I Could Do Anything If Only I Knew What It Was: How to Discover What You Really Want and How to Get It

I am beyond thankful for this book. As someone perpetually searching for my "dream" job, I find that what is lacking in other career books is how to find what you truly want to do. Most books suggest looking at what you loved a child, or what you like to do in your spare time. My problem with these books is that I am so burnt out and negative about my career that I can't think of anything exciting that I would rather be doing. This book helped tremendously.Barbara spends the first three chapters of this book explaining that we all have passion inside us somewhere, but many of us have built up resistance to finding what we are passionate about. She provides several exercises to identify and let go of this resistance. I found the exercises helpful and meaningful, unlike the exercises in some other self-help books. I will warn that most of her psychological theories rely on events that happen in childhood, and I know that many people are very resistant to these theories.The remaining chapters of the book are targeted to specific groups of career seekers. There is a chapter for those who are interested in so many things that they can't pick just one, a chapter for those who are so successful that they find it hard to leave their current job, a chapter for those who have seen a dream slip away, a chapter for those who can't find anything interesting (that's me!), etc. The exercises in these specific chapters are the ones I found to be the most helpful. Barbara provides exercises that can be implemented immediately and are tangible. In other books, I found myself meditating about ideas in my head, but never executing anything. It is the complete opposite in this book - all of the exercises have tangible outputs, either written work or tasks to be completed in the near future.Highly recommended for those trying to find their "dream" job - or just a job they don't hate!

I love this book. I'm not even entirely finished yet, but already it's been worth much more than I paid for it, and is more than rewarding my time.It's well-organized, and clearly expressed. There's no wasted verbiage -- everything is direct and to the point, and seems to be speaking right to me. It's like meeting a favorite aunt for coffee -- just a little older and wiser, one whose compassion and clear insight you trust and love, and listening to her cut right through all the nonsense and help you get to the heart of your difficulties.I love her way of taking something that looks large and impossible to overcome, and reducing it, in a few pithy words, down to a more reasonable and manageable size. For instance, she says we don't have fear of failure -- if we did, we wouldn't do it so often. People avoid the things they're afraid of! We have fear of success. And then she looks into all the likely suspects for why we have this fear, and suggests tasks that help me deal with it. I love that she doesn't want the readers to deny their daemons or run from them -- she wants us to call them forth, face them, and vanquish them.I love that the book feels action-packed. Everything is simply stated, conversationally, and I love that she's right there with the reader -- not looking down on us poor mortal fools, but admitting she's one herself, and learned her methods by dealing with these things in herself. And knowing that the clients she alludes to in each chapter have gone through similar things, goes a long way to making me not feel like the dunce of the class.I got a free copy of Wishcraft, years ago, and I never read it. Boy, am I kicking myself now!If the book sounds appealing or applicable to you -- if it's calling your name -- I heartily recommend that you read it.

I got this book along with a few other "find yourself" type books, and this one was head and shoulders above the rest (with one notable exception that I will get to later).First, the book contains immediate, actionable advice such as: get into action to get lucky. (translation: don't sit on your butt if you don't know what to do: just do something!) And the vast majority of this advice is spot on and wise.Secondly, the book has chapters that categorize different issues that individuals find themselves in which could stop them from pursuing what they want and desire. For example, the chapter entitled: I Want Something I Shouldn't Want was very relevant to me and helped me to clarify some of the issues I had with pursuing certain types of work. Again, the vast majority of the content here is very insightful and well written.However, there is one aspect of the book that I don't entirely agree with, and that has to do with Sher tracing almost all of the issues she raises in the book back to some childhood trauma or hurt.Sure, undoubtedly our childhoods have influenced who we are today - for better or for worse. And I agree with Sher that examining the past may be very beneficial for most. However, I do think she takes it a bit far in some instances. For example, in the Rage Against the Ordinary chapter, she effectively argues that a certain individual named Patrick was the way he was (unwilling to take certain lower-level jobs, bitter and manipulative) because he observed his dad being screwed over as a kid.This, to me, is a bit simplistic - I'm sure that certain episodes in our lives stand out in our memories, or have stronger sway over our subconscious than others. But that does not mean that there aren't other factors which are just as, if not more important.And this is my only real criticism of the book - in order to solve our issues of the present, we can look to the past for clues and problems to resolve, but we also need to step forward into an inherently uncertain future to continually develop and grow ourselves.Get a copy if you feel something is holding you back and you aren't sure what...it's a great book.

I wish I had read this book many years ago.Lots of amazing exercises and also love the anecdotes. The stories made them quite real and helpful.

Era justo el libro que necesitaba leer en éstos momentos, me ha hecho reflexionar mucho y me he podido dar cuenta de muchos aspectos de mi personalidad que, se puede decir, desconocía.

Must read for everyone, regardless whether you think you know what you want to do with your life or not! The exercises are fantastic and you really learn stuff about yourself you didn't know and what's more how to overcome your personal "hang-ups". Written in a friendly and accessible style, no nonsense, nothing new-agey like "law of attraction", sound psychology of common sense, not one bit patronising, a pleasure to read, re-read and work through, though I recommend you do the exercises where they occur, as reading on can set you up with a bias because you will know what the exercise is leading to and you get better results when you don't.

Un bouquin extraordinaire qui a vraiment été une révélation pour moi.Au moment ou je l'ai acheté, j'étais vraiment très mal (niveau vie professionnel principalement et cela se répercutait sur tous les autres aspects de mon existence).Le simple fait de pouvoir lire que l'on est pas le ou la "seul(e)" dans ce genre de situation est déjà un bon point. Mais la suite du livre propose une série de sujet permettant d'approfondir le sujet et surtout propose des solutions et des astuces pour se trouver. Tout n'est pas forcément bon a prendre pour soi et il faut voir au cas par cas. Après tout, nous sommes tous différents.Mais dans l'ensemble, quatre ans après avoir dévoré ce livre, je peux vous dire qu'il à participer de manière très positive à mon cheminement et m'a aider grandement a mettre en actions certains changements plutôt radicaux (ne serait-ce qu'en termes de courage).Au final je suis plus heureux qu'avant et c'est le principal ^_^Un livre ça ne coute pas bien cher et cela peut avoir un tel impact... Si le contenu vous parle, et que vous sentez que cela pourrait vous être utile et vous aidez, alors foncez!>>> Si mon commentaire vous a été utile, n'hésitez pas à le dire en cliquant où il faut ;-) <<<PS: J'ai lu deux autres livres du même auteur en parallèle et qui peuvent completer celui-ci:Wishcraft: How to Get What You Really WantetRefuse to Choose!: A Revolutionary Program for Doing Everything That You Love

Um einiges besser als klassische Berufsratgeber. Barbara Sher gibt einem das Gefühl, verstanden zu werden und nicht allein zu sein. Die Tipps sind abwechslungsreich und gehen über das "Schreibe eine Liste mit deinen Stärken" hinaus. Die Ideen sind toll und neu und funktionieren. Wer auf der Suche nach seiner Bestimmung ist, sollte aber zuerst ihr Buch Live the Life ou Love lesen, da es in der Hinsicht sogar noch besser ist.