Corrections or additions?
This article by Kathleen McGinn Spring was prepared for the May 29, 2002 edition of U.S. 1 Newspaper. All rights reserved.
A Career You Love: Rewarding, Liberating
We are the people who can not leave the manor because
we will lose our health insurance.” So writes Rick Jarow
in his book Creating the Work You Love: Courage, Commitment, and Career.
Jarow, a visiting professor of the history of religion at Vassar College,
has written extensively on what he sees as career dysfunction in the
United States — and what to do about it. We 21st century workers,
often laboring in climate-controlled office campuses, think we are
far removed from the serfdom of the Middle Ages or the slavery of
the plantation, Jarow says, but most of us are bound just as surely.
Jarow speaks on “Creativity, Calling, and Freedom: Is This Our
Moment in History” on Friday, May 31, at 7 p.m. at the Vincentian
Renewal Center, St. Joseph’s Hall, at 75 Mapleton Road. Cost: $15.
Then, on Saturday, June 1, at the same location, he conducts a workshop
on “Creating the Work You Love.” Cost: $100, and reservations
for the workshop are required. Call 609-520-9626.
Jarow began to learn about the effects of career satisfaction when
he was a child. His father hated his job, but changed to another when
Jarow was 15. The young man noticed an immediate difference in the
entire household as his father became involved in work he enjoyed.
“The atmosphere lightened up,” he writes. Jarow himself decided
he wanted no part of work, and at age 19 went to India to study Eastern
spirituality. While there he discovered that the East “indeed
is spiritual, but nothing works.” He returned to study at Columbia,
eventually becoming a Mellon Fellow in Humanities.
In addition to teaching at Vassar, from which he is now on sabbatical,
Jarow does alternative career counseling and lectures extensively.
Here are excerpts from his book:
Work as a Curse. The myth of Eden in the Book of Genesisdepicts the unfallen condition as one of idyllic play, whereas thefallen human condition is one of hard work. “By the sweat of yourbrow you will draw bread from the earth.” Here God curses manto much work and little play, and this is seen as the result of sin.Work is part of our daily prison sentence, and its purpose is bread,i.e. survival. The only reason you have to work is because you areexiled from your original state, and the harder you work — themore rotten a deal you accept for yourself — the more you canexpunge your inherent sinfulness. Such guilt-ridden thinking has supportedoppressive structures for centuries.Seeking Validation Through Work. As Alice Miller discussesin her book The Drama of the Gifted Child, from early childhood onwe are encouraged to sell our enthusiasm for validation and approval.This training is reinforced in school systems that stifle spontaneity.Except for a rare few people, play increasingly disappears with age.We become a nation of fans watching a few people play games for moneywhile we keep track of the score.Toward an Anti-Career. To move out of the productive/consumptivesyndrome, out of being a nation of debt-ridden television addicts,there has to be a recognition of core values, an expressed and understoodneed to live for more than objects, a belief in the possibility offeredby life to become an integrated person, and a commitment to live outone’s beliefs.The serious issue of finding one’s vocation will not therefore besolved by aptitude tests that help gear one to become a well-adjustedproducer/consumer. What is needed is an anti-career — a throwingoff of the shackles of obligation, approval, and mindless activityin order to enter deeply into the dynamics of co-creation. To makeyour work sacred is to believe in what you do, to do a good job asits own reward, and to feel proud of your work not by comparing itto the work of others but by feeling good inside, filled with integrity,neither fatigued nor drained of energy.It is work that does not destroy life, that honors pleasure, thatpromotes full presence and involvement, and reflects your deepestsense of being.Some Common Career Glitches. There are those who havepursued the ladder of corporate success only to find that the top,as Steven Covey so aptly puts it, is leaning against the wrong building.Then there are the burned-out health-care professionals, those whohave exhausted themselves trying to help others. Another prototypeis the person who has pursued a very particular interest through academicpaths, and now finds no marketable place for him or herself in theworld. And then there are those who never took the job market seriouslyuntil the birth of their first child.Trust as a Career Foundation. To trust is the basic energyof anti-career work. At its deepest level, an active trust indicatesa confidence in the life process, a willingness to let things be asthey are. Many of us who have received mixed messages from our parents,from the government, and from advertising campaigns have grown cynicaland have consequently closed down our trusting faculties. We havebecome intimidated and thus hesitate to articulate the first flashthat comes into our minds.Erik Erikson spoke of trust versus mistrust as the fundamental challengeof earliest childhood. Many of us, as we work toward authentic careermanifestation, will discover the need to recover trust in ourselvesand others.Pervasive Denial. As in the first and single most importantstep in Alcoholics Anonymous, the denial must cease and the admissionmust be made: Our working lives have become unmanageable. Whetheron the janitor’s stool or in the executive’s chair, there is a feelingthat forces out of our control are creating uncertainty, dispiritedfatigue, and a muffled frustration that makes it seem normal to dreadMonday mornings.The Courage to Invest in Self. What empowers your workis the courage to choose to be what you really are and the commitmentto follow through on your principles. This combination of courageand commitment is investment. More than a mere funding of money intoa project with the hope of a good return, investment involves riskand thus embodies the courage of directing your energy toward whatyou believe in. What makes a job search successful is the movementfrom idealism to actually investing your life in your ideals. Therefore,the first step in creating a work situation that will nourish yoursoul is the willingness to take the risk of making an investment inyourself and in your truth.”Investment,” then, can be defined as what is meaningful orprecious to us. It is what we keep close to the vest, the secret thatwe share only with those who we deeply trust. The word “interest,”defined as the measurement of return on your investment, can be readas “in trust.” The return we receive on our career investmentwill be proportional to the trust we place in ourselves and our commitment.Defining an Ideal. What, then, is your ideal? What ismost important to you in this life? Where is your sacred fire burning?This is the primary question: Is it God? country? family? music? nature?wealth? athletics? justice? awareness? power? healing? glory? poetry?creativity? high-speed excitement? sex? humor? high culture? Which”god” are you ready to devote yourself to? If you invest ina place where your sacred fire is not burning, you will spend therest of your life playing charades and trying to make up for it onthe side.Reaping the Benefits. True mastery in a particular field— mastery that is not a compensation for some form of perceivedinadequacy — will extend its beneficence to other areas of ourlives. Life itself will become the work of art, with a particularfield of endeavor but one manifestation of that art. The cultivationof such mastery involves craftsmanship and patience resulting fromthe love of what we do. When we love something or someone, they becomea source of endless fascination. Every detail is a new discovery,as with the guitar maker who is aware of every subtle nuance in thequality of the wood he uses.The genuine pursuit of knowledge is also a craft in this regard, onethat springs from eros, the fascination and desire to know. It isthis spirit of caring skillfulness that allows us to develop our chosenfields, that awakens the heart center to attract support, and thatcalls in allies from many unknown regions.Becoming a Career Tapestry. Instead of melting into ajob, or career, or firm for one’s entire life, the anti-career personof the future will be a living tapestry, someone who is able to performa number of services and expand his or her interests into complementaryand simultaneous directions. The one-job-for-life ideal is as deadas the transcontinental railroad. Some people still travel this wayfor leisure, but essentially it is a relic from another age. Evenretirement is no longer a sought after option. Most of us would ratherretire at age 29 and spend the rest of our lives working productivelyat what we truly love to do.Jarow ends his book by admitting that finding passion in work— let alone passion combined with health insurance — is noeasy task. He urges those who want to try to “start with an hour.Move to a day. Go for a lifetime.”Next StoryCorrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
