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.

This site offers up a working definition of spiritual growth as a process involving a deepening awareness and refinement of the relationship between the individual and their conception of God. The deepening spiritual awareness may manifest during peak experiences or spiritual encounters, as well as become an integrated part of an individual’s ongoing experience of life. The term “God” is used for ease of writing but multiple terms such as ground of being, spiritual source, life force, or the Divine could easily be substituted.

The Project-Transform method is explicitly concerned with the human dimension of spiritual growth and the unique context that each individual brings to spiritual growth activities. It does not attempt to define the terms “spirituality” or “God.” Many authors and thousands of pages have already addressed those definitions. The definition of “what” or “who” is on the other end of the spiritual equation from the individual, does not factor in the usability of a process improvement approach. This type of approach may work equally well for those individuals believing in a monistic God as well as those individuals who practice a non-theistic spirituality. These definitions could include, among many other examples, the transpersonal concept of the “Higher Self”, nature, and/or altered states of consciousness.

The Project-Transform method was created under the proposition that some activities considered secular are necessary requirements for existing in the world and that this requirement does not mean that secular activities are inherently un-sacred. There is an ancient Islamic saying that addresses the intersection of secular and spiritual activities; “Pray hard but tie your camel first.” This method goes a step further and contends that secular and spiritual activities should exist as a union instead of an intersection; with the sacred serving as the framework for the execution of secular activities. As a result, activities that are not normally associated with spirituality may be used for spiritual gain. This sites examines how a process improvement approach may be used to manage secular activities so that they do not become a distraction from spiritual growth.

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

It is amazing how much you learn about a parent after they are gone. My mom, Anne Avegno Russell, died recently. It seemed as if everybody I talked to knew something about my mom that I didn’t. What struck me most about what I heard is the effect that she had on others. One of my friends even wrote an editorial article for the American Spectator, Anne With the Saints, about her.

Several unexpected people shared with me how my mom was instrumental in changing how they looked at life. She did this not as part of a job or out of a sense of religious obligation, but by simply being herself. Her presence seemed to have encouraged people to feel welcome around her. From that welcoming space, these individuals sensed a new dynamic to life and they were changed. Her presence seemed to say that each moment, no matter how mundane, had the potential to be magical beyond all belief.

I find myself reflecting often now on my own presence and the effects that I may be having on others. Am I seen as an energy vampire who seems to drain everybody I come in contact with? Or do I have more of an uplifting effect? I guess it depends on when you catch me and who you ask.
I am positive that my mom had no idea of the effects that she had on other people and that she rarely changed based on what other people thought of her. It is important that I develop my presence not based on the feedback that I get from others but instead based on my concept of spirituality. I can use how people react to me as information about how well I am living out my spirituality as long as their opinions do not become my defining measure.

The presence that I bring to every movement can become my spiritual practice. A more important question to ask myself might be: “ What type of presence do I want to have?” The answer will help my “being” become my response to the Biblical call to “pray without ceasing.” How my “prayer of being” develops will surely differ from how others develop their presence. We are all unique and exist in unique situations. A Christian might strive to have a presence that says “Not I but Christ.” A Rogerian counselor may want to portray unconditional positive regard. My mom chose a welcoming presence that invited a romantic love of life and the present moment.

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.

Spiritual growth is a process that is often described as a journey. At Project-Spirit, we are constantly trying to refine and improve the tools and spiritual practices that we share with our friends and clients. Part of the refinement process is to incorporate our personal experiences as we “practice what we preach.” We realize that our perspective is just one among many.


So, this year we have lined up guest contributors to provide different perspectives on spiritual growth and spiritual practices. They will share their insights about their personal spiritual growth journey, their definition of spiritual growth, and specific spiritual practices they have used.


Let me introduce our first guest contributor, Clay Beery. He lives and works in New Orleans, is blessed to be the husband of Leslie and father of Julia (8) and Jack (4). His plan for spiritual growth in 2010 involves supplementing daily devotion, scripture and prayer time with keeping a journal. He will be blogging about the key messages that he receives from following these disciplines and their impact on his spiritual growth as the year progresses. Clay has been singing with Shades of Praise, an interracial gospel choir in New Orleans, for the past several years, and with Leslie currently leads a bible study for other parents at their church.

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.

Spiritual practices do not have to be complicated or happen in a spiritual place. Sometimes a simple change in your intention can turn an ordinary event into spiritual time. An easy way to improve your spiritual growth is to take one of your habits and make it sacred. For example, you brush your teeth every day. What a wonderful opportunity to institute a new daily spiritual practice. Below are some ways you can convert this habit into a spiritual activity.

1. Use your habit as a reminder to say a prayer.
You can say your prayer before your habit, during your habit, after your habit, or some combination of the three. You can coordinate performing your habit with saying a prayer or mantra such as the Jesus prayer. This is similar to the concept of kids washing their hands until they have sung the Happy Birthday song three times.

2. Offer up the habit itself as a prayer.
The habit itself can be a gift to God. Prayer does not always need words to be effective.

3. Express gratitude
Offer up thanks for the ability to perform the habit. In the case of brushing your teeth, you can be thankful for having healthy teeth. Offer up your habit as your response to God for blessing you.

4. Practice mindfulness by just focusing your awareness while you are performing the habit.

5. Turn your habit into visualization.
Visualize that as you are brushing you are cleaning away any distractions that are preventing you from communicating with God.

6. Turn on worship music that you listen to while performing your habit.
You can use any type of music as long as it shifts your awareness spiritually.

This concept can work with any habit. If your goal is to “pray without ceasing”, gradually convert all of your habits into spiritual practices.