Business of LifeHave no doubt, meaning and purpose is BIG. The extraordinary success of a Purpose-Driven Life by Rick Warren which to date has sold over 20 million copies.
Bill Jensen has a new book out called "What is Your Life's Work". I've been reading excerpts he he's made available on line, and already there are whole paragraphs I want to quote. Normally, I would post this on Legacy Matters, but since this is also about work, here it goes.
From the introduction:
Put simply, this book is about what we learn about ourselves when we teach our loved ones, especially our kids, what matters and about the powerful need we have to leave something behind -what we want to be remembered for.
Bill has spent his career listening to people, collecting stories and studying how we work.
To jump start insightful conversations, he used to ask "What really matters here?" That is until the economy took a nosedive, no one wanted to rock the boat, everyone wanted to keep their job. So he changed the question,
"What is the single most important insight about work that you want to pass on to your kids? Or to anyone you truly care about?"
BAM! The floodgates opened. A happy accident: Changing my question to something much closer to home, "Why do we do what we wouldn't want our kids to do? Which of our mistakes should they not repeat?" unleashed completely new conversations.
Jensen than asked them to put their thoughts on paper: "Write a letter to that loved one. Or keep a journal -a work diary." ..." Something magical happened. They got back more than they gave."....A work diary for others ends up being a tool for self-discovery."
Some astonishing facts:
• 75% of us are disengaged from our jobs
• 75% of all employees are now searching for new employment opportunities
• 83% of us wish we had more of what really matters in life."
You can pre-order the book at Amazon
HT to Curt Rosengren at Occupational Adventure who alerted me to the free downloads.