What to Do When You Have No Idea What to Do
Great new book out! Tess Vigeland’s Leap is a brave new book about leaving a job you love (or one you don’t really love) to find something better.
***
What’s it like to quit your job with no backup plan—and not just any job, but a nationally-known, prestigious position as the host for NPR’s Marketplace show?
That’s what Tess Vigeland did recently, and two years ago she spoke at WDS 2013 to give us the first version of the story.
“What everybody wanted to know was… what are you going to do next?! And I had the lamest answer of them all: I don’t know.
The follow-up question was even worse: Well, what do you WANT to do?
I wanted to go home and curl up with my cats.
No, no, Tess – go read ‘What Color Is Your Parachute!’ Watch some TED Talks about finding your passion! Go take a class that you’ve always wanted to take!
Great advice… But inside my head, I was paralyzed. Getting your brain to really, really open up to all the possibilities, it’s so much harder than I ever imagined.”
Read the full transcript from Tess’s speech here.
Her brand-new book Leap tells the rest of the story.
I really like this book, and it was fun to learn that several people in our community were part of its development. It’s partly a memoir, but more importantly it puts forward a message on how success can be measured by happiness and fulfillment, not by how far you travel on a traditional career path.
If you want to leave your job—whether you love it, hate it, or are somewhere in between—this book should be at the top of your reading list.
Link: Order your copy of Leap from Tess’s website
Link: Order your copy of Leap from Amazon
###
Image: Fred Mancosu
