The Search
Finding Meaningful Work in a Post-Career World
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $16.99
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
Find work you love. On your own terms.
From the New York Times bestselling author of Life Is in the Transitions comes a bold new road map for finding meaning and purpose in what you do, based on insights drawn from hundreds of life stories of Americans of all backgrounds.
America is at a once-in-a-generation turning point around work: unprecedented numbers are quitting their jobs, rethinking their routines, breaking away from stifling expectations. The most suffocating iron cage of all is the idea that each of us must follow a linear career—lock into a dream early, always climb higher, never stop until you reach the top. Few ideas have squandered more human potential.
Employing his signature, immersive approach, Bruce Feiler is known for taking complex challenges and converting them into actionable steps that can help each of us live with more fulfillment and joy. From thousands of hours of interviews, Feiler has distilled a powerful new vision of work: The people who are happiest don’t chase someone else’s dreams; they chase their own. Freed from outdated scripts, they identify what brings them meaning and write their own story of success.
The Search introduces an all-new toolkit for achieving that goal, 21 Questions to Find Work You Love. Practical and empowering, these questions will help you unearth the story of work you’ve been trying to tell your whole life—then go achieve it. You’ll discover:
· The upsides and downsides of work you learned from your parents;
· Why your childhood role model offers the best clue to what you should do now;
· Who is your waymaker;
· When to leave a job and when to stay;
· What is your purpose right now;
…and much more.
From a master storyteller who’s helped millions transform their lives for better, The Search arrives as the world reimagines the basic assumptions of work and offers a timely, urgent playbook for each of us to get the happiness we seek, the meaning we crave, and the success we deserve.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Americans are fed narrow, outdated notions of what work means—9 to 5 days, climbing the corporate ladder, dreams of bigger offices and higher salaries—argues TV personality Feiler (Life Is in the Transitions) in this energetic challenge to status quo notions of success. After taking in the disruptions wrought on work culture by the pandemic, Feiler embarked on a "Work Story Project" in which he interviewed people across the country to discover what makes jobs meaningful. He found that most people reported having more than one job, and that definitions of success are highly individual and based on a "work narrative" rooted in personal beliefs, experiences, and lessons. Since people can be unaware of their work narrative, he suggests conducting a "meaning audit"—surveying past, present, and future priorities and perspectives—in order to assume control of the story. As well, Feiler discusses harnessing "workquakes," or moments of professional disruption, to initiate soul-searching, and the importance of allowing oneself permission to enact a life change; he supports his arguments with examples of those who overcame difficulties to find fulfilling careers. While the abundance of anecdotes sometimes crowds out Feiler's advice, his down-to-earth delivery and emphasis on individual agency will resonate with readers seeking direction. Those at professional crossroads will benefit.
