Creating the Work You Love: Courage, Commitment, and Career Paperback - 1995

CAREER / BUSINESS In this compelling look at work, Rick Jarow argues for a return to the concept of vocation--finding a "calling" instead of a job. Traditional career guides focus on external issues (the job market, the economy, financial needs) and inventory the individual skills, talents, and abilities that correlate to specific existing jobs. Creating the Work You Love presents an alternative approach to the job search: start with the values that make each individual's life worthwhile. The essential question then isn't "What do I want to do?" but "How do I want to be in the world?" The author uses self-reflective exercises based on the seven chakras to determine what you need to create a life filled with meaning and purpose. By clarifying the issues related to particular energy centers in the body, you can map a pathway from the inner to the outer world and create a bridge between personal priorities and daily activities. Once this bridge is established, the author helps you develop strategies toward actually finding the career that expresses your personal vision. The exercises collected in the final sections--meditation techniques, alternative approaches to time management, and tips for setting priorities (instead of goals)--can be incorporated into a daily program that will help you find work that isn't merely a job but a form of authentic personal expression. RICK JAROW, Ph.D., Visiting Professor of History of Religion at Vassar College and former Mellon Fellow in the Humanities at Columbia University, is a practicing alternative career counselor. The author of In Search of the Sacred as well as numerous article and audiotapes, he presents seminars on career and soul in the United States, Canada, Italy, Germany, and Eastern Europe.