How to Find the Work You Love (Arkana) [Mass Market Paperback]

You are practically presented with an outline in each chapter, complete with bolded headings and sub-headings. This book is also filled with poignant quotes from notable people spanning the ages of history. This approach is appropriate and effective for this subject matter.

The thesis of the book is simply find what taps into your creative passion in life and you will find the work you love. The book actually does give you a methodolgy to follow to uncover what at first seems to be an amorphous task. The "Focusing Questions" the author presents throughout the second half of the book is an opportunity for the reader to reflect and think about how this can make sense for him or her.

The title of the book may be a little misleading. "Finding the work you love" is not referring to actually getting the job. The title is referring to finding within yourself what it is that you would love to do for your life's work.

The audience for this book could be anyone from the high school or college graduate to the senior citizen. Anyone who is not sure what contribution they want to make for the rest of their lives might benefit from a bit of focused insight and reflection. Even if you are sure about what your life's work is, the book could still be valuable as a reinforcement that you are on the right path for you.

This isn't a book along the lines of "What Color Is Your Parachute". It's not a "step by step" guide per se, though it has some excersizes to help you explore what has meaning for you.

For me, this was a book of validation. I wish more than anything, that I could just resign myself to "any old job" and be satisfied - life would be so much easier that way... but when you spend 1/3 of your life at work and part of the other 2/3's perparing for work (commuting, preparing meals, trying to psyche yourself up to make it through another day) I think it's really important to find more meaning in what you do for a living than "payday".

If you spend a lot of time dreaming of the day you can finally retire and you feel like you're wasting your life doing work that has absolutely no meaning for you (or worse, goes against your grain) and if the money isn't enough to compensate for what you spend so much of your day doing and you feel strongly that "there's got to be more to work than this" this book will validate your feelings beautifully and give you inspiration. But if you're a "realist" ("work's not supposed to be fun - that's why they call it work") you may be disappointed.

It's ironic to me that people complained about the quotes - because I like them - but then I like quotes:

"Blessed is he who has found his work. Let him ask no other blessing" (Thomas Carlyle); "Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist" (Emerson); "The trouble with the rat race is that even if you win, you're still a rat" (Lily Tomlin); "If you are going to let the fear of poverty govern your life...your reward will be that you will eat but you will not live" (George Bernard Shaw); "My employer uses twenty six years of my life for every year I get to keep. And what do I get in return...for my life?" (Michael Ventura).

If these quotes resonate with you, I think chances are good the book will resonate with you. If you think they're nonsense then you might not want to read this one. You might prefer something like Po Bronson's "What Should I Do With My Life?" - which I personally found depressing - but I think it might appeal to the "realists" (note: it's title is deceiving. It's not a book about how to figure out what to do with your life - rather, it's an abbreviated chronicle of other people's lives who've struggled with this question - many of whom continue the struggle).

This book kind of reminded me of the "The Wealthy Barber" book of a few years back. Both books cover a topic where there are more theories and approaches than you can shake a stick at. And many authors propose ideas that promise quick and easy solutions that ultimately disappoint. But like "The Wealthy Barber", "How to Find the Work You Love" avoids this temptation. Neither book has any earth-shattering, eye-popping theories that will cause one to wonder how such ideas managed to remain a secret to the rest of us until now. Both rely on basic, straightforward advice, that, if followed, will likely help the reader achieve his goal.

It is a collection of ideas, suggestions and examples designed to help people with a very common, but important, question. Yes, there are a lot of quotes in this book,as other reviewers point out. But I thought they were thoughtful and apt.

Anyway, I think it was well worth the $. In a field where a lot of resources promise a lot and deliver little, I felt this book offered something realistic and delivered.