Make yours personal and drop a cherry bomb or two

This month, my book will be a year old. Wow. It has been quite a year.

When I do book-signings for Managing with Aloha I am continually surprised by the different things people will dictate to me as the inscriptions they want when purchasing the book as a gift for someone else. I’ve even had someone ask me to sign it as Rosalie to pretend that my real name was the same as the person the book was intended for.

After a presentation I did last week, a young woman came up to me with two copies of my book. One was hers, and she took great delight in showing me how she had underlined and flagged any reference I’d made about my feelings that work is personal. There were stars and happy faces in bright colored pens all over page 97 where those three words show up as a chapter sub-heading. The second copy of my book was to be a gift for her dad. She’d flagged and highlighted the same parts, and she asked me to write,

“With my aloha for George, because work is so very personal.
Ho‘ohana (work with passion, purpose, and full intention) and ‘Imi ola (seek your best life at work). It will lighten your load and make your heart sing, and it will make your daughter happy.
Manage with aloha, and live with aloha,
Rosa Say.”

You can read the rest of the story here: Make Mine Personal. It’s my Thursday article for Lifehack.org.

In the article I also referenced a ChangeThis manifesto written by Sally Hogshead, which she calls Cherry Bombs, A Supplemental Kit to Radical Careering (her new book). I highly recommend you visit ChangeThis and download Sally’s e-book, for two reasons. One the manifesto is wonderful and will get you moving, and second, if you are thinking of writing a manifesto yourself — surely you have a viral idea or two you want to spread! — I think Sally’s is a great example of how to structure one and present your thoughts well, and in an exciting, highly readable way.

I absolutely love her Cherry Bombs: She calls them that, suggesting they can help you when you are ready for a change, want to move forward, are willing to sacrific to do so, but you are unsure how to overcome your personal or organization paralysis. Among my favorites (there are 9 Cherry Bombs in the manifesto).

Optimism ain’t for Wussies.
Ruin the Bell Curve.
Your Job is Difficult and you are Busy. Get Over it.
Emotion without Action is Useless.
You can’t do Killer Work at a Mediocre Company.

Sally is a wonderful wordsmith, and her bio says that “In her second year as an advertising writer, Sally won more awards for creativity than any other writer in the country.” …I’m not surprised. If you love Sally, she has a new blog too: Click in and say I sent you.

Much mahalo to Dave Rothacker for introducing me to Sally. Such is the awesome power of our community!
Mahalo; We give thanks.

Nov. 18 Update: Sally has posted her story behind the writing of her ChangeThis manifesto.