritual growth journey.

I have often thought it to be true of all of us that we wake up on the wrong side of the bed — not just once in a while, but every day. I don’t mean the typically understood meaning of this expression — referring to being in a bad mood or having a negative disposition. What I mean is that we wake up pre-occupied with our own individual concerns — whether those concerns are physical aches and pains or just what awaits us for the day.

During my journal and devotion time early in the morning over the last two weeks, I have been receiving strong messages about the opportunity each day presents to serve God. It is amazing what God can do to take you from the wrong side of the bed to a sense of peace and joyful opportunity as the day begins. But I am finding that it takes me some time so clear out my “wrong side” petty concerns and spend time with the Father. I know that I am not ready when I cannot focus for the whole of a brief opening prayer on just what I am saying and not allow other thoughts to creep in. I have found that the best way to address this is to repeat the prayer until God has my full attention.

I am learning that when God has my full attention, God will help me transition from the wrong side of the bed to a place where I am open to God working in my life as the day goes forward from there. Sure, there are other things, like in particular good physical exercise, that will help with stress and positive energy as the day commences — and this can be important part of creating space for God. But what exercise produces does not have the sustaining power of spending time with God.

And God does not want us to be anxious or fearful about the day that lies before us. That’s why He tells us that so many times in scripture. So we are really being disobedient when we get over-anxious or afraid, as well as missing an opportunity to demonstrate our faith by depending on God and lifting up our “wrong side of bed” concerns to Him. We are human, and we can’t control the side of the bed that we wake up on, but we can choose to turn to God early in the day and allow Him to direct us to the Other side. Thanks be to God.

Stumbling In the Dark and Turning Out the Light – Clay’s First Post

About Clay

This is part 1 of Clay’s insight into his spiritual growth journey.

As of the first of the year, I have begun each weekday morning with quiet time for devotion and scripture reading, prayer and journal. The time varies, but my alarm time has allowed me between 20 and 30 minutes. As a father of small children, it is difficult to find quiet time at any other time of day, although it does mean stumbling around in the dark trying not to make any noise to reach a quiet spot in the house. But once I get there, God has been with me to turn on the Light and to bless this time.

In an age where the absence of some kind of electronic stimulation seems to be incredibly rare, it is that much more important for us to create the space that we need to be quiet with God. And if we are to really discern what God’s purpose is for us, I believe that we have to create that space.

Just a couple of weeks into the New Year, this is the overwhelming message that I am hearing in my quiet time. Journey and growth starts with the basics — it starts with faith. Like Joseph in our Gospel reading at church in the first week, who takes his family to Egypt in the dark of night in an action of faith in and obedience to God, I must remember that the journey begins and ends with my faith in God. It is after all his glory that is my purpose, and discernment is about learning how I will fulfill that purpose.

For my devotional time this year, I am re-visiting a classic, “My Utmost for his Highest” by Oswald Chambers. I would highly recommend it to anyone, and it is complimenting my scripture readings nicely. But the real change for me this year is the addition of prayer journal time. I am finding this to be a very powerful discipline, because it helps me focus on revealing my heart to God without the distractions that can come from intervening thoughts that distract. It is during that focused time that I have received the encouragement to deepen my belief. And believing is seeing, right?

I look forward to reporting on progress with these disciplines every couple of weeks or so. God’s peace be with you.

I enjoy meeting people who have achieved a certain level of spiritual growth. I am always fascinated when one of these acclaimed spiritual “experts” turns out to be not very likable when I actually meet them in person. Does this mean that the person is a fraud? Or does it mean that I have romanticized spiritual growth to the point where I have unreasonable expectations on the transformative effects of spiritual growth?

John Wellwod uses the term “spiritual bypassing” to refer to the tendency of some spiritual seekers to use spirituality as a means of avoiding dealing with existing emotional or psychological issues. Spiritual growth will not by default improve all areas of your life. It is important that you continually examine all areas of your life to see where you can make changes to improve the quality of your life, your effect on others, and your ability to grow spiritually.

It is not enough to simply identify issues. You must take action if you want to grow spiritually. Be careful that you don’t fall into the guilt trap and avoid making changes because you feel selfish focusing on yourself. Taking care of your needs is not a selfish act that is inherently anti-spiritual. In fact, resolving issues in your life that distract you from your spiritual practice can accelerate your rate of spiritual growth. For example, your prayer time will not be as fruitful if you spend most of the time worrying about your to do list. If you are depressed, you may not have the energy to go to church.

It is important that your spiritual practice includes actions that address the practical obligations you face. I like the Arabic saying “Pray hard but tie your camel first.” This is not to say that taking care of external obligations can’t be turned into a spiritual practice. You can say a prayer while cleaning your house or make a habit sacred.

I have decided that I am going to create Christmas resolutions instead of New Year’s resolutions. I want my resolutions to be spiritually based in 2010. Maybe that will help me stick to them longer! All kidding aside, I am tired of creating resolutions that sound good over a cocktail during a New Year’s Eve party but don’t really help increase meaning in my life. Most of my resolutions always seem to be ego driven. If I am honest, losing twenty pounds has nothing to do with increasing meaning in my life but is instead about me wanting to get compliments from others or to be judged better by them. What is funny is that I am catering to what I think that others will feel when they see me. Most people are too busy thinking the same way that I was notice any changes that I make.

So I am setting a theme that all my resolutions will help facilitate spiritual growth. I may still try to lose weight but only because that accomplishment will help me achieve my goal to increase more energy for pursuing spiritual activities. Using Christmas as the starting point provides extra incentive to keep my goals spiritual. In essence I am trying to allow God to be born more fully into my life. I have no false illusions of being on the same level as Jesus but I can use his birth as a symbol to remind me to allow God to incarnate within my all aspects of my life.
There is really no need to wait until New Year’s to start making resolutions. So today, I am starting to define my Christmas resolutions. I could just start achieving my resolutions right now but I want to allow time for me to sit with the resolutions and ensure that the resolutions will help deepen my spirituality. I will offer my resolutions up to God as part of my prayer time so that I can be sure that I am moving forward based on a sincere desire for increased spirituality instead of an ego driven pleasure trip.

This year I am also going to organize my resolutions differently. I am going to create a spiritual growth plan. The resolutions will represent activities that I feel are necessary to facilitate spiritual growth in my life. On New Year’s Eve, I will certainly enjoy talk about my resolutions but hopefully my conversation will be slightly more spirit filled than last year.

“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Book of Luke
I have been examining how my relationships are affecting my spiritual growth. This has led to view the Golden Rule from a different perspective. Usually I treat it as a guideline affecting my behavior. When I am aware of my actions, I use the rule to guide my interactions with others before I actually I say or do something. When I am distracted, the rule serves as a reminder after the fact that I need to improve how I am acting. When my priorities are really out of whack, I use the Golden Rule as a source of guilt that distracts me from achieving my goals.

What if I have gotten the Golden Rule backwards? Maybe the rule is not a guideline for my actions but a description of how I will naturally act when my relationship with God is strong. The significance of this shift is that my focus switches back towards my relationship with God and away from trying to satisfy external guidelines. It is almost as if I am a child removing training wheels from my bike so that I can go faster. I may fall occasionally but that is a small price to pay. This is not to say that the Golden Rule is not valid or valuable but that we must grow beyond using it as a crutch.

The trick for me was to realize that my relationship to God is not defined just by prayer time in a quiet setting or attending church on Sunday. I must consider every moment as a chance to improve my relationship with God. It is just as important that I am truly present to my neighbor whenever and wherever I encounter him or her. Being present means presenting ourselves as we truly are. It is only when our thoughts, feelings and actions are united that we can have our deepest relationships with others and consequently with God.

Golden Rule Examples

Christian
“Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.” Matthew 7:12, King James Version.

Buddhism
Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful.” Udana-Varga 5:18

Hindu
This is the sum of duty: do not do to others what would cause pain if done to you. Mahabharata 5:1517

Islam
“None of you [truly] believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself.” Number 13 of Imam “Al-Nawawi’s Forty Hadiths.”

Native American
“All things are our relatives; what we do to everything, we do to ourselves. All is really One.” Black Elk
For more examples of how the Golden Rule is expressed in different worldviews and religions access the following web site:

Golden Rule Examples

What message is your behavior sending?
If you consider your behavior to be a language, what message are you sending? The purpose of behavior is to get what we want. Reality therapists, such as Robert Wubbolding, go a step further and say that your behavior is your attempt to influence the world to get what you want. Does your behavior match what you are feeling or trying to accomplish? I frequently find myself unconsciously shaking my head up and down to signify my acceptance of a waiter or waitress while I am saying no to a question they just asked me about my order. You may not be successful in influencing the world if your behavior is contradicting what you are trying to say or accomplish. In my case, although I was well intentioned in trying to convey support for the waiter, I often end up with something else than what I thought I ordered.

A key point is that it does not matter how well intentioned you are if your behavior is saying something else. Behaving in a manner that does not support your goals is an example of where you are sabotaging your spiritual growth. Think how much you can accomplish if your behavior actually supports your spiritual goals. Dr Phil is famous for asking client “ How is that working for you?” By asking yourself the same question and changing you behavior appropriately you can dramatically improve your rate of personal and spiritual growth.

What message are you getting from others?
It can be helpful to truly focus on whom you are talking to. Listen not only to the words but also take in the body language of the person you are talking with. Do you see or hear any conflicts in what they are communicating? How does the person’s behavior in the past support what they are saying? I have several friends who tell me that they will meet me somewhere at a specific time but they are never on time. Their behavior is telling me not to trust what they are saying and I am unlikely to be accommodating for them. Do you think that others trust what you are saying? Do you think that you could have more meaningful and enriching relationships if your behavior was in line with what you are trying to communicate?

What message are you sending God?
Do your actions support what you pray about? How would you feel if you could see yourself from God’s perspective? Your rate of spiritual growth is dependent on how well you can synchronize your intentions, thoughts, feeling and behavior. No matter how many times you call upon God, it won’t matter if your behavior does not support your prayer request. This principle is true regardless of your definition of God or how spirituality works. For example, if you believe solely in the laws of nature, no matter how many times you think that you are losing weight, you will not lose weight until you burn off more calories than you consume. If you are a believer in the Law of Attraction, manifesting will not work if your behavior is leading you towards a different vibration that what you were intending.

If you want to get somewhere fast in your car, you don’t want to apply the brakes at the same time you are hitting the gas pedal. The same is true for spiritual growth. Your behavior can act as a brake slowing down your rate of spiritual growth. Examine your behavior as a language so that you can better identify when your behavior is slowing you down.