Book Pivot

Have you ever encountered a book that has made you pivot? I’m calling this a book pivot…you’ll see why in a moment. But can you look back at a time in your life and think, yes, that is the moment that changed everything? Maybe not an earth-shattering change, but one that corrected the course you were on and put you down a different path. I can attribute my “moment” to a dentist appointment and a book. I know that seems like a weird combination, but this is what happened…

I had gone to the same dentist for most of my life. My dentist had, in sense, watched me grow up, so when he asked me at one of my check-ups after I graduated college, “What’s next?” I took it as an invitation to respond with how I am doing and how confusing it is to have graduated and try to think about what you might want to do with the rest of your life. I’m sure he was just wondering what my degree was and wasn’t anticipating the full life story and confusion as well as anxiety I was feeling about working at an insurance agency. A place that, no offense to any insurance agents reading this—you are needed and important, but I felt like my creativity was being stifled and to be completely dramatic, I felt like I was being suffocated! So, this is what after-college life is like? Feeling as though you are destined to be doing great things and helping people, but not sure how, and yet you are talking to someone every day about automobile coverage! Needless to say, when my dentist said I will be right back, I thought for sure what he was actually doing was RUNNING from my lack of calm and complete confusion in adult life. A silly patient who was asking her dentist what her purpose was! Sometimes wonderful and magical things happen when you decide to be vulnerable and honest with other people though. While I was secretly thinking I had just scared my dentist away, the complete opposite happened. My dentist was in fact, grabbing a book from his office. One he said he had read multiple times throughout his life and that he thought would bring me some clarity. He wanted me to have it! I could have cried because it was such a genuine gift—let’s be real, I probably did cry! I went in to make sure I didn’t have any cavities and I came out with a new book to read during my lonely lunch hours at the insurance agency. Little did I know, what my dentist had gifted me was actually a book pivot.

The book is called, Aspire, Discovering Your Purpose Through the Power of Words by Kevin Hall. The title alone got me! Now, I could have easily set the book on a shelf and never opened one page, but I read it like I was going to be tested on it. You should see it—I still have it, I will cherish it forever, and it is highlighted, written in, marked up, and folded like a story I’m trying to edit. I read it and about halfway through it, I decided I was going to quit my job, break up with my then-boyfriend and move home until I could figure out what my plan was. Not the best decision when you have student loans you need to start paying off, but I just knew my future was NOT in insurance. I know this will seem like an exaggeration, but when I made that decision and drove home that day, there were sunbeams shining through the clouds and I felt calm. I was nervous about quitting a job that I had only been at for a few months, but I didn’t want to waste another second doing something I hated. I’m not recommending what reading this book led me to do, but I do want you to think about where you are in your life, and if you feel something pulling at you to do more, course correct, or even pivot—maybe explore those thoughts and feelings.

Here are some of the lines I highlighted that spoke to my 22-year-old self that still resonates with me at age 34.

“…“Namaste. It means I honor the place in you where the entire universe resides. I honor the place in you of light, love, truth, peace, and wisdom.”…I salute the Divine within you. I salute what you do best. I salute your natural gifts. I honor your uniqueness and your specialness. …Every person is an unrepeatable miracle.”

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.”

“…before we can salute the greatness within others, we need to salute the greatness within ourselves.”

“If we don’t recognize our gifts, we can’t use them.”

“The biggest mistake people make is not making a living doing what they love to do.”

Can I honestly say that where I’m at in my life right now is because of Aspire, the book given to me by my dentist over 10 years ago? No, not completely, but it sure did make me pivot and my goodness am I grateful for that! Without reading that book and making a change, I wouldn’t have taken the chance and purchased an event-planning business when I was just 23. This means I wouldn’t have met my now husband at a wedding I decorated which brought me to my motherhood journey with two of the sweetest little humans on the planet. I wouldn’t have been inspired to start writing children’s books and ultimately, I wouldn’t be here writing this for you. So, I will keep working towards discovering my purpose through the power of words and hopefully inspire some of you to do the same.

Have you ever experienced a book pivot?

What books have you read that have changed you in one way or another?

Please list them in the comments.

Here is a list that I came up with that has impacted me or that I took something memorable from, not all in as extreme a way as my story above, but inspired me, nonetheless.

Heaven is for Real by Todd Burpo

I Heard God Laugh by Matthew Kelly

Girl Wash Your Face by Rachel Hollis

Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom

Buy Yourself the F***ing Lilies by Tara Schuster

The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson

Atomic Habits by James Clear

The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg

My first professional headshot after purchasing the event planning business, Spectacular Settings LLC.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend, and as always, happy reading.