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Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Take Away at Least One Nugget . . .

Take away at least one nugget, one good idea, from each book you read, each seminar you attend, each audio you listen to.  I initially heard that from a Tony Robbins tape or book.  Whoever said it first, or thereafter, were all wise folks.

Take one nugget.  I like that.  The distillation of it.  Works well in today’s electronic culture.  Also blends in nicely with my hectic schedule, and the mountains of facts already lodged in my brain.

I am a voracious reader, reading 150 to 365 books a year, a healthy mix of fiction and nonfiction.  However, having too much information can be just as bad as too little, as any good suspense movie or detective series will prove by responding to a subpoena for documents with truckloads of bankers storage boxes.

So it is with knowledge.

I like to reread my books, sometimes every word from beginning to end.  Other times, just the underlined and/or highlighted portions.  My personalized version of CliffsNotes.  I have begun adding a date to the front page to show when I read each book last.  In some cases, with paperback novels, I’ve just dated them upon receipt and left a blank for when I actually read it.  That way I know which ones I have not yet read.

Therefore, from time to time on this blog, I will share my insights from books I have read and enjoyed and garnered a gem or fifteen worth sharing.  Today it is from John Assaraf’s book entitled The Street Kid’s Guide to Having it All.

Of course, the title says it.  Having it all.  I think we do want it all.  Life shouldn’t be about either/or, not in the context of:  you can have a successful career or a successful marriage, but not both.  No.  Sorry.  I don’t buy into that.  Now, I do understand that a man with a career that ensures he will be traveling 360 days a year who is married to a stay-at-home mother of two or more children--and who wants a 24/7/365 two-way relationship--is doomed in one area or the other, or both.

I think the either/or part comes in when we choose, “Yes, I want more time with my spouse, and therefore, I need another career.”  That first decision DOES NOT MEAN that we choose any old job to bring home a few dollars.  Don’t sell your soul for the bottom line.  There are tons of jobs that offer much more valuable commodities than paper money.  Freedom.  Creativity.  Independence.  Or if you are not inclined to be an author, you may prefer these three:  Interaction.  Industry.  Intercontinental. 

This either/or topic reminds me of that designing show on the home and garden channel where a married couple had disparate styles, something like a cowboy bunkhouse décor at odds with Manhattan chic, yet somehow, someway, this designer melded the two seemingly opposing sets of decorating sense where both parties loved the final outcome.  Amazing.

Well, that’s what you need to do with the supposed “either/or” circumstances in your life.  Look them over really hard and see where you can keep both.  Again, this is not meant in the line of thinking, “Should I give up my mistress or my wife?  Naw, I can have both!”  No.  Again I say No.  I could name names here, straight from the news, but I will restrain myself. 

This is meant to stir up your creative genes to get you thinking how you can do your current job yet stay home.  Video conferencing.  Virtual book signings.  Vlogs.  Or maybe you just find another niche in the current company where you feel even more useful and satisfied than doing that traveling gig.

My blogs tend to be more than one page and I cannot seem to write shorter, being more inclined to longer verbose documents.  So, I’ll stop here.  More on Assaraf’s Having it All in a later blog.  Or maybe a couple.

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