Book Review: What Is Your WHAT? by Steve Olsher

Today I'm going to post another of my Amazon book reviews for two reasons:  I'm still frantically getting ready for Sunday's Milwaukee Bead Show so need to be quick today, and What Is Your WHAT: Discover The One Amazing Thing You Were Born To Do is fabulous.

Many or most of you know that I run a small business making jewelry (and a few other things), teaching my jewelry designs, and selling tutorials and kits of my designs.  Some of you know that I didn't always do this and that I was a computer programmer for many years.  A very few of you know that job was not my first choice.

My junior year of high school I had an awesome math teacher, so I wanted to be a math teacher.  My math teacher my senior year was awful, and I lost interest in being a math teacher.  I seemed to have an aptitude for computers and programming, so I majored in computers in college.  I didn't know if that's what I really wanted to do, but I didn't know what else to major in.

While there I decided to specialize in AI (Artificial Intelligence), and there were so few women in the computer major that there were no women in the AI track when I joined.  (To give you a time reference, this was in 1989 or 1990.)  I told one of the guys about my decision, and he yelled up and down the hall, "There's a woman in AI!  There's a woman in AI!"  I really didn't know what I was going to do with it, but I thought it'd be neat to program robots and to be involved in other experimental things.

Unfortunately I fell into a deep depression (partially because of a man and partially because I had a bunch of philosophical questions in my head I couldn't/can't answer) my junior year of college, and by my senior year I was pretty useless.  I ended up dropping out after the first semester after scraping by in my computer classes.  I took a semester off to regroup, and I switched schools.  Again, I didn't know what I wanted to do, so I stuck with computer programming and got my Bachelor of Science degree.

Eventually I found a programming job at a small business but didn't enjoy it.  Sure, I enjoyed aspects of the job, but there was much of it I found tedious.  Same thing happened years later when I had another programming job with another small company.  The parts I liked best were talking with customers, teaching them how to use their software, and troubleshooting problems (when there wasn't a time crunch).

I'm not going to go into all the details here of either job and what I had problems with, but in 2010 it was decided (by me, my husband, and our parents) that I would quit.  Because I wasn't caught up with what was current in programming, I was more than a little scarred from my last job, I had developed the Fibromyalgia and Osteoarthritis I'm always complaining about, and a few other factors, we decided that I would start my own business doing web design for creative folks.  That didn't work out very well, so now I make jewelry and teach.

I'm very lucky that Steve can support us and that our parents help us when unexpected expenses pop up.  My business is called "Creative Pursuits" for a reason - I am free to pursue my creativity and (with luck) make money at it.

So knowing all that, one might wonder why I picked up What Is Your WHAT?.  It seems that through a series of events I've figured out what "amazing thing I was born to do".  To be blunt, the author offered an advance ebook version for free in exchange for writing the review I'm about to share with you.  Also, I'm curious if what I'm doing is really what I'm supposed to be doing.  I love to write (as you can tell by the length of my blog posts), so perhaps I should be focusing on that.  Wow, as I write this I'm getting quite the jolt of deja vu.  Have I typed those exact words before?  :::shiver:::

Anyway.  I'll let the review tell the rest of it so I can get back to preparing for Sunday's show and a class I'm teaching tomorrow:

I was a bit skeptical when I started reading this book because it opened with six pages of "Praise for What Is Your WHAT?". Quotes upon quotes touting this book as the best thing since sliced bread. I read them all and was curious if the author could really deliver the "ultimate guide on self-discovery" as Erika Gilchrist says in her review. However, it didn't take too long to see why so many people came forward to endorse Steve Olsher and "What Is Your WHAT?".

Instead of diving right into figuring out what your WHAT is, the author helps the reader lay the groundwork for it with explanations of the four stages of learning (and what that means in practical terms) and exercises so you can begin to recognize where you're vulnerable and where you excel. The author walks you through step by step and encourages you to take all the time you need and even to talk to other people (if you're up to it) to gain insights into your faults and strengths. Once that's done, he leads you through designing your ideal life and what you need to do to stop the downward slide and start to live a better life through seven life-altering principles. Once you've absorbed all of this, it's time to discover what your WHAT is and how to achieve it.

The author covers every topic thoroughly with numerous examples from the author's life and from people who have taken his reinvention workshops. There are many case studies of people who are doing what they're meant to do and how they got there. He also includes the people's websites so if you're interested in learning more about them you know right where to look.

This book is ideal for those who feel like they should be doing more with their lives but don't know how to get there. I will say that this is hard work and not to be taken lightly. The exercises are designed to really make you look at your life with a magnifying glass. The ultimate goal is for you to live the life of your dreams by doing what you love to do and getting paid well for it, and that's not something most people can just fall into. You need to shed the bad and cultivate the good, and that takes serious introspection and time. The author is with you throughout the whole process, asking questions to help you along.

I was very impressed with the information presented in this book and will definitely be working through all of the exercises and keeping the seven life-altering principles in mind as I live day-to-day, figure out what my WHAT is (although I already have an inkling what that might be), and become successful at it. I plan to frequently dip into the book to refresh my memory and to plan for the future.

The author also gives a website where you can get another of his books for free. That book is for folks who want to profit online. I already had it but haven't started reading it yet. Now that I'm comfortable with the author and how helpful he is in "What Is Your WHAT?" I'm really looking forward to it! 

If you have any doubts that you're doing what you were meant to do, read this book.  It's never too late to change careers (the author recommends a slow change, not a dive-in-head-first-like-Traci-did approach).  Have your children read it before they go off to college and stumble around trying to pick a major and a career.  If you read it and gain any valuable insights, e-mail me at traci@creative-pursuits.biz and tell me about it!

My quote book

Almost a month ago I mentioned my quote book, and I said I would post about it more soon.  Well, with everything that's been going on and with all of the things I wanted to post about, I nearly forgot!  Then as I started writing this post, I could have sworn that I have posted about it before.  I remember my cousin Dawn telling me I should make two - one for her, too.  Maybe that was on Facebook, though, because I couldn't find it.  I looked through my list of posts, skimmed through a number of them, and asked Steve.  So if this seems familiar to you... so sorry!  Hopefully this version will be more interesting.  :D

I'm always fascinated by quotes and poems.  They can be uplifting, inspiring, funny, and motivating.  And they can touch something deep inside you.  I have at least one published book of quotes (Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, I think?).  I even typed up a number of quotes, cut them out in strips, and put them in a box where I can pull one out from time to time:

Anyone who looks inside will get a nice surprise!

I was starting to amass too many quotes, though, so I decided to get a book I could put them in.  Another thing I'm very fond of is blank books.  I have a whole box of failed diaries, books for my poems, sketches, and just blank books.  I love blank books.  I don't remember when or where I found this particular book, but I loved it.  The leather was soft, and there was a flap that folded over the top with a leather strip that wrapped around and could be tucked in to keep the book closed.

I happily started writing my quotes in (with a purple pen, of course):

And then....disaster struck.

He looks so harmless, doesn't he?  Caegal, the Pomeranian I had when I was with Dave (this is over 10 years ago, I should mention), loves to get into things he's not supposed to:

We had to take him to the animal hospital once because he got into a closed pillbox of diet pills.  He chews through bags and packages to get to bread (that loaf of bread plus a Ziploc bag of dinner rolls that he had to climb to get to) and chocolate, he loves rummaging around in bathroom garbages and litter boxes, and... he loves leather.  Shoes, purses, and my poor quote book:

He's lucky he's so cute.

Well, eventually Dave moved out, taking Caegal with him, and all my leather products (and my food and my cats...) were safe.

I had this book out to take pictures of it, and Steve said, "What's this?"  I told him it was my first quote book, and he said, "It's been Caegaled?"  He knows Caegal all too well.  We watched him once, and it was quite a dance we had making sure the cats could get to their litter boxes but Caegal could not.  It was like the movie "The Others" - we had to close one door and make sure it was secure before opening the next door.  We had gates up with chairs on either side so the older (and the fat) cats could navigate through the house.  I love the pup, but it was exhausting!

It took me quite a while to find a replacement for this book.  Truth to tell, I wasn't looking all that hard.

Whenever I'm in a bookstore I like to look at the blank books.  They have come out with so many beautiful books that it's difficult for me to not get one every time I look.  This particular day in 2006, though, I was not so strong.

The picture on the left is the front, and the one on the right is the back.

Yes, it's mostly gold, but something about it spoke to me.  (I usually cringe when I see gold things.)  As I mentioned when I posted about the book a month ago, it has a quote on the spine:  "The soul would have no rainbow if the eyes had no tears."  The quote is from John Vance Cheney.  I had to look that up - it wasn't on the book at all.  I find that odd.  Anyway.  The the image is a self portrait of Laurel Burch, and I think it's stunning, especially paired with that quote.  It's a PaperBlanks book, and all of their books are beautiful and well made.  There's a magnet embedded in the book and the flap, so when it's closed it stays closed.

Instead of just writing the quotes in like I did in the first book, I decided to make the book a work of "art" on the inside like it is on the outside:

Not everything is motivational, of course.  :)  This one is one of those that speaks to my heart.  I bordered it with heart stamps to tie in with the theme of the poem.

On these pages I stamped a harlequin pattern in the middle of each page, sponged the same color around the edges, stamped some flowers in the corners, and wrote the quotes large, emphasizing a word on each.

Since I love quotes, I tend to get quote stamps, too.  These pages are simple, but possibly my favorites.  I sponged blue around the edges and stamped flowers above and below each of the quotes.

Not all of the pages have just one quote per page:

If I'm feeling ambitious I'll stamp the first letter of the quote and stamp a border in between.  This one also has borders stamped in the corners.

Even if you don't stamp, you can do something similar for your own quote or poem book.  Use different color pens for the first letters and make them large and add a doodle border in between and in various places on the page.  Do whatever makes you happy, and you can have your own book of quotes and poems that are meaningful to you.  You can start with the ones on these pages if you'd like.

A challenge and a CONTEST!

My web design company has gotten its first client, so I've been busy getting all my ducks in a row and starting on the site.  I don't have anything new to show you at this point (I probably will tomorrow, though!), so I was looking through pictures of stuff I've done in the past.

A number of years ago there was an article in "Creating Keepsakes" from Ali Edwards in which she created a layout listing 100 things that made her happy, which was inspired by someone else.  Here's a scan of the magazine page (Sorry - I don't remember which issue it was, but if you need more information, let me know, and I'll dig it up):

This was an inspiration for me, so in September of 2006 I created my own "100 Happy Things" layout:

I'm probably due for a new layout.  The guy I was dating at the time is SO history I don't even remember his last name (my mother probably does, though!), and many other things have changed.

So my challenge is... create a "100 happy things" scrapbook layout and send me pictures at traciotte@att.net.  Let's put a deadline on this of September 1st, 2010.

I'll even make this a contest!  I will put names of all who enter in a hat and draw one on September 2nd.  You will have your choice of prizes made by yours truly in the color(s) you choose:  A beaded stylus holder for your Gypsy or other stylus (one with a hole that will accommodate a clip), a badge holder with one of those squarish grabby clips, a necklace, or a bracelet.  If none of those floats your boat, we can discuss something that will float your boat.

I can hear some of you now:  "But Traci, I don't scrap!"  Well, I have an answer for you!  Come up with your 100 things and write them down, making it look kinda pretty.  The point here is that we each think through the good things in our life and come up with 100 (or more!) of them.

This will be good practice for me, and it probably will be good for you, too.

I'm game - are you?

Happy National Scrapbooking Day!

Yup, May Day is not just for dancing around a pole with your girlfriends and a bunch of ribbon.  It is also National Scrapbooking Day.  There are lots of great sales on scrapbooking products, but the main thrust of the day is to indulge in our hobby and educate others about scrapbooking.

There are a number of ways you could do this:

• The obvious one is to scrap.  Ideally, one would be able to do this all day long (or all weekend, if you're lucky!), but a lot of us don't have that option.
• If you're out and about, stop by a local scrapbook store and pick up a few items.  Indulge yourself and get something you've been looking at for a while but didn't get because it was too girly, frilly, purple (and you have 1000 sheets of purple paper), blingy, etc...  No, you can not use me as an excuse to spend a ton of money.  I don't want a bunch of angry husbands e-mailing me!
• Organize/reorganize some of your supplies.  I find this very motivating, plus you find things you forgot you had!
• Flip through magazines for ideas... scrapbook magazines, jewelry magazines to see how colors are used together, home-type magazines to see the latest trends in decorating which could also look good in your pages...
• Look at your finished pages for techniques you haven't used in a while or to get ideas of other pages to scrap.
• While you're flipping through your finished pages.... fill in some of that journaling you have been meaning to "get back to later"!
• Clean off your work surface.  Since I posted the other day about Simoon on my desk, it has gotten exponentially messier.

I know a number of my readers are not scrapbookers.  I was going to get back to jewelry today, but National Scrapbook Day just begged to be blogged about!

Here are a few ideas for non-scrapbookers as well as scrapbookers:

• Organize some photos.  Not all of them, of course.  That would be impossible.  Just pick one area - one pile, one box, one basket - and go through them.  Do not label them if you don't have a Slick Writer pen.  Write on a Post-it® note and put it on the back of the photo.  Discard any really bad photos.
• Scan some photos to be saved on the computer.
• If you have a SAFE photo album - "magnetic" photo albums are not safe for your photos - put some pictures into it.  The best kind of album for non-scrappers is one with sleeves for certain sizes of photos.  You can put pictures in some of the sleeves and some written information/journaling in another sleeve.  Just cut a piece of paper to the size of your pictures, and you have an instant journaling box!
• Move your boxes of pictures out of the basement and attic.  This is very important, especially for older pictures.  My mom and stepfather have a number of wonderful pictures that are now mouse-chewed.  Besides being potential rodent-food, extreme heat, cold, and dampness are bad for your pictures.  Photos like to live where you live, so please find a place where they will be comfortable!

And, finally, look through some pictures or finished photo albums and remember.  Laugh if you can, cry if you must, but just take some time to think back on the past - your past or your ancestors' pasts - to remember where we came from and how we got to where we are now.

Pictures and scrapbooks (in any form) are so important for all of us.  We all are important, and our stories are important.  I urge you to take some time today or this weekend (or whenever you can) to jot those stories down so future generations will be able to truly know you.

If, like my husband and me, you have too much going on today to be so pensive and reflective, grab your camera on the way out the door and make new memories!

Spring...

I was right - Summer went away and Spring came back.  We had a little bit of rain Saturday morning, and it got a little chilly.  We went out later and BOOM! everything looked greener.  The trees and bushes are starting to bud, but the grass is starting to look phenomenal.

The weather today was gorgeous, and I commented to my husband that Spring is my favorite time of year.  We're shaking off the cold nastiness of winter, and everything's coming to life again.  That's the obvious reason everyone gives, but for me it seems to go a bit deeper.  The temperature may be the same in April as it is in September, but Spring just feels different and makes me feel different.

I love opening the windows and letting the air move through the house.  In my old house I didn't do this.  I just opened the front and sometimes the back door and let the wind blow through the screens.  Here we open the curtains and the windows and throw Fe (she's the most portable of the cats) onto a window sill.  The other cats will migrate to the other windows over time.

I feel energized and motivated and want to do things (generally not housework, unfortunately).  I think I will let that feeling grow this Spring and see what I can accomplish!  Stay tuned!