There’s a part of me that can’t believe I’ve been writing this blog for over three years and have only mentioned this book once. My relationship with Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life began way before that. Yes, it’s categorized as a book on writing and there is a lot of solid information on the process (and perils) of the writing life.

HOWEVER (in ALL CAPS!), there is a lot here that is applicable to other artistic pursuits, to business, and to life, most importantly the lesson contained in the title. Chapters such as “Shitty First Drafts,” ”False Starts,” and “Radio KFKD” are also easily applied to the non-writing life and will give great comfort whenever you embark on, slog through, and try to wrap up any project.

Also of note is Anne Lamott’s dry wit, which makes all of the wisdom go down easily and since she displays the basest, least attractive qualities and impulses a person can have, she makes you feel better about your lesser self.

All this in 240 pages. Order your copy today!

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Let me start out by saying The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles by Steven Pressfield is not just for artists. It’s for anyone who is struggling to accomplish a big (or not-so-big) goal. The back of the book describes it as being for anyone who dreams of writing the Great American Novel, regrets not finishing their paintings, poems, or screenplays, wants to start a business or charity, or start dieting and exercising today, or hopes to run a marathon some day. I don’t think that’s just marketing hyperbole. It can be applied that broadly to your circumstances.

The book is broken down into three sections, “Resistance: Defining the Enemy,” “Combating Resistance: Turning Pro,” and “Beyond Resistance: Higher Realm.” These sections are comprised of short (sometimes just a paragraph) explorations of topics such as “Resistance Is Most Powerful at the Finish Line” and “A Professional Doesn’t Hesitate to Ask for Help.”

“The War of Art” is a bit redundant, which I think is somewhat deliberate. Author Steven Pressfield is trying to combat an element which has firmly engrained itself in most of us from a young age. It shows itself in many ways (perfectionism, cynicism, procrastination, etc.) but it is probably there in you, too. If you doubt it, think about any of the goals you have had for a long time but never seem to have gotten moving on achieving, or projects which have stalled midway through – or even just when you are about to complete them. If this rings a loud bell for you, get thee to a bookstore, online or otherwise, and grab a copy. This book could literally change your life.

I admit that I have overcome a lot of resistance on an ongoing basis in order to get things done. (My writing to-do list is always long. The business tasks pile up, too.) But I am always seeking more ways to cut through my personal resistance techniques (web surfing, anyone?) in order to get more accomplished in a shorter period of time. And though this book doesn’t say anything particularly new about the topic of resistance, I found it inspiring enough and got enough tips out of it to be glad to have read it and to put it on the shelf next to my other favorites, like “Do One Thing Different,” for the next time I am struggling and need help.

Have you read it? If so, did it help you? Please share in the comments.

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If you watch “Survivor” (which I do) or “Big Brother” (which I don’t) or any other “social game” reality contest (where you are competing largely based on your standing among your peers, not some specific skill you have or task you are given), you know that it’s important to position yourself correctly in a group of people (in both these cases, if you wanna win a million bucks, but in a non-game show sense, if you want to be successful in your career). 

I couldn’t help but think about “Survivor” while I was reading Seth Godin’s last two books. Seth Godin is a marketing guru known for his blog, his bald head (it’s not our fault- he refers to it a lot), and his series of highly-readable and informative books. [Full disclosure: I am a fan with probably 10 Godin titles on my shelves.] 

“Tribes,” which came out in 2008, is a no-brainer to bring to mind a show which uses the tribal breakdown as a social grouping. At 142 pages and halfway to being pocket-sized, it was a quick and easy read. It had lots of great anecdotes which held together nicely, like a series of really good Seth Godin blog posts which had a natural progression and added up to a solid but simple message: Choose to become a leader of a tribe of like-minded people grouped around your specific passion, point-of-view, or mission in life. 

“Linchpin,” which came out recently, is a standard-sized book and it’s 235 pages. Its premise is that you need to be the indispensable key person, the natural leader and human connector who innovates even when it means going against the grain, in any work situation in order to have job security and a meaningful life. A good, solid concept, but sadly, the book does not have the same amount and quality of compelling true-life stories to illustrate it and also does not have the natural progression. 

“Linchpin” is pretty much “Tribes” taken to the next level. And had this been a “Tribes”-sized (and quality) tome, it would’ve been an excellent companion piece next to it on my bookshelf. Unfortunately, “Linchpin” reads like Godin is getting paid by the word, or like he’s so in love with his own voice (or his publishers are), he didn’t get a talented editor with a backbone to pass his book through multiple rounds of revisions. The first 100 pages should’ve been 20. The next 130 pages could’ve easily been 50. 

My other theory is that Godin took so seriously the “call to ship” he expounds about at length in “Linchpin” (meaning finishing creative projects and products on deadline no-matter-what and getting them out the door to the customer) that he didn’t get a chance to properly develop and hone the ideas contained in the book, to make sure he had the right stories to bring his concepts to life, and to edit, edit, edit.* 

It’s a shame, whatever the reason, that this one came out undercooked. Godin’s work is usually amusing, inspiring, and sometimes mind-blowing. This one was a laborious process to get through. 

As for “Survivor,” recently one of the tribes in “Survivor: All Stars” chose to get rid of a “positive” player and keep a “negative” one (in this case, a choice between the tribe’s two leaders, linchpins in every sense of Godin’s definition) and the other tribe kept the “positive” person and got rid of the “negative” one. 

And had I written this post a couple weeks ago, it would’ve been about how the tribe who kept the negative person, a natural leader but a destructive force, is screwed and the one who kept the positive person, a good guy who had upped his game since the negative player had left, was going to dominate. But this being a TV show contest, things got complicated by an immunity idol and it looks like the “good guy” team has screwed themselves by making a serious tactical error. 

But in “Survivor” as in life, tribes only take you so far before you have to stand for yourself. In other words, the game changes again when there is a merge. I for one will stay tuned to “Survivor,” and pick up “Tribes” again for a reminder of why I like Seth Godin’s writing so much and hope he takes another pass at “Linchpin” and makes it as strong a call-to-action as “Tribes.”

 *For those of your regular readers who remember last week’s post about my blown deadline and regrouping on my eBook project, you probably won’t be surprised to learn that reading “Linchpin” was one of my inspirations to chart a steadier, more deliberate course when I felt the end product was going to suffer in my rush to ship. (Thank you, Seth, for that.) More on my plan and progress on that project as the weeks progress.

[NOTE: The bookcover photo and the product links are affiliate links, which means if you go to Amazon through clicking on them and buy either the featured products or most other things, the brains being the MYF operation gets a few cents. Thanks in advance!]

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Marcus Buckingham is a researcher who has turned identifying and harnessing your strengths and those of others (and, conversely, working around- rather than trying to eliminate or transform- weaknesses) into a series of bestselling self-help books (as well as speaking engagements, coaching programs, Oprah appearances, and, no doubt, eventually a television show).

I’ll admit I hadn’t read any of Buckingham’s previous work, even though several people had recommended his books to me. To me, they sounded too dry. But when an entrepreneurs group I’m a member of chose Find Your Strongest Life: What the Happiest and Most Successful Women Do Differently as a book club selection, I decided to give it a read.

It’s going to sound odd to say, but I didn’t think I liked the book until I was at lunch with a friend, a stay-at-home mom who was lamenting how to get back into the work force now that her child is a teenager, and found myself recommending that she buy it.

A lot of women are dissatisfied with their lives. Stress they don’t understand, emptiness, feeling powerless or worse- worthless. Buckingham’s book starts with a very detailed breakdown of the factors affecting today’s women and how those factors contribute to overall unhappiness or depression. As I was reading the book, I found myself getting impatient with this long-winded and sometimes redundant analysis (“I get it! Get to the solution already!”), but women like my friend would most likely find this information, however excessive I found it, comforting and enlightening.

Many of the stay-at-home moms I know, both personally and as clients, once their children are in school, tend to be unhappier and struggle more with self-esteem than the working moms who are frantically trying to keep their busy lives running smoothly, but who get validation from their roles in the outer world. Buckingham addresses this and explains it in a way that I hope will provide reassurance to the moms. (Hint: It’s not you.)

Okay, so what about the solution? What do the happiest and most successful women do differently? Buckingham’s guidance is deceptively simple, and something I have done, either instinctively or by default, for many years (because there are only so many hours in a day- you have to make choices). He says that instead of aiming for balance, women should aim for imbalance in all areas of their lives, toward those times where they feel strongest. And if they don’t have strong moments in a particular area, they should elimnate that area as much as they are able.

Buckingham supports and demonstrates his theories with stories from his own life and by depicting two women he has worked with and the contrasts between them. I’ll give you a couple of examples from my own life. One of the things I love doing most in my corporate job (in which I have many roles) is hiring. I love to review resumes and then to interview the candidates. The people I enjoy talking to most are often the ones who aren’t right for the job I am filling. If they are open to it, I can tell them how to improve their resumes and better target a job they would be right for.

Realizing this strength (and how much satisfaction it gives me to use it) and knowing the hiring component of my job wasn’t going to get any larger, a few years ago I began rewriting resumes and providing career consulting professionally. Though I still get those strong moments in my job, more often it is through working independently with clients that I garner that type of satisfaction. (Luckily, other areas of the job provide different types of strong moments or I would be forced to consider leaving it.)

After lunch with my friend, we went to the bookstore and she bought Find Your Stongest Life. She liked that it was somewhat automatic, not a complicated process, to align her life with her strengths, and I think there’s a lot to say for that. If you are feeling unsatisfied with your life, and can absorb the process that Buckingham outlines in his book and ingrain it into your decision-making as you go through life, you will, no doubt, feel happier and likely be more successful, too. If you already feel pretty empowered and usually live your life focussing on your strong moments, you can definitely skip this book.

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I’m hauling out the clock photo again. I know I used it recently, but it’s appropriate. I also used a pun in the title. I would apologize- I’m not a fan of puns as a rule- but in this case, I kind of like it and I’m not really sorry. In fact, I’m fighting the urge to add a exclamation point to the end of the title. (Oops! I lost!)

Here’s the deal: Everyone I know spends a lot of time lamenting about their lack of time and trying to squeeze the most of it out of every single day. Maybe it’s because I spend a lot of time around entrepreneurs with multiple endeavors and full lives outside their work, many of those lives including small children, but man-o-man does it come up a lot.

As the regular readers know, I have a corporate job, two blogs (YourIndustryInsider.com & this one), a professional writing and career consulting business, and a family which includes a two-and-a-half year-old and an extremely charming and handsome husband who may be a regular reader of this blog (happy V-day, honey!). Oh, and I have a large circle of beloved friends and a rich inner life as well. So the time thing is big for me. 

If you read Six Steps to Sanity for the Time-Deprived, you know I have developed a lot of tricks and tips (and mental games) that help me get everything done. It’s a constant issue and not something I am always successful at, but I usually manage to keep up with the top priorities.

It seems inevitable now. I have been hired to help a busy entrepreneur get a grip on the time thing.  The new client is someone I know through a women’s business group we were both members of a while back. She had read something I wrote which mentioned the above list of elements in my life, and a few others which I was dealing with last year. She was impressed, she told me, and I was flattered.

She wanted to know how I did it. I gave her some ideas (and sent her the “Six Steps” blog post), but she wanted more help. She mentioned that she figured I didn’t have time to coach her (one-on-one career consulting is not something I do that often now- you know, usually I don’t have enough time), so she wanted to see if I could refer her to someone and I did, but I also thought about how I would do it.

And I realized all of the mental processes I use to prioritize my goals and manage my time could be easily taught to someone else. In fact, the idea of helping her accomplish the cool things she is trying to do- and also get some measure of peace in her life, seemed so gratifying that I agreed to do it.

Of course, I’ll let you know how it goes. And there will be more posts about time management. And I may just use the clock photo again. And exclamation points, too!

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I’ve had several conversations lately with people- particularly women- who were making decisions and said they would just “go with their gut” or that they “really felt” that something was a certain way.

In some circumstances, going with your gut is reasonable, such as deciding whether to go on a date with someone or whether to sit in a particular area of a waiting room. You get a sense of people when you first meet them. If you walk into a room, often you can feel tension if there is a conflict going on. But in those circumstances, what’s mostly happening is that you are picking up on non-verbal cues- is someone clenching their jaw when they smile, looking around you, rolling their eyes at the other person in the room?

With a big decision, one that cannot be made by relying solely on measurables like non-verbal cues, you need to be more methodical, more logical. For instance, if you have a medical issue, you can like the doctor, but is what she is telling you in line with the other research you have done and other advice you have been given? If not, you should get another opinion. The same kind of objective analysis must go in to deciding whether to take a particular job.

That is why I was particularly happy to see a new free e-book offering from The Workplace Review, a site which provides reviews of different companies posted by people who have worked there and other resources to use when deciding where to work. The Workplace Detective’s Guidebook provides users with a comprehensive workbook for assessing a job opportunity which can take the guess-work (aka the gut-work) out of the process. Topics covered include Work Environment & Culture, Employees & Managers, and Benefits & Perks. You can also use this book to determine where your dissatisfaction lies in your current position and point you in the direction of a better opportunity, one where you will find more personal happiness and professional fulfilment.

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