I have some good news--in the 24 hours between Wednesday and Thursday nights, I was very productive. I worked 16 hours and managed to finish two books! While it's fresh in my mind, I want to share my impressions of Chris Guillebeau's book The Art of Non-Conformity. I have briefly mentioned this book in my previous posts Reading Suggestions and Reasons Why. My parents, caught up on the word "conformity," claimed that I didn't have any problems with questioning the norms. However, the author's intentions are far from my parent's initial impressions about rebelling against what most people enjoy or like. Instead, this book challenges your approach to your career and life goals in an enriching and inspiring method. Chris verifies this in the first sentence of the book by stating, "The purpose of this book is to transform your thinking about life and work."
Chris is believable and compelling because he has successfully lived out his book since his 20's. Countless authors make claims and suggestions in their writing, but fail to actually apply them to their own life. Christ provides you with examples from his own life for each major principle, and concurrently he encourages you to individualize the process for your interests and goals.
To benefit from the ideas presented in his book, Chris says the following: "You must be open to new ideas. You must be dissatisfied with the status quo. You must be willing to take personal responsibility. You must be willing to work hard." If you meet those, then he challenges you to fully evaluate what you want most out of life. The way he does this abruptly made me realize that I had never fully determined what I did want out of life or my true life goals. It got me thinking, "What I am I actually working towards?" [One of Chris's life goals happens to be traveling to every country in the world by the time he is 35. Currently he is at 149/192-you can track his progress here.]
Chris maintains that most people don't live to retire, but rather they live to work. For many, work gives them purpose, meaning, and even happiness. However, valuable time is wasted on pointless work. Therefore the goal is to continuously be focused on doing "great work" and eliminating all of the things wasting your time (meetings & emails are included in this).
Chris intertwines multiple steps and parts to the process of dedicating your life to great work, so I will leave that to your reading. I have given you the idea behind the book. Now I want to answer a couple questions on my impressions.
1. What are my criticisms of the book?
Chris states, "As a part of the experience of being alive, I believe we're looking to find our place in the world. On a planet of seven billion people, where do we fit in? This is essentially the central question of life..." I definitely am critical of that statement and many more he makes throughout the book along these lines. At the end of the book, Chris dedicates an entire chapter to our need to leave a legacy behind. Although your legacy and finding where you fit in the world are important, I do not believe these are our motivations in life. Our human nature causes us to have an eternal desire to be satisfied in something more, something greater. I believe this is our desire to seek fulfillment in God, and these desires are only fully and truly satisfied in Him. As Saint Augustine wrote, "You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you." We seek love, joy, peace, happiness-which are all manifested in Christ.
2. What does this book mean to nursing?
The practice of nursing is often guided by the safe way of doing things. Safe, in this case, meaning "the way we have always done things." Evidence-based practices in nursing, prime examples of innovative approaches to patient care, interrupt the monotonous ways of going about your day. Stepping out of the safety zone and actually focusing on great work can add a lot to improving the quality of nursing care. Rushing through patient assessments and encounters may seem necessary with the fast-paced environments on hospital units, but does that really achieve great nursing?
Nursing is on a fence right now. With the struggling economy and potential for system overload with the new health care reform, nursing can easily spiral downward. It's obvious that nursing dissatisfaction is rapidly rising with these tensions. If nurses take charge and challenge the old way of doing things, nursing has the potential to pull through strongly. Is the current way of doing things sustainable? Do you really think that your day is filled with great work? Instead of wishing that the circumstances of your job were different or better, take action on your ideas.
Continuing to consider the implications of the ideas of The Art of Non-Conformity, here are two quotes to reflect on this quote that you can find in Chris's book:
"I don't understand why people are frightened of new ideas.
I'm frightened of the old ones."
- John Cage
I'm frightened of the old ones."
- John Cage
"The gap between ignorance and knowledge is
much less than the gap between knowledge and action."
-Annonymous
