In January, for AssistU’s UVA Book Club, we read Start: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average and Do Work that Matters by Jon Acuff.
I really enjoyed it and wanted to share it with you. I actually listened to Jon Acuff read it, on Audible, which added to the wit. He’s a sharp and funny guy, and I resonated with him on so many parts of this book.
First, who the heck is Jon Acuff. He is a character, for sure, and he writes and speaks with pure heart, on a distinct mission to inspire people to live their own version of awesome. Jon works for Dave Ramsey as a speaker and Author, and has a very funny blog.
Jon shares his five-stage journey, or what he calls the “road to awesome”.
- Learning: A time of experimentation and exploration when we try a lot of different paths and approaches. We get a sense of what works and doesn’t work.
- Editing: Where we start editing: dropping the things that drain our energy or don’t fit our aptitude and passions. We get focus and find the work that allows us to be the best version of ourselves.
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Mastering: We invest in the best version of ourselves; master our profession, our calling, the particular brand of awesome that we’re after.
- Harvesting: We deal with the rewards of all our learning, editing, and mastering, and when we work the hardest, and reap the greatest rewards. I know this is where I am now. While I will never stop learning, I am focusing on learning in ways that help with the harvest now.
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Guiding: Our final step, helping others on the path.
My key takeaways?
- Entitlement will kill me. We work for everything we get in life.
- The voices in my head are dead wrong. Especially the one that lies to me about time. Jon has an entire section dedicated to helping us debunk our lying voices and live in the reality that, yes, we can be awesome despite our fears and despite our doubts.
- I need my own Central Park. Without downtime and self care… we are likely to implode.
Rather than give you a book review, I thought I would instead share my favorite quotes with you.
Why? Because who knows if we like the same kinds of books.
Plus, quotes are sharable. 😉 And I think these are not only really good, but are also worth sharing. So, glean what you can from the quotes and make your own decision about reading the book… but I recommend you do!
“What’s something you would still do even if no one ever clapped, or you never made a dollar, or you never had a moment in the spotlight?”
[tweetthis]”Finish the sentence: ‘This would never work, but I’ve always wanted to ___________.’”[/tweetthis]
“Living with purpose allows you to start today, start where you are, and start on what matters to you. Don’t get locked into a single purpose statement that suffocates you. Live with purpose and enjoy a thousand different passions as you continually walk the road to awesome.”
“Life is now less about how old you are and more about when you decide to live.”
“You have to be brutally realistic about your present circumstances and wildly unrealistic about your future circumstances.”
“Instead of asking, what would I love to start doing? Ask, what can I not stop doing?”
If you give it a read, I would love to hear what you think. Will you tell me here?