The Return

Review: How to Listen So People Will Talk: Build Stronger Communication and Deeper Connections Becky Harling Bethany House 2017 New author to me, but I went ahead and picked this book.   Certainly not for the cover design or the title, though.   The publishers did her no favors with either of their choices.   But, the content is worth reading, particularly if you want to improve communication with just about anyone.    Harling covers the bases well in this easy to read book.   Listening with the intent of engagement with the other person is the point.   Each chapter has a set of short activities, exercises to practice, which start with listening to God, then move to listening to your own heart, and finally listening to others.   She identifies plenty of ways to improve and some of the most common pitfalls of real communication.    There’s nothing here that’s really new.   You know this stuff from experience or...

Review: Trade Up: How to Move from Just Making Money to Making a Difference Dean Niewolny Baker Books 2017 Who is Dean Niewolny and what is Halftime Institute?   Without spoiling the book for you, Niewolny is the guy that discovered there is more to life than money and did something about it.   Halftime Institute is an organization that helped him do that.   And now he heads it up.   So, he’s not talking theory in this book.   He lived it.    Like most projects a good plan helps achieve a good outcome.   Trade Up describes that plan along with some advice related to some of the challenges a person can encounter shifting from just making money to making a difference.   It’s about discovery, strengths, and passions, gifting, and the journey itself.   It is not just sell all your possessions and go live among the downtrodden of some remote place you didn’t know existed.   That could be the outcome, but for most it i...

The Power of Meaning: Crafting a Life That Matters Emily Esfahani Smith Crown 2017 Smith has put together an interesting array of material to point her reader toward a life that matters, borrowing from her title.   Through her research work she finds several common factors that in the end become necessary to living a life that a person can claim as important in some way whether its feeding giraffes, turning a well-honed illicit drug business into a legitimate business venture, or surviving a concentration camp.   Yes, she covers that much ground in this short book.   And it is all to illustrate how meaning and a satisfying life emerge. The worth of this book isn’t necessarily that Smith has found some new silver bullet approach, but it’s readability.   The ease with which she leads a person through the various discussions helps the reader relax and absorb what she says.   Change doesn’t come easy for any of us so a soft, gentle approach cush...