Refuse to Choose - A Review

For those of us who continually struggle to figure out what we want to do when we grow up and who rarely or never finish projects, Barbara Sher’s book, Refuse to Choose is a MUST read. Why? Well, because as Sher will tell you, you are a Scanner. Knowing this will free your spirit and Sher will give you fun tools to use to do it!

I’m a self professed self-help junkie who can confess to feeling it’s often a drag to do exercises in a self improvement book. Sher’s exercises are actually fun. And, while I usually find most exercises that people write in self-help books minimally enlightening, a few of Sher’s are real eye openers. One such exercise was to create a list of all the things I’ve done so far in life. Wow, was that useful. Usually I think I haven’t done all that much, but once I listed it all on paper, my life took on new meaning. I discovered themes that I wouldn’t have without writing out this list. And, it was just plain old fun to think about all of it.

Another thing I liked quite a bit about Sher’s approach in this book is that she makes sure to keep it realistic. She tells us scanners that we shouldn’t try to finish every project that we start because we are built to explore many, many subjects. However, she tempers this with what I believe to be very sound advice. She tells us to pick something to finish. The sense of accomplishment we will get from finishing one or a few projects is well worth the effort.

The one criticism that I have is that I found it hard to read through each and every type of scanner about which Sher writes because they overlap enough to make me a little skeptical that each is really a true separate type. However, the “Life Models” that she has given for these types such as the “School Day Life Model” are phenomenal. They give people the right idea that they can live their lives in ways that uniquely suit them instead of wasting time trying to fit into the molds society gives them. For this reason and as a scanner myself, I call Sher a kindred spirit.

I rate Barbara Sher’s Refuse to choose a four star experience.