What Should I Do With My Life - Po Bronson

Po Bronson has written a great book called 'What Should I Do With My Life' - true stories of people who answered the 'ultimate question'.  This article (January 2003 - Fast Company) is an adaptation of that book.  I enjoyed the book so much, it put my dreams for the book I've been writing on ice for a while.  It was that good.  Po spent 2 years interviewing over 900 people who have tried to be honest with themselves and where they 'fit'.

You can find out more about the book here, on Po's website.

Some big insights for him while he was researching:

• The fallacy that certain jobs are 'cool' and others are not
• Your 'calling' isn't something you inherently know - like some kind of destiny (this hit home with me).  It is a treasure to be searched and fought for
• Money is not the shortest route to freedom, and we're killing our dreams because we subscribe to this untruth.
• Asking 'What am I good at?' is the wrong starting point.  Rather try to discover something you are passionate about - and you could stay passionate about - in the long term. (no easy task)
• In decision making, avoid the pitfalls of leaving doors/options open as your commitment will be lukewarm.  

I highly recommend checking out this page in Po's followup to the book - particularly the questions in the 'Finding Your Story' section.  There's some really good thoughts and exercises in those questions that can be done to help stimulate and broaden your thoughts with respect to 'What should you do with your life?'