Resources on Personal Development and Career Planning
| What if you’re just thinking about a more adventurous life or career, or are still trying to figure out what you want to be when you grow up? If you’re still trying to figure out if adventure is right for you, or what kind of adventure you might like, here are a few resources you might find helpful.
Note that this page contains affiliate links to Amazon.com. Books Getting Things Done If you’re overwhelmed by all the stuff clamoring for your attention each day in the information age, there’s a simple way to be more effective and find peace of mind in the process. David Allen has become the world’s most widely-known time management guru, and his system (”Getting Things Done” or “GTD”) has a cult-like following of millions of fans who have embraced the approach and modified it to suit their own needs. He has a new book out (Making it All Work) that you should read too, but start with this one. Read it, start applying what it teaches, and you’ll be amazed at what adopting some simple new behaviors can do for you. - MS What Should I Do with My Life?: The True Story of People Who Answered the Ultimate Question Bronson’s 2002 best-seller is worthwhile reading for anyone struggling with whether, or how, to change their careers. I think it could have done with some more editing, and I’m not sure mixing his own story in with the stories of his 50 subjects works particularly well. My take was that the author gets in the way of his material as often as he illuminates it. But the questions he explores are important, valid, and worth pulling out for further contemplation or application to your own life and career choices. For example: There is such a thing as failure, and not everyone deals with it well, and those who don’t probably shouldn’t be entrepreneurs. And moments of enlightenment, where the right path is shown to you in a flash of clarity and certainty, aren’t the way people typically figure things out. - LW
The 4-Hour Workweek Serial entrepreneur Tim Ferris coined the term “lifestyle design,” and his book on the subject has become a best-seller. Don’t let the seeming implausability of the title or the book’s focus on literally outsourcing much of your life scare you away. The “DEAL” formula that Ferris lays out (Definition, Elimination, Automation, Liberation) is a blueprint for an unconventional kind of success. Whether you follow the plan or just read about it with an open mind, you’ll walk away with new insights on setting goals, dealing with information overload, managing time, and what it will take for you to create a life run on your own terms. - MS One Person/Multiple Careers: A New Model for Work/Life Success If you dread the question “What do you do?” because there’s no simple answer, you’re not alone. Journalist Marci Alboher interviewed hundreds of people pursuing multiple careers simultaneously, and tells all in this book. The book has received rave reviews, so if you too are engaging in “slash careers,” it’s definately worth a look. - MS Career Renegade: How to Make a Great Living Doing What You Love “The single greatest thing that stopped me from doing what I loved,” writes Jonathan Fields, “was the fear that I’d either end up poor or a failure—or both. What a load of life-stifling crap.” Fields is an entrepreneur, marketing consultant, yoga studio owner, and family man. Full of inspiring case studies (including Field’s own), this book can change your life. - MS My So-called Freelance Life: How to Survive and Thrive as a Creative Professional for Hire Michelle Goodman “fled the cube” in 1992 to become a freelance writer and has yet to look back. In 2006, she put her thoughts about flexible, boss-free, and otherwise nontraditional careers into a book: The Anti 9-to-5 Guide: Practical Career Advice for Women Who Think Outside the Cube. This one is the sequel, and is full of useful, practical tips and advice. - MS Creating the Work You Love: Courage, Commitment, and Career If you’re looking for a career strategy that’s more than a reaction to the job market, look no further. Rick Jarow (Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Vassar College) believes that vocation is not just a means of survival—it’s a pure expression of your unique life force. While Jarow’s “right livelihood” approach to finding the work you love may be a bit New Agey for some tastes, his methods grew from the years he spent traveling and studying some of the world’s great spiritual traditions (in which vocation serves as a platform for spiritual and material growth). In addition to Creating the Work You Love, be sure to check out Jarow’s audio program, The Ultimate Anti-Career Guide: The Inner Path to Finding Your Work in the World. - MS Life 2.0: How People Across America Are Transforming Their Lives by Finding the Where of Their Happiness Karlgaard is a passionate believer in “second acts,” as he calls them. And while he’s lived in Silicon Valley virtually all of his adult life, he was raised in North Dakota, which no doubt contributed to his conclusion that there was actually life, including potentially satisfying, “second acts” of life, to be found outside the fast-paced coastal cities. Not that he’s moved back to North Dakota himself. But in between the travel stories springing from his own “second act” (Karlgaard became a private pilot in his mid-40s), Karlgaard explores some of the options and happiness people find simply by thinking creatively about how to restructure their work lives to allow them to step off the high-overhead treadmills of major cities. - LW Callings: Finding and Following an Authentic Life In a world where technology has literally enabled us to be “called” anywhere, anytime, Callings is a welcome look at calls of a more emotional nature. Gregg Levoy eloquently explores the many kinds of calls we receive: calls to do something, and calls to be something. He explores how to hear the calls, what happens when we follow them, and what happens when we don’t. The book is filled with beautiful prose that is a pleasurable to read as it is thought-provoking, and at every turn Levoy makes references to ideas, people, and books from a myriad of fields. If you’ve ever felt in your gut that you were destined to do something, read this book. If you don’t believe in that sort of thing, read it anyway. - LW Care of the Soul: A Guide for Cultivating Depth and Sacredness in Everyday Life Internationally renowned theologian and former Catholic monk Thomas Moore is a well-known writer on spiritual matters, and in Care of the Soul you’ll find the core ideas that influence his other works. Moore’s approach to finding happiness involves a continuous process that concerns itself not so much with ‘fixing’ a central flaw as with attending to the small details of everyday life.” Also recommended: A Life at Work: The Joy of Discovering What You Were Born to Do. - MS The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You’ll Ever Need The bestselling author of Free Agent Nation:The Future of Working for Yourself and A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future has a new book out, and this one is particularly cool. It’s the first American business book presented in the Japanese comic format known as manga, and is filled with good advice for young people just starting their careers. - MS The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles If you have visions of doing great things but find yourself encountering internal resistance (i.e. procrastinating), help is on the way! Steven Pressfield (bestselling author of The Legend of Bagger Vance) has written an inspiring little book. It’s a fun examination of the psychology of creation that just might be the kick in the pants you need to start living your unlived life. - MS The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything Ken Robinson is an internationally recognized leader in the development of creativity, innovation and human resources. In The Element he examines the place where passion and skill meet. Filled with stories and interviews with accomplished people in a variety of fields who have found The Element, the book proposes a new paradigm that has a pround impact on individuals, organizations, and society. - MS Refuse to Choose!: Use All of Your Interests, Passions, and Hobbies to Create the Life and Career of Your Dreams Thirty years ago, career coach Barbara Sher wrote a book called Wishcraft and she’s been at it ever since, helping people identify and live the lives of their dreams. While all her books are great, Refuse to Choose is especially helpful for curious and talented people who think they are interested in too many things. Hogwash says Sher. Then she tells you how to do it all (but not all at once…). - MS Articles “Become a Lifestyle Entrepreneur: Complete Guide and 40+ Resources” A helpful overview of the different models “lifestyle entrepreneurs” embrace, and a huge list of resources to help you get started. Great stuff from Skellie at Anywired.com. Web sites/blogs Awake At the Wheel The Art of Non-Conformity Brazen Careerist Brazen Careerist Blog The Four Hour Workweek Lifehacker Location Independent My Tropical Escape Steve Pavlina Zen Habits Opportunities VocationVacations Backdoorjobs.com |