REVIEW: “<i>The Renaissance Soul</i>” by Margaret Lobenstine

I first heard about this book when I visited the Scatterbox Books blog, back in late October of this year. And, I’m so glad that I stumbled across it, and then was able to get a copy to read via interlibrary loan!

In case you’re wondering what a Renaissance Soul is, here (from the book) are… “Five Signs That You Might Be a Renaissance Soul“:

1. The ability to become excited by many things at once, often accompanied by difficulty choosing.
2. A love of new challenges; once challenges are mastered, easily bored.
3. A fear of being trapped in the same career or activity for life.
4. A pattern of quick, sometimes unsatisfying flings with many hobbies.
5. A successful career that has left you bored or restless.

((to take the quiz and see if you, too, are a Renaissance Soul, visit the author’s blog at http://www.togetunstuck.com/renaissancesoul/quiz.htm … and for my brief summary of what constitutes a Renaissance Soul, check out my list on my other blog))

I am definitely a Renaissance Soul! And, reading this book was such a relief for me! So often –because I tend to go through “phases” where I’ll get all fired up about an activity or something for a while, and then quickly move on to something else– my husband calls me “fickle”. He can’t understand why I tend to jump from one thing, to another, to another… it’s an endless cycle. For example, I went through a “phase” where I loved Psychology and wanted to be a Clinical Psychologist. I read a bunch of books on the subject, I made up a whole business plan about how I’d run my own practice, etc. But, then a new idea came along (writing books), and I abandoned my “passionate” pursuit of Psychology, and moved on.

This book explains so much about why I do what I do. LOL. And, it provided a lot of neat exercises to help me narrow my focus down, and be able to give quality attention to a few of my current interests, while helping me to feel less overwhelmed about wanting to follow them all.

For example, it gives the analogy of being in an ice-cream shop and seeing the multitude of flavors to choose from (ie: Baskin Robbins — 31 flavors!). Being a Renaissance Soul, it’s sooooo hard to pick just one or two! So, the best option would be to have the choice of a “sampler” — 4 flavors all in one dish at this visit. And, next time you visit the store, you can have a different “sampler” — try 4 other flavors. And, so on, and so forth. That way, you aren’t having to completely limit your choices, but you also aren’t terribly overwhelmed by the multitude of choices. You have to pick 4, but you aren’t limited to just those 4 forever… next time, you can pick a different set of four. ((Does that make any sense? If not, please read the book — she explains it soooo much better than I can! LOL))

There was also a section on time-management for Renaissance Souls — a new way of looking at things, and a new way of using a calendar to bring order to your life. Renaissance Souls don’t usually do well with Daytimers and set schedules… so this book gives you an alternative way of doing things, while still “managing” your time, leaving you plenty of room to follow your current passions.

Lastly, there were ideas for careers, for making money while pursuing your passions (or current interests), for coming up with more money so that you can pursue your passions, etc. There was even a chapter directed at the teenage/younger Renaissance Soul!

Overall, I absolutely loved this book, and found it to be very thorough. Much as I’d gotten a library copy to read, this book immediately went onto my wishlist — it’s one that I need to have in my collection to reference back to, from time-to-time. In fact, I even purchased a copy (eBook), last night, with a gift card I’d gotten from my sister.

So, definitely check this one out if you feel you can relate to what I’ve described… you won’t be sorry!

Rated: A+