A Life at Work

With the economy as it is these days, it is somewhat more difficult getting inspired.  Though I am fortunate to have a job, it is what it is, a job.  Reading during my lunch break is what keeps my hopes and dreams alive.

Recently, I read Thomas Moore’s “A Life at Work” which intertwines ones lifework with values I often neglect such as your soul, spirit, ethics and pleasure.  Who knew that a job could hold so much importance?  This explains why I’ve had trouble in the past staying at a place that ran contrary to my personal values and ethics.

Moore says, “If you work at a job that contradicts your ethics, you are divided, your personal values moving in one direction and your work in another.  Since ethics has deep roots in your emotions and your vision, you will feel divided against yourself. Your work will be disturbing, and you will never get to the point where you feel you have found your life work.  Ethics play a deep and central role in this search…Practical labor without a spiritual base is unconscious, narcissistic, and one-dimensional.  Without the spiritual, work is a mere job.”

Book Review: Don’t Waste Your Talent

Several months ago, I received a book from Highlands Company, a publisher who created Don’t Waste Your Talent. I’m happy to say my husband and I FINALLY finished the book, and it was well worth the wait. Here are my list of pros and cons of Don’t Waste Your Talent: The 8 Critical Steps to Discovering What You Do Best. You might want to add it to your library of inspirational reads!

Summary: Bob McDonald and Don E. Hutcheson created a book perfect for the career seeker. If you feel like you are going through a mid-life, quarter-life crisis, or just feel like you need a change, Don’t Waste Your Talent can help you delve deep into what may be missing in your life. Their stance is that most people in society are in a fog, living the life they think they are supposed to be living versus their authentic life. They call it this the Lemming Conspiracy: based on artic animals who jump off a cliff (literally) together without knowing why they do so. People buy into systems like career and family and spend most of their lives working weekends and weeknights to get promoted and make money but feel empty because it is not aligned with their true purpose. The book is based on McDonald and Hutcheson’s program for corporations and there are samples in the book from those who went through this program. Continue reading →

Book Review: Steering By Starlight

In my last book review, I was disappointed by the book’s inability to cause a change in my husband and I. Well, I won’t be saying that about this one. Not since The Power of Now has a book stirred me up so much. A definite life shifter Steering by Starlight: Find Your Right Life, No Matter What!is the kind of read that makes you want to live better and believe that a better life (a more magical, mystical and miracle-laden one) is possible.

This is one of the books I call my “turtle reader” because it’s among my stash that I read super slowly. It’s my wine and chocolate read. This is the kind of book that should be savored, absorbed and appreciated. Frankly, I couldn’t get enough of it and was sad when it came to an end.

Why? Continue reading →