Sparked

This is the book I WISH I’D HAD YEARS AGO when I was laid off by my company after 15 years. I took a break—didn’t go job hunting—because I couldn’t go back to the same soul-sucking career I’d just been fired from. 

This book would have helped me fast-track a lot of the "discovery" process I had to go through.

Why do I love SPARKED?
1. You can take the Sparketype assessment online. For FREE. There’s not some expensive upsell to get the test like other books/companies I won’t call out.

2. I found my results to be super accurate. I’m a MAKER (yes, I absolutely love to create). But I didn’t realize this was part of my life purpose “DNA” until I read Sparked. It’s life-changing.

3. You also get your SHADOW sparketype which is the sort of underlying type that also influences you. Mine is MAVEN and I can see why I can go down rabbit holes of learning and information. (Also it’s why I’m a self-help book and course junkie). I want to learn, learn, learn all the time.

4. With the free test you get your ANTI Sparketype which is your kryptonite—the thing that drains you. Mine is NURTURER and this makes a lot of sense in my life….

You really have to take the test to get the most benefit from this book. I started off reading about my own 3 types, but I also made my husband take it and now I better understand where he’s coming from.



If you lead a team of people or are a parent of teens/college students, this book is hugely important to understanding what drives people. For example, if someone’s ANTI is an essentialist, they hate details and organization. There are ways to cope with the various types. 



All in all, an OUTSTANDING book that everyone would benefit from.

Reading Sparked and learning more about the Sparketypes, was a very emotional experience. I was not expecting to be so moved, after all, I had already taken the Sparketype assessment and knew a little bit about the types.

We often hear quotes such as, "everyone' is different," and "just be yourself." Knowing these truths and living them, fully expressed, are two very different things. This book may just bring us closer to aligning our outward expressions of self with the amazing person who exists within.

Reviewed by a Maven/Performer.

Your richest worklife begins with YOU.

I developed psychological tests for many years, and I thought I’d seen it all when it comes to work-related self-report assessments. But the Sparketypes framework created by Jonathan Fields has influenced--in ways no other tool or other resource has--how I think about spending my time.

His approach feels fresh because Fields keeps our individuality and humanness at the center of the conversation. Some of us expect work satisfaction to come from service to an industry, or the intersection of skills and interests. I think this is rarely true. What happens when we acknowledge that the rewards of doing our true work, in the broadest sense, are deeply personal? Those results are more often a feeling than an outcome. And while it’s true that we need to pay the bills, at the end of the day, life feels satisfying when we’re honest about the activities that generate a spark of aliveness in us and act on them as regularly and as often as possible.

This book will help you identify your true sources of personal energy, understand them, and give you the language to explain your motivation to the people you engage with--in any kind of pursuit (e.g., family, career, leisure, school). It’s a perfect balance of “heartfelt” and “pragmatic.”

And you couldn’t be in kinder or more generous hands. Fields’ intimate voice assures you on every page that this is about YOU. YOUR life. You trust him as he nudges you to take advantage of this remarkable point in history to rethink work and what you want for yourself. Fields is the guide who’ll lead you down a better path: discovering, or reconnecting with, an alive-feeling part of yourself that may have been dormant for too long. It’s time.

At the beginning, there was a bit too much talking about how great the method was and how much people who used it really loved it but, once the author finally got going, I really enjoyed this book. I loved reading about my own spark type and about others, and it was fun to try and connect my friends and family to their own. The actual advice part didn’t feel all that useful, maybe because it’s less specific? Or maybe I’ve just read too many self help books at this point.

One of the best 'trait' books I've ever read- comparable to 'Unrepeatable' but using metaphor to describe your primary mindset, and it's supporting mindset.

This was a great eye-opener and confirmation that I don't have to choose just one interest.

The evaluation question is free too! I truly recommend this as a tool for understanding yourself and others.

However, it's not a be all and end all just a tool for the road.