the book that started it all

My story starts the winter I was the sickest I have ever been. It began as a cold, to the flu, then pneumonia. Unbeknownst to me, I was about to lose my job and coincidentally was in the midst of interviewing for a new job that I thought I really wanted. My husband and I had our first child who we reluctantly sent to daycare so we could go to work and afford living in a condo in the city. With little family around we dreamt of a new home to raise our daughter. Later that summer of 2015, marked the start of a journey which would change all our lives.

The sickness & the shift

While I was sick, I hit a new low for me. I didn’t feel my purpose. I felt lost. I broke down. I was still too sick to be at work and went on another prescription medication as the first made me feel worse! So when I went to drop off my daughter at daycare I decided to stop off at a cafe to treat myself to a coffee and cheer myself up. But it didn’t work. I ended up breaking down in the bathroom stall crying uncontrollably. Coincidently my friend texted me at that same time. Normally I would ignore it at the moment or text back a simple generic reply but I felt I needed help. Unlike me to call someone, I called her and bawled over the phone. Hearing my desperation she was there in half an hour to support me. She was there to see me and to hear me. I confessed to her, that not only was I off work because I was still recovering from the sickness and new meds, I had a job interview later that same day. The current state I was in would not have gone over well in a normal conversation let alone an interview! However she coached me through it and I was able to go home, shower, eat soup and feel capable and confident in showcasing my abilities for this new job. I was sure the job was mine.

Thankfully that low didn’t last long as I was divinely guided towards a new direction immediately after our conversation at the cafe. I began to awaken to the possibilities of my life. I started to see all the abundance and connections around me. I felt a shift in my mindset. Even though I was still sick, I can’t explain how good I actually felt. I felt like I finally woke up. I felt alive!

After weeks of recovery from my illness, yet still obtaining this new awareness within me, I returned to work only to find out I would be losing my job. Reorganization within the company made my role unnecessary. Even though I had three interviews with this new company, I didn’t get that other new job that I thought was mine. I was left unemployed. For only a brief moment I wondered what was I going to do? If I hadn’t experienced that low point which triggered a shift inside me and immediate high that I was still feeling, the old me would have crumbled with worry and doubt. I would have felt angry and scared. I would have have felt little purpose. But fear was no longer surrounding me. I felt calm.

Losing my job turned out to be an immediate and lasting blessing! We took our daughter out of daycare and we spent the best summer enjoying each other’s company and connecting with her! I didn’t know it yet, but later I would create a new job for myself that was aligned with how I wanted to live my life with a meaningful purpose.

Enter “The Book” that truly healed me

Judy is my former employer and dear friend who guided me through that low state I was in. Judy quickly came to my rescue at the cafe when I broke down, lifted my spirit up and accelerated the shift in my mindset. I felt immediately renewed. Enjoying the start of my summer with my daughter, when I felt on top of the world, she mentioned her decision to write a book. I felt compelled to be a part of it and offered to help. She asked me to design two pages for it. I felt so inspired I ended up designing the whole book with even more activities in it to expand and support the concept. The creative process had never felt more invigorating. I made my first workbook with Judy.

Judy created The Life Purpose Playbook, a workbook and 6 month planner that featured a system she had used for 10 years to plan her days. It included a daily practice of writing thoughtful intentions for the day. As part of her planning she set a ritual to check-in with herself every week. This is the main concept of the book…to live your life on purpose. To help achieve this, we needed to guide the participant to explore their purpose. So we incorporated other worksheets to support them in discovering their purpose, clarifying their values, creating a life intention, dream building, reviewing their life as a whole and setting goals in each area. The combination of discovering your life purpose and sharing how to live that purpose is what makes this workbook so unique.

Judy wanted beautiful and inspiring coloured pages with quotes from her favourite mentors within the book. To keep the cost of the book down we decided to make it a black and white printed book. The Life Purpose Playbook was first published in 2015 and colouring as a form of a meditative technique was extremely popular and so we implemented this. By having the participant add their own colour to the quote pages, it made the experience of using the book even more attractive and unique. Judy also requested the book to have circles, mandalas and sacred geometry so we achieved these graphical elements throughout the pages.

Over the years, Judy’s focus has expanded and evolved but still to this day, she uses her Life Purpose Playbook to support her daily ritual.

If it wasn’t for Judy, her presence and her prayers which brought me peace then led me to design her book, I don’t know where I would be today. This book was the catalyst that started another shift in me to believe I could set off on my own entrepreneurial journey. All I wanted to do was to help people. The only way I knew how I could help, was with my years in product development and design, to support thought leaders with their knowledge and share it to the world. That’s when I realized I would help people help people. After Judy’s book was published, I helped three more heart-centered entrepreneurs with developing and designing their own workbooks. Enjoying the process, I decided to launch my own business. Do The Work Books was born from discovering my purpose and living my life on purpose all because of the one book that started it all.

During the creation of The Life Purpose Playbook, I ended up finding my own life’s purpose. To help other inspiring thought leaders build books that work. After Judy’s book, I decided to develop and design impactful workbooks to generate transformational results. 

The My Purpose Discovery Formula is one of the first worksheets in the book and it supported me in realizing my potential. My hope for you is that it triggers the same joy it sparked within me!

Theresa was able to take my book, my writing and all the exercises, as well as my creative brief, and come back with much much more than I expected. She has a natural feminine nature and spiritual essence that created such a beautiful, powerful, magical presence on each page! She is extremely efficient and excellent at time management so all steps of the creative process were so seamlessly reviewed and approved.

I absolutely LOVE working with Theresa and recommend her to anyone who is creating workbooks with the intention to create an impact on society and humanity!"

Judy Machado

Origin Story: Part 2 coming soon! Here I will share the life changing journey our family took and my vision for Do The Work Books.

Read more about the Life Purpose Playbook

Read more about my journey with Do The Work Books