I received an advanced readers copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions in this post are my own.
Hey Love Bugs! I recently had the opportunity to read Laura Gassner Ottings latest book, How to Ignore Everybody, Carver Your Own Path, and Live Your Best Life. It’s definitely a badass self help get your but together type of book. The moment that I opened the book and read the Introduction I was instantly captivated. Laura starts the book off by giving you an in-depth look at what society taught her about success and climbing the corporate ladder. The idea that many of us find ourselves following someone else’s advice about what success should look like, the fastest route there by any means necessary. Once you fill those check marks in that someone else has created for you where does that really leave you? Are you satisfied? Happy? Successful?
Laura learned after her period getting burned out at what society and her counterparts deemed successful that she was in fact bored, unsatisfied and
empty. She realized that she was stuck by the definition of success that had been placed on her. I can definitely relate. We’re taught to finish high school, graduate from college and go work a corporate job building someone else’s dream instead of ours. Granted I realize that everyone is an entrepreneur but I’m an advocate for everyone to live their best life unapologetically. Become Limitless!
In order for you to “Become Limitless” you must achieve consonance. So what exactly is consonance? Consonance is alignment, flow, a sense of believing that the work you love shows the best version of who you are. It’s a feeling that what you do matches who you are. The guiding force that reveals how your work (whatever that may be) contributes to your overall life’s plan. It can be applied to professional, societal, or personal.
The four elements of Consonance are calling, connection, contribution and control. The books states that you need to have at least some of each of the four. Laura insists that without all four elements, it is impossible to go from confusion to clarity and to feel confident and limitless in your choice.
CALLING is a gravitational pull towards a goal larger than yourself – a business you want to build, a leader who inspires you, a societal ill you wish to remedy, a cause you wish to serve.
CONNECTION gives you sight lines into how your everyday work serves that calling by solving the problem at hand, growing the company’s bottom line, or reaching that goal.
CONTRIBUTION means that you understand how this job, this brand, this paycheck contributes to the community to which you want to belong, the person you want to be, or the lifestyle you’d like to live.
CONTROL reflects how you are able to influence your connection to that calling in order to have some say in the assignment of projects, deadlines, colleagues, and clients; offer input into shared goals; and do work that contributes to your career trajectory and earnings.
For me after finding myself jobless after working corporate the thought of starting my own business crossed my mind while I was a working bee but I never gave much thought to putting my plan into action. There I was in that moment when I realized that I would be able to shift my mindset from Leader working in Corporate to Entrepreneur. Just as the book stated I begin to convince myself that I could truly achieve my own success on my unique one-of-a-kind path. This is the moment that I discovered that Consonance was easy to recognize. When I experience this I had no idea that it was consonance until I read Laura’s book, Limitless.As I read continued to readLimitless, I found so much of what Laura spoke of applying to my own life.
On page 17 Laura insist that “Following Your Passion is The World’s Worst Advice. By following your passion you’ll possibly find that your passion will rough you up. I love her transparency. She speaks to how your passion will disappoint you and gut you, maybe even your banking account. She teaches that we should invest in our passion rather than follow it. By devoting your time, treasure and talent to leaning into the goals that you set for your life plan. She share the story of Gary Hirshberg, founder of Stonyfield Farms the leading organic yogurt company that gets all its milk from local dairy cooperatives which in return didn’t limit his passion to running a single farm. Instead he made the decision to leap into the business sector and built a purpose-driven campaign.
This is a great book for students, professionals and those looking to change their careers or just wanting to take a leap of faith no matter their age. It’s a guidebook that helps the reader understand what success means for them and what they need to do and change in order for the process to work for them.
I personally learned the importance of ignoring traditional career rules and understanding that I must align my action and energy in order to do what really matters to me so that I can live my life to its fullest. My definition of success doesn’t need to look like my counter parts but identical to the vision that I have in mind for myself. Laura teaches you how to use wisdom to make decisions and a bit of tough love. Honestly I felt a bit stuck before reading “Limitless” and now I’m finding myself slowly but effectively achieving results.