Find Your Unicorn Space - Book Summary (2024)

Living an authentic life story is about aligning your passions and interests with your core values and making them your legacy. This concept is illustrated by Professor Dan McAdams' practice of summarizing life in six words. For instance, his six-word summary is "Raise daughters. Write books. Love Becky." This encapsulates his core values and passions - family, writing, and love.

The author's twelve-year-old son, Zach, also provides an example of this practice. He summarizes his father's life as "The Three C’s: curiosity, connection, and completion." These three words reflect the author's values and the passions he pursues, which he often discusses in his Zoom calls.

The author also shares the story of Rudy Hypolite, whose legacy projects play to packed houses and standing applause. Hypolite didn't need to ask his audience about his legacy because his work, which aligns with his passions and values, speaks for itself.

The author encourages readers to reflect on their own lives and identify their core values and passions. By aligning these with their pursuits, they can live an authentic life story and create a meaningful legacy. This process involves asking questions like "What values appear to be driving me?" and "What are my unique gifts, and how do they fit a need in the world?" By answering these questions, individuals can gain a better understanding of their active, living legacy.

"Find Your Unicorn Space" by Eve Rodsky is a guide to reclaiming your creative life in a busy world. The book emphasizes the importance of finding your 'Unicorn Space', a term coined by the author to describe the active and open pursuit of self-expression in any form. This pursuit is built on value-based curiosity and purposeful sharing with the world. The book provides a framework for cultivating curiosity, making meaningful connections, and following creative projects through to completion. It also discusses the importance of setting personal goals, rediscovering interests, and cultivating creativity. The author argues that creating time for Unicorn Space is crucial for mental and physical well-being, and provides practical advice on how to achieve this.

10 Actions to Implement Learnings:

1. Identify your Unicorn Space: Find the activity or pursuit that makes you feel vibrant, focused, connected, and alive.

2. Cultivate Curiosity: Develop a value-based curiosity that can lead you to your Unicorn Space.

3. Set a Goal: Determine how far you want to take your creative ambition.

4. Share with the World: Use your Unicorn Space to connect with your community.

5. Face Your Fears: Connect with others in a "Ready, Set, Go" mindset.

6. Enlist Your Partner: Seek unwavering support from your partner in your pursuit of Unicorn Space.

7. Continue the Pursuit: Understand that "Complete" is better than "Perfect".

8. Give Yourself Permission: Allow yourself to be unavailable, burn your guilt and shame, and use your voice.

9. Create a Sharing Mindset: Pair your pursuit with a "share with the world" mindset to make it more meaningful and purposeful.

10. Reflect on Your "Why": Write down or formulate in your mind a one-line why or intention for creating Unicorn Space in your life.

10 Main Facts:

1. Unicorn Space is the active and open pursuit of self-expression in any form.

2. It requires value-based curiosity and purposeful sharing with the world.

3. Time is the ultimate reward for increasing efficiency and fairness in home organizations.

4. Unicorn Space is available to both right- and left-brain people alike, so long as you're curious.

5. The book provides a 3 C’s framework for cultivating curiosity, making meaningful connections, and following creative projects through to completion.

6. The author argues that creating time for Unicorn Space is crucial for mental and physical well-being.

7. The book provides practical advice on how to achieve Unicorn Space.

8. The author interviewed experts in psychology, sociology, social work, neuroscience, behavioral economics, and law for the book.

9. The book discusses the importance of setting personal goals, rediscovering interests, and cultivating creativity.

10. The author argues that creativity doesn't pay, but it's still important for personal fulfillment and happiness.