3 out of 4 stars
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From Drift to Shift: How Change Brings True Meaning and Happiness to your Work and Life by Jody B. Miller is a non-fiction, self-help motivational book, which seeks to inspire people struggling to find joy or true meaning in their existence. The contents of this book are grouped into four sections containing different set of stories, captioned: Why Shift? When to Shift? How to Shift? And After the Shift?
The heroes interviewed in Miller’s book have different experiences, walks of life, career, and aspirations. Some of the people came from a traumatic childhood, while others were living seemingly comfortable lives but still felt void within. However, they all had to struggle, adjust, and drift through life to attain what they now become. The drift propelled them forward. They were able to embrace life and find fulfillment. All the stories were incredibly fascinating, and I was happy that they were real. It is a nice reminder that there is always hope at the end of the tunnel if one keeps struggling.
Miller introduces every chapter with a quote connected to the story following. At the end, the she summarizes the most significant lessons of each section in a series of points titled Takeaways. I very much love the takeaways as they captured the essence of the section and included good advice for improving one’s life. Apart from the takeaways, this book still has other positive aspects. One of many, was the mixture of gender, nationality, social strata, cultures and beliefs. And also, the book demonstrates through the experiences of the people, that humanities, the intangible aspects of life, determines to a great extend how one truly achieves success and fulfillment.
Miller successfully captures her audience through the book and personally, I felt I was part of the journey all the way. This feeling was the main thing that bonded me to the book. However, I noticed a couple of layout errors in the book. I discovered many one-sentence paragraphs and some sentences that had a paragraph break right in the middle of the sentence. The most displeasing aspect about Miller’s book is the use of distracting interjections. Miller used comments and stories about others to help make her points. The problem is, the comments turn to be too frequent, and too long, so much so that it serves as a distraction from the story rather than buttressing her point. The same applies to Miller’s excessive use of personal details about the people’s physical features in the book, giving it a touch of romance novel rather than a motivational piece.
I would give this book a 3 out of 4 stars. I would recommend the book to people who do find themselves drifting aimlessly without true purpose. This book can even help those who seemingly successful but are still unsatisfied with life and aspire for something more profound. Even people who are happy with their lot in life may still find this book enlightening since it highlights some other aspects of life they might have never known before. However, I would not rate Miller’s book a 4-star piece because of too frequent distracting interjections.
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From Drift to SHIFT
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