I just read the most inspiring, moving, makes me want to jump up and take action NOW book full of “Ah-Ha!” moments I have read in years!

Make the Impossible Possible by Bill Strickland

227 pages – 7 hours and 15 minutes in one sitting – and I am going to read it AGAIN on Thursday for Day to Read.

Read. This. Book.

Seriously.

In fact, let me give you a taste:

“In fact, I now understood that saving other people wasn’t my primary mission at all. I couldn’t save anyone, in fact, until I saved myself, until I knew myself and knew what I wanted my life to be. I was only twenty-one years old. It wasn’t that long ago that I’d been a troubled Manchester kid myself, defined and limited by low regard for my own potential and false assumptions about what the world had to offer a person like me. In those days, I would hear people speak about life as a journey, and meaning and fulfillment as if they were distant destinations. In Manchester, all the roads were dead ends or led to places I didn’t want to go. If the kind of life I longed for lay off somewhere in the distance, it was hidden in some place I couldn’t get to, on paths I couldn’t find. I had felt defeated before my life had even begun.

But Frank Ross had shown me a better metaphor for life in a shapeless lump of clay. He taught me I could dream my future the same way I shaped a pot or vase, with vision, skill, and care. Watching the Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild grow from a mere dream, my dream, into solid reality was proof that Mr. Ross was right. In just a few years, the Guild had become one of the brightest points of light in th neighborhood, a source of hope and direction for hundreds of disadvantaged kids, in its modest way helping to transform the world. But for all the good that came out of the place and all the lives that were touched, the person it helped the most was me. It gave me the space to find out who I really am. Years before, I had envied those white folks in Ligonier for the deep roots that gave them such a solid foundation for their lives. But now I knew that identity isn’t something you inherit, it’s something you must discover. The Craftmen’s Guild was helping me discover mine. Who was I? I was the guy who believed art and creative experience are stronger than fear and ignorance. I was the guy who created this place out of passion and vision and sweat. I built the Guild out of ideas and things I treasured, or needed, or believed in, and in doing so, I created the kind of personal foundation Frank Ross had talked about – a foundation crafted from genuine values and passions that would serve as a base for a rich and meaningful life.”

It’s not preachy, it’s not cliche – it’s real. But beware, it strips you of your excuses in the most subtle of ways.

Read. This. Book.