And as I started The Art of Work, I wasn't too highly impressed. Lots of folks I see struggle with their life's work. They struggle with the gap between what really interests us -- where our passions lie, and how we earn a paycheck. In many instances, we work to pay the bills so that we can pursue our true interest. Others know their current career path is not their passion, but cannot pinpoint where their true passion lies. Are we living to work or working to live? Are we spending our work hours doing something that fulfills us? Are working at a career that is exactly what we were created to do, or have we pushed our dreams aside to face the reality of a 9 to 5?
Those are the questions I expected Goins to address. These are the same questions countless other books on a life's vocation deal with. So, again, my expectations weren't high, and Goins was still meeting those expectations. It wasn't a book that made me go "Wow!", but it was a nice book all the same.
Until, that is, Goins took the next step.
Our passion -- as so many of us know -- isn't enough; it must also intersect with the needs of the world around us for us to begin living for a larger purpose. I have read many books about pursuing your passion, but many leave us there -- precisely where I thought Goins would end. But in The Art of Work, Goins provides the reader with practical exercises to allow the reader to figure out where there passion lies and how to start moving in the right direction to make a pivot and begin living for a larger purpose. It's those exercises, in the appendix, that left me most excited about this book.
If you're one of those who simply works to pay the bills and can't see a greater good produced by their career, this is the book for you. Pay particular attention to those exercises at the end of the book!
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