From Grumpy's Garage

Jeff Goins, in Chapter Four of  The Art of Work ,  Building Bridges , talks about when and how to make moves toward answering your calling. Taking a "Leap of Faith" isn't always necessary. You can often build a bridge to get to the other side. But you'll still need to get off your butt and out of your comfort zone. I've also recently finished reading  Living Forward , by Michael Hyatt and Daniel Harkavy. They outline a method to identify your life goals and craft a path to get there. Both books use a map metaphor: Living Forward helps you identify a destination and create a map; The Art of Work says you don't necessarily need a map to get started. "If you want to go to the beach, start by getting out of Kansas," Goins writes (my paraphrase). You can't make progress sitting still. And moving might be scary. Even if you have a map to your goal, it probably has a big section labeled, "Thar Be Dragons Here." Yes, there are unknowns. Yes, th...

 I'm waiting to board a flight to San Francisco. Before I left the house this morning, I figured I'd better pick a book to read from my vast collection of half-read titles. I wanted something to inspire me. I've been feeling anxious about my day job lately. And that anxiety was giving rise to feelings of resignation and a sense of ennui. Don't get me wrong. Normally I love my job. I work for one of the best employers in the country---probably in the whole world. Indeed, Fortune magazine has rated my employer as the best for the last seven out of 10 years. I work for Google. All those stories about how cool it to work at Google---free gourmet meals, subsidized onsite massages, 20%-time projects---they're all true. I have nothing to complain about. But am I living up to my potential? Am I doing what I was born to do? Increasingly I've been feeling like I should be doing more, realizing my dreams, my full potential. But what is my potential? What are my dreams? I t...