#Review: The Art of Work by Jeff Goins

Jeff Goins, a brilliant new voice counting Seth Godin and Jon Acuff among his fans, explains how to abandon the status quo and live a life that matters with true passion and purpose.

The path to your life's work is difficult and risky, even scary, which is why few finish the journey. This is a book about discovering your life's work, that treasure of immeasurable worth we all long for. Its about the task you were born to do.

As Jeff Goins explains, the search begins with passion but does not end there. Only when our interests connect with the needs of the world do we begin living for a larger purpose. Those who experience this intersection experience something exceptional and enviable. Though it is rare, such a life is attainable by anyone brave enough to try.

Through personal experience, compelling case studies, and current research on the mysteries of motivation and talent, Jeff shows readers how to find their vocation and what to expect along the way. 

GoodReads * Amazon * Barnes & Noble

BAM * iBooks * CBD

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REVIEW

I do not give many 5-star reviews.  When I do, it is because a book has something extra.  A book has to have that certain, "Je ne sais quoi", a broad appeal across genres, and lift us out of our ordinary lives to become something better.  The Art of Work by Jeff Goins is one such book.

Giving a little of my background: 

My father passed away during my senior year in high school.  He was 47 and had a stroke, passing a week later.  He was the first of his family to graduate college.  He had a PhD in Chemical Engineering.  He worked his entire adult life at a defense contractor, because he was good at what he did and it was a responsible job that put food on the table and kept a roof over our heads.  And he hated it.

I started out in college as a Musical Theatre major.  That's a heck of a field of study for a painfully shy introvert.  Due to a disastrous end-of-year audition in the program and a steady pressure from my mother, I switched in my sophomore year to "Business".  That was respectable.  That was something you could tell people without having them go, "tsk, tsk, tsk," and asking you how you were going to make a living.  And I hated it.

Reading The Art of Work was like having a personally-guided tour to the nobility of purpose.  It clearly brought out the difference between a 'job' (what you do to pay the bills) and a career or purpose - which I will define as your best contribution towards making the world a better place to live.

Somewhere along the line, society has pounded it into our skulls that we should keep our noses to the grindstone, our eyes downcast to the job at hand, to maintain the status quo.  Don't look up, don't dare to dream, fulfill the role someone else has decided is your niche.  Oh, and don't ask questions.

Bull cookies!

If you are having trouble seeing your dream or making it happen, you would do well to read The Art of Work.  If you are working on your dream, Jeff Goins's book can be an umbrella to help you hold onto your dreams during the storms of 'real life'.  And if you have achieved your dream?  CONGRATULATIONS!  Read the book anyway.  It's that good.

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MEET THE AUTHOR

Website * Blog * Twitter

Facebook * LinkedIn * Google +

Originally from Chicago, Jeff moved to Nashville after graduating from college and spending a year traveling with CTI Music Ministries.

In college, he studied Spanish and Religion. He spent part of his Junior year in Spain, which unlocked a passion for missions, travel, and other cultures.

After a long year of letter-writing and long-distance phone calls, Jeff moved to Tennessee to “see about a girl.” In 2008, he married her.

Jeff lives with his wife Ashley and their dog Lyric and has been working from home for a nonprofit called Adventures in Missions since 2006.

He has written and guest-blogged for a number of publications and blogs. Jeff also helps organizations with their marketing, communications, and creativity. 

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(Disclosure:  I received, well, actually two copies of this print book from Jeff Goins and the publishers in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.)

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This post represents my first day's entry for the 30 Day Blogging Challenge, hosted by Sarah Arrow at Sark Emedia. 

Review: How to Blog a Book by Nina Amir

Transform Your Blog into a Book!

The world of blogging is rapidly changing, but it remains one of the most efficient ways to write and share your work with an eager audience. But how do you purposefully hone your blog content into a uniquely positioned book that will be noticed by an agent or a publisher?

How to Blog a Book Revised and Expanded Edition is a completely updated guide to writing and publishing a saleable book based on a blog. Expert author and blogger Nina Amir guides you through the process of developing targeted blog content that will increase your chances of publication and maximize your visibility as an author.

In this revised edition you’ll find: 

• The latest information on how to set up, maintain, and optimize a blog

• Steps for writing a book easily from scratch using blog posts

• Advice on how to write blog posts

• Tips on gaining visibility and promoting your work both online and off

• Current tools for driving traffic to your blog

• Extensive information on how to monetize your existing blog content into a book or other products

• Profiles with authors who received blog-to-book deals, including four new “from blog to book” success stories

Theme Reveal (Blogging from A to Z Challenge) - All Gallow's Eve

So, today is the day!

Those of us who have chosen to participate in the "A to Z Challenge" and are using a theme to connect the posts are revealing our themes for this year's challenge.

Fear of Failure vs Fear of Success

Click this button to visit the Insecure Writer's Support Group, hosted on Alex J Cavanaugh's blog.

I know I have a story or two to tell.  Everybody does.  So why don't I see something I've written on a book store shelf?  Why am I not attending a play which I have written?  Why do I sabotage myself from the get go?  I have two main theories:

1. I am afraid of failure.
2. I am afraid of success.

The world has tricked us into believing that if something isn't perfect, it isn't worthwhile.  One memory that sticks out from my youth is taking a math test on which I'd scored 97 to my father, who was a chemical engineer.  I had worked hard and thought that was a good grade.  His response upon seeing the paper was, "What happened to the other three points?"  Ouch!

Once we achieve some success, what then?  Can we repeat it, or do we need to head in a different direction?  "One-trick pony" is not a name to which most people aspire.  There is so much emphasis put on getting that manuscript published, but not so much on what happens next.

I had someone tell me once that I tended to "catastrophize" things, or to think in terms of extreme examples.  Maybe I just need to step back from the edge and revel in the process.   

NaNoWriMo Kick-off

Well, it's here. NaNoWriMo month. For anyone who may have the same look on their face as folks in my family, that stands for National Novel Writing Month. The premise is to write 50,000 words of a novel, all during the month of November. Apparently, I found the site about 4 years ago, but this is the first time I am actually participating.

Given my penchant for getting on Facebook and whiling my computer time away there, I made a deal with myself to write on my novel, tentatively titled "Requiem for the Hated", first thing in the morning. I have written 2,056 words, or about 4% of the total. I am choosing to give myself the option to not write on Sundays, so my per day goal of 2000 words is slightly higher than the 1,666 words needed to write 50K words in 30 days.

It went faster than I thought today. But I suppose part of that is because it's the first day and I was especially eager to get writing. That and all of my ideas are in front of me. I think the challenge will come in the later days when there is less than 10,000 words to go, my ideas are mostly used up and the self-editing is in full swing.

I'm writing a fictionalized account of my work with adults who have mental retardation and/or developmental disabilities. For the initial draft, I'm using the real names, simply so I don't have to come up with covers for everybody and slow down the mad rush to 50K words. So there probably won't be a lot of novel excerpts in the blog...until I come up with covers.

Finally, NaNoWriMo supports a writing course for young people. I'd love to help them out, but am currently supporting a husband and 3 children, so I'm helping by spreading the word. Did you know that:

A $10 donation single-handedly powers our mighty servers for one hour, keeping adults and kids inspired and excited long enough to crank out the next page of their high-velocity masterworks.

So, if you are financially able, please consider supporting my writing by visiting my sponsorship page. If that is not possible, if you could see your way through to tweeting or posting for your followers on Facebook, etc, I would be very grateful!

And, if you would like to participate, there is certainly still time! Just visit nanowrimo.org and get going. And add me as a writing buddy (I'm KentuckyGal on the site).

Hiding Under My Porch

OK, so it's been like ... two months since I posted last. I thought about my Back Porch a lot, tripping over my guilty thoughts like the vines that twine around the wooden steps leading down to the driveway. I can't really say what has brought me to actually put fingers to keyboard tonight ... but here I am.

I got my last haircut the same way. Having had waistlength hair for years, I thought about cutting it in some more than "just a trim way" for many months. Then one day, I just called, made an appointment and came home to my bug-eyed family (who had been warned of my intentions) swinging my now-detached ponytail and war-whooping. My hair disappeared up to my chin and for weeks I would still flip my head over to mousse it up and wonder why I was nearly falling over (because the rest of the hair-weight wasn't there).

Work has been stressful, more so than usual of late. One of my co-workers had a baby about 3 months ago. Another one just found out she is going to have a little girl a few months down the road. I got tied after having my 3rd child at the age of 41, but still think about having more. So every time someone with whom I work becomes pregnant, I have 'sympathy pains' right along with them. The last month has been pure h-e-double toothpicks: nausea, lower back pain, migraines, sciatica, soaring blood pressure. I've felt on the verge of really losing it on more than one occasion.

Of course, it didn't help that my family (husband and three children) went to Texas to see my MIL and her husband for a week, and I was stuck here in Kentucky because of my job. I don't even ask for time off anymore, because the last two times I've done so, and been approved ... it's been reneged after the paycheck paperwork gets turned in and I'm stuck trying to feed 5 people on $300 less rent, utilities and gas for two weeks. Doesn't work.

The more stressed, bombarded and attacked I feel, the more I withdraw, so that's probably why I haven't been around much of late.