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Rescue Monday, Reinvent Your Work, and Never Get Stuck

After exploring the entire content of Jon Acuff’s book – ‘Do Over’ – I have experienced a nourishing state of mind.

I have realized that, in terms of career, the majority of people deal with almost the same frustrations, doubts, fears, uncertainties, vulnerabilities.

What does Do over mean from Jon Acuff ’s point of view? Check some nuggets (visual quotes from books) and the book summary below to at least have a clue about it.

Jon Acuff’s ‘Do Over’ is one of that kind of books that, beyond effectively dealing with professional issues that most of us encounter, challenges ourselves to take a deep look at the way we approach our own life.

Hence, it invites us to declare first a Do Over to our inner self. To our own thoughts. But also to our behavior – as a prerequisite to engaging in re-configuring our careers.

RELEARN / DO OVER

We have to relearn how to be present.

Do Over is written from a multi-perspective approach. This is what makes the book suitable for almost any type of career phase that one might be confronted with throughout the entire professional life.

I hate reading for no purpose. So, I often chase myself in the mirror. There I find myself at the very beginning of developing a fabulous career path and facing all the inherent struggle.

My journey of discovering this mesmerizing book was just about the right motivational boost that came just at the right time.

“Do Over PDF Summary”

In Do Over you’ll discover the way to liberation and to self-achievement.

We save for rainy days when it comes to our bank accounts, but don’t do anything to protect our careers from the storm.

Starting from the premise that ‘We were taught to work jobs, not build careers’,Jon Acuff introduces the innovative concept of The Career Savings Account, described using the following formula:

(Relationships + Skills + Character) * Hustle= Career Savings Account

Based on this assumption, Jon Acuff structures the entire content of his book by organizing it in four main chapters which are rather referred to as ‘investments’:

• Relationships
• Skills
• Character
• Hustle

Each of these four elements generates one component of the ‘Do Over’ Chart which is made up of the following:

Career Ceiling (Skills Investments), Career Jump (Character Investment), Career Bump (Relationships Investment) and Career Opportunity (Hustle Investment).

The idea of establishing a Career Savings Account may be very useful to any of us. How often have you been consciously aware of the fact that your career is based on the interdependence and simultaneous coordination of these four constituents?

You’ll find in this book plenty of shockingly uncomfortable statements. For instance, Jon Acuff’s book forces ourselves to confront ourselves with is the fact that before blindly struggling to invest in enriching our careers, we should first take the necessary amount of time to create enhancement inwards.

As counterintuitive as it may seem, always the inside determines the outside and not vice versa.

Only after we work hard to actually and practically attain this, we can shift our attention to the professional side of our lives. Otherwise, our efforts will be wasted.

Great passions usually come with great fears.

What if we were able to consciously admit the presence of the fear in our own lives? What if instead of trying to fight it, we accept it as a matter of fact? What if we overcome this fear and make the most out of it?

As crazy as it may seem, it is possible to take advantage of our own fear.

Metaphorically stating that ‘Fear is not a dragon to be slain once, it’s an ocean to be swum daily’, throughout his book, the author brings evidence of the mechanism of fear. And also of the fact that fear lays at the heart of each and every action that we decide not to pursue in our life.

Fear loves daydreamers and can’t stand day doers.

I can’t predict the future, but I can change the present.

Another major relevant aspect that Jon Acuff’s book reveals is related to our attitude.

His assertion towards this subject aims to bring a real ‘hurricane’ into our comfort zone.

Hence, the author forces us to face the reality. Attitude is a decision and it is a choice we make every single moment. And this impacts every little aspect of our lives.

If we come to realize that we can change our life by changing our attitude, we have gained a tremendous victory regarding our self-achievement.

Generosity is always cheaper than greed.

Jon Acuff’s book surprisingly brings to light generosity as one of the most influential pillars of our career path.

Even if at first sight we may not perceive a close connection between generosity and career, the two are deeply interdependent.

The author exposes the idea that generosity creates loyalty and invites us to experience the wonderful benefits of being generous and having empathy. Both upon our personal and professional life.

We have to learn to overcome the false presumption that ‘when it comes to our jobs, other people have to lose in order for us to win.’

In a world growing increasingly distracted, do the wildly unusual and be present.

Surrounded by a gadgetry heaven, with the help of all the present abundance of technological development, it seems that today we live in the golden age of inter-human relationships.

Though, the sad reality is exactly the opposite.

We feel more comfortable getting intimate with our virtual ‘pals’. But we experience inhibition when it comes to establishing connections with other people.

The problem is that we have forgotten the natural, authentic state of actually being present.

Jon Acuff warns us that if we desire better, deeper relationships and seek for more lucrative career opportunities, we have to relearn how to be present. Both physically and mentally.

Jon Acuff’s vision profoundly impressed me once again with this statement.

Our human nature revolves around expectations. We inhale and exhale expectations.

We constantly develop a defensive barrier to protect ourselves from the unknown and remain stuck in the known with the use of our limitless weapons, expectations.

This toxic subconscious mechanism that we are so fond of, also applies in terms of career issues. It represents the main cause of our bad attitude towards work and our general dissatisfaction with respect to our jobs.

When engaging in a professional opportunity, we have to clearly recall one thing that the author of the ‘Do Over’ book suggestively puts into words:

Making sure you enjoy work isn’t your company’s job. It’s your job.

Reinventing your work isn’t an event, it’s a lifestyle.

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“Do Over Quotes”

Our Critical Review

No matter how different and outstanding we may want to consider ourselves on the outside, deep down inside we are very alike.

This book helped me become aware of the fact that we are capable of far more than we think. We have much more skills than we imagine. Unfortunately, most of them remaining hidden inside our fears.

Do Over makes us ask ourselves: are we going to face the fear of today or the regret of forever?

Are you going to face the fear of today or the regret of forever?

It’s on us!