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My Life Map

my life map

I know. “My Life Map.” I’m cringing a little at the title too. It’s just so cheesy sounding.

And yet, I totally loved this little book/journal.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how my goal setting priorities are changing. For years, I’ve set goals at the new year (many of which I’ve shared here in the past), and it’s always been a good system for me.

But in the last two years, my life has changed a lot. I’m not moving rapidly through life changes like I was when I was attending college, getting married, getting a master’s degree, getting a real job, and preparing to become a parent.

Now my life is a lot less structured and not quite as predictable and measurable as it has been in the past.

Some, if not many, of the goals I’ve set in the last two years have started to feel more like goals for the sake of setting goals, rather than things I was really working hard to achieve.

All of which begged the questions, “What AM I trying to achieve? What do I want my life to look like? What is most important to me? And what am I doing to get there?”

My Life Map by Kate and David Marshall

Which means that I loved My Life Map. It focuses on whole life goals and ten year goals, rather than six or twelve month goals. It focuses on different areas in your life (family, friends, learning, work, service, play, etc) and provides a lot of structure for thinking about your past, present, and future and making plans that will have meaning to you, rather than just filling out some templates.

I tend to roll my eyes at the kinds of questions these books have – they are so trite or so broad that I find them embarrassing or useless. But all the questions in this book were really impressive to me. I’d read one and instantly an answer would come to me, and the answer would have some meaning in the framework of my whole-life goals. After ten or fifteen of these, I thought, “wow, I didn’t really realize that writing good questions for goal setting was such a skill. But these people clearly have that skill.”

This is the kind of book I’d feel completely comfortable giving to someone graduating from any level of schooling, getting married, starting a new job, embarking on the adventure of parenthood, or just looking for some guidance in their lives. It is really very well done.

I don’t keep all, or even most, of the books I read. Our shelf space is just too limited to keep books just because it’s a book. But this one is one I’m holding on to, so I can continue to refer to it and so that Bart, who loves this kind of thing, can read it too.

I read My Life Map for the BlogHer Book Club and you can read other reviews and discussions at BlogHer.
I am paid for my participation in the BlogHer Book Club, but I choose which books to read and my reviews are strictly my own opinions. If I think a book is terrible, I’ll say so. If I rave about a book, it’s because it’s one I’d give to Kayla or my mom.

If you liked this review of My Life Map, you might also like these books:

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3 Comments

  1. I love coming across books like this. I fear my reading takes a nose dive during holiday times with everything going on for all six of us!

  2. Okay, I just started working through this book this week, and I'm excited/scared. I think it'll be informative, though. 🙂

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