Registration for our next Refuse to Choose Book Club opens in November of 2025
Check here for book clubs beginning sooner

Welcome Home, Scanners!

If you’re one of the people with many interests and talents, someone who’s curious and can’t bear the idea of doing only one thing in your one life, if you’ve discovered that there’s nothing wrong with you at all—join other Scanners in working through the book that changed the world for you and others like you!!

Imagine a Barbara Sher book club at your local coffee shop. Over coffee or tea and a scone, you meet weekly to discuss what you’re reading in one of her books. You share what you’re learning through the exercises about who you really are. You get more out of the book as the others share their insights. And you’ve got 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?

Now imagine that, for the same cost, you can attend 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 Disney World.

That’s what you get with an online book club! Scanner friends from all over the world. Doing your exercises from the book when you have time, never rushing or hurrying. Will you have the same kind of closeness? Hard to believe if you haven’t done it, but the answer is yes you will. You get to comment whether you’re shy or outgoing. You get to ask questions about anything you don’t understand. You get to help your new friends. You’re going to love it.

Join us, because that’s what’s happening—again—beginning November 13, 2025. For sixteen weeks, we’ll share Barbara Sher’s guide for Scanners, Refuse to Choose: A Revolutionary Program for Doing Everything That You Love. We’ll read every word. We’ll do all the exercises, try out the tools and life design models and career ideas for every type of Scanner. And we’ll share it with each other on password-protected, members-only web pages. But for this book club, there is even more!

Bonus Material You Cannot Get Anywhere Else

New exercises created just for this book club by Barbara Sher herself

A complete, professional index to Refuse to Choose that you can download and keep, courtesy of Do Mi Stauber

An online quiz to help you discover which Scanner tools, lifestyles, and careers fit you best

Your Guide: Tammy Garver, from my very first Scanner Retreat in Corfu

Tammy Garver has been immersed in Barbara Sher’s work and using her methods and philosophy for more than 3 decades! A true Scanner, Tammy is honored to include teacher, writer, artist, consultant, certified life coach, practicing helping professional and holistic thinker on her list of loves and pursuits. Tammy is an alumna of Barbara’s first Write Speak Retreat and used ideas from Refuse to Choose to raise money to attend the first Scanner Retreat in 2006 where she finally “met her tribe” in Corfu. Tammy’s education includes degrees in Human Services, Family and Individual Studies, Early Childhood and a special concentration in Teaching Adult Learners. Tammy loves having fun, robust conversations and discovering new things with Scanners and Divers alike.

Here’s what people who know her well have said about Tammy:

“Thank you Tammy, it is so nice to be able to speak my truth here without fear of judgment. Thank you for the encouragement, as always, your ability to see people for who they really are and be with them in their struggles is a gift.” —Erin

“Tammy is a great person to brainstorm with! She always has loads of ideas and she’s very supportive.” —D.J.

I have collaborated with Tammy for a couple of years now in a professional setting, and I am always amazed at her vast knowledge. She is very passionate about the helping others and it shows in her desire and willingness to mentor, coach, and lead others in so many ways. Tammy makes learning and exploring new ideas fun and rewarding. —Rachel

“Having a knowledgable, supportive guide for the journey enriches the experience immeasurably. Tammy is a natural: she seems to have an intuitive feel for when the group as a whole needs a nudge, when individuals need to be encouraged, and when it’s time to really dig into someone’s response(s) and make it clear they’ve been heard—and perhaps, most importantly, that they’re not alone.” —Marian

The Refuse to Choose Book Club

We begin on Thursday, November November 13th, 2025. If you don’t sign up by 4:55 pm NY time on the 12th, it’s likely to be a year or two before your next opportunity. We’ll read part of the book and do the exercises in it (or the bonus exercises) every week for sixteen weeks. We’ll finish up on Wednesday, March 4, 2026.

We’ll meet here on this website, discussing each exercise and each chapter in the comments on its own web page. The discussions are in written form, and you choose how often to check in each week and when. No phone calls or webinars to fit into your busy schedule.

We expect a lot of members, but we’ll assign you to nice-sized discussion groups. Get your friends to join at the same time you do to be in the same group. And don’t wait until the last minute, as the last group could be smaller or larger than the others.

You will need to purchase or borrow a copy of Refuse to Choose, but they are plentiful and inexpensive. Choose the hard cover, the paperback, or the Kindle edition, whatever suits your reading style. (Unfortunately, only the publisher controls which countries the Kindle version is available in.)

You will get an optional 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.

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Register by November 19th, 2025

No one admitted after 4:55 pm November 19th (NY time)

Refuse to Choose: A Revolutionary Program for Doing Everything That You Love

Is this the right book club for you?

• YES if you’re a coach or want to be one. Barbara Sher is the expert on Scanners, people who are drawn to so many things they can’t choose one, people who move onto the next project before the first one is finished. You cannot get the tools and understanding in this book anywhere else.
• YES if you’re still trying to figure out what you ought to be doing with your life, still trying to focus on just one thing when you want to do so much more.
• YES if your many interests kept you from actually finishing Refuse to Choose or putting into practice what you learned the first time you read it.
• 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 other Scanners like you.
• NO if you are a Diver and long to become deeply skilled in and dedicated to just one focus (unless it’s coaching or counseling other people, because Scanners need you to understand them, too).
• 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 the Refuse to Choose book club? Well, here are what members of an earlier Refuse to Choose Book Club said:

This is your chance. The doors close at 4:55 pm EDT on November 12th, 2025 and the Book Club begins on November 13th. Tammy’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 the second half of 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, even if it is not just one thing.