Reddit reviews The Great Work of Your Life: A Guide for the Journey to Your True Calling

A useful warning: Be cautious about making Radical Life Changes when you're in the early stages of the path, especially if you're newly full of intense passion, vigour, and excitement for the path, or recently started to feel like you've finally started experiencing the fruits of practice, or recently had a Major Spiritual (or just cool) Experience, all of which could be signs of the Arising & Passing Away. It's possible, if that's the case, and you're practicing in some way that would lead someone down the Progress of Insight (nod here to controversy about whether or not those stages are applicable to people practicing anything other than vipassana), you could be in the dukkha nanas, even if it doesn't seem as dramatic as the worst-case descriptions in MCTB.

It's very common after the A&P to want to renounce the world, or be disgusted or unhappy with your life, and think that changing your life will fix the disgust or unhappiness. It might not! And then you might be stuck without a job, or in a career you hate more or are less suited for. Or, you could find your Dharma and lose a huge source of stress and worry. Or somewhere in between. No one else can say what would happen or what might be right for you.

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Now, I have, in fact, changed careers since starting practice, and the change is at least partially attributable to the insights gained from the practice. But, on the other hand, I might have changed careers anyway, so who can say.

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I went to theatre school, with plans on being a big shot stage manager/writer. Partially because of the new sensitivity to my emotional state that I gained from practice, I found that I didn't actually like doing the work. I *very* much liked the feeling of having worked on a really, really great show... But when I worked on shows that were just okay, or were awful, I suffered terribly.

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I hated the work I had to do, I hated the egos and people, I hated the hours, I hated sitting and listening or watching these plays that I thought were really bad. I thought that was all just normal stress. Nope - I wasn't doing it for the sake of the work (which could have made it possible for me to bear all those other shitty things). I was doing it because I loved the thought of myself as this big important theatre person, because it gave me this image and identity that made me feel good about myself. Working on Bad Theatre broke that identity and image, which was painful.

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A friend had just left the industry to be a web developer, and got a great paying job after just under two years of teaching himself how to code. He encouraged me to try, and I thought, "That'd be great. That'd give me a lot of money, so I can pay off my debt, and then I can spend lots of time on retreat and become a dharma teacher, which is the only thing I'm really excited about right now and must be my True Calling."

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Turns out, I actually really, really love coding. I've been doing it professionally for a year now, and my days tend to fly by. What I make almost doesn't matter (as long as it doesn't conflict with my values) - I just like the work for the work's sake.

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The tech industry suffers from some similar things you pointed to in the advertising industry - excess, Dark Design patterns, manipulation, unethical behaviour, a rabid pursuit of wealth at any cost... But it's very possible to make a living with these skills I've developed, without doing harm. I'm very happy to turn down work that I think is unethical, even if it means I make less money (so far, that hasn't proven to be the case, but it's only been a year). If the actual day to day, moment to moment work that you do brings you joy, and feels Right, then I'm sure there's a way you can use those skills and knowledge you've developed to do work that doesn't make involved diving into the culture of excess, manipulate people, or take you away from your family.

https://www.amazon.ca/Great-Work-Your-Life-Journey/dp/055380751X

This book was a game changer for me. Stephen Cope draws on the Bhaghavad Gita to basically try to answer the question, "What am I supposed to do with my life?"

I just read ["The Great Work of Your Life" by Stephen Cope ] (http://www.amazon.com/The-Great-Work-Your-Life/dp/055380751X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1396528699&sr=8-1&keywords=stephen+cope) who is the director at Kripalu; good book; I'd be interested in attending a workshop / retreat there too!

You're getting a lot of good concrete advice here, so I'm going to come from a more abstract angle...


I believe that everyone in the world has the same job: learning how to be your version of a good human being, and slowly discovering and building strengths you can use to help yourself and those around you. Everyone has this same job, the same responsibility, it's just that the details in figuring this out and muddling through are so drastically different for everyone..


You're already doing your work, right now, because you're struggling to find meaning in your life, and you care enough to reach out and ask for help.


Your milage may vary with all of this, but this book helped me a lot the last few years as I went through a divorce and decided to move to a new city for a career that helps people (33 yo male myself, btw).

http://www.amazon.com/The-Great-Work-Your-Life/dp/055380751X


Don't get too hung up on the lofty language, though. "Meaningful work" or phrases like "my calling" aren't about a perfect career or boundless passion and success, they're about consistently using your body and mind in the world in ways that are healthy and meaningful to you (which just incidentally tend to involve helping others in some way). If it's not through your 9 to 5, no problem: just put your time in and use it as a stable base for meaningful action elsewhere.


Personally, I think that when you figure out how to give in a healthy way through things you care about, you almost always get back more than you give, and you start to attract stronger friends and partners as a by-product of practicing your strengths and learning who you are.


As far as I can tell, this approach to life will always be full of fear, doubt, and struggle, passing through you like waves even as you keep doing better and learning more about yourself, but it's worth it, because it can be so damn beautiful and intense and super rich in all the ways that matter.


Good luck with your struggle, friend.