audiobooks

Rick Jarow provides a much-needed alternative to the conventional "write a winning resume" and "knock 'em dead in your job interview" approach to finding a livelihood. Most career seekers are told to HUNT for a job -- i.e., use the hunter-gatherer model to find a position that just happens to be open at the specific time you are looking for a job. Once you've bagged yourself a job, then you are expected to mold yourself to fit the parameters your new employer wants you to fit into. Jarow advocates an more organic approach where finding a job is an outgrowth of creating a life that is right for you. As you associate with people/organizations whose values resonate with you, you will eventually connect with people who can steer you towards work that fits YOU. It is the difference between showing off a series of stuffed, mounted trophies on a wall as opposed to a lush, colorful garden you've cultivated yourself to represent your life's work.

I bought "Creating the Work You Love" about a year ago. It clicked with me. He's writing for people who come to life from a spiritual perspective, and have grown fairly skillful at that side of life, but are awkwardly deficient in the nitty gritty of reality. Jarow understands that the nitty gritty is also spiritual, and so he approaches the good old question of jobs and career from a wise and spiritual place, plucking examples inspirations from both Eastern and Western ancient traditions (although he organizes the process through the system of the chakras), but also from history and popular culture and his own life and counseling practice.

But I had a hard time focusing on the book. It's full of meditation exercises, which can be hard to take from text into meditation. Also, I never felt like I was sufficiently "done" with a chapter--after all, when have you ever done enough connecting to "abundance"? So I would recommend the audio tapes over the book.You can listen to it again and again, focused and meditating deeply, or absentmindedly, or in a more rationally conscious state. It speaks to all three states.

Personally, I know where I want to be in, say, five years. But I'm still struggling and dragging my feet about the short term necessities. And Jarow's approach helps connect the unglamorous aspects of the job search with the nourishing and challenging spiritual work that I'm more comfortable with.

Rick brings out excellent points about how our circumstances, household, upbringing etc affect our lives and our thought process. He brings out very well how our complex thoughts, our anxieties, apprehension, fear, perplexity, dissatisfaction in professional lives may affect our personal lives as well. With excellent example from his own life he explains how all these feelings may eventually agitate a person so much that they decide to take up career changes He has done an excellent job in non-conventional career counseling. Overall the set of cassettes are extremely mesmerizing.