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Book Review: Reboot Your Life

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…Energize Your Career and Life by Taking a Break.

Reboot Your Life: Energize Your Career and Life by Taking a Break by Catherine Allen, Nancy Bearg, Rita Foley, and Jaye Smith
Link to Amazon.com: Reboot Your Life on Kindle, currently just $2.99

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Are you due for a break, a meaningful, and restful one? If so, the best time is this time, and you can reboot your life all in one fell swoop.

Sabbaticals have broken free of the academic world, and they’re good for everyone, helping us keep better perspective of whether we live to work, or work to live. If you need a bit more convincing, the authors of this book have done a great job at reframing sabbaticals for us into the more modern notion of a “reboot break” covering 7 different versions that have become evidence of its mainstream appeal, and its wisdom.

I’d picked this up fully expecting it would well complement my recent urging that we managers consider the 20-hour work week as a wholesale societal rebooting of our normal workweek, a reinvention which is the silver lining of our Great Recession — and it does. The subject of a reboot break is covered thoroughly — there is much more content within this book than I’d expected to find — and I’d sum it up in these two themes: Convincing you of the benefits and possibilities (including good discussion of how to broach the subject with your employer), and then coaching you in making it count once you take the leap.

I’ve been able to take a 6-week sabbatical annually since purposely designing it into my business models back in 2004. My family, friends, and MWA clients know it as Ho‘omaha, the holiday hiatus given to all in my ‘Ohana in Business: We close for 3 weeks in December, and another 3 weeks in January. It now feels very natural and right to us, and best of all, it’s totally guilt-free; it feels smart, and it’s become quite strategic. I know we’re fortunate, now taking our Ho‘omaha holidays as matter-of-course as we do. So I also hoped the book would help me be more empathetic to those without the same freedoms we enjoy and capitalize on. Rebooting of some kind is often a transition which comes up in the Ho‘ohana coaching I do, so I can help managers bring more of ‘Imi ola into their lives as a value of lifestyle inventiveness and creativity.

The authors do not speak of values explicitly, but as they read The Reboot Break, MWA practitioners will make their value alignment connections often, and make them easily. For instance, the authors offer this as a common pattern of the Reboot Breaks which are most successful:

1. Creating Space – putting your life in order
(MWA’s Mālama, Ho‘okipa, Kuleana)
2. Reconnection – revitalizing connections to people, places, activities, and self
(MWA’s Lōkahi, Kākou, ‘Ohana)
3. Exploration – learning new things, especially through travel
(MWA’s ‘Ike loa, Ha‘aha‘a, Nānā i ke kumu)
4. Reentry – starting a new chapter of your life
(MWA’s Aloha, Mahalo, Pono)

I found the authors covered their subject well, offering substantial testimony over ‘what if’ supposition, but I still think the reader will have to be predisposed to the idea first if they’re to take the plunge and use this book as their roadmap. How badly do you want your own break, and how brave and determined are you?

Your best strategy might be the team approach: Get your work team and your family to read this with you. If you are between gigs, a good companion to this, perhaps for the “Exploration” phase of the reboot break you take, would be The Career Guide for Creative and Unconventional People by Carol Eikleberry: My book review is here.

From my own experience I can assure you: Ho‘omaha once, and you’ll never go back to a life without it.

View all my book reviews on Goodreads

Why Goodreads? They have become an App Smart choice for me, for I want to return to more book reading, and have set a goal to read at least 30 books this year. Read more about the Goodreads mission here, and let’s connect there if you decide to try it too! You can also follow them on Twitter.

Previous review done for Talking Story: Where Good Ideas Come From by Steven Johnson

Use this link if you prefer to read my book reviews here on Talking Story.

More on Reading in the Talking Story archives:

  1. Managers, you need to READ
  2. Deliberate Inputs
  3. Books Come to You at Least Twice

Value Verbing: Theme 2012 with your Aloha Spirit

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In my Makahiki letter, I’d said that I love this time of year because it is Ka lā hiki ola (the dawning of a new day) at its most pervasive moment: We human beings collaborate in self-care, and in our Ho‘ohana intentions. The whole world seems to be in sync, as we collectively look back to assess what we’ve come to know. We corral our confidences and our strengths, and then we look forward, expectantly, and with hopeful optimism knowing those confidences and strengths are packable and adjustable: They’ll remain with us, and they’ll remain useful.

What’s not to love? Aloha January!

Well, in a word, the overwhelm, especially in January’s looking-forward progression. There is a lot to sort through and make decisions about, especially if you try to mix new learning into the batch — it’ll be new learning, and so you’re essentially mixing in batches of unknowns. You’re taking some chances, and turning your resolve into another experiment.

There are two trends I’m seeing, where people are trying to self-manage, get better organized, and habit-create more effectively: Word themes and inputs.

Inputs over Outputs

I’m liking the focus on inputs (your activities: what you actually do) over outputs (the end-result outcomes, like goals and objectives).

We have more control with inputs — as the value of ‘Imi ola reminds us, we create our own destiny with each action we personally take. There are several more variables which will contribute to the success or failure of outputs, and they often have to do with other people, whose decisions (and thus actions) are ultimately out of our control. If the only inputs we can effectively direct and control well are our own, we are wise to concentrate our efforts wherever ‘me, myself, and I’ comes into play.

We may want to include others, so corroboration is a good thing. Thus wouldn’t we be wiser to focus on it as an input? How do we collaborate with others? What are the confidences and strengths of our own behavior, and how will we remain humble and open-minded (Ha‘aha‘a, the value of humility) so we become even better, and continue to grow?

Word themes

There’s no doubt about it, words are powerful. To state your choices deliberately, and then commit to them can be highly effective — as long as you actually follow through.

The potential problem I am seeing people run into, is in the choice of words they begin with. Many are outputs: health, happiness, wealth. Others are quite broad and need more description: creativity, freedom, organization. Even a word like ‘focus’ is probably too general: What are you going to focus on, and why?

You may say, “It’s a theme, and I know what I mean.” As a coach I’d challenge you on that: Wring out the details and take a good look at them. Are you giving yourself too much wishy-washy wiggle room? Will it be easy for you to abort, and shift your focus day by day? There’s a lot of noise in our world to get distracted by”

You can probably guess where I’m going with this! We all need help with our follow-through, so get your values to help you. That’s actually what they do best.

Choose Values and Verbs as your Inputs and your Words

Roll credits: As we’ve learned from Managing with Aloha, the big deal about values is that they drive our behavior by taking good direction from our self-aware sources.

Your values are the pilot lights of your human goodness, and they start the best fire (energy!) in the actions you choose to take. They are the easiest actions to follow-through with, because they are about you. Your values will reveal you, they fit you, and they celebrate you.

Knowing your personal value-drivers is self-affirming in the most extraordinary way: You learn about yourself, and what’s important to you, and why. You expose your vitality.

Why do you want this learning about you? The more you know about the wonder you are, the closer you get to knowing what you’re meant to do or create: Your Ho‘ohana (intentional work and purpose-driving) will get naturally connected to the work of your legacy.

Reading tip: If MWA has sat on your shelf for a while, open it up to chapter 17 on Nānā i ke kumu for a good review — “Look to your source” for it’s a wonderful place to be.

So do Choose your Words. Speak them often.

Be decisive so you can begin well. Seize January with both hands and with your soul.

Do choose the inputs which are the actions and activities you’ll commit to practicing daily, and allow them to gain traction, and strengthen you with more confidence.

Just be sure your words (or clarifying phrases) are active verbs, and know which of your personal values they are connected to. Beware the wiggle room, and go for that best fit your values will give you.

Fortify your own life, and begin the day-by-day work on the legacy you are meant to give to our world.

We ho‘ohana kākou, and with aloha,
Rosa

Learn more about value-alignment and value-mapping here: Value Your Month to Value Your Life

Book Jacket for Value Mapping

What do you know to be sure? Hō‘imi ola.

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Aloha dear friends, Hau‘oli Makahiki Hou — Happy New Year.

Good endings help us create good beginnings

I sincerely hope that 2011 ended with ma‘alahi joy for you (contentment), as it did for me. I am flush with the lush generosity of Mahalo (an elemental gratitude) as I sit and write this for you.

We were able to get our entire family together for a week-long Christmas celebration — quite the feat as we now live in three different cities with an ocean and quintet of job scheduling between us. The best gift I received wasn’t wrapped in bright paper and tied up with ribbon (though those were quite fabulous too); it was that strong surge of confident optimism one gets from spending giving time in the arms of ‘Ohana — family, and those you care most about in your world. We didn’t talk about it with each other explicitly, but I know we all ended the week feeling that the coming year will be good to us, and good for us, and that we’ll be good for it too. It will be our Ho‘ohana intention no matter the path of our lives.

This weekend has been blissful in another way, with a welcome abundance of quiet spells filled well, mostly with reading. Having both Christmas and New Year’s Day and their eves on consecutive weekends is the very best blessing of a calendar’s turning, don’t you think?

One of my husband’s gifts this year was an iPad2, and guess who has been using it most? It wasn’t something I had coveted, for I’ve been quite happy with my digital arsenal as is (MacBook, iPhone and Kindle if you’re wondering), but once I had the iPad in my hands I just had to play with it, and experiment!

Sidebar” it used to be that we’d “take a digital holiday” and mean that we were taking a break from our email, our blogs, and the nascent dabbling we did in social media. Now however, our app-crazed advancements have given us ‘digital degrees’ in a whole rainbow of possibilities (and quirks). Observing how a single choice can so dramatically affect our lifestyle habits is quite the fascination for me. What will morph from toy to new learning, and maybe to obsession? What value is at play, and thus, can be better revealed?

Did you ever think of apps that way, that they can awaken those assorted, still untested bits of your sleeping spirit?

One personal example for me is the app Fooducate: I now scan every barcode on a new purchase before I decide to buy packaged foods. The value at play for me is surely Mālama, and taking care of my own health with each food choice, something vitally important to me. No one wants to die of course, and neither do I, but I am someone who wants the direct route when my time arrives: I’ll eagerly bypass any physical care-getting in my waning years which just prolongs the inevitable.

A New Year brings so many new choices! Does it bring you focus? Intention?

So far, the apps rule with my iPhone, and I’m finding that the iPad is fantastic for reading web-based publishing (I’m sticking with book reading on my Kindle), and I yearn for some of the bloggers who have called it quits and have moved on. However there are so many new writers to be discovered, and where I use the iPad most is within my Google Reader.

Thus my ‘blissful weekend.’ Despite the never-ceasing yay-nay debates on setting resolutions, I absolutely love reading those blog entries where writers of all persuasion reflect on their old year, and then pen their Ho‘ohana (best work) and ‘Imi ola (best life) intentions for the coming year. They inspire the Aloha yearnings in me too: I can’t help but do the same thing — think about what I valued most in the past year, and what I intend to value most in the year to come.

Are you doing something similar, and reflecting too? I hope so.

Rally your gratitude and let Mahalo fortify you too.

Nānā i ke kumu, and look to your source. Grab your quiet time, then refresh and rejuvenate.

Be deliberate, and make your choices as you know are best for you and your life.

Ho‘omau: Persist and persevere — be downright stubborn about making your life the best it can possibly be.

That possibility is your birthright as a human being. Quite wonderful.

My value for 2012 will be ‘Imi ola

I am still reading, still journaling as I do, and still sorting out my listing of intentions, editing them for best focus. This is a process I relish as the yearly gift it is, and I am taking my dear sweet time, savoring it.

What I have already decided, and can share with you on this early day in a shiny new year that is Ka lā hiki ola (the dawning of a new day, and the value of hope and promise) is this, an eagerness for me: My value-driver that will crown any and all lists I may make will be ‘Imi ola, “best possible life” in Managing with Aloha, the value that drives proactive mission, clear vision, and creative change.

What I know to be sure, is that 2012 is a year I want change — big change, and best-life change — and I’ll engineer it so it does happen.

I don’t want to imply any dissatisfaction with 2011, for I had a magnificent year, one that pleased me immensely. It served as a tasty bite of the bigger change that is possible for me, and so in 2012 I’m stepping it up and going for more with gusto!

I’ll share my progress with you as time goes by and things shift and take better shape, but for now, let’s focus on you.

What do you know to be sure? Hō‘imi ola.

Is there anything you know to be sure for you at the moment you read this? Seize that thought, and ask yourself what value is driving you being so sure. (Remember that the Managing with Aloha values are listed on the blog sidebar if you want to skim over them as reminders or triggers.)

Some gentle coaching: Only do this with your positive thoughts. Replace any negativity with ‘on the bright side’ thinking, and steer every shred of your being toward optimism: Hō‘imi ola. (Use the 3 Secrets of Being Positive.)

Please know I do wish you blessings this year, and that they’ll magically rain down upon you with a delightful wonder. However the person who manages their life with Aloha knows those wishes are an added bonus, don’t you. You know that you can make life happen in the way you want it to, and that your values will always help you, guiding you toward your own Aloha vitality.

I am so happy to know we have found each other to share that slice of sureness. Thank you for reading, and giving me part of this, your own day for Ka lā hiki ola.

We ho‘ohana kākou. Much aloha to you,
Rosa

From last year: Ignore the Resolution Bashers
Also in the archives: Be Proactive; Values by Choice as Your Habit

As shared on Work is not a job:


“For last year’s words belong to last year’s language. And next year’s words await another voice. And to make an end is to make a beginning.” – T.S. Eliot

All Hallows Eve Values

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Happy Halloween!

Kohala Mountain Morning

Feel that orange glow? I do… holidays like this one are wonderful in the way they get us to connect with our values so automatically, don’t you think?

Halloween is a favorite in our family, for beyond all the obvious fun of the day, it’s my husband’s birthday. So family — and ‘Ohana in Managing with Aloha — is always a character value of this particular holiday for me and my children as we plot his surprises in ways more twisted than usual for birthdays. We can’t think about the day without thinking about each other and remembering some nuttiness, and that’s always a good thing. There is a lot of laughter in our Halloween.

Another can’t-help-it for me, is thinking about Aloha, and its inside-us nature. The spirit of Aloha is our spirit, and so it goes with us everywhere, present in everything we do. No costume will ever cover it up, and no candy can be sweeter. Have you noticed that too, how the real person shines through the most elaborate costume?

Then there’s that sweet anticipation of October 31st: It seems to arrive in clockwork fashion today, right on time. Palpable, isn’t it?

I was taught that Halloween is “all hallows eve,” the day and night before the solemnity of All Saints Day, so while dressing up, indulging in too much candy and going to street parties are more strongly connected to present day celebrations in our neighborhood too, I do think about Ka lā hiki ola, that “dawning of a new day” as another chance to always become better. Within my childhood-given values, this time was strongly connected to the goodness of those Saints as normal folk who were so inspiring, and often overcame such adversity (the value of Ho‘omau) — heck, they were saintly people, but they started out normal, just like me! So I get filled with the hope and the promise of everything yet to come, and I get more confident and expectant, knowing that November, December and January hold promises galore — there is so much to look forward to, and as the value of Mahalo reminds us, so much to already be thankful for, and to be happy you dwell within.

And yet the best thing about Halloween may be all the fun and playfulness. Nothing is taken that seriously, and we even laugh about the frightfulness in its theming. My goodness, this is a day we get so creative, dabbling in ‘Imi ola in unique yet silly ways. I have always loved the way that people will let loose in the workplace on Halloween, bending the rules, ignoring uniforms and other branding, and allowing the lighthearted pleasure of the day to take over.

So as you unwrap your favorite treat today, stop for a moment and think about the rest of your goodness too: The wonder of your own values will come out to play today, because as Aloha assures us, they are always with you. As a smiling jack-o-lantern might say, could he talk story with you, your values are “for time immortal.”

Have a fun Halloween.

Our canine Say ‘Ohana: Kobe, Meeko and Mana:

Pumpkin Dogs

Aloha! Just joining us?

Talking Story is the blog home of those who are learning to be Alaka‘i Managers — those committed to managing and leading with Aloha. Read a preview of the book which inspired this movement, and visit our About Page.

Talking Story with Rosa Say