FEATURE ARTICLE
October 2004

Career Visioning: Using Transformational Spirituality in Decision-Making
by Chaplain Gayle Shirley

Career visioning uses a journaling process to touch the deeper-self within in order to discover direction and clarity about career and life goals. Visioning relies upon the inner "knower" that is ever present within each of us and is responsive when we call upon it. This process trains us to see the plan that God, or whatever higher power you relate to, has for us.

Dr. Michael Beckwith, founder of the Agape Church of Religious Science and Truth Center in Culver City, California, developed this visioning process about ten years ago. Career visioning is an adaptation of Dr. Beckwith’s original spiritual tool.

Spirituality is a highly personal inner experience that connects us with the divine power of the universe and with a reality beyond the everyday human experience. Transformational spirituality is a discipline that creates a life lived from inner guidance and wisdom through the use of spiritual tools such as visioning (Science of Mind Magazine, Dec. 1966) and Soul WORKS: Thriving in Challenging and Uncertain Times (Ed. Walz, Knowdell, and Kirkman, 2002). Practicing career visioning regularly opens the heart and mind to the guidance and wisdom sleeping in the substance of the soul.

Some people question whether spirituality has a place in career choice and work life given the competitive economic marketplace. Work, personal meaning and purpose in life contain a spiritual dimension, and the workplace is a social system where people spend a large part of their life. To expect an individual to ignore this essential human element when he/she enters the workplace is to deny a basic reality.

People without a vision perish, especially in the current work environment where employees move from job to job due to mergers, downsizing and outsourcing. The sense of connection, meaning and purpose must come from the chosen occupation or vision, not the organization. It is unhealthy to place one’s spiritual treasure or currency in any organizational vault. Purpose or meaning starts within us and spills out to the organization. Visioning connects us with something bigger than ourselves.

Career Visioning is most effective in conjunction with traditional vocational tools such as interest inventories, skills analysis, values clarification and labor market exploration. Traditional assessment methods give an individual the vocabulary and information to gain personal insight and wisdom. Visioning assumes an intuitive way of knowing and is a wonderful complement to logical intelligence. This process uses both sides of the brain and all of the spirit.

Following is a set of guidelines to create a career visioning journal:

Create an environment for visioning.

1. Find a quiet, tidy room.
   
2. Bathe and dress in comfortable clothes.
   
3. Lock the door to insure privacy.
   
4. Light a candle or warm essential oils, if that calms you.
   
5. Think carefully about the situation to be the object of your vision.
   
6. Invoke an attitude of receptivity and willingness to surrender to your inner creativity and spiritual knowing. If comfortable, say a prayer.
   
   

Use the following format to journal your vision, dating and recording your responses to each statement or question.

1. I seek direction and clarity about my purpose in life.
   
2. What is God's vision for me? Listen to your inner guide. (See, hear, be aware of what comes to you; feelings, sounds, symbols, metaphors.)
   
3. What is my part in this unfolding vision? Listen.
   
4. What do I need to release and let go in order to embrace this vision? Listen.
   
5. What qualities of God do I need to embody to fulfill this vision? Listen.
   
6. What is my next step? Listen.
   
7. Continue to accept and be open to the vision as it unfolds. Write in your journal frequently. Life unfolds at the level of your awareness.
   
   

Gayle Shirley, MA, RSc.P, is Employment and Training Counselor at the Sonoma County Job Link in Santa Rosa, CA.