Soul SparksI believe in soul sparks. Do you?

Soul sparks are those small ignitions of inspiration that can fan into big changes, new directions, or fresh works. They come from deep down inside you, yet make your body and mind shake with the excitement of the possibilities. These are soul sparks.

There are different types of soul sparks. Some of the key ones include personal, relationship, leadership, and career.

Personal Soul Sparks. These are ones that you own. They are the ones that inspire your initiatives in your work outside of work. Personal soul sparks could be community activities, writing projects, or other things that are, well, personal. They make you unique in what you do and say and deliver personal satisfaction and a true sense of meaning.

Relationship Soul Sparks. Relationships encompass many things from your spouse, partner, friends, kids, and others. These are the people who make you better and you them. When you talk to them, there is a fire that goes off inside. It may not happen every time, but they are the people that hold you up when you need support; love you when you are down; and challenge you when you are sliding by. Relationship soul sparks inspire core friendships and spirited conversations.

Leadership Soul Sparks. These are the ones that give you that sense of direction in where to lead an organization, initiative, or team. Leadership soul sparks enliven your passion to move things forward, upward, over the humps, and across the distances. They deliver more than enlightened leadership as they harden your determination while spurring your abilities to work with people. Leadership soul sparks lift all up to achieve new things.

Career Soul Sparks. Doing work is a part of our lives. Finding work that thrills us is always the challenge. Career soul sparks are those moments we come across that ticks off something inside in which, when we pull on it, it turns into something we want to spend our working hours doing, fully and passionately. These happen when we are teens, setting a direction for college. Career soul sparks happen during our professional life, setting a new direction at times. They are the sources that keep our work on a purposeful track, rather just running around in lifeless circles.

Soul sparks. We need them. In fact, we cannot really live without them. If you are feeling spark-less or soul-less, then you need to re-position yourself to experience them, listen to them, and act on them.

And, that is part of what we need to do. We need to position ourselves in order to experience soul sparks. Positioning can be simple things from reading, meditating, going to lectures, etc. Being present is only part of the formula; the other part is recognizing them and doing something with them. It becomes our choice on how we work with them.

Few people, in my experience, have all four soul sparks going at the same time, yet we should continuously try to place ourselves in position to experience the sparks. For every soul spark we gain, the better our life – and the lives around us – will be.

As a parent, leader, mentor, teacher, or coach, we should always try to position others to experience or catch a soul spark. The more soul sparks around, the brighter the light in all that we do.

So, I state it again. I believe in soul sparks. Do you?