Life Is a Verb

Patti Digh (pronounced dye)Patricia Digh's first book, Global Literacies: Lessons on Business Leadership and National Cultures (Simon & Schuster 2000) was selected by Fortune magazine as a Best Business Book for 2000. Her most recent book, The Global Diversity Reference Guide, was published in 2003 by John Wiley. Patti is a business consultant, writer, and trainer with more than 20 years of experience in the areas of globalization and diversity. Her firm, The Circle Project, provides consulting, strategic development, and training for organizations and executives around diversity and leadership issues. Patti has developed international and diversity strategies for major nonprofit and corporate organizations and has been a featured speaker at many international conferences. A faculty member for the Summer Institute for Intercultural Communication and the University of North Carolina at Asheville, her comments have appeared on PBS, and in the Wall Street Journal, Fortune, New York Times, USA Today, Washington Post, and London Financial Times, among other publications. She has written over 75 published articles and has lived, worked and traveled in over 60 countries. In speaking and writing, Patti uses a unique style of storytelling and inspiration, gaining an international reputation for her innovative approach and ability to galvanize reflection, synthesis and action, particularly around diversity issues in organizations. She recently keynoted the International Conference of the American Society for Training and Development, with over 12,000 participants.Patti was formerly the Vice President of International and Diversity Programs for the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), with over 195,000 members. While there, she established the SHRM Global Forum and award-winning diversity initiative, including the International HR Certificate Program,the National Diversity Conference, the Diversity Train the Trainer Certificate Program and the MOSAICS diversity newsletter. Patti is also a co-founder of The Global Diversity Roundtable, a consortium of senior practitioners from multinational corporations that provides a confidential forum for the exchange ofleading edge practices, strategies, and methodologies in global diversity.Patti's clients include Amdocs Israel, PepsiCo, the U.S. Postal Service, Discovery Communications, Shell Oil, PBS, the Australian Human Resources Institute, the American Cancer Society, JP Morgan Chase, the American Red Cross, and the American Institute of Architects, among many others in the U.S. and abroad. She has served on the President?s Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities and on diversity advisory councils for the National American Red Cross, the AARP, and the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, among others. Patti's hobbies include making photographic image transfers and writing 37days, a weekly newsletter about living intentionally (www.37days.typepad.com). She and her husband, John Ptak, live in Asheville with their two daughters, Emma and Tess, a dog named Blue, three cats whose furniture scratching proclivities don't merit their being mentioned by name, and until the recent UnfortunateIncident, a dwarf hamster named Maggie.

"Life is a Verb is brilliantly-crafted, raw, gorgeously-designed, and daringly different from 'self-help' books. It relates, through stories that sparkle and astonish and soar, how to move, to be on your way, to realize who you really are through your actions. Through exercises that you participate in, as if in conversation with the author, you will learn, as she promises in the prologue, 'deeper things-how to know what to care about, how to treat others around you (and yourself), what to question, how to love, what to stand up for, and why you should tell stories and listen to the stories of others.' There is no more important learning. So read it. Inhabit it. Breathe in every word, because every word of this book is essential. Let it animate you. Annotate it to make it your own. And then let it let you change yourself, and become who you were intended to be. Begin now. You have no time to lose."--- Dave Pollard, author of The Natural Entrepreneur, and the weblog How to Save the World "Patti's guide for the last 37 days of life will turn every one of your next 3700 days a fully lived experience. If you had some unsolved fear for death, that would be your season ticket to have a free ride on the train with the author. I have never seen such a simultaneously practical, esthetic and soul-caressing book in my life."--Kichiro Hayashi, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, Aoyama Gakuin University, Tokyo "I laughed. I cried. I want the t-shirt! Seriously, Life is a Verb may well be the single book that will change the world or maybe only your life ... Artful, funny, heart-breaking, Digh reminds us that today isn't a dress rehearsal and we can start today celebrating the magic of ordinary life. Reading Life is a Verb is like mainlining goodness. Digh shows us what is real and what matters, and she gives us insiders tips on how to make minuscule life corrections that result in quantum shifts in experience. She reminds us that life can easily be fun. This will surely be the last self-help book you will ever need or want to read."--Patricia Ryan Madson, Stanford Emerita, author of Improv Wisdom: Don't Prepare, Just Show Up "Life Is A Verb is a wonderful treat! Good exercises, stories, and examples. Reading it will help you appreciate just how much can be gained through living with intention. It's also a lot of fun."--Roger von Oech, author of A Whack on the Side of the Head: How You Can Be More Creative "I've said it once and I'll say it again: I adore Patti Digh's book Life is a Verb: 37 Days to Wake Up, Be Mindful, and Live Intentionally. I love her writing, her depth, her sizzle. This is a book that makes me sing with life and the possibilities we all have for transformation and awareness. It is the best antidote I've got these days for the pain and fear raging around us--that and loving hugs, long naps, fervent prayer and letting myself feel whatever I'm feeling."--Jennifer Louden, author of The Woman's Comfort Book

• Preface Why 37 days?Chapter 1 Write to rememberChapter 2 Start with IChapter 3 Intention Chapter 4 Insight Chapter 5 Intuition Chapter 6 Integrity Chapter 7 InclusionChapter 8 Intensity Chapter 9 Live an Irresistible ObituaryAfterword Acknowledgements