I have read a LOT of career guidebooks. Heck. I’ve even written one myself!
The trouble with books like “How to be, do, or have anything you want” or “What color is your parachute” is that they make certain assumptions about you.
Namely, that you know what you’re going for.
But what if you need help figuring out your direction?
What if you need advice on how to connect to the right people?
Why is this book relevant to you?
Pam Slim used to be one of us! I didn’t know that Pam Slim used to be an executive director of a nonprofit, the Omulu Capoeira Group! She was a fundraiser, like us! Then she was a program assistant for the Marin Community Foundation before jumping into corporate America. So she knows about how hard it can be to find what you truly love to do.
Where did this book come from?
From blog posts, originally, but it is so much more than that. When Pam Slim first came out with her blog post about your root, it COMPELLED me to write this post in response.
I wrote:
When you are cut off from your root, it looks like this:
“If you are trying to get your motivation just from the need to survive financially, you will feel emotionally anemic.”
I can’t tell you how much I relate to this. Maybe YOU relate to this too?
Have you ever done a job just for the money?
How did it feel inside?
Was it the job, or was it you?
I found her post both meaningful and powerful. When responding to her post, I took it to the place of “how do you find your place in the world?” and “how do you keep making meaning when life seems bleak?”
This book takes that concept of finding your root, expands it, deepens it, and helps you make it real.
The day I got it in the mail, I sat down and read it all in one sitting.
Why does a bo
dy of work matter?
Did you know that Google is hiring people based on their bodies of work, rather than their GPA, SAT or where they went to college, and it works a lot better at predicting performance than any of those things?
It really spoke to me because I do believe in creating a legacy, in leaving a body of work behind, and I had just made a whole post about my body of work for 2013. You can see it here.
You see, in this book, for anyone who has ever struggled to figure out what they are here FOR, you’ll get an actual template of how to start figuring this out.
Some highlights of this book:
How do you reframe when bad things happen to you? She talks about viewing adversity as a means to get things done.
Here is one of the checklists from Body of Work that I really liked.
This experience is:
- Preparing me to do great work
- Preparing me to be a smarter, kinder, or more compassionate person.
- Teaching me exactly what I need to know so I can create better, more effective work.
- Reminding me of what my true, natural strengths are and aren’t.
- Pushing me to make an urgent decision about something critical to my well-being
- Teaching me what I need to get help with, outsource or stop doing.
- Teaching me to have more patience.
- Fulfilling my destiny.
Here’s the body of work success framework that the book shows you how to move through, step by step:
- Your root
- Your ingredients
- Your handling of fear or doubt
- Your work mode
- Your creation
- Your quality of life
- Your relationships and collaborations
- Your emotional and physical well-being
So, should you read this book? Is it hot or not?
It is definitely hot. You should read it.
If you like this post, check out my interview with Pam Slim!
Please leave a comment below to have a chance to win this book!
I would appreciate receiving a copy to help me in my fundraising work for the Salvation Army – Suicide Prevention Bereavement Support Service and my work with Postvention Australia – National Association for the Bereaved by Suicide
Would love to win this book to improve my fundraising skills!
I feel like I should carry an infographic rather than a resume! I need to figure out how to weave together the cloth that is my career so it reveals my passion instead of communicating, “I do what I want when I want.” This sounds like the perfect approach to help me make sense of my life’s work so others can feel my passion!
As a young professional committed to raising funds to support socially just causes I hope I can get my hands on this book. What better way to learn and grow than from the experts?!
I look forward to discovering more ways to engage our donors and cutlitvate more of them.
Would love the opportunity to win this book and find out more about the importance of creating a body of work.
This is intriguing to me and I would love to win a copy of this book to learn more. Thanks for the opportunity!
I would love to develop better ways to reward our donors who support us throughout the year and not just in response to an ask.
I think I would really enjoy reading this full book. I would love to find my true direction and this book might be able to help me find that!
Nice! I enjoy all the Mazarine email…keep ’em coming!
I think I need to read this book: everything on the sample checklist from Body of Work connects to what I’m trying to do and figure out in 2014–whether I win the book or not, I believe I need to read it.
This book appears to be speaking to me, as I figure out and attempt to DO what I need to do in 2014. Whether I win it or not, I think I’ll be reading it.
I recently took a webinar on this very topic which is relevant to me at this time in my life and also appears to others as well. It is gratifying to see that so many people are viewing their work as a passion and a reason for being, rather than just for the money.
Body of Work looks like everything that’s missing in the dry, black & white, clinical, cookbook style guidebooks. A welcome paradigm shift for sure. I can’t wait to sink my teeth into it!
I used to be all about the “best practices” before 6 ways to [fill in the blank] jaded me. Making lists doesn’t thrill me any more. Instead, I like to discover things, including things about myself. Then it’s about appreciating what’s inside, going deeper and becoming more fulfilled. We already know everything. It’s just that we forget!
I’ve heard great things about Pamela, her new book sounds awesome!
Thank you for all these excellent materials and books and resources!
As a recent college graduate who has already been working in (what I think is…) my chosen field – non-profit Marketing – for several years, I find myself continuously evaluating my skills, experience, interests and strengths to make sure whatever decisions I’m making in my career (where to work, if and when to advance and how quickly, whether to take on a more specialized role, etc.) and I feel like Pamela Slim’s book can help me ask or answer all of the pertinent questions to really begin to understand myself as a young professional and what my role/intentions/goals are moving forward.
One of the challenges I face as a creative/skilled/experienced Marketing Coordinator is looking younger than my age (30 years old) and being perceived/treated as such – especially when joining teams or organizations that have senior managers 20-30 years older than me. You have to navigate the balance between being perceived as the “new kid on the block” but still position yourself as a professional. Unfortunately, in too many cases – experience and seniority trump fresh, new ideas. I think being more clear and intentional about my role and purpose could help, which seems like the kind of information this book can provide.
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Thanks,
-Andrea
(andrea sent this in via email)