What I hope every reader will find in these pages (and I include the coaches, counselors and helpers who may be sought out to provide guidance in this process)  are many thought-provoking ideas for your consideration. You will find conversation starters, prompts for reflection, an impetus to share your life story with others. You will also find plenty of encouragement to get into action so that you can create your own islands of meaning, joy and service in our currently challenging world.

Part One opens the conversation about “calling” and “contribution” with very broad strokes, using the examples of others. When you discover and act on your own, most true impulses, where can it lead? What are the possibilities that resonate for you as you consider the variety of ways and venues to which others have been called?

Part Two begins laying out the queries you may want to pose to yourself. You get a chance to explore what you know about your unique passions, gifts, desires and calls to service—the ones you may already be expressing, and the ones you may want to express more consciously.

Part Three invites you to pause. You will have arrived at a place where you may have gotten some of the information you need about yourself. How might you want to proceed?

Part Four provides a “big nudge” for you to tell more of the truth about what you really want to be or do—no matter how new or intimidating. You get the opportunity to align your intentions at all levels, and to admit and transform any reluctance you are feeling about going for what you feel compelled and excited to do.

Part Five offers guidance illustrated by those who have taken action on their own behalf in the world. Hopefully it will serve as inspiration for some of the ways you may choose to move forward onto your desired life path.

Part Six acknowledges that as life proceeds, natural talents form into new and uniquely clustered gifts. Life purpose may take different forms, and it’s important to return to reflection: “What’s my authentic role at this time in my life on the planet?”

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TABLE OF CONTENTS (pdf file)

INTRODUCTION TO PART ONE (pdf file)

During this year and this process of putting pen to paper about what matters to me, I’m finding I’ve become more clear in three areas.

First, I have come to more fully appreciate the life I’ve lived doing what I have loved. I’ve felt privileged to have been a Peace Corps volunteer, a public school teacher, a National Park Ranger, a founding principal of my own management consulting and training practice, and a leader coach (30 of those professional years as Martha Spice).

Second, it has been a healing journey to bring to life my belief that doing more of what we love is good for us and good for those others with whom we share the planet. This book you’re holding in your hand is a personal milestone for me. Having arrived at this milestone, I’m newly aware that I’ve had too much fun to stop here. Therefore, I’m assuring that the title question will continue to live through its own website www.whynotdowhatyoulove.com.

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