Books : I Could Do Anything If I Only Knew What It Was: How to Discover What You Really Want and How to Get It

- It Helped Me
This is a great book to listen to when you're at a crossroad in your life and you don't know what to do. No self help book ever really solves one's problems, but they do give one a place to start. The title alone gets you to focus on what you really want. I played this tape over and over again for months, and in combination with a lot of talk therapy and Susan Jeffers' Feel the Fear..., eventually I was able to find out what I want to do with my life. And I'm now on my way to achieving my goals.
I Could Do Anything If I Only Knew What It Was: How to Discover What You Really Want and How to Get It
Feel the Fear . . . and Do It Anyway (r)

Rating:

- Not very helpful
The book begins by suggesting our career indecisiveness stems from childhood, and assumes we were all bombarded with messages from our family/friends as to what we should do in life -- and that all along we've simply been trying to be what others want us to be. That may be true to some degree, but the author seems to adamant that that is the root cause.

The other thing I found off-putting is that that author uses one exercise, early in the book, in which the reader imagines his/her dream job -- your ideal job. Whatever you envision as being the ultimate great job. Well, isn't that why we're reading the book -- because we don't know what our dream jobs are? After that exercise, and one more in which the reader fine-tunes their dream job, the author writes, "Look who just figured out what she wants." It seemed an oversimplification, to say the least.

There was one part I found somewhat helpful, and that was the section about "meaningful work" -- making the reader examine his/her idea of what that is.

There may have been a statement here or there that was a good thought point, but overall the author seems to make very bold statements, yet I found myself wondering what her credentials are. I read the first few chapters, skimmed a few others, and decided this book wasn't worth purchasing after all. I think "What Color is Your Parachute," though much more time-consuming to work through, is probably more sensible and helpful.

Rating:

- Problem solved.
I am not a touchy-feely person. I don't buy self-help books. But this book honestly saved me from a lifetime of failing at one career path after another and helped steer me toward a career that I know will be personally fulfilling and FUN. It also helped me to identify the reason why I sabotage my own success every time I try something new. It was kind of rough, but now that I am aware of my self-sabotaging behavior and where it started, I feel like I can finally grow up and do what I was meant to do with my life.

I had tried the "What Color is your Parachute" book and thumbed through books filled with laborious exercises geared toward changing careers based on the skills I already possess. But I hated my skills. They were gained doing jobs I didn't really like very much, wasn't very good at, and didn't want to do again because they weren't what I was meant to do. This book has very simple exercises (if you can call them that - it's just jotting things down, really) that you can do in a short time.

If you feel like you were meant to do something with your life, meant to be really great at something, but you don't know what - read this book. Give it a weekend - that's all you'll need.

Rating:

- I Could Do Anything If I Only Knew What It Is........
I found this book to be an excellent resource for those needing help finding their career path or life's work. Barbara Sher has wisdom to offer all ages and phases of life.

Rating:

- MyBestLifeCoach Applauds this Book
As a life coach, I find that most people really do know what they want in life. There is a subset of folks who truly have no clue; this is an excellent resource for them. I find that most confusion about life goals does come from resistance to declaring, "I want this". Ms. Sher deals with these issues beautifully in her book, and I use many of her ideas in my coaching work with clients. All of Barbara Sher's books are an excellent vehicle for stimulating change, but many people will need a life coach to move through the change process.

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