Saturday, June 18, 2011

Online Book Club - The Art of Non-Conformity

I decided to join Kimberly Wilson's Online Book Club this month, especially since I purchased this month's selection from ibooks a few months ago during The Right-Brain Business Summit and never took the time to read it. June's pick is The Art of Non-Conformity by Chris Guillebeau. I've written about Chris's ebooks that I read in the past (here).

The Art of Non-Conformity
Here are my takeaways from the inspiring book:

~ "You don't have to live your life the way other people expect you to."
~ "In the end, it's not all about you. Most of us want a life that leaves a positive impact on others."
~ "Fear begins with an undefined worry, a voice in the back of your head that says you're not good enough, you won't succeed with anything big or significant, and you might as well give up and stop trying to stand out."
~ "When we really get serious about our insecurities, we usually find that three specific fears emerge: the fear of failure, the fear of success, and the fear of change. The greatest of these is the fear of change itself."
~ "We generally resist change until the pain of making a switch becomes less than the pain of remaining in our current situation."
~ "Gatekeepers are authority figures who seek to limit the choices of others - you can do a or be, but not c, d, or e."
~ "Your project should be "location independent," meaning that you can operate it from anywhere in the world."
~ I love The One-Year, Self-Directed, Alternative Graduate School Experience in Chapter 6.
~ "Investing in people...I don't view this principle as an act of generosity; I view it as an act of responsibility and gratitude."
~ "Radical exclusion is the process of eliminating things that are unnecessary."
~ Create a "to-stop-doing list."
~ I bookmarked Chapter 10's travel hacking info for future use and Chapter 8's list of charities that focus on "investing in people."
~ The chapter, "Your Legacy Starts Now" had super duper helpful info on creating your own legacy project.
~ "While most good work is comforting, great work is simultaneously comforting and discomforting because it pushes us to go further."

There's still time to join the book group Kimberly's hosting (here) or pick it up to read on your own.

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