WONDERHELL AVAILABLE EVERYWHERE:
Laura Gassner Otting talks about new book ‘Wonderhell’
The bestselling author joins “GMA” at the start of National Stress Awareness Month to explore the stress we feel when things are going well at work, in our personal lives and more.
OVER 100 INTERVIEWS WITH SUPERHUMANS WHO REVEAL THE TRUTH ABOUT SUCCESS
success is wonderful... but it's also hell. success is wonderhell.
Wonderhell offers a roadmap to creating the mindset that lets you move forward in life, even when your success tells you to stop right there. Highlighting stories of people who have pushed forward to achieve a new definition of success with insights from the author’s own experiences along the way, readers will slay their impostor syndrome, banish their doubts, manage their burnout, and make way for their limitless potential.
THE INFORMATION DESK: WELCOME TO WONDERHELL
PREFACE
INTRODUCTION
IMPOSTORTOWN: EMBRACE YOUR AMBITION
The Imaginarium: Learning to Play Bigger
The Fortune Teller: Making Your Own Luck
The Hall of Mirrors: Figuring Out Who You Are
The Tent of Oddities: Living Into Your Truest Self
The Haunted House: Letting Go of Your Demons
DOUBTSVILLE: RENEGOTIATE YOUR RESPONSE
The Roller Coaster: Managing Uncertainty
The Trapeze: Flying Without a Net
The Scrambler: Finding Your Own Way
The Ferris Wheel: Gaining Perspective on Other People
The Tunnel of Love: Going Farther Together
BURNOUT CITY: DO IT ALL OVER AGAIN
The Carousel: Saying No to Hustleporn
The Whack-A-Mole Game: Focusing on What Matters
The Bumper Cars: Quieting Perfectionist Tendencies
The Gravitron: Standing Tall When the Floor Drops Out
The Loop-de-Loop: Adopting a Beginner’s Mindset
THE SOUVENIR SHOP: LIVING IN WONDERHELL
OVERFLOW PARKING: ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS & RESOURCES
HOW DO WE THRIVE IN
WONDERHELL?
I found myself in Wonderhell shortly after I published my last book Limitless. I was thrilled with the success of this thing that I worked so hard for, but I was also exhausted, stressed, anxious, and uncertain. I didn’t know what to do. So I spoke to nearly one hundred glass ceiling shatterers, Olympic medalists, start-up unicorns, and every day people like you and like me in search of a solution.
THIS IS JUST PART OF WHAT I LEARNED:
Wonderhell compels you to expand your boundaries.
Each time we envision success, before we even achieve it, we see a version of ourselves that we never knew existed, a potential we never thought real. There is the “you” before this realization, and the “you” after this realization.
Wonderhell invites you to dive into your discomfort.
Wonderhell is not a limitation but an invitation. Those who thrive in Wonderhell see the mixed emotions surrounding this realization not just as part of the process, but a sign that they are on the right track.
Wonderhell urges you to embrace your potential.
Accepting success as a finite destination means that there is a finite limit to your growth. What’s on the other side of this Wonderhell is the next one, and the next one, and the next one after that… if you’re lucky.
early praise for wonderhell
"Success is wonderful and achieving it can be hell. Lucky for you - Laura Gassner is here with her highly anticipated new book - She’ll teach you how to navigate the ‘Wonderhell’ of achieving your dreams and the success you deserve.”
MEL ROBBINS
#1 NY Times bestselling author of The 5 Second Rule
“Perfectly capturing the competing feelings that come with success or the achievement of our goals, Wonderhell packs Laura’s beautiful writing, passionate stories, and seasoned wisdom into the ultimate guide to finding balance in our success. If you want to set your intentions and priorities, learn to find peace, and embrace the potential for the life you’ve always wanted - read this book!”
DR. MARSHALL GOLDSMITH
Thinkers50 #1 Executive Coach and New York Times bestselling author of The Earned Life, Triggers, and What Got You Here Won’t Get You There
“Laura Gassner Otting reimagines the stories we tell ourselves about success and shows how mixed emotions like fear, uncertainty, and stress that accompany success are often a sign that we’re on the right track. If you’re ready to step into the wonder of your potential, this book is for you.”
OZAN VAROL
Bestselling Author of Think Like a Rocket Scientist
“Laura’s decades of experience as an executive recruiter shine in Wonderhell. She offers readers practical and powerful tools to achieve consistent success that’s delivered with her trademark warmth and wit. If you’re on the dangerous and exciting cusp of becoming more than you thought you could be — or you dream of getting there — then Laura Gassner Otting’s new book is for you.”
DORIE CLARK
Wall Street Journal bestselling author of The Long Game and executive education faculty—Duke University Fuqua School of Business
“Wonderhell is an essential book for those who are ready to push themselves to new heights. Full of inspiring stories of people who dared to ask more of themselves, Laura offers research, tips, and tools in an easy, fast read so that you can push forward with confidence through the messy middle.”
ERICA DHAWAN
Author of Digital Body Language
“Laura Gassner Otting incisively guides us through the emotions that all too often mire us in that queasy liminal space in between our insecurities and our unbridled potential. Packed with wide-ranging research, inspirational interviews, relatable hilarity, and just the right amount of edginess, Wonderhell is hopeful and entertaining roadmap for anyone who has ever dreamed that they could be more.”
DR. AMY CUDDY
New York Times bestselling author of Presence
“A wise, loving, laugh-out-loud funny guide / kick in the pants for navigating the inevitable (but rarely discussed) fear we face on the path to success. For anyone who wants to be more and do more, Wonderhell will help you turn confusion into confidence, exhaustion into exhilaration, and worry into winning.”
DR. TASHA EURICH
Organizational Psychologist and New York Times Bestselling Author of Bankable Leadership and Insight
“High achievers understand that the first success is just the first step to what you can accomplish. Sustained performance demands that we evolve to meet our ever-increasing potential. Part cheerleader, part roadmap,
Wonderhell perfectly lights the way for those who dare to dream bigger.”
AMY PURDY
New York Times bestselling author of On My Own Two Feet, 3x Paralympic Medalist, Oprah 100
“Finally, there’s a word for that scary and exciting place that takes us to the edge of our potential, filling us with a calamity of hope, possibility, dread and overwhelm, all at once. Wonderhell helps us make sense of the joy and anxiety, the promise and uncertainty, the fun and hardship that so often define moments of profound transformation.”
JONATHAN FIELDS
Bestselling author of SPARKED, host of Good Life Project® podcast
“If you’ve ever gone further and achieved more than you thought you could … and then gone, ‘now what?!’ … this is the book for you. Wonderhell shows you not only how to make the most of your present success, but what it takes to go further still.”
MICHAEL BUNGAY STANIER
Author of The Coaching Habit and How to Begin
“Laura Gassner Otting brings actionable insights and an intuitive framework that shows us that none of us are alone in the confusing, vulnerable, messy middle. Wonderhell is a bold invitation that every entrepreneur must read.”
KARA GOLDIN
Founder of Hint Water, and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of Undaunted
“As we reach for what could be, we often experience what is: mixed emotions, tough decisions, and messy middles. With her inimitable mix of inspiration, relatability and real talk, Laura Gassner Otting guides us to meet our potential. Wonderhell is a book for anyone and everyone who chooses to grow in life.”
DR. SUSAN DAVID
#1 Wall Street Journal bestselling author of Emotional Agility
“Wonderhell takes a deep dive into the gap between who you were and who you’ve become so you can experience your full potential without limit (and help others do the same), now! Laura Gassner Otting inspires me again and again!”
RICHIE NORTON
Award-winning author of Anti-Time Management and The Power of Starting Something Stupid
“I count myself lucky that Laura Gassner Otting responds to my texts. Sure, I’ll brag that I have that kind of unbridled access to someone who has both had success and knows how to help others achieve it. Thankfully, her brainy new book, Wonderhell, is much more than a few text messages. Now, you too can benefit from her unique perspectives, powerful thoughts and actionable strategies to better manage you present and future opportunities. When doubt creeps (or when when the ego wails “you deserve this!”), Wonderhell is here to provide balance and a healthier approach to keep things going in the right direction. What a ride!”
MITCH JOEL
Founder of ThinkersOne, host of Six Pixels of Separation
“You will realize you are not alone after reading these incredible stories of triumph and tragedy from so many different people and perspectives. Wonderhell is a masterclass filled with humor, truth and a bit of edge. If you feel lost, if you feel alone, if you feel stuck… this book is for you.”
TIFFANI BOVA
Wall Street Journal Bestselling Author of GrowthIQ
MEET THE AUTHOR
LAURA GASSNER OTTING
Over the course of her 20-year career studying, recruiting, and stewarding leaders through massive career change, Laura has witnessed over and over that true success comes from a combination of four elements: calling, connection, contribution, and control. These elements remove external and internal limits, empowering individuals to carve their own paths and use their work to live their best lives; what she terms Consonance. Simply defined, consonance is when the “what” you do matches the “who” you are (or want to be).
Laura sees the greatness in others and reflects it back on them in ways that help them get them unstuck. Because she is turned on by The Big Idea, she encourages people to think audaciously, motivating them to dream boldly and act decisively. An instigator, motivator, and provocateur, she has never met a revolution that she didn’t like or a challenge that can’t be overcome.
FOLLOW LAURA:
We expect success to be an enjoyable ride, but it’s more like a terrifying gauntlet of never-ending challenges. Why isn’t everything easier? Why doesn’t success feel better? Why does it feel like Wonderhell?
If you have a dream, a plan, a demon, a potential, an unshakable goal that excites you and scares you at the same time—take the Wonderhell Quiz and find a way through it!