In his book, "Crossing the Unknown Sea: Work as a Pilgrimage of Identity," author David Whyte explores the concept of work from an internal perspective and how work allows us to become the individuals that we are.
He refers to the works of the well-known poet and engraver, William Blake.
Whyte uses the analogy of a ship crossing unknown seas to illustrate how we need to be the captains of our vessels.
Through a variety of analogies, Wyte has presented work from a different perspective and one that allows us to explore our own potential and how we can better leverage that potential within that area of our life we call work.
Work is viewed not just as a journey through the world, but through the various stages of understanding.
Work allows us to give the gifts that we possess and shows us the gifts that we are afraid of receiving.
The voyage that we take in our "ships" also involves change.
Change is a necessary component to meaningful and creative work.
Whyte also shares how he believes that the successes we have in middle life can also imprison us as much as our failures.
Some of the other interesting concepts he discusses includes: courage, expressive imagination, family ancestry of work and the "edge of necessity.
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