48 Days to the Work You Love, Trade Cloth

Did you know heart attacks increase by 33% on Monday mornings, more people die at 9am Monday than any other time of the week, and male suicides are highest on Sunday nights, just before the weekly grind? Dan Miller does, and impending death is just one of the reasons he wants you to find better work. Dan Miller's 48 Days to the Work You Love provides a combination of the things you already know but need to hear again, and need to know but don't. This book will do more than help you strengthen old resolutions; it will teach you how to make meaningful changes in your career--and in the way you view work altogether. First, Quit your Job 48 Days persuades the reader to leave the job that isn't working (no pun intended), and find something better. "Job Security" is no longer an excuse to stay where you are over-worked and underpaid. While in the early 80s the employment philosophy was work for a good company and they'll take care of you for life, today loyal workers are often (not fired but) "laid off", "downsized", "right-sized", "reorganized", reengineered", "put into the mobility pool", freed up to "pursue other opportunities", "uninstalled", and are often on the receiving end of "a cost containment exercise" (email other creative terms to Miller at [email protected]). Why the change? Fifty years ago it took a lifetime for technology to make your job obsolete. Today it takes 4 or 5 years. Therefore, as Miller explains, "everyone lives on the edge of job obsolescence and the threshold of career opportunity" Miller is so for you quitting your job that he writes, "You must develop a sense of what you can contribute that goes beyond 1 company or organization. A career path today will likely involve moving from organization to organization, creating a picture of rising circles, rather than a vertical ladder. In fact, a vertical rise within one organization will very likely move you away from your strongest areas of competence." And it will limit your earning potential, as Miller suggests "in changing companies you may be able to increase your income by 40 to 50 percent though that is unlikely to happen while moving up in one company." 48? I have to address this, as you surely are wondering, why does finding the work you love take exactly "48 Days"? Miller explains that 40 days is a sacred time-span, and to this he adds eight "free days in the process to create your own plan". I can't decide whether this is blasphemous or just really hokey--to Christianize your book with an overused `sacred' numeric, and then casually change it. Still, it's certainly better than other possible titles: Every Worker's Battle, The Work Factor, Loving your Work too Much, and Work is Not that into You Either. Despite the title, the book reads and flows well. It takes the lecture, vignette, lecture, vignette, lecture, vignette approach--which works--and most of the stories are really quite good. A few are perfectly cliché, of course. For those who haven't heard, i

Dan Miller blows the lid of the traditional concept that work must be painfull and unfullfilling. This book is like a breath of fresh air in our TGIF mindset. Discover your skills, talents, natural bent, and build your work on that, you can't fail. Not to mention, Mondays don't matter when your doing what you love. Dan Miller causes the reader to begin their Vocation Search inwardlly. It's not a system designed to teach you how to manipulate others to give you the big money job that your not designed to do, rather he shows you how to find who you are and what you're made to do, and model you new bussines or vocation search after that. If you hate your job, You are not where you are sopposed to be. It's that simple.

In reading this I was reminded of the old saying, "To thine own self be true." I first thought that this was a book on how to find a new and better job in 48 days. Instead it's a book on self discovery. It's how to find, look at, and understand your own skills, abilities, personality traits, values, dreams, and passions. Once you understand where you are and where you're coming from, you have the basis for making some decisions about where you want to go. Then you can use this knowledge to find a better job, to start a business or whatever. Dan Miller then covers the fundamentals of finding the new job, or the new business. It's an interesting combination of a self-help and business advice.

How wonderful to find a book that gives hope and direction to all of us in the workplace. As Dan Miller says in his book, "The fruits of a fulfilling life - happiness, confidence, enthusiasm, purpose and money - are mainly by products of doing something you enjoy, with excellence, rather than things we seek directly." He also made me understand that I should decide what kind of life I want, then plan my work around it. What wonderful wisdom! If you are feeling like you aren't getting all you want out of your career and life, READ THIS BOOK!

A great book, that blends both common sense and reality together concering finding meaningful work. If you think your work situation is awful, I would suggest this book. I hate to use this common uesed phrase, but it allowed me "think outside the box."