Blick ins Buch
On the love of work- and the work on love.
An Illustrated book of questions for coaching oneself.
Joni Majer and Birte Spreuer invite you on a journey. A journey to a good life. Your life. Such a journey, like any serious journey- is demanding. Self-knowledge and disillusionment lie in wait along the way. Probably also sadness and pain. But serenity and love do too. The path leads to the most valuable thing we can experience: a fulfilled, self-determined life of self-responsibility and self-acceptance.
Some go on a pilgrimage. Others book therapists and coaches. Birte and Joni ask good questions, use creativity and artistic talent: like tracker dogs for the true, the real and the right.
Birte and Joni question: the usual and the learned, norms and rules
Anybody who has ever retreated in order to relentlessly ask themselves whether that, what is going on in their life is what they had promised themselves from it, knows that it hurts to probe where one would usually turn a blind eye. A place where societal norms are used as a game of hide and seek from oneself. A place where the appointment of guilt is cultivated or where one has already shrugged and given up.
Yet anybody who has asked these questions knows how important this self-reflection is. We only have this one life- and this we continuously spend with our self. Reason enough to get to know ourselves better.
Teamwork- where the ego gets a break
Persistently consistent, Joni and Birte have made time to track the important questions of life. Being creatives, they did not only do so with words, but also with intensely colored paper and scissors. Hand in hand, they worked on powerful silhouettes which enforce the blatant questions. Time to create their effect so they may develop the power to work. As an important element of worklove, they describe the experience of true cooperation without the vanity of an originator. True cooperation connects. And connection intensifies conversations. It is only in such an atmosphere that one can probe so deeply. Until where it begins to hurt because the core is reached. The core of the problem. Where the solution lies within reach.
Freedom for worklove
At the beginning of this project stood a non-specific discontentment. Somehow, the creative work had become routine and something was missing. Some might call it midlife or quarterlife crisis, others would say that that was just life’s way. Joni Majer and Birte Spreuer were not satisfied with this outlook. They “formed a band”. Without any instruments, without a practice room yet, as a form of freedom. They met for “band practice” where they revealed to one another what was bothering them. They promised one another openness and clarity. This cannot be taken for granted. It changes communication. And the result of communication. Anyone can beat around the bush, yet scoring right into the heart is achieved only by few.
In discourse with others, they discovered that the questions around which their thoughts and conversations circled were less personal than anticipated. The evenings of band practice became standing appointments. Only who sticks to them will go further.
When they presented us with the project we knew: this cannot be labeled. And: we have to publish it.
A personal note at the end
I (Karin Schmidt-Friderichs | publisher) was allowed to accompany this project as editor. I was born in 1960, and am thus significantly older than Birte and Joni. I have, whenever I thought it useful, treated myself to a coach, I am a trained systemic professional coach myself. I know the power of good questions. I believe myself to ask good questions myself.
Editing this book has taught me a lot. About myself. I wish you the same. From the heart.
Features and design
worklove. A Book of Questions
Freedom- Fear- Pain- Love
On the love of work- and the work on love
260 pages with 96 powerful full-page silhouettes
printed throughout in four highly pigmented special colors
format 16.5 x 23 cm
thread-stitched open back brochure with embossing
ISBN 978-3-87439-959-3
