Start your quest to find your genius and purpose in life

books:


	• Is Your Genius at Work?: 4 Key Questions to Ask Before Your Next Career Move Dick Richards Davies-Black Publishing, 2005 - 216 pages average customer review:based on 11 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

You ARE a Genius!

The subtitle of this book is "Four key questions to ask before your next career move." Unfortunately I think the subtitle is wrong. Really, this book asks us four key questions about our life.

The book revolves around those four questions:

1. What is your genius?
2. Is your genius at work?
3. What is your purpose?
4. Is your genius on purpose?

And after the chapters devoted to each question comes some fantastic exercises to help you put the ideas in this book into action.

When I read a book I typically view it in four ways:

1. Content
2. Writing
3. Layout
4. Overall feel

By each of these criteria this book, this book is a winner. The content is fantastic. The writing style is approachable and includes stories I can relate to and that illustrate the points very well. The layout if the book is outstanding - there are helpful illustrations and plenty of room for notes - an important consideration for a book like this. Above these tangible dimensions, the feeling I get when reading is book is positive. The author cares about his readers and it shows in every part of this book.

I recommend this book highly for anyone - not just those in a career assessment or transition situation.

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Are you serious about finding meaningful work?

I have been slogging through this book for over a year. It is tough work and it is a deep subject. Lots of penetrating exercises. If you like the Soul's Code by Hillman this book will work for you.

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Start your quest to find your genius and purpose in life

This is a serious self-help book which requires thoughtful effort on the reader's part, but promises a concomitant reward. Dick Richards urges you to find your genuine inner talents and spiritual beliefs, your "genius," and to pursue them to find your career, your purpose and true fulfillment. However, the quest for genius is difficult to execute, though many successful people may have already completed this internal search and made genius-based career decisions without even knowing it. Richards is writing for those who have not. His audience is people who hold jobs that don't give them a sense of accomplishment or meaning. Richards spends a good bit of time explaining how people can find and name their genius, and perhaps not enough time telling them what they can do with it once that "eureka" moment has happened. As a result, we find that he articulates a noble goal but may leave some of its realization up to you. Then again, that seems valid: After all, no one can activate your genius for you. This book is useful for counselors and therapists, as well as for spiritually oriented readers who are willing to undertake serious introspection to refocus on their true gifts and purpose.

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Not just for job seekers

Before I go any further with this review, let me set something straight: the value of this book is not limited to jobseekers. This is stuff that will help you reframe the way you view your life. There are plenty of other books that help you figure out your most basic competencies (books on enneagrams, Now Discover Your Strengths, etc...). I've only done a little bit of messing around in this genre, but from my experience, Genius takes the most direct path to the heart of the discovery process. The book is an easy read but, like another reviewer said, a deep one. If you take it seriously, you'll likely struggle with naming your genius for more time than it takes to read the book.

The four questions that the book asks are, What is your genius, Is your genius at work, What is your purpose and Is your genius on purpose. About 2/3 of the book is devoted to working through these questions and the last third is filled with excercises to help you narrow down the search for the name of your genius. The excercises are awesome-nothing trivial or useless here. These are thoughtful and clearly designed to help you think in new directions and they do it well. I've been working through the excercises and they're hard for me. This kinda bums me out because there was a time, not all that long ago, that I was intently focused on self-knowledge, and I felt like I knew myself pretty well. To some degree the excercises make me feel kinda bad that I don't simply have snap answers anymore. On the other hand, it's been good to get to know myself again.

I'm still unsure of the name of my genius. The book describes several ways that you might know when you've landed on your genius' name. I experienced none of this when I wrote Exploring Service. Last week I felt like that was a servicable name for use while I kept seeking, but this week I don't think that's the case. I'm continuing to work on some of the excercises and also allowing things to just sit and simmer for a while. I think that's important. What's really different about Genius versus other books like the ones I mentioned earlier is that there aren't any easy quizzes or surveys to take which will spit out the answer. Figuring out the name of your genius takes work and time. It feels like you can't look directly at it...gotta look kinda sideways or pretend you aren't looking and wait for it to pop up. I suspect it's worth the wait.

This book has been really well received by other folks I think highly of. Check out reviews by Dave Pollard[1], Steve Pavlina[2] and Dwayne Melancon[3]. Also, Dick Richards is doing something really remarkable for an author of a book like this. He's created an online discussion group, called Genius Workshop[4], where readers of the book can get some personal insight from him and from others who are on the same journey. Very, very helpful. Also, for more good reading, check out Dick's blog[5] where he's also got a sample chapter and some exercises you can work through.

(...)

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Read This Book

I just finished reading Is Your Genius At Work? by Dick Richards, and I give it my highest recommendation. The book focuses on discovering your genius, the thing that you can do better than anyone else, then finding the way you are meant to apply your genius (purpose). I found the book enjoyable and very useful for answering some key questions I had about my genius. Actually, the book and some deep soul searching helped me discover my genius. My genius is "Creating Order". And as I look back over my life, I see that this explains a lot of the things I have done. I still haven't discovered the way I'm supposed to apply my genius in my life, but I have clues to keep me aware of its discovery.

What does "Creating Order" mean to me? It basically boils down to my ability to enter chaos and turn it around into an orderly environment. This has always been my key strength. I am extremely organized and disorder creates an emotion in me that drives me to create order. In addition, I have always been technically capable, everything from repairing automobiles, all terrain vehicles, lawn mowers to installing and maintaining cutting-edge computer networks. This genius has driven me to take things that were "out of order" and restore them back into order. Discovering this genius just felt so right. I felt like I learned something about myself at a very deep level. I knew it was right, and I was filled with a deep joy and excitement. I had many hits and misses but they never gave me that deep feeling of being right. I now know where I can be most useful in providing service to others.

The book guides you through a question and explanation process of its 4 key questions:

1. What is your genius?
2. Is your genius at work?
3. What is your purpose?
4. Is your genius on purpose?

The book includes multiple explanations and stories that will provide you clarity on discovering the answers to each of the questions. This is not always an easy process, but the way this book lays it out definitely makes the journey a lot simpler. I have spent a lot of time searching for this type of information in various other books and websites, but this book was the key in me finally discovering my genius and gaining a good grasp on what my purpose (also known as mission) might be.

This book was instrumental in me discovering my genius, and also provided some valuable clues and clarification on where I can realize my purpose. My purpose currently is "to serve and contribute by utilizing my genius for the highest good of all". My aim in serving my purpose is to find a way to utilize my genius then increase the amount of contribution I can make with it. Although I don't have any tangible benefits from this discovery yet, I know there will be as I search for more concrete ways to contribute with my genius.

I really enjoyed reading this book and highly recommend it. It has definitely added positive value to my life.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3

Is Your Genius at Work? gives voice to a completely fresh approach to bring your genius fully alive through your life and work and to guide your next career move.

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