My Life Map by Kate Marshall - Book Review

My Life Map: A Journal to Help You Shape Your Future by Kate Marshall
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Well, I didn't really like this book, but, you know, it's my own fault.

I'm a pantser. I don't make plans. Why? They always fall through. And the bigger and more detailed the plan, the worse it goes.

I had a big plan once. I was going to be one damn successful broadcast journalist. I was going to produce the hell out of news, in New York, no less.

And I almost made it; I really almost made it.

But here I am.

An accidental twin pregnancy, a layoff, a crumbled economy and a husband later, I find myself here in Gainesville, where they don't even HAVE a news market. (Seriously, we're market 169)

I'm home, taking care of my kids, and slowly, with no plan in place, I've begun to branch out again, taking on odd jobs that turned into regular jobs, writing, blogging, expanding my resume.

I just got into grad school. But I don't have a plan. It's just something to do that will hopefully pay off in the future. That's the only way life works for me.

And I want a plan, I really do. So I was excited to get this book. But with questions like, "where do you see your friendships in ten years?" I mean, I guess I was just a bit disappointed.

My answers got more and more vague.

Basically my life plan is: Keep my family, add some money and success.

That's it.

And I'm not going to project my death date, sorry.

One of the questions asked me to go through my pictures and make a collage with me in the center.

I skipped it.

Because in my currently plan--which is get as much shit done a day as humanly possible--I don't have time for an art project. I already know what is important to me, the question is what am I going to do with it?

And to get to those answers, I'm going to need a lot more probing questions than, "what have you given to service in the past five years?"

If I'm going to make a plan, I'm going to need to be ninjaed into it.

This book didn't do that.

There's a great discussion going on about planning right now at the Blogher Book Club.

**This review is part of the Blogher Bookclub review initiative, but the thoughts expressed are my own.

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