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Working Whole: How to Unite Your Spiritual Beliefs and Your Work to Live Fulfilled
“Our work should be a manifestation of who we are and what we believe.”
Wanting more from work than just a paycheck or a title. Wishing to integrate personal and spiritual beliefs into one’s working world. Being ready to manifest a work life rooted in joy, purpose and contentment. These are core desires felt by professionals, though they often lack a roadmap.
In her book Working Whole, career expert Kourtney Whitehead offers a practical guide to align your work pursuits with your truest desires. She shares eight principles that will free professionals to be inspired and joyful in their life and work callings. She advises that when we commit to living our beliefs in these eight core areas (humility, surrender, discipline, gratitude, connection, love, power and patience), we can work authentically and live fulfilled.
Drawn from her career as a recruiter, counselor and coach and her work with everyone from new hires to seasoned executives in transition to high-achievers determining what retirement can mean for them, Kourtney shares tips and tools for handling the expectations, choices, conflicts, challenges and opportunities we face in our work life. She leads readers through a transformative experience to become more creative, energized, observant, accepting of change and open-hearted.
With a warm tone and featuring informative content, exploratory and journaling exercises and actionable suggestions throughout, Working Whole provides a clear framework for making life and career decisions, both big and small, allowing readers to reach their highest potential and live their most fulfilled life.
Wanting more from work than just a paycheck or a title. Wishing to integrate personal and spiritual beliefs into one’s working world. Being ready to manifest a work life rooted in joy, purpose and contentment. These are core desires felt by professionals, though they often lack a roadmap.
In her book Working Whole, career expert Kourtney Whitehead offers a practical guide to align your work pursuits with your truest desires. She shares eight principles that will free professionals to be inspired and joyful in their life and work callings. She advises that when we commit to living our beliefs in these eight core areas (humility, surrender, discipline, gratitude, connection, love, power and patience), we can work authentically and live fulfilled.
Drawn from her career as a recruiter, counselor and coach and her work with everyone from new hires to seasoned executives in transition to high-achievers determining what retirement can mean for them, Kourtney shares tips and tools for handling the expectations, choices, conflicts, challenges and opportunities we face in our work life. She leads readers through a transformative experience to become more creative, energized, observant, accepting of change and open-hearted.
With a warm tone and featuring informative content, exploratory and journaling exercises and actionable suggestions throughout, Working Whole provides a clear framework for making life and career decisions, both big and small, allowing readers to reach their highest potential and live their most fulfilled life.
- GenresLeadership
213 pages, ebook
Published March 5, 2019
5 people are currently reading
187 people want to read
About the author
Kourtney Whitehead
1 book4 followersKOURTNEY WHITEHEAD has focused her career on helping people reach their work goals, from executive searches to counseling to career transitions, through her positions at top executive recruiting firms and consulting companies. Her site, SimplyService.org, is an online community supporting the creation of spiritually centered work lives. Her new book, Working Whole, shares how to unite your spiritual and work life.
Kourtney is a lover of trees, books, cozy blankets and unusual socks. She holds a Master’s degree in Education & Human Development from George Washington University and is a regular volunteer with high school and graduate-level students, advising them on careers and college, and sits on the board of the Children’s Environmental Health Network. She is a sought-after speaker and podcast guest and lives in the Washington, D.C., area with her husband and two teenage sons.
Connect on Facebook @simplyserviceorg or Instagram w_kourtney
Kourtney is a lover of trees, books, cozy blankets and unusual socks. She holds a Master’s degree in Education & Human Development from George Washington University and is a regular volunteer with high school and graduate-level students, advising them on careers and college, and sits on the board of the Children’s Environmental Health Network. She is a sought-after speaker and podcast guest and lives in the Washington, D.C., area with her husband and two teenage sons.
Connect on Facebook @simplyserviceorg or Instagram w_kourtney
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
March 13, 2019
Facebook Profile: https://www.facebook.com/kourtney.j.w...
Kourtney Whitehead’s book Working Whole promotes a dual approach to discovering personal satisfaction in one’s career a manner certain to resonate with readers across a wide spectrum. Whitehead thoughtfully acknowledges the varying levels of dissatisfaction many feel in their professional lives and advocates how self-awareness, spiritual principles, and perceptiveness about our place in the world can often produce more satisfying results in our public lives. She is careful to note, however, that what she advocates isn’t a religious approach – instead, she pursues a line of thought during the book’s first half focused far more on exploring qualities her experience has taught her offer greater results for individuals rather single-mindedly pursuing material success or feeling weighed down by the drudgery of a disliked job.
She opens the bulk of the text with an examination of what she considers one of the prime engines for advancing our self growth, particularly in a career setting – humility. She makes an convincing argument we realize our potential for joy and fulfillment when we view ourselves not as the focal point for all experience, but instead as part of a larger human community where we are no more or less important than anyone else. This decision, in Whitehead’s experience, unchains us from the burden of seeing ourselves as overly special or branded as some sort of failure or fraud in front of our peers. We are, essentially, freed to be our truest selves.
The text’s well structured movement goes on to cover other topics in the first half like the idea of surrender and how that comports with our pursuit of individual goals. Whitehead does an excellent job of establishing how accepting things as they yet still desiring to achieve more can co-exist with a balanced approach to each side of the scale. Our attention turns towards the inherent worth of our lives and those around us rather than consuming ourselves with our aims alone. It reinforces the theme of integration guiding much of her thoughts during the book’s early pages. She employs some illuminating devices along the way to outline her ideas, namely referencing Freytag’s Pyramid and how literary storyline structure often mimics our everyday lives and professional journeys. It’s another moment indicative of Whitehead’s expansive thoughts on the topic and serves readers well.
Some might take an initial view of the book’s contents and wonder how Whitehead can present an unified approach centered on such potentially broad ideas. Lesser writers or thinkers might have groped for a manner to adequately unpack topics like patience, identity, gratitude, and others, but Whitehead’s succinct prose does to in a clear and personable way while also revealing the multi-faceted connections behind her thoughts. Moreover, the work draws a clear path and how these interrelated ideas can push our lives forward if we maintain focus on growth and self improvement. She ends the book with thoughts on the nature of community and it provides a fitting conclusion for Working Whole. Though Whitehead rightly points out early on there are similar books to her own readers can seek out touching on the same thoughts and themes, Working Whole’s journaling activities and uniquely personal, even revealing, touch set it apart. It’s well worth anyone’s time who contemplates the challenges of balancing personal fulfillment with a rewarding professional life.
Purchase Link: https://www.amazon.com/Working-Whole-...
Kourtney Whitehead’s book Working Whole promotes a dual approach to discovering personal satisfaction in one’s career a manner certain to resonate with readers across a wide spectrum. Whitehead thoughtfully acknowledges the varying levels of dissatisfaction many feel in their professional lives and advocates how self-awareness, spiritual principles, and perceptiveness about our place in the world can often produce more satisfying results in our public lives. She is careful to note, however, that what she advocates isn’t a religious approach – instead, she pursues a line of thought during the book’s first half focused far more on exploring qualities her experience has taught her offer greater results for individuals rather single-mindedly pursuing material success or feeling weighed down by the drudgery of a disliked job.
She opens the bulk of the text with an examination of what she considers one of the prime engines for advancing our self growth, particularly in a career setting – humility. She makes an convincing argument we realize our potential for joy and fulfillment when we view ourselves not as the focal point for all experience, but instead as part of a larger human community where we are no more or less important than anyone else. This decision, in Whitehead’s experience, unchains us from the burden of seeing ourselves as overly special or branded as some sort of failure or fraud in front of our peers. We are, essentially, freed to be our truest selves.
The text’s well structured movement goes on to cover other topics in the first half like the idea of surrender and how that comports with our pursuit of individual goals. Whitehead does an excellent job of establishing how accepting things as they yet still desiring to achieve more can co-exist with a balanced approach to each side of the scale. Our attention turns towards the inherent worth of our lives and those around us rather than consuming ourselves with our aims alone. It reinforces the theme of integration guiding much of her thoughts during the book’s early pages. She employs some illuminating devices along the way to outline her ideas, namely referencing Freytag’s Pyramid and how literary storyline structure often mimics our everyday lives and professional journeys. It’s another moment indicative of Whitehead’s expansive thoughts on the topic and serves readers well.
Some might take an initial view of the book’s contents and wonder how Whitehead can present an unified approach centered on such potentially broad ideas. Lesser writers or thinkers might have groped for a manner to adequately unpack topics like patience, identity, gratitude, and others, but Whitehead’s succinct prose does to in a clear and personable way while also revealing the multi-faceted connections behind her thoughts. Moreover, the work draws a clear path and how these interrelated ideas can push our lives forward if we maintain focus on growth and self improvement. She ends the book with thoughts on the nature of community and it provides a fitting conclusion for Working Whole. Though Whitehead rightly points out early on there are similar books to her own readers can seek out touching on the same thoughts and themes, Working Whole’s journaling activities and uniquely personal, even revealing, touch set it apart. It’s well worth anyone’s time who contemplates the challenges of balancing personal fulfillment with a rewarding professional life.
Purchase Link: https://www.amazon.com/Working-Whole-...
March 6, 2019
This book has truly helped me think about how my personal life, spiritual life and work life are inextricably intertwined. It has also renewed my inspiration for continuing my journey towards a fulfilled way of being in all aspects. The book contains so much life wisdom and real life application, I forgot it it was about work at first!
The author masters analogy use by comparing our entire lives to that of a story plot. We choose the type of genre, setting, etc. And these choices determine how we experience our lives. Each day or "episode" we get to make new choices that either align with our vision of peaceful, joyful living or that do not align. Because we spend so many of our waking hours working, and because most people need to work in order to provide for their basic needs, the author explains that our work can be an ideal vehicle for our spiritual development.
If you are interested in bringing together your spiritual journey and your work journey, I would definitely take the time to read this book thoroughly and do all the exercises. It has been extremely helpful to me.
The author masters analogy use by comparing our entire lives to that of a story plot. We choose the type of genre, setting, etc. And these choices determine how we experience our lives. Each day or "episode" we get to make new choices that either align with our vision of peaceful, joyful living or that do not align. Because we spend so many of our waking hours working, and because most people need to work in order to provide for their basic needs, the author explains that our work can be an ideal vehicle for our spiritual development.
If you are interested in bringing together your spiritual journey and your work journey, I would definitely take the time to read this book thoroughly and do all the exercises. It has been extremely helpful to me.
March 5, 2019
Work and life are never two separate things, but when we treat them as such, we often become overwhelmed, frustrated, or at odds with ourselves. Kourtney shows us that integrating our spiritual beliefs and then anchoring all aspects of our lives to what we believe is the only way to live up to our full potential. “Working Whole” will encourage you to reflect on what you believe and then challenge you to do the work you are called to do. Thoughtful, authentic, and inspiring, Kourtney will lead you on a journey to live a life fulfilled.
March 5, 2019
Absolutely brilliant! Necessary for all of us looking to find balance, integrity and honor in our personal and professional lives. In a world of soundbytes and obscure ‘advice’, Kourtney writes from the heart about how to truly love what you do and find yourself in the process. Amazing work.
March 5, 2019
Outstanding book. If you want to take your career to the next level this is a must read. Author gives you insightful lesson on how to work whole.
March 6, 2019
Whatever stage you are in on your career path, you'll find insights small and large to drive self-reflection about your callings, how you define yourself, who you surround yourself with, how to begin each work day with open optimism, and what fulfills you.
June 17, 2025
This was really good.
Update 2 years later: it didn't hit the same way this time as it did the first time I read it.
Update 2 years later: it didn't hit the same way this time as it did the first time I read it.
July 29, 2020
Integrating Work and Spirituality
What a fascinating book! I've read a number of books on business as well as a number on spirituality, but I've never seen the two concepts so artfully combined in one book. The author states that as our spirituality guides are personal life, so it should guide our professional or work life. She inspires us to integrate work and life in a way that resonates with our spiritual center. The book is split into two larger sections with a series of short chapters, each touching on separate aspects of work, life, and our spiritual underpinnings. The book is not about any one spiritual practice. Rather, she writes about spiritual beliefs and topics that can be seen in most religions or less structured spiritual practice. She offers exercises as well as insights. If you’ve felt like your work life is very separate from the rest of it and is perhaps lacking a deeper rootedness in who you are and what you believe, check out this book as it may have some of the answers you may not have known you were seeking.
I received a free copy of this book, but that did not affect my review.
My book blog: https://www.readingfanaticreviews.com
What a fascinating book! I've read a number of books on business as well as a number on spirituality, but I've never seen the two concepts so artfully combined in one book. The author states that as our spirituality guides are personal life, so it should guide our professional or work life. She inspires us to integrate work and life in a way that resonates with our spiritual center. The book is split into two larger sections with a series of short chapters, each touching on separate aspects of work, life, and our spiritual underpinnings. The book is not about any one spiritual practice. Rather, she writes about spiritual beliefs and topics that can be seen in most religions or less structured spiritual practice. She offers exercises as well as insights. If you’ve felt like your work life is very separate from the rest of it and is perhaps lacking a deeper rootedness in who you are and what you believe, check out this book as it may have some of the answers you may not have known you were seeking.
I received a free copy of this book, but that did not affect my review.
My book blog: https://www.readingfanaticreviews.com
February 24, 2020
While I've read a few books on the intersection of our career/vocation and spiritually, this will be the first written from a female author's perspective who's a career expert having been a recruiter, counsellor and coach. While I did believe this was a faith-based (religious) book, it's not and that didn't take away from any of the insight I've gleaned from this book. Anyone seeking to live holistically meaning have their core values and beliefs not only integrated into every area of their lives, but it's from where they lead.
January 14, 2020
The book is based on sound philosophy. The author used the metaphor of producing a television series to represent the way you live your life. I didn't relate to this metaphor which was used extensively.
February 17, 2021
I find the book analogies simplistic and unfounded. The book is presented as an opinion/way of framing of the author. I personally don’t relate to the show analogies because I don’t watch any, the analogies were uninspiring at least for me.
March 19, 2020
Some of this book I agreed with and others I didn't. It did bring up some interesting feelings on where I'm currently at in life so I got that going for me.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews