Jason Ryan Dorsey, author of Graduate to Your Perfect Job, takes his initial ideas a few steps further in My Reality Check Bounced!: The Twentysomething's Guide to Cashing In On Your Real-World Dreams, a book that claims to offer its readers the strategies they need to open up a world of opportunities.

I have no doubt that any number of readers will pick up this book and instantly recognize themselves between the covers. Members of a whole generation of young adults who are “running hard but getting nowhere” will be pleased to see their frustrations and disillusionments in print, and more than eager to learn of some solutions to their problems.

Dorsey manages to stay slightly ahead of the curve by adding to the usual platitudes and catchphrases (“authentic self,” “finding your passion”) more meaningful and practical specifics: fill-in-the-blank questions that are helpful and thought-provoking; instant actions that readers can move on immediately; and strategies that lean toward the unusual – the 10-second self-commercial, for example – that could produce major, real-world benefits.

He also moves beyond the overly familiar and helps readers to see things from unique perspectives. His idea of needing/building a Future Picture (a goal, in other words) isn’t all that new, but the way he breaks them down into ”snapshots” – Family, Purpose, Career, and Personal – then probes each of them in more detail enables most readers to be able to connect somewhere within those four categories.

The applications of the issues and ideas he discusses are seen in the numerous profiles of young adults peppered throughout the book. The number of case stories in the book – one for almost every point that is mentioned – seems a bit excessive. Toward the end, the abundance of these real-world scenarios seems forced, making all of them a bit less believable. However, I can see how other readers might enjoy having a clear example of the follow through for each idea presented.

The approaches that Dorsey touts range from the simple and obvious – checking the phone book to see what other opportunities are booming right now, or having business cards made so that people will take you seriously – to the more taxing and less easily understood – his chapters on fears and excuses and how best to manage them both are intriguing and present a lot of information that most books, focused solely on getting rich or making it big, would have ignored.

That My Reality Check Bounced! is written by a twenty-something high achiever who has real-world experience coaching young adults to better positions (in their lives, as well as their careers) carries a lot of weight. The friendly tone and ‘get on the ball!’ advice would probably seem condescending had it been written by anyone too much older. Dorsey, who has clearly put in the time and researched the current issues facing “adultlescents”, manages it well.

He makes readers understand how much their everyday choices influence the overall course of their lives. He shows that success is not just about your age or education level. It’s also about being able to plan, being able to communicate clearly, having concrete goals, and networking. Doing the research, taking care of your whole self, being mentored and persevering in the face of adversity or doubts. And because his focus isn’t so narrow that he only talks about getting a good job or landing the right career, he is better able to help each reader try to achieve their individual dreams.

Do I think that there are limits to personal responsibility that Dorsey doesn’t address in this book? Certainly. And that it fell a little short of the cure-all the book blurbs would like to you believe it is? Definitely. But I also think Jason Ryan Dorsey provides a stimulating resource that many a ‘boomeranger’ will find helpful in their search for a better life.