A library organised by the question it helps with.

Resources

• Book

  The Element / Finding Your Element

  Sir Ken Robinson

  The clearest account of what happens when natural aptitude meets the right environment, and why so many capable people are judged in the wrong one.

  Used in: What am I actually good at?

• Book

  Working Identity

  Herminia Ibarra

  Most relevant if the evidence points somewhere your current career doesn't go. People act their way into a new direction rather than thinking their way into one.

  Used in: What am I actually good at? · What this part of my life is about · Build your story · What do you want to be known for?

• Course

  Stanford Life Design / Odyssey Planning

  Bill Burnett and Dave Evans, Stanford Life Design Lab

  Useful if your abilities look portable but you cannot picture a life other than the one you already have.

  Used in: What am I actually good at? · What this part of my life is about · Build your story

• Article

  CliftonStrengths

  Gallup

  Worth treating as an additional data point, not a definitive answer. Compare it with the evidence you gathered rather than letting it replace it.

  Used in: What am I actually good at?

• Book

  The Second Mountain

  David Brooks

  Useful where achievement versus contribution, or a changing definition of success, has emerged.

  Used in: What this part of my life is about

• Talk

  Why Some of Us Don't Have One True Calling

  Emilie Wapnick, TED

  Useful where you have several strong interests and feel pressure to choose one identity.

  Used in: What this part of my life is about

• Book

  Reinventing You

  Dorie Clark

  Useful when professional repositioning is the point. How reputation actually changes, and how long it takes.

  Used in: Build your story · What do you want to be known for?

• Talk

  The Danger of a Single Story

  Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, TED

  Useful where one aspect of your identity has become the dominant story through which you, or everybody else, understands you.

  Used in: Build your story

• Book

  Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind

  Al Ries & Jack Trout

  For the idea that positioning ultimately exists in other people's minds.

  Used in: What do you want to be known for?

• Book

  Obviously Awesome

  April Dunford

  A product-positioning methodology, but useful here for thinking about alternatives, differentiation, value, audience and category.

  Used in: What do you want to be known for?

• Podcast

  WorkLife: The Case Against Personal Branding

  Adam Grant

  An important counterargument: contribution and genuine relationships matter more than manufacturing an image.

  Used in: What do you want to be known for?

• Book

  Designing Your Life

  Bill Burnett & Dave Evans

  For exploring several possible lives and testing them rather than assuming there is one perfect future waiting to be discovered.

  Used in: What do you actually want?

• Book

  Four Thousand Weeks

  Oliver Burkeman

  For the uncomfortable but useful reality that time is finite and choosing one thing necessarily means not choosing countless others.

  Used in: What do you actually want?

• Book

  The Good Life

  Robert Waldinger & Marc Schulz

  For the long-running Harvard research into relationships and what appears to contribute to a good life.

  Used in: What do you actually want?

• Book

  Die With Zero

  Bill Perkins

  For thinking differently about money, time, health and experiences across different stages of life.

  Used in: What do you actually want?

• Book

  Essentialism

  Greg McKeown

  For choice, priorities and accepting that meaningful decisions contain trade-offs.

  Used in: What do you actually want?

• Podcast

  Know Thyself: How to Find the Meaning of Your Life

  Arthur Brooks

  On meaning, happiness and the danger of using achievement as the only scoreboard.

  Used in: What do you actually want?

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