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By: Jamie Collins & Eric Bleuel

Excuse me, pardon me, excuse me, folks – we’re coming through. It’s Jamie Collins and Eric Bleuel here, making our way down “Nerd Row” to tell you why you absolutely, unequivocally must join the TPS book club to charge into a better, brighter, fuller 2014. We know it may not sound all that exciting on its face – a “book club.” We get it. But what better way to kick start your year (and more importantly your life) by making new friends, learning lessons from a famous person people pay tens of thousands of dollars to talk to, and becoming a better person in the process. The fearless founder could certainly use a jump start into what she hopes will be the best year ever. We’re guessing you could, too.

For those of you who are not already members of our “Social Club” on Linkedin (please immediately consider joining – it’s free and really, really cool) about 2,500 of us from all across the country/world gather there to educate, motivate, inspire, and mingle with our colleagues, mentors, and peers. It’s a soft place to fall, a great place to ask a question, read articles, post interesting tidbits, seek advice or just kick back and be one of the guys/gals basking in the fabulously crazy glow of paralegal land.

A few months ago, Eric told us about a real “book club” he once joined. I’m not gonna lie – I wasn’t too sure about the whole concept. Book club? Me? Really?

But we decided to venture out and try something new. We began to read Mandela’s Way: Fifteen Lessons of Life, Love & Courage, by Richard Stengel. Week-by-week and month-by-month, this became an incredibly special experience stemming from a fateful selection, as it was prior to Mr. Mandela’s ailing health and ultimate passing, which occurred pretty much upon our completion of the book. We learned about and celebrated his life as he lived it.

I walked away from that book club experience with so much more than I ever expected.  It provided me with a greater sense of camaraderie with my fellow TPS book club members. The lessons learned from the book made me a better person.  What I liked most was the fact that I often walked away taking just as much from the engaging comments made by fellow members as I did from the actual book itself. Put simply, it was a vibrant, engaging, learning experience with a fun group of people. It was the best possible way to read a book.

We read 5 chapters of the book by a given deadline, and then entered into a discussion. We got to know one another better. We talked about some of our own life experiences – the ups and downs, the good and bad. At times, we shared our insecurities, apprehensions or doubts with one another, as they related to the book’s lessons. In and through that experience, we became better, both individually and collectively. Not just smarter for having read a great book, but better people overall for having done it together. Each of us emerged from that experience a better person with a closer circle of “legal friends” and a tremendous set of life lessons we will carry with us always.

Today, Eric and I are here to ask you to make the TPS Book Club a part of your New Year’s Resolutions for 2014. It’s a small, simple to kick start your year (and more importantly, your life). This is the year for you to step up, step out of the complacency you feel, and become the person you really are, deep down inside. The more: savvy, smart, fierce, talented, better, braver, bolder version of you. It’s time to leave your mediocrity in the ditch, as you charge into a better, brighter, fuller life.

We are talking to YOU.
Yes, you.

Here are a few excerpts taken from The Charge:

“This book is an unapologetic assault on boredom, distraction, mediocrity, withdrawal, and living a ‘normal’ life. It will directly call you to into question why you are allowing yourself to live at the energetic level where you currently reside, and it will aggressively challenge you to live a more vibrant, strategic, and engaged life.”

“The Charged Life, the truly lived life, is not a routine existence in some quaint, picturesque village of safety and certainty. No, the life worth living is out there, in the wooded wilds of the unknown, on the craggy battlefields that test our wits and wills in the daily fights with our own demons…It is out there that we come face-to-face with the best in ourselves and with our destiny. It is out there, in a new world of uncertainty and adventure, that we push ourselves, better ourselves, realize ourselves…It is in the marching on when we are tired and weak and fearful, and in the camaraderie of those fellow warriors we have striven with – our brothers and sisters and family and friends who cheered us on and toiled with us despite the messiness and apparent madness of it all…It is out there, outside the confines of our comforts and the pleasures of our accumulations, beyond our architecture of the routine, that we slip the bonds of our limiting beliefs, soar magnificently above our own shortcomings, and express our highest selves. It is out there, in a world rich with choice and challenge and fear and freedom, that your greatest gifts and adventures await you. Listen. It is out there that destiny calls. Be bold and ready yourself. It is time to charge once again.”

(Burchard, Brendon, The Charge: Activating the 10 Human Drives That Make You Feel Alive, First Free Press, May 2012.)

And in case you still aren’t entirely convinced, here are some additional reasons why YOU should join the TPS Book Club:

1) Reading and writing are the best things you can do for yourself to increase your analytical thinking. Analytical thinking is evaluating the evidence and examples in written material and determining if they support the author’s conclusions. This is an essential skill to master in the paralegal profession and can assist you in your everyday life.

Translation: Book Club will help your brain.

2) Being part of the book club will allow you to connect with other members on a greater level than just being a TPS member who occasionally reads or comments. Isn’t that important to you? Networking? Making friends? It’s all part of the human experience. Book Clubs are one way to accomplish that.

Translation: Book Club will make you friends

3) You might actually learn something that you never knew. By reading and writing about a book and discussing it in a public forum you force yourself to engage in a pre-selected topic. Anytime you take on a subject and look at it from different angles guess what happens? You learn something! Ask any expert on living and they will tell you that constantly learning is the key to life. Being part of the Book Club is one way to do this.

Translation: Book Club will teach you something

It’s not hard, it’s not terribly expensive, the investment is minimal and the rewards are great.

We sincerely hope that you make the commitment to join the club by reading the first book of 2014 – “The Charge” by Brendon Buchard. You can get it mailed to you for free if you visit his website. You can go to a book store and buy a copy. If you want it today you can download it to your electronic device…or if you’re really lucky, your local library might have a copy on hand.

Translation: Make your life fun. Get the book. Read it. Write about it. You won’t regret it.

Charge into 2014 and make it your best year yet, alongside a group of eager, ambitious, motivated, inspired paralegals! Make some new friends. Learn some life-changing lessons from a best-selling author and leader. Become the person you intend to be in 2014. Let’s do it now. Let’s do it together. Let’s not pretend we’re too busy or too tired or we just don’t care. We do care. We do want more. We are better.

No [smart, savvy, goal-driven] paralegal will be left behind.

The time has come to make – The Charge.

So get your hands on a copy of this book! We look forward to seeing you in our “Social Club” on LinkedIn, and in the TPS Book Club. You won’t regret it.

Make the charge.

Get your book by February 1st!

Note: All future announcements regarding the TPS Book Club will only be made in our “Social Club” on LinkedIn, so join today.

Here is the link to get your free, hardback book – pay just shipping/handling on Brendon Burchard’s website. Your book should arrive in 2-3 weeks. Yes, we ordered a book here and it really was FREE, plus about $7 in shipping = darn near free: http://www.thechargebook.com/

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We’d love to stay and chat, but we’re charging right on outta here! Get the book.

See you soon.