Barbara's simple wisdom is: Guess what? You can refuse to choose. Really. Just do everything you want to do.
Sounds ludicrous? But at the same time really appealing? The book gives Scanners a way to identify which traps they have been falling into and then presents a set of tools to get out of them. Some solutions are not too unlike what I'd already been implementing in my life and it was wonderful to see that I was on the right tracks.
The best part about this book was, though, that it's the first time I have encountered someone saying (well, writing): "The way you naturally think, operate, create, conceive of ideas, want to live = THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT!" It's like being given permission to do what I'd already been attempting: Instead of trying to change who/what I naturally am, why not try to change my lifestyle and the environment I exist in?
As previously stated, it's very simple when you think about it with common sense. Most importantly, the way Sher invites us to re-frame our attitudes towards life goals and careers is not exclusive to Scanners. It is advice that could help everyone.
It's odd how many of us (all of us?) occasionally need some form of validation for our instincts and sense of self. Perhaps that is simply part of the human condition. It's not that I wasn't being drawn towards some of the right solutions already, but that for as long as I had a niggling feeling of "yes, but I'm doing this to compensate for something crucial that's obviously missing in me...", well those solutions seemed a little hollow.
Now that's been cleared up, I feel oddly free. That's frightening in its own way, but luckily there are sections in the book to deal with that too. I look forward to trying out all the exercises and testing the various tools described.
Barbara Sher has a website, message boards, and appears as a public speaker in various venues, including television appearances. She also holds Scanner retreats - a kind of summer camp for likeminded people with the extra bonus of one-on-one coaching. I'd love to go one day! Then again, there are about a thousand other things I'd love to do. What was the title of the book again?
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