I hope many of you had the opportunity to attend the Women of Faith Conference this last weekend. On Friday night, Marcus Buckingham spoke about his new book - Find Your Strongest Life: What the Happiest and Most Successful Women Do Differently. And although I have not had a chance to read this book in it's entirety yet (I did buy 4 more copies on Friday for special women in my life), my husband has and below is his review. Samantha Wright
Study the happiest and most successful women and you realize that they ignore balance, and strive for fullness instead. They deliberately tilt their world toward those few moments that genuinely fill them up.
As someone who has heard Marcus Buckingham speak and read his previous books, I looked forward to the release of his new book, Find Your Strongest Life: What the Happiest and Most Successful Women Do Differently even though I have a Y chromosome. I was also excited about the book, because I am surround by women in my life (my wife, my daughters, co-workers) and I desire each one of them to be genuinely successful.
Buckingham is a self described ‘strength strategist’ and most of his readers would probably describe him as primarily a business/organizational writer. But Find Your Strongest Life challenges women in their individual lives to start life strong and grow even stronger in life. He introduces revolutionary concepts like intentionally imbalancing your life, strong moments, and the practice of catching and cradling these strong moments. At the same time, he debunks myths surrounding the benefits of ‘balance’ and ‘juggling’ life. His chapter subheadings, including ‘Strive for Imbalance’ and ‘Always Sweat the Small Stuff,’ prepare the reader to expect a break from the norm.
Buckingham takes his readers into the lives of two women, Charlie and Anna, to put real flesh and bones on his thesis. Although, Charlie and Anna have very similar backgrounds and skill sets, each ends up with a very different level of satisfaction in her life. Buckingham posits that it is the practice of catching and cradling life’s strong moments that accounts for this difference.
I found the book enjoyable, readable, and challenging. Although at times, I found myself thinking that a specific section or thought would be much more applicable to the women in my life. Well, of course, Find Your Strongest Life: What the Happiest and Most Successful Women Do Differently is targeted toward women.
Although many authors of personal development books spend up to 90% of their book explaining their advice and only 10% pushing the reader to change, within the first 100 pages, Buckingham is challenging his readers. And this push continues for the next 80 pages as he uses sections like ‘What’s Stopping You’ to help the reader internalize his thesis and determine what it looks like in her own life. Part Three concludes with a look at specific areas of a woman’s life and steps can be taken in those areas to create a stronger life.
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