The Crossroads of Should and Must

Great book! I picked it up after hearing her interviewed on the unmistakeable creative podcast and I was not disappointed. I picked it up in a Barnes and Noble and read it all the way through in the store. It's a quick read, but I got a lot out of it. Very inspirational, I had many ideas while reading it and wrote them down for the future.

This book had a lot of lofty quotes and ideas about finding your calling but it was not as in-depth or engaging as other books I've read on the topic of identifying your life's mission and pursuing it. The painted quotes were cute but did not necessarily win me over.

If you're looking to finally do that thing you've always wanted to do but never even whispered it allowed to your significant other or pet, I'd recommend Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way or The right to Write over this book. Even if your life's calling is to join the Peace Corps, go back to school and get your law degree or something you don't think is creative, Cameron's book focuses on using writing and other specific activities to help you figure out what it is you want to do and mentally clear away your emotional baggage on the way. The Crossroads is a little too “top level”.

Although for me I wouldn't call this book ‘life-changing', it was a very thought provoking look at finding your passion and how to pursue it. I liked that the overall message wasn't to just drop everything and every responsibility in life (you need a day job to pay bills? That's okay.), but ideas and inspiration on how to work around the responsibilities you have and your own created barriers and walls to start the path toward making your dreams a reality. Short and filled with quotes and small activities, this won't take you long to read, but it will help you think about and start putting in action a plan to pursue your passion. Elle Luna encourages at one point to write on your mirror, and if I picked one quote that spoke loudest to me in her book that I'd write on my own mirror, it would be this: “If you feel a knot in your stomach, because you can see the enormous distance between your dreams and your daily reality, do one thing to tighten your grip on what you want - TODAY.”