ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR

BOOK REVIEW ON

GET WHAT YOU WANT OUT OF LIFE AND WORK

By: MARK HOLDEN

INTRODUCTION

The book chosen for book review is GET WHAT YOU WANT OUT OF LIFE AND WORK balancing work and personal goals. This book is written by Mark Holden. It is published by Business and Professional Publishing Pty Ltd, Australia and Distributed by Viva Books Private Limited.

Reasons for selecting the book:

8 August, 2011 was an important day of my life; it was the day which added a new chapter to my life. After completing my graduation in Bachelors in Management Studies (BMS) I was ready to go one step ahead and do my Masters in Management Studies. 8 August, 2011 was the day when my MMS course started. Initially I was very excited doing various assignment and projects which were part of my internal assessment. But slowly we started getting too many assignments and projects which was making my life a little unbalanced. I know this is just the beginning and I am supposed to do more work in future which will require me to balance my personal and professional life. This is the prime reason why I choose this book. There were few secondary reasons also why I choose this book1. Type-A personality: I am Type A personality person so when my job is not finished I feel very stressed. Also I want to ensure my work is planned and carried out accordingly but when there is any deviation I feel stressed to change planned things. 2. Difficulty in saying NO: I find difficult to say NO to people, because of this I do things which I dont want to do and they feel exhausted and stressed. 3. Feel Guilty when not spending time with family: Because of hectic lecture schedule I find it difficult to take out time for my family, friends and relatives which makes me feel guilty. By reading and understanding this book I wish to solve these primary and secondary problems and maintain balance in my life and make it simpler.

About the Author:

Mark Holden is a prominent author, speaker and executive coach based in Sydney. He spends most of his time in Australia, but is also in demand internationally as keynote speaker and presenter. Mark has qualifications in Theology, counselling and psychotherapy, as well as postgraduate qualifications in management, business and training and development. For the past 10 years he has worked predominately in the areas of executive learning and large-scale organisational development and change. He has developed a reputation for facilitation and training that is practical, result- focused, stimulating and fun.

Book in a nutshell:
We all know that work is an essential and rewarding part of our lives. However, too often we concentrate on it to the exclusion of other equally significant life areas. This book particularly helps us to understand that there are other important areas in life where we need to spend our quality time and also helps us to know how we can balance our life by allocating proper time to all the key areas in life. In the book the author represents a rationale for why our work and our life seem to be so out of kilter. The author also talks about life and also tries to highlight that there is no end to the challenges we seem to face; in fact they seem to be increasing exponentially as each day goes by, but we need to do is to work out a plan which will help us in balancing our life. The first chapter provides the foundation of the book and introduces the 7K Model, a simple model for viewing and, in turn, interpreting the balance, or lack of balance, in our life. For most of us, life is complex and multifaceted and often it is extremely difficult for us to put everything that is going on in any sort of context. By looking at the many activities of our life in terms of the 7K Model we will be able to identify the areas of our life that need the most attention. The 7K Model highlights the key areas in life which are Spiritual, family, Health, Finance, Work, Social and Self.

SELF SOCIAL

SPIRITUAL

LIFE
FAMILY WORK HEALTH
FINANCE

Principles of balance:
The remaining chapters focuses on what the author refers to as the Principles of balance, the fundamental we need to grasp in order to establish and maintain balance in our lives. These four important principles are:

1. Seek Simplicity: Society, work and consequently our lives are becoming increasingly complex. As we are bombarded with time and labour saving devices that are supposed to make our lives easier and provide us with more time for ourselves- Life seems to be getting busier and more complicated. This chapter explores the concepts of simplicity and how to untangle our lives to provide the time for quality activities. Life today seems to be focussed on quantity and quality. It seems to be about pace, volume, noise, speed and getting across things, so much so that we dont have the time to think.

2. Invest in the things you value most: This chapter discusses the role that values play in our lives; how our every action and behaviour is driven by the values that sit at the core of our psyche. We come to know the importance of our value system, how it works and, and most important, what our own value system looks like. The reality is- the things we really consider valuable are already getting our time. The things that are not high on our list of priorities are getting the least time.

3. Work to a master plan: One of the principles of balance is to make sure you work to some sort of master plan for your life: to know where it is you want to end up and basically how you intend to get there; to ensure that all of the areas you have identified as key values in your life are being addressed and are progressing in a direction you are comfortable with. This chapter will underline the importance of life planning and will provide practical ideas for developing a more structured approach to your life journey. It will introduce a practical and workable model for providing and planning for all of the areas of your life that you need to keep in balance. 4. Learn to Say No! The last of the principles of balance discussion centres on your ability to when to say No. While some may feel that it is rude to say no, in many cases it is the right thing to do to avoid pressure and to achieve those thing that are important to you. Saying No is about taking control of your life and not allowing others to dominate your time and manipulate your agenda. This chapter explain how to say No without being offensive. You will learn practical and easy ways to identify the activities that align with your core values and life plans.

Mark Holden introduces the four principles of balance and offers practical ways to apply them to the seven key life areas: spiritual, family, career, financial, health, social and self. You can learn how to devote more guilt-free time and energy to neglected areas and achieve your ideal state.

Objective of the book: The main objective of the book is to challenge you to look at your life and be brave enough to make some changes where you feel it is necessary.

Key Learnings from the book:

This book helped me to understand what are the key areas in my life which I need to take care of, this helped me to understand that apart from work or my studies there are areas where I need to spend time.

 The book also says that you need to take control of your life otherwise other people will control it. This book also helped me to understand how to say No in an assertive manner, so that I will not hurt the person seeking favour or help. This will help me to concentrate on core and important work. And this way I wont feel stress or anxiety. This book also teaches us how to make life simpler. It says proper planning can help in proper scheduling of work and will also help in achieving desired targets or goals and maintaining work life balance.

Few Inspiring and beautiful lines from the book:

1. Do not dwell in the past; do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present. 2. Your destiny is in your hand, there should be no doubt about that. 3. Many aspects of life are random and indiscriminate. There is no divine reason behind most of the things that happen in our lives, they just happen. Some things we can control, many others we cant. Consequently, we must live each day with meaning and intent because it could well be our last. 4. The tragedy of life is not that it ends too soon, but that we wait so long to begin it. 5. The beauty of simplicity of lifestyle lies in quality, order and control. 6. Simplicity is not about losing variety and richness in your life, it is about avoiding complications, frustration and hassle that causes anxiety and stress. 7. Success is about making choices. 8. What you really believe, you will do. 9. If you want to achieve anything in life you have to work out what you want to do and then make plans to achieve it! 10. If you want to live a balanced life you must develop the skill of saying NO.