Customer Reviews

Creating the Work You Love: Courage, Commitment, and Career

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Far too many career planners start from the premises that "your life's work" equates to "job," and that your "strengths" -- your talents, your skills, your personality traits -- are an infallible guide to which job you should choose. Jarow is one of the rare advisors (Barbara Sher is another) who takes a different approach: your "life's work" may not slot neatly into a job or a predefined career path; furthermore, your own intuition and self-knowledge are a more reliable guide to what you "should" be doing in life than conventional aptitude tests. His approach to discovering one's life path may smack of New Age eclecticism (the chakras, the Medicine Wheel). But I think he's picking up on something that other authors (e.g., Caroline Myss) have discovered: the cross-cultural similiarities between these modes of self-analysis. This implies that there's another way of knowing that our Western, linear, "rational" approach doesn't address, but that in matters of the heart might be a better guide to what "really matters" and what's "right" for us. If you take the time to complete his exercises thoughtfully, giving them the care and attention they deserve, you'll learn a great deal about what's truly important to you and where your life path should go. (I was talking yesterday with a middle-aged woman who recently made some major life changes. She remarked, "In my career, I zigged when I should have zagged, and I've been miserable for the last 8 years!") This book will help keep you from zigging in the wrong direction -- or, if you're in the same boat as my friend, it will help you zag back to the right path.

I bought this book with scepticism. I thought it would be really tacky. I mean, career books are not exactly high literature, and one which incorporates the chakras sounded even worse than usual.

So I was amazed, as I read it, to find that this book is exceedingly well written. Although Jarow is a new-ager, he has discriminating taste, considerable insight, and he's just a great writer. Just about every paragraph in the book is enjoyable to read, and presents useful information, if not a rare challenge. A previous reviewer said that this book is not that substantial. He or she certainly has a point--the book largely presents challenges and guidance for inner work. It doesn't make decisions for you, recommend practical plans of action, or tell you how to find a job. But it's written for people who relate to spiritual, immaterial, idealistic things, and it provides a demanding series of suggestions, questions, and meditations to galvanize such people into joining their inner and outer worlds. If you already relate to the world primarily in practical ways, this book would probably be worthless to you. The author does suggest, however, reading "What Color Is Your Parachute" (rather than plagurizing from it) and it might be a great idea to use them together.

Personally, I was thrilled to find that the author seems to be talking about me nearly all the time. This paragraph phrased the dilemma well: "People would tell me about their remarkable past lives as pharaohs and queens, but these same people were still working behind the counter at Macy's. What was wrong? Why was it that spiritual people seemed to be chronically nonfunctional? Why was it that not long after having some ecstatic vision or transcendant experience, I would find the same person bogged down in the same morass that they had been in before their revelation? Clearly, there was a problem" (p 3). He also puts his work in a political context reministcent of the Situationists and others: "From Karl Marx to Hazel Henderson, persuasive voices argue that the transformation of the workplace is a necssary prerequisite for human freedom" (p 5). I would particularly recommend this book to people who would like to return to their lives as pharaohs and queens, but also to those who struggle with apathy, confusion, or disatisfaction, and can handle some new-ageisms.

Rick Jarow's book is not in any way a standard career guide. His work has some similarity to Carolyn Myss's, but it is really in a class by itself. Mr. Jarow's breadth of knowledge alone makes the book worth the read. Not only does he pepper his work with references to Weber, Nietzche and Alice Miller, but he teaches us a great deal about world religions as well. Teaching us how to learn from their wisdom and apply it to our lives is at the heart of his program. And, the book works! if you are ready to unplug from your assumptions about the direction you think your life should be taking, and start listening to your inner wisdom, you will be amazed at the results. this is not a book about career alone; it is about making sure you are on your life-path. Rick, if you are reading this: thanks!

This book deserves far more publicity and attention. While many authors toss off New Age mumbo-jumbo, Rick has actually studied Eastern religion and has made his own pilgrimage to the East. He writes from life, experience and heart. Rick is the Real Deal.

Although the book is organized around the chakras, Rick introduces many creative and insightful ideas. For example, no other career counselor talks about family history as a career influence.

I own the tapes as well as the book and periodically listen during drives. They're as current as the day I bought them, several years ago.

Rick Jarow is a genius. This book was a fantastic guideline on reinventing your life and see it as more like a work of art. He uses the term finding an "anti-career" which I think is wonderful. This is not about ways in which you can make more money or other conventional career guidance. It's more about how, when you see your life as a work of art and pursue that truth within yourself then whatever career path lies ahead of you, you will be supported by whatever it is you need. And to finish, here's a quote from Rick on what exactly is an "anti-career" "is for those who believe that it is still possible to live and act from the most authentic part of ourselves, and to express our strongest values, energies, and talents through our work in the world."

I have used an anti-career counselor in Seattle and it too helped change my life. A must read.

Creating The Work You Love is one of the few books that have stayed on my "all time best" list. Rick deals with the tougher issues that most people are too busy to pay attention to:

Authentic Life Work
Following Your Passions
Listening to (and Trusting)Your Intuition

If you're ready to take a major step forward in your life
get this book and cherish it. It will open doors for you
that you didn't even know existed.

To Your Dreams And To Your Success,

Paul Bauer

While traditional job hunting many a times has focused on one's strengths, Rick Jarow comes across more effectively with a compelling case for the same. Mixing the need to find one's work as part of life, with philosophy in general, and Chakras (energy centers within the human body) in particular is the mark of true abundance (read on).

As every one is part of the same inifinite Self, one must have some strengths hidden. This strength or abundance, as Rick puts it, makes one feel most secure and at peace. One's work should be a result of this abundance. Creating a career based on one's wants and needs comes out of scarcity and hence is fundamentally a insecure and ever-debilitating reason. Due to one's such abundance, one's energy naturally aligns with such a cause and leads to most satisfaction.

Each of the seven main chakras in a human body is a seat for some pyschological aspect. The author explains how to tap into these centers to identify one's purpose, and hence one's work in life. Many excercise, including meditation techniques provide such an opportunity. The idea that one's work is (also) an extension of one's lineage i.e., arising out of what his/her ancestors were doing provides a deep reason to reflect on. Writing about a parent's work/life is one such excercise that provides insights as to one's cause.

Reading such a book in one-go is not an option at all. Rick himself suggests some of the excercise are open-ended as far as time is concerned. But, am I glad to have found such a book! This book drove unto me the concept of work as a life and not as a career much better than any other so far. It is a must read for anyone wanting to decide what his/her career should be.

I am very skepticle about "Self Help Books". I have read a few in the past, but they never reached me in any meaningful way.

A good friend of mine sent me this book, during a difficult time in my life, and it truly gave me the strength to move forward and to see what was meaningful in my life and to push away all the unnecessary that was weighing my mind. Rick is truly insightful and has a way of helping you to realize that life is short and that you have one chance at it, so find what makes you happy. He then helps you to find it, really find it.

Read it slow, take your time, read it over again. Don't expect miracles unless you are open, patient and really listening to him.

Best of luck.

Finally a book that goes to the core of whats wrong with americans. This amazing book taught me to stop looking at how much money im making and start looking at what makes me happy. We americans always think we will be happy with more money, but its a uphill battle that never levels off. The key to life is to live everyday to its fullest and that is hard to do when you spend 5 to 6 days a week waiting for your day off! Thank you Rick Jarrows, you changed my life for the better!

I love this book. This book has inspired a work project I have been implementing since 09/09/09. I use this book to facilitate a 10 week small group workshop on fulfilling our work purpose. I have come to understand that the nature of this workshop is to help people connect with what they care about deeply, to share that with others, to create projects that inspire them, and to watch miracles unfold. We use exercises and meditations in the book, but the core content unfolds as a result of the experiences of the 5 to 7 people who choose to meet. The manifestations may not appear immediately, but true miracles have happened, lives have been enriched, new work gets created that expresses the dreams that were shared, and Rick's work expands to influence more and more people. I am now delivering work that I love. Rick Jarow has released a gem in this book and I thank him from all 7 of my chakra energy centers. Rick gives people the courage to live from their hearts.