Juliet’s School of Possibilities: A Book Review

Expectations are infinite.
Time is finite.
You are always choosing.
Choose well.

It’s the heart of this little book.

A brand new release.

Non fiction.

A parable. A fable. A moral of the story kind of book.

Written by Laura Vanderkam, a time guru, this book is basically a story that teaches readers a lesson.

Honestly, it was an impulse pick up at the library.

The cover was red, it caught my eye, and it was on the new releases shelf – which meant I had to read it and return it in 14 days. Usually too risky for me.  (Those pesky library fines, you know.)

The idea and the concept of a parable like this was a little corny to me, I’ll confess.

But it was an engaging and fast read.  I expected to see it a little critically. Apparently I’m a cynic inside.

At first I did feel tempted to point out a couple surreal scenes, but why?

The point was, by the end, it was a powerful little tool of a book.  A story to push you (me) in the exact right direction. A reminder that is actually quite pertinent to my now.

One of the daily tensions in my life is the tension between what I WANT to do and what I HAVE to do.  

And this little parable just brought back to the forefront the truth that we all are sitting with the same time allotment.

I’m in a continual struggle to secure balance between the life I imagine and the life I want, between the big dreams I have and the day to day I maintain, between the precarious edges of doing too much all the time and doing not enough.

We are all swimming in the same waters. We’ve got a limited amount of actual time on our hands. No one gets to add more minutes to their day or more days to their year. This is what we have.

Years ago we came up with a set of family mottoes.  One of which was – You always have a choice.

And that is still true.

For our attitudes, of course, but for our time as well.

We have a choice. I have a choice.

I’d like to choose well.

What I say yes to means something about what I’m saying no to. What I say no to allows me to say yes to something else.

There are things I’d like to accomplish. Stuff I want to do. And I put it off for other things that actually matter a lot less to me.

So a book that reminds me of my personal priorities is a good day’s read to me.

The author has written about half a dozen other books. She has a Ted Talk that now I need to watch and apparently makes it her life goal to help people utilize their time and schedule well.

That’s help I can use.

Plus, she spends some time pointing out the power of goals and goal setting – the important of seeing those specific goals in your mind’s eye when you are up against a choice. A choice for your time or your energy. Is that choice pointing you in the direction of that goal, that desired outcome?

It’s a solid question that is worth asking again and again.

Expectations are infinite.
Time is finite.
You are always choosing.
Choose well.

__________________________