What does it mean when a book that is not self-help actually helps more than most books in the category? No shade to those authors, I’m sure their books are helping people, but they probably didn’t embark on a 10-year research project in search of the answer to the question, “What to make of a life?” When I picked up What to Make of a Life: Cliffs, Fog, Fire and the Self-Knowledge Imperative by Jim Collins at my local library, I saw the title in capital letters, flipped through the pages, and thought I’d give it a shot. What surprised me the most was that I couldn’t put it down. It not only helped me to make sense of where I’m at in my life, but it also gave me tools to think about the future. In this episode of Getting Work To Work, I’m going to dive into the seven most impactful quotes from Collins’s book, share a few stories from my life, and encourage you to search for your own answer to the question, “What to make of a life?” The seven most impactful quotes from What to Make of a Life: Cliffs, Fog, Fire and the Self-Knowledge Imperative by Jim Collins: Quote 1: “The sign of good research is that you end up in places you never expected. If after years of research all you do is reconfirm your own preconceptions, then what is the point of doing research? The whole point is to discover, to be surprised, to come to see the world and how it works differently than you did before” (p. 11). Quote 2: “It’s not about finding what you can do better than others, but about finding what you can do exceptionally well relative to other ways you could expend yourself” (p. 59). Quote 3: “…one of the conclusions of this entire effort is that no one can tell you what to do with your life or how specifically to lead your life. And if they do, they’re almost certainly wrong” (p. 23). Quote 4: “If your life is knocked sideways or torn asunder by a cliff, and especially if that cliff comes with mourning a loss and/or feeling the deep pain of grief, you can find yourself lost in thick, murky fog for a very long time” (p. 152). Quote 5: “Fog is when you go through a phase of immense uncertainty and lack of clarity about the best path forward, perhaps even having no clear idea where you want to go…. In the thickest fog, you can feel truly lost” (p. 157). Quote 6: “Fog is normal, natural, common, and highly prevalent…. Even the most successful, capable, energetic, ambitious, and otherwise clearheaded and self-directed people can find themselves in a major fog funk” (p. 168). Quote 7: “Extend Out/Circle Back: This is a continuous dynamic process of extending yourself—growing, learning, experimenting, expanding capabilities, discovering new encodings—while simultaneously drawing upon encodings discovered and capabilities developed earlier in life” (pp. 118-119). Show Links What to Make of a Life: Cliffs, Fog, Fire and the Self-Knowledge Imperative by Jim Collins Google AI Professional Certificate Arduino 101- Crash Course w/ Mark Rober Arduino Shapr3D Bambu Lab Episode photo from Envato Elements: Abstract Orange Smoke Plumes on Dark Background
