“Imagine This: Creating the Work You Love” by Maxine Clair
c.2014, Bolden
$16.00 / $18.95 Canada
208 pages
 
You can’t imagine being at your job much longer.
 
The funny thing is, it was once your dream job. You couldn’t wait to get to work back then, but now you’re bored and looking for something that excites you again. Reading “Imagine This: Creating the Work You Love” by Maxine Clair might help you do that.
 
What contributes to a good life?
 
Maxine Clair says that many people find a hobby to nurture self-expression, or they’re encouraged to practice the talents they were given at birth. Those are the things that help to make a good life but sometimes, while engaging in such activities, we may forget to play. Learning to pay attention to that, and to what surrounds us, is one of the first steps to awareness and contentment.
 
Next, write down what you want. This serves several purposes: it helps to define desires through contemplation and reflection. It allows for clarity, discovery, and affirmation. Later, it helps with visualization to set a path to your goals, because it’s easier to get what you want when you’ve trained your brain to act as though you already have it.
 

Never stop anticipating the next step, says Clair. Live with a single-minded focus on what it is you want. Make a map of your intended path and use your passion but don’t become complacent: never stop acquiring the skills you require, and practice what you need to get where you want to be. Do research on classes you might take or people you may want to meet, and plunge into the world they inhabit. While doing so, however, beware of sabotaging your new life with distractions.
 
Finally, while reaching outside for a creative goal, remember to take care of your inner self. Practice gratitude by making a daily list of things for which you’re thankful. Learn to forgive, as self-preservation. And surprise yourself by pushing your own boundaries in giving. You’ll be amazed at what you get back.
 
Reading “Imagine This” is like making New Age stew: take a little Buddhism; a cup of Biblical teaching; a pound of memoir; a pinch each of inner peace, The Universe, and meditation; a teaspoon of creativity-boosting; and stir. 
 
It’s a recipe that not everyone’s going to like. 
 
That’s not to say that this is a bad book, but it’s not about work in the strictest business sense; it’s more about work as an artist might define. Think: creative and personal, rather than 9-to-5-cubicle. Indeed, author Maxine Clair is a poet and novelist, and that shows in this book’s ideas, hints, and the memoir that takes up most of what’s between these covers. That’s fine—but someone who sees the word “work” in the subtitle and picks it up, hoping for a book on business, could be mighty disappointed.
 
Overall, I think the audience for “Imagine This” lies in the creative soul who wants to take life to a new level and needs a righteous boost to do it. For the goal-oriented business-minded individual, however, imagine yourself walking on by…