Be Part of the Brand New “Live the Life You Love” Book Club

Our ninth Barbara Sher book club begins on June 30th with Live the Life You Love (in Ten Easy Step-by-Step Lessons). The exercises in this one will carry you along from not knowing what you want right into accomplishing the work required to add it to your life. Sign up below by 11:55 pm, NY time, on Wednesday, June 29th to be part of these powerful 16 weeks of reading, discussing and moving toward a life you truly love.

Live the Life You Love paperbackAnd please don’t worry whether this will fit with your schedule. It will, no matter where in the world you live.

This book is different from the other ones we’ve done book clubs for. Live the Life You Love is the book that helps you figure out what you want and takes you step-by-step to achieving it. By the end you have found and are doing what you love to do. It’s the do-it-yourself version of Wishcraft.

Except you won’t need to do it yourself, because you’ll be part of a group sharing what you’re learning, and the steps you’re taking, through the exercises in each chapter. You’ll get more out of the book. And you’ll get the accountability that helps you make the time each week to read some more of the book and really work through the exercises.

Sounds great, doesn’t it?

For the same cost as sharing a cup of coffee with your neighbors while you discuss the book at a local coffee shop, you can show up for this book club in your yoga clothes or pajamas. At whatever time and day suits you. And the other members of your book club are not just your neighbors. They live in New York City or Taos, in London or Montreal, in Perth or Hong Kong or Frankfurt or Stockholm. They live on a farm in Idaho, in a Lake District cottage in England, or next door to Disneyland.

That’s what we’re creating here, and we want you to be part of it. For sixteen weeks, we’ll share Barbara Sher’s Live the Life You Love (in Ten Easy Step-by-Step Lessons), winner of the Books for a Better Life Award for best motivation book of 1997 and a five-week Publisher’s Weekly bestseller. We’ll read every word. We’ll do all of the exercises. And we’ll encourage you on your transformative journey from wherever you’re stuck today to a life that makes you happy.

Hurry! Registration is open only through June 29th.

Your Guide: Patty Newbold, Sher Success Teams Director

Patty has been a Success Teams Leader since 2004 and director of the Sher Success Teams program for the past three years. She helped Barbara launch her WriteSpeak program and worked side-by-side with her at three WriteSpeak retreats. She’s now the coach for members of WriteSpeak Online. If you’re a member of Hanging Out, you know her as Webmaster, the MIT alum who figures out all the techie stuff Barbara hates being bothered with. She’s a full-blooded Scanner who’s had a great Scanner career and lots of hobbies, but thanks to many of her MIT pals, she really gets Divers, too.

Here’s what people said about Patty’s role in our book clubs for I Could Do Anything and Refuse to Choose:

By the way, Patty…I want to give you the highest praise I know…you so often sound so much like Barbara! It makes me get a huge smile on my face and then I imagine Barbara getting a huge smile on her face when she reads what you have written and then that makes me have an even more huge smile on my face. —LisaMancelyn

“Welcome back, Patty:) I’ve missed knowing you’re out there, — processing, responding, and CARING so much about all of us. —Amy M.”

I also want to say that with each of these exercises that I work on being honest with myself and devoting time, energy and thought I can feel myself understanding (finally!), growing emotionally, and changing inside….Thanks a million to Barbara for designing them, to Patty for her support and to everyone in the Club for reading, or just for being there. —Alicia

The Live the Life You Love Book Club

We begin on Thursday, June 30, 2016. If you don’t sign up by the night before, it’s likely to be a year or more before your next opportunity. We’ll read part of the book and do the exercises in it every week for sixteen weeks. We’ll finish up on Wednesday, October 19, 2016.

We’ll meet here on this website, discussing each exercise and each chapter in the comments on its own web page. No phone calls or webinars to fit into your busy schedule. Read what the rest of the club has to say and write about your experiences any time during each week. We’ll email you the comments that come in after you’ve posted yours, or you can just check back later in the week.

You will need to purchase or borrow a copy of Live the Life You Love, but they are plentiful and inexpensive. Choose the hard cover, the paperback, or the Kindle edition, whatever suits your reading style.

You will get an email every Thursday with a reminder of the week’s assignments, or you can find them in your Member Profile on this site. You can subscribe to be emailed each comment or you can visit the week’s pages to read them all at once.

As with the first nine Barbara Sher book clubs, we expect a lot of members. We’ll assign you to a group that’s just the right size for good discussions. If you want to join with a friend, do it at the same time to be part of the same group.


Register by June 29th

No one admitted after 11:55 pm June 29th (NY time)

Money back guarantee through July 6, 2016

Money back guarantee through July 6, 2016

$77 for all 16 weeks

Contact webmaster@barbarasclub.com if you encounter any problems with payment or if you don’t receive two emails within an hour after paying.


Live the Life You Love
in Ten Easy Step-by-Step Lessons

Is this the right book club for you?

  • YES if you’re still trying to figure out what you want to be doing with your life. Or if you have an idea but aren’t making much progress toward it.
  • YES if you’re stuck in a rotten job or a boring life and want some helpful, friendly accountability as you do the work to create something very different.
  • YES if you get more out of exercises when you do them with other people.
  • YES if you are isolated and don’t know a lot of people who have figured out what they love doing.
  • YES if you’re a coach or want to be one. Learn to use my organic strategy for achieving a life your clients love.
  • NO if you believe you can create your own reality just by thinking about it. (Try that on a busy highway!)
  • NO if you believe a positive attitude is the best way to real results. (If you ever went to school, held down a job, or raised a child for three years or more, you surely did it with whatever attitude you woke up with each day.)

What can you expect to gain from Live the Life You Love? Well, here are what other readers have said:

If you’re in transition – or want to be – this is a fantastic book to help you redefine your life and make it a joyful one – that you yourself design.
—Gardener on Amazon.com

At a difficult point in my career, I turned to this book to help me move to something new. I followed the steps described and it really worked. I had a dream of teaching environmental ethics at university, and now I am!…Another great thing about this book is that, just as she promises, all the exercises suggested are actually fun.
—R. Griffiths on Amazon.com

Live the Live you Love helped me go from being a starving artist with a few drawings on the wall to a successful international toy designer.”
—Zstein2 on Amazon.com

This book is very different than the usual “you can do it” book. If you follow the simple steps with this book “you will do it”! A wonderful book! You can start implementing the steps right away and be on your way to the life you love!
—Lee Mellott on Amazon.com

“This is one of the best books I have read for improving and understanding your life.”
—Jeremy S on Amazon.com

Who are you, and where are you going? If you don’t know, this book will help you find the answers.
—-J. Adams on Amazon.com

“Very straight forward with none of the usual self-help fluffy stuff to get in the way.”
—Amazon Customer on Amazon.com

This is your chance. The doors close on June 29th and the Book Club begins on June 30th. Patty’s ready to introduce you to a lot of great people and take you through the entire book. And the earliest we can possibly offer this again is next year. Sign up now and start changing your life. You owe your gifts to the rest of us. We owe you the support you need to find those gifts and do what you were born to do.


Register by June 29th

No one admitted after 11:55 pm June 29th (NY time)

Money back guarantee through July 6, 2016

Money back guarantee through July 6, 2016

$77 for all 16 weeks

Contact webmaster@barbarasclub.com if you encounter any problems with payment or if you don’t receive two emails within an hour after paying.


19 thoughts on “Be Part of the Brand New “Live the Life You Love” Book Club

  1. Hello , I do not speak English very well , I can read however little I hear . Will I get involved?

    • Our book club discussions are all in writing. This one has already begun. Our next one begins in October. Be sure you are on Barbara’s mailing list to receive a notice then. The sign-up form is below her photo on this page.

  2. Hi Patty,

    I realized the deadline has passed, but can I still register? Please let me know one way or another. I would appreciate it!

    Thank you,
    Dorothea

  3. I was unfortunately extremely ill all week and wanted to sign up for this!!! I was soil that even sitting up was next to impossible!!!
    I missed the deadline by 1 1/2 hours

    Could I still possibly sign up for this program? It sounds like something I could most definitely use and do need!

    Thank you!!

  4. Dont have a creadit card out side of Israel will take a while 2 get one… a shame.

    • Definitely! I have no idea if it works in Israel, but in the U.S., PayPal accepts prepaid (gift) credit cards as well as regular credit cards.

  5. Does this book club help people who are retired but want something new
    & different but not sure what that is???
    Barbara – please let me know as soon as possible. Thanks so much.
    Most sincerely, Maiu Bird

    • Indeed, it does, Maiu Bird. The first five chapters lead gently up to choosing a goal to go after. (And if you change your mind about the goal later, you can use exactly the same process to move ahead on another goal.)

  6. Hi Barbara!

    You won’t believe how loooong it has been since last I watched you on my TV!?! Must’ve been 10 years at the very least!! Out of all the motivation gurus I watched on PBS at that time, I found you to be the most relatable; you know, not given to euphemisms…”Oh! There goes your soul running after the Source. Go catch it!” Of course I’m just exaggerating, but still.

    The thing that struck me the most “motivational” about you was your emphatic and familiar refrain, “Don’t go to your grave with your music still inside you!” I had meant to get in touch with you then but, I guess, fate had other plans. I probably wasn’t ready to incorporate the changes I sought back then anyway. Now though, it’s a completely different story. Now I’m ready! And I needed this at this point in my life!

    And it’s funny story how I found you. I was watching a online presentation by a publishing and marketing coach. Randomly, and out of the blue, he happened to reference your signature refrain. I almost fell over backwards in my chair! I promptly did an Internet search and voila! There you were, and here I am, just in time to enroll for the next book club offering! And what perfect timing too! Too bad that the hardcover copies of the book are all gone…I’ll live, I guess. That was one of the questions I was going to ask you.

    Next, I was wondering if you’ll admit everyone into the upcoming book club as long as they register before June 29, or do you have a cap on how many you’ll let in? You see, I’m on Social Security Long Term Disability, so the funds are a little tight presently. I might just enroll at the nth hour if I can scrounge up enough change. Please let me know.

    I look forward to this journey with great excitement, especially since I’d asked the gods for a mentor. Awaiting your response,

    yours sincerely,
    Saengeeta Chadha

    • Saengeeta, we welcome everyone who registers before the deadline. We’ll create as many groups as we need to fit everyone in. Sounds like perfect timing, and you’re going meet lots more of us who have been paying attention to Barbara since her years of showing up on every PBS pledge week and even before this. Do join us!

  7. Timing for this new book club is great. I leave my current J.O.B as a school teacher the day before it is due to start. No firm plans about future, except I want to be more ME, and less a pale shadow. I’m Alex and I’m based in the UK. This will be my third BookClub!

  8. There’s another “NO, if …” caveat I think I saw the last time I had the privilege of seeing this club go up, and I feel like I’m … struggling with it a little bit.

    My mom (thankfully) came through open-heart surgery last year (and will graciously credit me with assisting her in getting through it, to most who ask, as I did my best to advocate for her with the medical professionals, update her literal hundreds of friends & former colleagues who inquired after her, and manage her household & financial affairs in her absence). She had the best care, but continues to struggle with fatigue even as she plans (at least out loud) to relocate to another state.

    My father, who lives in yet another state and whom I once gave up a promotion for in order to care for him through his second bout of cancer, has apparently decided that now that my mom is out of the hospital, this is a good time to reach out to me for logistical assistance considering his relocation, even though he & I don’t live in the same state and even though I’ve told all in the extended family I’m (amongst other things) in the midst of applying for a fellowship so I can try my best to get back to the level of involvement in national service & affairs as I’ve given up so many opportunities to do so in the past to attend to family obligations (and even though I was roundly ignored when I started asking as early as ten years ago now – “There are two of you and one of me; how are we going to manage these logistics?”).

    Now, I’ve seen my share of “Care of Aging Parents” boards – till I started having anxiety attacks just opening the pages and stopped reading them as a result – where people don’t feel like they have a moment to themselves as it seems like not only are the demands never-ending, but they seem to not have an awful lot of support to set any boundaries in place.

    I think it’s every person’s responsibility (with as much support as they can find, because there are statistics as to how often the larger burden of elder care is dumped on us ladies in the States (since we still don’t have government support to do it and since corporations seem to be actively against it) even as it sometimes feels we just finished raising children (or assisted with godchildren and/or nephews and nieces and/or … you get my drift) to do their best to set their own boundaries so that they too can have lives.

    At the same time – sorry it took so long to get here, but I had to give this context – I think I saw something written (and I think I’m hoping I’m imagining it) that this book club will not be for you if you’re *at all* encumbered with elder family responsibilities.

    I don’t think anyone who has aging parents still living is ever going to be entirely free of responsibilities. I’ve spoken to my friends who are parenting children, and it really does sometimes feel like that (though with the rather significant-feeling difference that none of us apparently dubbed responsible for the “reverse parenting” chose that role).

    Yet and still – are we not also allowed to have a life? Ever?

    Especially when we’ve repeatedly compromised our own dreams & abilities to thrive – *repeatedly*, now (and we’re not even going to get into how that actually compromises our ability to help care for them, which, honestly, nobody seems to have considered in any depth) – as a result of being subject to family persistence and pressure?

    Thoughts …?

    • M, this is the first time we’ve offered a Live the Life You Love book club. I checked all of the earlier book clubs, and the closest to what you’re recalling is about It’s Only Too Late If You Don’t Start Now, which is not advised for people who “are still hoping to have kids or more kids or take your current career to greater heights.”

      But the caution applies ONLY to that book.

      Almost everyone has responsibilities, many of them unwelcome, most of them in conflict with what would make them happy. From the simplest, like wanting to see the world but not wanting to leave your dog, to the extreme, like a parent or spouse or child in need of round-the-clock assistance with the basics of staying alive, often someone likely to survive much longer than an aging parent.

      Many have friends or family members who become increasingly dependent on them as soon as they begin to take steps toward what they would love, in an attempt to stop them from doing something that will affect their availability as a support team member.

      Some even take on anything asked of them by someone else to duck the fear that’s often involved in taking a risk on their dreams. (That’s resistance. It’s sneaky like that.)

      You ARE allowed to have a life. You ARE allowed to bring into your life as many as possible of the elements of a great life FOR YOU. Even when it means a loved one will need to think a little harder or stretch a bit more to make their own life work. And even if they pout or whine at the thought of this.

      In fact, you must. You owe your gifts to the world.

      Your father thinks now is the time to move, but if you’re his only resource for this, and you’ve given over too much of your life to him and your mother, quite obviously now is NOT the right time, unless someone puts him out on the street. And your mother has hundreds of people who can help her if she chooses to move despite being too fatigued to pull it off by herself.

      Both parents are recovered from their acute illnesses. Why is now not the BEST TIME EVER for you to follow your dream and create a life you can recall fondly, full of people happy to help when needed, as your own health begins to falter in old age?

  9. Well I’m nervous signing up, but I’m 58 and not getting any younger. And if this can get me past the resistance I always run into, it would be worth it.

    • Well done, Charlie. If you can do it, I can do it! I can’t wait to find out what you will be doing!

    • Hi Charlie. I’m a year older and this is my third BC. Don’t be nervous. Let’s all have some fun