‘We have lost our purpose. We are in conflict, caught between a healthy desire to give more and an insecure need to get more.’
Welcome to the High Definition Life, a fractured world of relentless consumption, excessive overwhelm, increasing busyness and a widespread lack of truth and integrity. In this disorientating Idyllic Illusion, we constantly agonise over the value we are giving, or not giving and the elusive ‘just reward’ we crave for all the hard work we are putting in.
This conflict leads us to question our contribution to our partners, our families and the local and global community we are continually co-creating. We are lost whether to spend more time on our work life to make ends meet and be of value to the world or to focus more on our personal life so that we have something of value to come home to after working so hard.
If we are to improve how we engage with these changing facets of life and reduce internal and external conflict in the process it’s clear we must learn how to redefine and reconfigure them. Only in this way will we develop a new life blueprint and supporting set of practical tools to ensure that we can both start and continue working ‘on’ a connected life rather than getting stuck and lost ‘in’ the thick of a disconnected one.
The Seven Works is that blueprint and toolset rolled into one simple to understand and implement system that you can start using, in the bigger picture and the day to day, ‘on’ your life as well as ‘in’ it.
Overlap
In order to help ensure each book within the Work Life Wide Open Series as accessible as possible, it is necessary to establish a conceptual base understanding for new readers. This calls for a level of overlapping content from book to book. While each book is a standalone piece the reader is encouraged to go deeper into the content and practice of Work Life Wide Open by reading each book in the series.
There is no required order of reading but please assume there will be some overlap and that it will be kept to a necessary minimum. It should not exceed 5% - 15% of any book unless otherwise stated. I hope you accept any overlap in the spirit it is intended and appreciate that it serves as a valuable reminder of key concepts relevant to the book’s content.
This book is approximately 19,500 words.