What if you’re just thinking about a more adventurous life or career, or are still trying to figure out what you want to be when you grow up? If you’re still trying to figure out if adventure is right for you, or what kind of adventure you might like, here are a few resources you might find helpful.
Note that this page contains affiliate links to Amazon.com.
Books
Project Renewment: The First Retirement Model for Career Women
by Bernice Bratter and Helen Dennis
This is a fabulous must-read for any woman who’s trying to figure out who she is, and how she can still get her authentic voice heard in the world, outside of a career job. Written by two psychologists who were facing retirement and realizing they weren’t prepared for the transition, it offers insights on some of the pressing issues career women face, if they’re thinking of leaving their titles and job identities behind: “Who am I without a business card?” “Is Busy Better?” “Back to the Kitchen,” to name just a few.
It also outlines how women can replicate what the authors did to address those issues for themselves: they formed a “renewment” discussion group of like-minded women. More than 15 years later, their group still meets, and that first group has since given rise to many others around the world. Practical advice from women who make any other woman struggling with who she is without her job, or in transition, feel not alone anymore. – LW
What Should I Do with My Life?: The True Story of People Who Answered the Ultimate Question
By Po Bronson
Bronson’s 2002 best-seller is worthwhile reading for anyone struggling with whether, or how, to change their careers. I think it could have done with some more editing, and I’m not sure mixing his own story in with the stories of his 50 subjects works particularly well. My take was that the author gets in the way of his material as often as he illuminates it. But the questions he explores are important, valid, and worth pulling out for further contemplation or application to your own life and career choices. For example: There is such a thing as failure, and not everyone deals with it well, and those who don’t probably shouldn’t be entrepreneurs. And moments of enlightenment, where the right path is shown to you in a flash of clarity and certainty, aren’t the way people typically figure things out. – LW
The 4-Hour Workweek
by Tim Ferris
Serial entrepreneur Tim Ferris coined the term “lifestyle design,” and his book on the subject has become a best-seller. Don’t let the seeming implausability of the title or the book’s focus on literally outsourcing much of your life scare you away. The “DEAL” formula that Ferris lays out (Definition, Elimination, Automation, Liberation) is a blueprint for an unconventional kind of success. Whether you follow the plan or just read about it with an open mind, you’ll walk away with new insights on setting goals, dealing with information overload, managing time, and what it will take for you to create a life run on your own terms. – MS
One Person/Multiple Careers: A New Model for Work/Life Success
by Marci Alboher
If you dread the question “What do you do?” because there’s no simple answer, you’re not alone. Journalist Marci Alboher interviewed hundreds of people pursuing multiple careers simultaneously, and tells all in this book. The book has received rave reviews, so if you too are engaging in “slash careers,” it’s definately worth a look. – MS
Career Renegade: How to Make a Great Living Doing What You Love
by Jonathan Fields
“The single greatest thing that stopped me from doing what I loved,” writes Jonathan Fields, “was the fear that I’d either end up poor or a failure—or both. What a load of life-stifling crap.” Fields is an entrepreneur, marketing consultant, yoga studio owner, and family man. Full of inspiring case studies (including Field’s own), this book can change your life. – MS
Man’s Search for Meaning
by Victor Frankl
Victor Frank’s classic book is a fascinating and moving exploration of why some people survive hard times when others give up and die. Frankl knew from whence he spoke, too—the book came of his time in four different concentration camps during World War II. His parents and wife did not survive. But he did … and came to the conclusion that those who survive best in times of uncertainty or crisis have a strong sense of purpose or meaning in their lives; a reason they need to survive beyond themselves. Indeed, he argues that meaning is the most important treasure we all seek and need in our lives and, if we have it, we can survive just about anything. – LW
Stumbling on Happiness
by Daniel Gilbert
In some ways, this best-selling book is more about why humans have such a hard time being happy, than how they manage to stumble upon happiness unexpectedly. However, its insights as to why we make such mental errors in imagining what will make me happy are essential to know about, so we can make better choices that might actually make us happy in the end. We may be bad at imagining the future, but the good news is, we are capable of figuring out what makes us happy in our current lives, and using that as a guide. – LW
My So-called Freelance Life: How to Survive and Thrive as a Creative Professional for Hire
by Michelle Goodman
Michelle Goodman “fled the cube” in 1992 to become a freelance writer and has yet to look back. In 2006, she put her thoughts about flexible, boss-free, and otherwise nontraditional careers into a book: The Anti 9-to-5 Guide: Practical Career Advice for Women Who Think Outside the Cube. This one is the sequel, and is full of useful, practical tips and advice. – MS
Creating the Work You Love: Courage, Commitment, and Career
by Rick Jarow
If you’re looking for a career strategy that’s more than a reaction to the job market, look no further. Rick Jarow (Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Vassar College) believes that vocation is not just a means of survival—it’s a pure expression of your unique life force. While Jarow’s “right livelihood” approach to finding the work you love may be a bit New Agey for some tastes, his methods grew from the years he spent traveling and studying some of the world’s great spiritual traditions (in which vocation serves as a platform for spiritual and material growth). In addition to Creating the Work You Love, be sure to check out Jarow’s audio program, The Ultimate Anti-Career Guide: The Inner Path to Finding Your Work in the World. – MS
Life 2.0: How People Across America Are Transforming Their Lives by Finding the Where of Their Happiness
by Rich Karlgaard
Karlgaard is a passionate believer in “second acts,” as he calls them. And while he’s lived in Silicon Valley virtually all of his adult life, he was raised in North Dakota, which no doubt contributed to his conclusion that there was actually life, including potentially satisfying, “second acts” of life, to be found outside the fast-paced coastal cities. Not that he’s moved back to North Dakota himself. But in between the travel stories springing from his own “second act” (Karlgaard became a private pilot in his mid-40s), Karlgaard explores some of the options and happiness people find simply by thinking creatively about how to restructure their work lives to allow them to step off the high-overhead treadmills of major cities. – LW
The Monk and the Riddle: the Art of Creating a Life While Making a Living
by Randy Komisar
An insightful book by one of the sharpest venture capital minds in Silicon Valley about pursuing passion and purpose, rather than just the almighty dollar—even in the entrepreneurial world. – LW
Callings: Finding and Following an Authentic Life
by Gregg Levoy
In a world where technology has literally enabled us to be “called” anywhere, anytime, Callings is a welcome look at calls of a more emotional nature. Gregg Levoy eloquently explores the many kinds of calls we receive: calls to do something, and calls to be something. He explores how to hear the calls, what happens when we follow them, and what happens when we don’t. The book is filled with beautiful prose that is a pleasurable to read as it is thought-provoking, and at every turn Levoy makes references to ideas, people, and books from a myriad of fields. If you’ve ever felt in your gut that you were destined to do something, read this book. If you don’t believe in that sort of thing, read it anyway. – LW
Care of the Soul: A Guide for Cultivating Depth and Sacredness in Everyday Life
by Thomas Moore
Internationally renowned theologian and former Catholic monk Thomas Moore is a well-known writer on spiritual matters, and in Care of the Soul you’ll find the core ideas that influence his other works. Moore’s approach to finding happiness involves a continuous process that concerns itself not so much with ‘fixing’ a central flaw as with attending to the small details of everyday life.” Also recommended: A Life at Work: The Joy of Discovering What You Were Born to Do. – MS
Pathways of Chance
by F. David Peat
F. David Peat is a consumate explorer and adventurer. In this intense autobiographical journey, he offers a glimpse inside the brilliant, dryly humorous and relentlessly curious mind of a master physicist and explorer of the universe. As a young man, his passion to know drives him to melt his family’s refrigerator and set fire to more than one piece of the family home. As an adult, that same passion drives him to delve into art, music, radio, film, language, and Native American culture, as well as quantum physics. The unknown isn’t scary to Peat. It’s irresistible. And his curiosity is contagious. – LW
Callings: The Purpose and Passion of Work
By Dave Isay
Written (and edited) by the founder of StoryCorps, Callings is a collection stories from people who, as the book’s jacket puts it, “are doing what they love.” Inspirational––and a wonderful collection of kindred spirits who help make anyone searching for that kind of path feel part of a community.
– LW
The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You’ll Ever Need
by Daniel H. Pink
The bestselling author of Free Agent Nation:The Future of Working for Yourself and A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future has a new book out, and this one is particularly cool. It’s the first American business book presented in the Japanese comic format known as manga, and is filled with good advice for young people just starting their careers. – MS
The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything
by Ken Robinson
Ken Robinson is an internationally recognized leader in the development of creativity, innovation and human resources. In The Element he examines the place where passion and skill meet. Filled with stories and interviews with accomplished people in a variety of fields who have found The Element, the book proposes a new paradigm that has a pround impact on individuals, organizations, and society. – MS
Refuse to Choose!: Use All of Your Interests, Passions, and Hobbies to Create the Life and Career of Your Dreams
by Barbara Sher
Thirty years ago, career coach Barbara Sher wrote a book called Wishcraft and she’s been at it ever since, helping people identify and live the lives of their dreams. While all her books are great, Refuse to Choose is especially helpful for curious and talented people who think they are interested in too many things. Hogwash says Sher. Then she tells you how to do it all (but not all at once…). – MS
Web sites/blogs
The Art of Non-Conformity
Chris Guillebeau’s visually-stunning blog providing unconventional strategies for life, work, and travel. An intereresting twist is a focus on “how to change the world by achieving significant, personal goals while helping others at the same time.” Chris walks his talk. He’s worked as a volunteer executive for a medical charity in West Africa, and is on a personal quest to visit every country in the world (103 down, 94 to go).
Brazen Careerist Blog
“Advice at the intersection of work and life,” from blogger, entrepreneur, and syndicated career advice columnist Penelope Trunk. Interesting and useful posts on all sorts of subjects of interest to anyone trying to chart their own course in life, work, or preferably both at the same time.
The Four Hour Workweek
The companion Web site and blog to the book (see above). Helpful resources, and a blog that will inspire you as you witness Tim Ferris’s “experiements in lifestyle design” continually unfold. The guy really is “a professional polymath,” and even if your own aspirations don’t include such disparate life activities (he’s into business, tango, fighting, and acting, among other things), you’ll learn something from every post.
Zen Habits
Leo Babauta is married, has six kids, lives in Guam, and is a freelance writer. His blog (with posts on topics like productivity, finance, family, simplicity, happiness, and health) is one of the most popular personal development blogs on the Web. You can a lot of useful stuff by just checking in each day.
Awake At the Wheel
A great blog from the author of Career Renegade (see above). “Tips, strategies and conversations at the crossroads of work, life, entrepreneurship & play.”
Opportunities
Pivot Planet
If you can’t figure out what kind of job would suit you, here’s a website that offers — for a fee— the opportunity to talk to people who’ve created businesses, from restaurants to songwriters and travel writers.
Backdoorjobs.com
International short-term opportunities to work, travel, play, learn, help, create, experience and grow.
Idealist.org
An impressive data bank of jobs, volunteer opportunities, and organizations that have some higher purpose of improving or changing the world attached to them.
