Strongly recommend reading The Art of Possibility by Rosamund Stone Zander.

I am quite sad that I am not a regular poster to this sub. This is my first post here, so forgive me for the occasional mistake. Because I have never posted here before, I am not sure what to expect from this post. My gut is telling me to post it here, though, since I have found the book to be very motivational.<br><br>So I finished the book last night. Just to clarify, I am not a student in the classical sense. I am doing an electrical engineering internship right now, and I have also been studying for the GREs and getting ready to apply to grad school.<br><br>I found this book to be VERY inspiring. I decided to take three actions to make my life feel more like a possibility today.<br><br>1. The three A’s. Accept, Acknowledge, and Affirm. I have to do a lot more reading for my internship. I have had a lot of trouble with doing the reading, so I have decided to accept that I am having trouble with the reading, acknowledge that there are a lot of other things I want to do in my life, and affirm that, with focused attention, I can make the reading a reality. One huge thing that I learned from the book is that I don’t have to do the reading in order. I want to stop, and I can stop. I can make it be whatever I want it to be. I am going to begin using the three A’s more in my life.<br><br>2. Give an A. I have just decided that I do not want to quit my job. I want to find my job to be fulfilling. I feel like I have been living my life in a constant mindset of fear and doubt. I am finding that I have been in a mindset of, “Things aren’t going well, so I have to save the day.” I feel like I have been giving myself a, “C-,” at work. I am going to begin giving myself an, “A,” though. I just feel like there is so much to learn, and I feel like there is a lot I don’t know. I just want to be more open and giving. I want to be a good listener at work. I want to feel like I can go into any room, whether at work or at home and walk out feeling like I’ve, “made a difference,” in the world.<br><br>3. Rule number six. Don’t take yourself so damned seriously. I have been making a lot of mistakes at work. I am not really sure what to do about this. I am leaning towards finding different areas of interest and finding mentors. I feel like I have been feeling very discouraged about everything. I just want to learn how to laugh. I have been making mistakes, but I am also making a lot of progress at work. I just feel like I need to take myself less seriously. I feel like I have such a high level of effort, but I need more ease and flexibility in my life.<br><br>I feel like I want to add one more thing. I feel like a lot of people on this thread have felt, “trapped,” in their jobs or just in their lives. To me, this suggests that we want to take more control over our lives. We might believe that we are just, “stuck,” in our lives, but I feel like there is a lot we can do to break the spell. Thanks for listening.