Sunday, October 14, 2012

October Read/2


Title: Who Are You? What Do You Want?: Four Questions That Will Change Your Life
Author: Ukleja, Mick; Lorber, Robert
Subjects: Success
Call Number: 646.7 U34W 2009
Number of Pages: 162
ISBN: 9780399535437
Book Description: The authors state: Although self-awareness and achieving your goals are important, we are convinced that the experiences you have and the relationships that you build, in both your personal and professional lives, are what really make life worth living. The four questions will help you explore all of these facets of your life. The four questions that will change you life are:
Who are you and what do you want?
Where are you and why are you there?
What will you do and how will you do it?
Who are your allies and how can they help?
The questions provoke reflection-reflection that draws out your unique talents and passions, reveals how to align them with your obligations, and leads you to answers that help you create a roadmap to the best of your life (inside the book jacket).
Reading this book will help you to assess your strengths, passions, and obligations in depth. A person may not control her/his strengths and passions; they can be developed.
At the end of the book the authors encourage the reader to take a 48-hour personal retreat to ponder over the four questions and do reflection exercises by listing question related to a person’s growth, happiness, and successes.
My Read: The night I got the book from my library through request service I briefly assessed the book from touching the orange question mark on the cover, looking at the subtitle, and then turning the cover to read the list under the content table. After repeating the four questions in my head I took a shower, turned off the light, and went to bed. That first night I asked myself those four questions before even reading the book. Answers came and danced with pictures or views like a swarm of active fireflies flying around in my head. The only questions I reserved my answers are what will you do and how will you do it.
            Since I started my career at my late 40’s one could imagine how occupied my mind would be on work and things work-related. I know who I am and to serve the public is what I want. The public library is an ideal place fitting perfectly for a person like me who cherish and appreciate altruism. My colleagues are my allies who mentor and mutual support me; they are mirrors and reflections of who I am and why I am in the library. As for the third question I have vague ideas and expectations depending upon factors as organization climate, self-growth, ability of goal achievements, etc. This is the field that will motivate me, inspire me, and drive me to walk out of my comfort zone into lands full of challenges, obstacles, and promises of great self-growth. What I would have done today would lead me to a tomorrow packed of fear, joy, disappointment, satisfaction, failure, and successes. Balance between negative forces and positive fulfillment is an important index for me to self assessment and performance reviews.
            Do you ever wonder why your shoulders are always heavy as you wake up in the morning and force yourself to get out to work? Do you ever think why the workplace is full of routines and there is nothing new for you to look forward to as the day begins? Or do you feel stuck at where you are? Why happiness is far to reach? This book is for you if you have the above questions or have any thought about your life and the stage of where you are.
This book helps me to reflect and ponder over what life could be understood better and how I could use the rest of my life to aspire higher, create more values for other people and to touch more people’s lives by serving the public.
Questions are good leads that allow a person to make over, rejuvenate, amend, and invite sense of happiness to reside permanently. For instance, being ambitious is risky; at one hand it piques a person’s determination and will to success, success of owning power, exercising authority, or holding wealth and status, on the other hand ambition without a caring heart for others or preservation of humanity would blind a person causing her/him to path of destruction and failure: fail to be a decent human being.
Success is not the same as happiness; success could be sought and measured, happiness comes when desires seem non existent and one is satisfied with what s/he possesses.
Read the book and find time to ponder over those four questions. The book might be right that those four questions will change your life.

Possible Read:
The Five Temptations of a CEO and the Five Dysfunctions of a Team—Patrick Lencioni
Connecting: The Mentoring Relationships You Need to Succeed in Life—J. Robert Clinton and Paul D. Stanley

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