Friday, January 31, 2014

Body of Work by Pamela Slim

I found this in my wanderings on Amazon and immediately knew I had to read it. Why? Well, for one thing, I believe in the power of connectedness. I know that experiences are not isolated and that the superficial or face value of an experience alone does not dictate its worth or direction. I not only believe this, but I work at an institution that teaches others to believe this, too. We talk about the “thread that ties your story together” and other similar concepts all the time. So I was interested in getting a perspective on the topic from someone outside our organization.

And what a perspective this is. Slim advocates a very 21st century view of success, career path, and life meaning. As she points out, going through life having fixed on a main goal of garnering more and more money is not going to lead you to a happy or successful life. Challenging yourself to make money while you accomplish X, Y, and Z is a different story.


And that’s not the main “thread” of her book (pun clearly intended). The main function of this “self-help” book is to help you think about your experiences as one large body of work. Slim encourages you to take a look at your career, interests, and accomplishments, reflect on the past and the present, and think and plan about the future.

Although I was not in a place where I could give the exercises the undivided attention I feel they require if you’re going to take this seriously, I could tell that her little prompts to encourage the reader to do just that would be pretty effective. Since I’ve been feeling fairly stagnant in my job recently, I’m hoping that sitting down to do the exercises may help me refocus my energy and regain the enthusiasm with which I used to pursue my tasks.

I highly recommend this to anyone starting or continuing their path through adulthood.


~9/10~

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