By Peggie Arvidson

Your hands are a treasure map for your life’s journey – if only you know how to read it. While palmists generally have a reputation for being fortune-tellers and even charlatans, my clients know that when they apply the wisdom in their hands they can stop repeating mistakes that hold them back. That way they can move forward with confidence in their careers and relationships. Isn’t that a great thing?

If you’re not happy at work you may think it’s because of your boss, or your commute or that annoying co-worker who dumps everything on your desk while she sashays out to get her nails done, but you’d be wrong.

The reason you are not happy at work is because of you.

I’m glad I’m not sitting next to you because I know you’d like to smack me for saying that! Still, the common denominator in all your dissatisfying situations, including work, is you. When you tolerate a job that is not satisfying you’ve got only yourself to blame.

Instead of wallowing in excuses about the economy, or the great benefits, or whatever story you’ve been replaying to get yourself up out of bed each morning put that energy into clarifying why you believe that you deserve a life that is less than satisfying.

That’s step one.

By clarifying WHY you’re willing to “suck it up” or settle for something less than satisfying you’re on your way to getting out of the morass and into the joy-space. Yes, even a job can be a source of joy, if you believe it.

If you want to shorten the time it takes to go from stuck to satisfied, you can take a look at your hands. William G. Benham wrote a book called “How to Choose Vocations from the Hand,” but it’s not likely to help you a great deal because the language is outdated and the hands used as examples aren’t likely to look like yours.

There is no marker in the hands that says “be an accountant” or “you’re a natural systems analyst” or even, “you’re a goat farmer!” There are however markers in the hands that show your natural inclination and curiosity.

I’ve created a fictional case study to give you an example.

Nancy has short and straight heart lines on both of her hands and a star formation on the base of her right Jupiter finger. She also has a Saturn line that starts around the middle of her hand that ends abruptly at her head line before picking up steam and a parallel line to push through to the base of Saturn. Nancy’s fingerprints reveal her life purpose as an Innovative Successful Leader and her life lesson tied into letting go of control.

Nancy has a job as a project manager for a government contracting company. She finds herself constantly feeling stress and pressure at work and can’t understand why her team doesn’t seem to respect her authority. The more she tries to impose deadlines the more resistance she receives. She’s taken training for leadership and has her PMP Certification, so while she knows she’s qualified, she can’t seem to find a reason for all this heartache and stress. She’s thinking there must be more to life than what she’s doing but she has no idea what it might be.

When we first started our chat Nancy was at her wit’s end – and was even more confused when she heard her lesson and purpose! “How can I lead and let go of control?” “Innovation is frowned upon on my job site!”

As we worked through the markings on her hands in conjunction with her purpose and lesson we identified some of the ways that Nancy is bulldozing through the “grasshopper” path of her gifts and purpose rather than embracing the master path.

We discussed the requirements of her perfect job situation, one where she could feel effective as a leader by empowering her team to reach their highest and best and one where she was completely on board with the mission and focus of the overall company and each project she worked on.

Her heart lines indicated her need for lots of down time and her preference for short and to the point communication, so we created a plan where she could feel more comfortable in her communication with her team and others. Instead of focusing on “business speak” she’s practicing “Nancy speak” and being more open on her vision and mission with her team.

This was just the beginning of course, Nancy is using the tools in her hands to create a transition plan to work that honors her hard-wiring and uses her experience and certifications. Nancy is also focusing on the best way to apply her gifts of leadership and innovation in her current workplace while she finds a new job that’s more in line with her life mission.

This is a perfect example of how your hands can begin to help you gain clarity and move forward into work that is satisfying and fulfilling for not only your bottom line but your heart line as well.