TRANSITIONS—Reflections on Career,
Vocation & Faith
OBJECTIVES1. Enhance awareness of and engagement
with full range of work/career transition ideas and resources.
2. Begin to discover connections among transition, vocational call and spirituality.
_________________________________*Dessin de Jean Olivier Heron
“CHANGE is ‘avalanching’ upon our heads and most people are grotesquely prepared to cope with it.”
—Alvin Toffler, 1980
Change……..
“Everything is changing….everything is connected…..Pay attention.”
Jane Hirshfield
“The future is not for everyone…”
Managing Transitions–William Bridges
STAGE
ENDINGS
TASKS
Dealing with loss
EMOTIONS & OUTCOMES
Anger, blame, fear, shock,denial, self-deception
NEUTRALZONE
Transitional period Anxiety, confusion, uncertainty, apathy, immobility
BEGINNINGS Setting new goals Integration, reinventing yourself, new meaning,Success
Transitions—William Bridges
• Change—situational and external
• Transition---internal process of adapting to change– May begin before change
takes place– Happens more slowly than
the change
People in Transition Need or Benefit From…
• Support, inspiration, structure and a plan• Introspection/assessment and research skills• Help in forming goals which incorporate passion, talents and
employment realities• Creative ideas for bridging past successes to new possibilities• Preparation/practice in
marketing/networking• Job market knowledge and web savvy
Bridge’s Gap Analysis
• OLD WORKPLACEPay for longevity/performance
Infrequent job changes
Permanent jobs
Temporary jobs
Implicit agreements
• NEW WORKPLACEPay for contributions and
results
Frequent job changes
Employment at will
Contingent workforce
Explicit agreements “the art of the deal”
•Job Functions—Skills, Interests, Values•Education & Credentials•Work Environment/Organizational Culture•Industry•Location/Geography•Salary/Financial Needs
1Job Search…Art and Science 2 3 4 5 6 7
Goals
Define Career/Job Goals
• Angel Investors• Boards of Directors• Consultants• Contract workers• Outsourced workers• Portfolio Career Jugglers• Teaching• Temping• Coaches………..see Carleen’s Boom or Bust
“ The best way to predict the future is to create it.” Peter Drucker…and his other not so
inspirational one……
We think too much…..
Descartes said “we think therefore we exist”……………………
When you listen to a thought, you are aware not only of the thought but also of yourself as witness of the thought. Be a silent observer of these thoughts. Sometimes, be amused by them. Are they helpful?....truthful?...soul-ful?... A new dimension of consciousness has come in.
Eckart Tolle
WORRIED
Are you worried? Do you have many “what if thoughts? This has to do with your mind—not your soul—and you are projecting yourself into an imaginary future situation and creating fear. There is no way you can cope with such a situation, because it doesn’t exist. It’s a mental phantom.
Eckart Tolle
Goals lead to DIRECTION…..
“It’s sensational what direction can do. The beauty of the human condition is the magic people are capable of when there’s direction.”
Dan Burr, CEO People Express
BECOMING….
“We learn who we have been and who we might become –--in practice, not in theory—by testing fantasy and reality, through exploration and examination, not just by looking inside.
Knowing oneself is critical, but it is usually the outcome of—and not a first input to—the reinvention process.
Intense introspection poses the danger that a potential career planner will get stuck in the realm of daydreams.”
................................................................................................... Herminia Ibarra WORKING IDENTITY
Research…..micro-research e.g. Kohls example…
"...the culture of any organization is a deep phenomenon; culture is complex and difficult to understand, but the effort to understand it is worthwhile because much of the mystery and the irrational in organizations suddenly becomes clear when we understand it..." —Edgar Schein
web.mit.edu/scheine/www/home.html ________________________________________________________________
http://interview.monster.com/articles/corp/http://interview.monster.com/articles/compculturehttp://www.wmbridges.com/
Case Study: The corporate culture of a Fortune 50 pharmaceutical company
1Job Search…Art and Science 2 3 4 5 6 7
Awareness
The Journey…..
“For this is the journey that men and women make to find themselves.
If they fail in this, it doesn’t
matter much what else they find.”
James A. Michner
Have some faith…. “If you’re in transition and you happen to have an
old faith hanging in the closet of your heart, it’s probably a good time to bring it out and dust it off.”
-Dick Bolles
Spirituality
To be spiritual means to know and to live according to the “knowledge” that there is more to life than meets the eye……
Telliard de Chardin“We are first spiritual beings--- who happen to be on this earth for a finite time—not just human beings with spiritual encounters.”
Go Deep….
Superficiality is the curse of the age. The doctrine of instant satisfaction is a primary spiritual problem. The desperate need today is not for a greaternumber of intelligent people, or gifted people, but for deep people. The classicaldisciplines of the spiritual life call us to move beyond surface living into depths. They invite us to explore the inner caverns of the spiritual realm. They urge us tobe the answer to a hollow world.____________________________________________ Richard Foster
Asking Questions
• Who am I and Whose am I?”-- Dietrich Bonhoeffer
• “Is what I have done…my life?”—Parker Palmer
• “Where am I going?—I don’t see the road ahead of me…”—Thomas Merton
• “How can my deepest hunger intersect with a world need?”-- Frederick Buechner
Merton on vocational call
“I am obscurely convinced that there is a need in the world for something I can provide and there is a need for me to provide it.……..someone else can do it, but something beyond or in me is asking me to.
Thomas Merton January 23, 1958
…….HEM……….I BELIEVE
VOCATIONAL CALL---- MYTHS & BARRIERS
• Vocation as historical concept—biblical, religious—Prophets……
• Distrust of selfhood
• Outside call--not inner voice
Vocation …CALL FROM INSIDE
“Now I become myself ---the person I was meant to be.” Parker Palmer
--Hasidic tale---Rabbi Zusa
--Clues from our childhood?---not what should I do….but what is my nature?........
--Micah---process not outcomes
--Mark—stand up and cheer, you’ve been called
Using Talents/Gifts“Giftedness is the only means I know of for the ordinary person to make sense out of life. Each one is given a purpose and the drive and competitiveness to achieve that purpose. Meaning is thereby built into the adventure of living for everyone.”
-Arthur Miller
Live Fully…..
“If we are to live our lives fully and well, we must learn to embrace opposites, to live in a creative tension between our limits and our potentials. We must honor our limitations in ways that do not distort our nature, and we must trust and use our gifts in ways that fulfill our potentials God gave us. We must take the no of the way that closes and find the guidance it has to offer—and take the yes of the way that opens and respond with the yes of our lives.” Parker Palmer
Parker’s 5 Shadows
1. Identity….deny others2. Functional atheists…..3. Battleground…..winners/losers4. Chaos….manage our way out5. Deny death….
The Soul .....
OUR SOUL….Can’t describe….but can name functions….• Rooted in the ground of our being• Connected to community• Tell us the truth about ourselves• Give……...and pass along life Mary Oliver
Solitude for Decision-Making
“The capacity to be alone is a valuable resource when changes of mental attitude are required. After major alterations in circumstances, fundamental reappraisals of the significance and meaning of existence may be needed. In a culture in which interpersonal relationships are generally considered to provide the answer to every form of distress, it is sometimes difficult to persuade well meaning helpers that solitude can be as therapeutic as emotional support.”
-Anthony Storr
Slogging“……he surrendered himself
instead to the slow heart work of seeking God (peace, love, presence, joy….. one day at a time and one night at a time in the place where his eyes opened and shut…he got up and fell down, he got up and fell down, he got up over and over again.”
Patrick Hart, Jonathon MontaldoThe Intimate Merton
Practiced Powers
“I must allow myself to be ok and even welcoming to purposeless wandering (Taoists call wu-wei) —allowing space within and around me so conflict and confusion can settle and a deeper wisdom emerge.
Resist the desire to act immediately.”
-Palmer and Rilke
Spiritual Disciplines
• Centering Meditation• Collaquey---written or spoken• Meditating/Praying Scripture/Holy writing—Lectio Divina • Meditating/Praying with your body e.g. walking a Laberynth…..• Solitude• Being in a “sacred place”…….• Journaling• Music
What do you do to get insights beyond the rational; informational and conventional resources?....................
QUALITIES OF CALL…..NEXT STEP?
