Marcus Buckingham - How to Take Control of Your Career and Life

Marcus Buckingham was a guest on the Oprah show today, talking about how people can grab control of their careers and other aspects of their lives. Buckingham is a consultant and motivational speaker who is called a "strengths coach," which I guess is something like a life coach who specializes in building on a person's strengths.

You can find the details of Buckingham's workshop at www.oprah.com/workshop.

In his appearance on Oprah, Marcus Buckingham concentrated on finding out whether folks were satisfied in their jobs. He spoke with several people and had "I Hate My Job Interventions," drawing on the principles taught in his book Go Put Your Strengths to Work.

The Freegan Movement: Growing Movement or Fad?

Many people today want to simplify their lives and be less consumer and product driven, but "freegans" are going a few steps beyond all that. The freegan lifestyle has gotten a lot of attention recently, and a freegan couple was even on Oprah today.

As explained in the freegan Web site, "Freeganism is a total boycott of an economic system where the profit motive has eclipsed ethical considerations ..." Sounds fine until you get to the kicker: "Thus, instead of avoiding the purchase of products from one bad company only to support another, we avoid buying anything to the greatest degree we are able." Consider the three words in that last sentence; Avoid. Buying. Anything. Hmmm....

The first photo you see on the freegan Web site is of a young woman reaching into a dumpster, holding a bag of food. For some people, depriving themselves of things they like is a serious drawback of freeganism. A distaste for dumpster diving is another. So I'm out on both counts.

Newsweek had a blog last year called Freegan Girl in which a woman tried to be a freegan for 32 days. She made it to day 31, then gave in to a serious cheeseburger craving.

I'm all for simple living and don't go in for all the conspicuous consumption in society today. I love getting free, used stuff from freecycle. But, I can't see freeganism becoming a widespread movement, it's just too extreme to stick to, especially long term. Some people will probably adopt some of its practices, or call themselves freegan but "cheat" on a regular basis.

Oprah's "Women and Money" Free Download Sets Records

As you might have heard, Oprah Winfrey recently set off another stampede among her followers to get their hands on a book. this time the stampede was really heavy-duty, because the book was FREE.

Actually it was an e-book, a download of financial adviser Suze Orman's "Women and Money." Oprah offered a free download of the book, and more than a million people took advantage of it in the one-and-a-half days the offers was made. (Unfortunately the free offer ended around Feb. 14th, so if you haven't gotten it already you've missed out.)

The free download doesn't seem to have hurt the sales of the physical book. "Women and Money" was published more than a year ago and is currently ranked #4 on the Amazon.com bestseller list.

Oprah Winfrey Chooses "A New Earth" as Her Next Book Club Selection

Oprah Winfrey has chosen "A New Earth" by Eckhart Tolle as her next book club selection.

Winfrey said it "her boldest choice yet" and said the book fit in with her life's mission, "to lead people to their higher selves." What's more, Winfrey announced that for "A New Earth" she will conduct her "first worldwide interactive class," a free 10-week course that she and Tolle will jointly teach. The classes will take place on the Oprah.com Web site on Mondays at 9 p.m. Eastern time, starting March 3rd. You can register for the class or learn more about it here.

"A New Earth" was published in 2005 and according to a press release "encourages a collective sense of commitment to changing the way we live for people who want to make a difference."