“Given the volatile economy, rising costs of living, and likelihood that safety nets like social security and savings may not cover expenses when you are older, it is imperative that you start now to find the work that engages your heart and soul,” Anderson writes in the introduction to her new book, Work with Passion in Midlife and Beyond: Reach your Full Potential & Make the Money you Need.

An extremely inspiring title indeed and a very helpful book for those who are contemplating a career change, or have been in a layoff and see the need to reinvent themselves to achieve success in their careers.

I couldn’t agree more when I during the first few pages of the book I came across this statement: “Identifying and facing your fears is a crucial step in the first stage of change.”

The book revs up in a gentle massaging way, the author focuses your attention on how to streamline your life – the mental preparedness is essential to any strong beginning and if you need a major re-work in your life to begin on a fresh start to rewrite your story of life. You might wonder if you go through the first 80 pages of this book as to why it was so important t0 re-visit my triumphs and failures in life and why I need to clarify more on who I am today? But then, look again, the title of this book has an important word “passion” for those in midlife and beyond, and it is through revisiting your life history and an in-depth analysis of your present stand you slowly start seeing the light – to create a template of success to find the work you would love to do – when work is no more work, it is a passion and true bliss.

Some wonderful thoughts that I truly loved in this book are:

  • Notice what you enjoy that others think is hard work.
  • A sense of timelessness is another clue that you are on the passion path.
  • Your mind is on what’s in front of you, like a child on the beach with a bucket and shovel building a sand castle.
  • Parcells’s third rule of leadership is to set and reach small goals. When people set small, visible goals, he says, and they achieve them, they get it into their heads (their subconscious) that they can succeed.

I admired deeply the authors’ take on providing us with a step by step look at some must do action items, it not through reading, inspiration alone that one can achieve the path to success; you achieve so by crafting practical goals and time bound action plans. Perhaps this book could have achieved more if it had the worksheets and all, but hey at time you just need such a book to motivate you to action, to clear up the many cobwebs of mind and the surroundings and at times you just need such a book to put your legs up and soak up some wise valuable suggestions and insights on how your personality type influences success in a particular career.

Nancy Anderson takes a good take through this book on streamlining life midlife, post-retirement or after a layoff and can be many such women would find a lot in common to some of the stories which the author narrates throughout the book and will find helpful as they search for a new career or job or perhaps it is the right time to reinvent and start something new altogether!

 Learn more about Nancy Anderson and Work With Passion In Midlife And Beyond here.