Customer Reviews

What is Your Life's Work? : Answer the BIG Question About What Really Matters...and Reawaken the Passion for What You Do

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Here's the basic situation: Jensen contacted several hundred people and invited each to compose a letter to a loved one...or to several, perhaps children or grandchildren. BUZZ eventually generated several thousand submissions. (Mine was among them but not selected.) Jensen requested that each letter respond to a very basic but critically important question: "What would you tell your kids or your grandkids or dearest friends about what really matters at work?" Presumably the letters would share life lessons learned from poor choices made as well as greratest achievements, proudest moments, regrets, current concerns, hopes and dreams, etc. Everyone knew that her or his letter could perhaps eventually appear in print.

Jensen carefully read and re-read all the letters received, eventually selecting 64 for inclusion in this book. He then organized them within five "Discovery" sections:

1. Finding Yourself

2. Finding the Lessons to Be Learned, the Questions to Be Asked

3. Finding the Choices Which Really Matter

4. Finding the Courage to Choose

5. Finding Joy, Serenity, and Fulfillment

Jensen is correct: "In their letters, we see ourselves" and "In their struggles, we see our own."

In his recently published Creating the Good Life, James O'Toole explains what we can learn about "getting it right" from a Greek philosopher, Aristotle, who lived almost 2,400 years ago. In one of the most interesting sections in his book, O'Toole's discusses what he calls "The Deathbed Test": "Aristotle's test of true happiness is the degree to which one is free of deathbed regrets about his or her unfulfilled potential. He says that the realization at the end of one's days that 'I coulda, woulda, shoulda and mighta' is the definition of unhappiness. When Gandhi was in his forties and engaged in the practice of business law, he asked himself what he was likely to be able to say about his life at the end if he continued on his present course. He then decided to change his life and to realize his full potential."

O'Toole then explains that Aristotle offers "a useful set of questions that serve us as a self-assessment of whether our current actions and goals will ultimately lead to satisfaction with our life as a whole. The bottom line is that the time to start planning for a happy and fulfilling future is now, the perfect time to start asking 'what's next?' In my experience, Aristotle offers a lot more useful and practical advice than is found in most of the texts we assign in business school."

I thought about O'Toole's comments as I read this book. Both he and Jensen seem determined to help as many people as possible to ask the most important questions... and then answer them with honesty and courage. In his Introduction, Jensen points out that, according to more than 40 Gallup studies, about 75% of us feel disengaged from our jobs; according to the most recent U.S. Job Retention Survey, 75% of all employees are now searching for new employment opportunities; and according to the New American Dream Survey, about 83% of us wish we had more of what really matters in life. Obviously, a substantial majority of us (whatever the percentage) are experiencing a disconnect of some kind between what we are required to get done at work and what truly matters. Much of the material in this book indicates that.

Noteworthy is the fact that so many of those who wrote these letters cite that disconnect. They share with the letters' recipients (and with those who read Jensen's book) what caused each disconnect in their lives, its nature and extent, its impact, and what they learned from it. Also noteworthy is how candid the letter-writers are. The thoughts and feelings seem (to me at least) authentic but seldom self-serving. For most of those whose letters are included, it was probably quite difficult to confront errors of judgments, betrayals of trust, behavior which was hurtful to others, etc. In a sense, they take the reader into their confidence. Yes, as with a person sitting next to them during a long-distance airline flight, there is a degree of "safety": the letter-writers and the reader will have no further contact. I still think it takes courage to acknowledge one's imperfections, especially insofar as they have negatively affected others. It takes even greater courage to allow themselves to be identified when the acknowledgments appear in print.

For the most part, however, the letters in this book celebrate humanity (warts and all) while affirming that lessons can be learned from the experiences of others (no news there). What sets this book apart from any others I have read is that, almost immediately, I began to establish a rapport with the letter-writers, aided significantly by Jensen's narrative during which he helps to create an appropriate context without getting in the way. In the "Endnotes & Stats" section (pages 220-222), he shares the five most important lessons he has learned. This material is, for me, a personal letter from Jensen which he wisely includes at the end of his book.

I do strongly disagree with his recommendation that his book not be read cover-to-cover. Some readers will. Others won't. So what? Just as each letter-writer describes a process of personal discovery, so must each reader embark on one of her or his own...reading the book as she or her wishes. Straight through. Hop around. Cherry pick. Lock in on one of the "Discoveries." Whatever.

Jensen has allowed himself to be described as a "practical simpleton, tough-love gadfly, passionate speaker, researcher, father, and friend." No doubt he is all of that...and more. In this instance, his primary function is to introduce several people who share the most important lessons they have learned. It remains for each reader to select those lessons which are most relevant to them...and then benefit from them in ways and to the extent appropriate to their own circumstances.

Long ago, Voltaire suggested that we cherish those who seek the truth but beware of those who find it. Jensen and his 64 associates make no such claim. Their search continues...and so does ours, guided and informed by theirs.

"Work is not just an eight-hour interruption in our day. Most of us will spend most of our adult lives and most of our waking hours focused on our jobs. Whether we like it or not, we are defined by the choices we make at work." ~Bill Jensen

What is your life purpose?

Are you living your dream?

Reading inspirational stories about how individuals achieved their dreams tends to motivate me in the direction of my own dreams. Bill Jensen asks us an important and life changing question.

What Is Your Life's Work will help you to:

Find Yourself

Make Choices That Really Matter

Have the Courage to Choose

Experience Joy, Serenity, and Fulfillment

I loved reading the letters from women who explained why you should "speak your truth" and from men who explain why "You are who you Choose to be."

One of the best sections in the book is a letter from Kristi Dinsmore. She works in executive education and writes a letter: "Dear Person Who is Hungry For That Thing Called Joy."

In this letter she shows why you should have realistic expectations, have patience, ask for what you really want, compete smart and establish priorities.

I also enjoyed reading Mark Ritzmann's comments in his letter to Lucy. He explores the more pleasant aspects of work, making friends, laughing, having great hobbies and exploring life through changing jobs.

The conclusion of this book is a "Field Guide to Getting Started." In this section, you get to map out your own journey. After taking notes throughout this book, you should have a good idea of what you want out of life.

Practical Application: I started a new journal with the following sections: Quotes (continuing the eternal collection), Words (Single words I find interesting), Moments (Beautiful experiences), Books (lists and quotes), Descriptions (what really matters), Rules (life principles), Why (Entries of important decisions and why I made them), Movies (beauty and art), Misc (casual observations and things I don't want to forget). This will be a book about what matters to me this year. Then I'm going to make a book each year and have quite a collection.

You could start a Journal, write a letter to a friend or family member or even decide to find a new job or start your own business. This book is almost more about "What Is Your Life" than what is your work. Through finding out what you love about life, you can discover work that is more of a pleasure than a painful daily occurrence.

~The Rebecca Review

If you've ever wished you had a parent or mentor who would have shared with you what it is that matters most in life, because you've noticed that people who get such mentoring seem to have some kind of natural edge in the world... you're in luck. Bill Jensen's book WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S WORK contains some of the most powerfully moving written exchanges between people that you are likely ever to find, and these gems of real life stories will set you on fire with their honesty and love. Every counselor, life coach, parent and child can benefit from reading WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S WORK, as some of the most important life lessons are touched upon in deeply personal ways.

In an age when it's been said that the art of letter writing is dead, this book dares to raise the subject of we can best find a balance between work and the rest of our life. The intense passion conveyed in most of the letters helps bring this subject to life in a way that is sure to help anyone rekindle their own inner fire, and regain a sense of what it is we're all working for that really matters.

This is not one of those how to feel better about one's self or situation. Nor its instructions on to be better in life. The subject matter is like a brilliant snap shot of all sorts of people from various backgrounds and professions and levels of society. They share some of the most amazing fears, tears, and most of all lesson learned within their experience. there is no good and bad...its just a collection of REAL stories written by real people like u and me!!

get this for sure if u want to feel collected and want to reconcile yourself. I know i pick this up every time i feel lost and hopeless; it doesn't care if u made it or not as far as material is concerned. I had recommended this book to 3 people whom are very well off and yet they too have felt lost in their "supposedly" full lives. I gave this as a gift to another who just started their first job out of college. ItS fantastic stories that move u :)

How often do we define ourselves by our work? How often do we equate who we are in life with our job title: assistant director, associate vice deputy, CEO, chairman, stay-at-home mom, etc.? So many people focus so tightly upon their job description as their identity that they ultimately lose sight of their true self.

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S WORK examines what truly matters from a distinctly human perspective. It does so not by dry, formal statements of principles (e.g., the 7-steps, the 10-tenets, the 9-objectives, the 431 value-added theorems . . . you get the picture). Rather, the author offers the wisdom of numerous individuals, precious metals refined in the furnace of everyday existence. The letters and journal entries, selected by Bill Jensen from countless thousands, answer the questions of what really matters in life and how one awakens (or reawakens) the passion in one's soul. The lessons are personal, poignant, and powerful; they are also as unique as are the individual personalities.

In lives of depth and meaning, certain themes emerge: self-respect, integrity, balance, the importance of family, faith, passion, selflessness, and compassion (to name just a few). Mr. Jensen's selections, for the most part, emphasize the transcendence of the individual toward a greater purpose than the accumulation of possessions, or the aggregate of mere activities and accomplishments.

There are two individuals, whose legacies to their children are sadly that of egotistical arrogance and strident selfishness. The reader will quickly recognize these shallow individuals - their stories too are most valuable.

Although a scant 200+ pages, WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S WORK packs a tremendous wallop, a wonderful wake-up call to those who have languished in a low-level comfort zone, or to those who aspire to a higher place. It is a wonderful series of discoveries to those seeking a life of fulfillment and meaning in those areas that truly matter.

This book affected me in two waves. First, without the book, I heard Bill Jensen a few weeks ago on a webinar. With hundreds of people online, I felt he was talking directly to me. I literally began to sob when he talked about our need to leave a legacy for those we love. Thewake-up call I've avoided for a long time was that I'm good at providing for my family, but I';m not really having an impact. I as embarrassed by my own legacy. The feelings Bill Jensen stirred in me prompted a new urgency.

Then I got the book. I dog-eared many of the letters. (Jensen says to find the three to five that speak to you. I couldn't get my list any smaller than 16 and that many spoke deeply and directly to me.) I followed the exercises in the back. I began new conversations with my kids. All in a span of about two weeks.

That's when I realized I had left more of a legacy than I had thought -- through my kids. And, in the questions they asked and the support they provided (even as 8 to 18 year-olds), they began to coach me! Jensen said this could happen if I was truthful and vulnerable with them, telling them the choices I make every day. The message in most every letter was "You are not alone." Many people are struggling with the gap between providing for their family and making a real difference at work. As Jensen says, They've been where you are, and where you are going.

Buy this book because you want to be inspired by others who have found their way. But ifyou're open to what it reveals about yourself, you'll begin living the legacy you want to leave behind.

The personal letters within this book help remind us - especially those of us of working age - that it's easy to get caught up in the urgent, the nasty, and the now without bothering to think about the larger framework and reasons for life. I enjoyed the unique feel to each of the letters and the consistent theme of doing the right things; though each is different from my own situation, each contained parallels that I could see. This is the sort of book I like to read one of every few months to remind me of the importance of taking control of life and not letting it take control of you.

The only thing I really didn't enjoy was the idea that writing the letter was going to be the single thing that altered someone's life - by the author's own admission, there's only a 20% success rate. I personally feel that you can't make this sort of dramatic change without something like the Covey planning framework that reinforces it on a weekly and daily basis. A single activity would have to be stunningly profound to cause that kind of sustained change in an individual.

I'd also like to note that I was personally impressed by the author outside of this book. Based on my past reviews, he sent me a complimentary copy but only asked that I provide an honest review of his book when completed - other authors and marketers of products have not been nearly so ethical.

What's important about work? What's important about life? What would you tell your kids if you wrote them a letter about what's important, what work and life mean to you?

Bill Jensen is a self-described simpleton dedicated to fighting corporate stupidity. Living a simple life in this complicated world is challenge enough, but this brave soul has committed to an even deeper mission. Cutting through the stupidity, bureaucracy, and politics, you'll discover that corporations are comprised of people. People. Ordinary, heart's-in-the-right-place people. These people have feelings, experiences, perspectives, and stories to tell. They have vital messages to pass on to others.

Jensen has collected those messages. Thousands of them, in the form of letters. Written documentaries from the depths of consciousness of the writers. Some are short, some long. Some deep and profound, others relatively shallow. Each has a message. This book is a collection of samples of the letters Jensen has collected. They are assembled on these pages, not to be read necessarily from cover to cover, but to be selected and absorbed at will. Picking and choosing letters, as the author suggests, is not easy-you'll probably read most of them anyway.

The letters are organized into chapters representing what Jensen calls his Five Discoveries: Finding Yourself, Finding the Lessons to be Learned and the Questions to be Asked, Finding the Choices that Really Matter, Finding the Courage to Choose, and Finding Joy, Serenity, and Fulfillment.

The book concludes with a valuable chapter on getting started with your own understandings and choices. This publication is a learning, a sharing, an inspiration to look more carefully at your own life to see what really matters. Curl up with this book next week-end.

What Is Your Life's Work? by Bill Jensen is more than just advice: it gathers life stories and case histories of those who succeeded in identifying what really matters, using the letters and work diaries of others to mirror reader struggles. While the overall message lies in identifying life purpose, all the advice in What Is Your Life's Work can be directed to business solutions and issues as well as more general life concerns over risk, worth, and achievement. An excellent, cathartic inspiration for change.

This book contains a series of letters that are powerful messages about the role of work and career in our lives. The letters are short, but contain messages of love, apologies, regrets, courage, sorrow, sacrifice and understanding as people either make decisions or express their regret regarding the decisions they have made. As you read them, it is impossible not to reflect back on your own life and contrast your decisions with what these people have done.

All of the letters give you a perspective on the relative merits of loved ones versus your career. In most cases, the loved ones take precedent, but there are a few that are expressions of regret and apology. Some people are placed in circumstances where they have no choice but to work long hours in order to survive. However, many letters were written by people who left the corporate world to pursue dreams and dedicate themselves to their loved ones. These letters were very inspirational, in that they demonstrate that the people not only survived, but also thrived after their departure. Granted that they suffered financially, but their gains in emotional health far outweighed the negatives.

All people will gain by reading this book. If you feel yourself locked into a pattern where the state of your financial health is bettered at the expense of your emotional health, then this book will show you the exit. In the long run, the quality of our lives is measured more by our emotional health than by the number of digits in our bank accounts, and these case histories can provide the inspiration for you to make your best "career" move.