Books, Professional Development

Book 969: The Art of Communicating – Thích Nhất Hạnh

Book cover of "The Art of Communicating" with Amazon Affiliate linkI had to read this for a course I’m talking about the art of brave communication. We only had to read the first couple of chapters, but I found it to be an approachable and relatively easy read so kept going.

Where Hanh excelled was in his simple writing. For the most part, there were no overwrought metaphors or awkward analogies. There was one at the end that I’ll get to, but I think it’s a religious thing and it just fell flat for me.

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Books, Professional Development

Book 830: 10% Happier – Dan Harris

Book cover of "10% Happier" with Amazon Affiliate linkI honestly had zero expectations going into this book. During the pandemic my employer provided us free access to the 10% Happier app which I took advantage of and have used sporadically (really need to get better at that). I enjoyed both Harris and Joseph Goldstein’s insights on mediation in the various getting started sessions and was curios if there was more out there.

I vaguely knew Harris had written a book, but it was never an OMG I have to read this type book, but when it randomly came across my screen one day I requested it from the library and saved it for a vacation read.

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ARC, Books, Professional Development

Book 786: No Blanks, No Pauses – Shelly McNamara

Book cover of "No Blanks, No Pauses" with Amazon Affiliate linkWhen the publisher reached out to me about this I immediately knew I was going to say yes (even if it took me a few days to get around to telling them).* I’m always interested in LGBT individuals’ personal journeys to where they are today and when the subject line was “Chief Equality & Inclusion Officer at Procter & Gamble Publishes Inspiring Memoir on Living an Authentic Life”, of course I was in!

I knew nothing about Shelly McNamara and the only thing I knew about P&G, aside from all the random products of theirs I use, is that they have a big neon sign in Boston on a building (I think it’s a museum?), so I went in blind which isn’t anything new for me.

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ARC, Books, Professional Development

Book 609: Get It Done – Michael Mackintosh

This book just wasn’t for me. I felt like it took MONTHS to read (it only took two weeks, but it was two weeks too long). The publicist reached out to me a bout this book sometime in 2018 and I just now got around to it, so clearly I needed the time management, but apparently not much else in this book.*

Overall, this book just didn’t sit well with me. I had a lot of issues with how Mackintosh approached his time management system (it’s a WAR, you have to WHACK things) and the layout/formatting of the book had quite a few issues. Mackintosh builds his whole premise on the book that if you have a better time system, know what your challenges are going to be, and set up your goals and limitations ahead of time you’ll be perfectly set to finish a project in 21 days. You can do this with his help by buying the book AND/or subscribing to his class/workshop.

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Books, Professional Development

Book 535: Nudge – Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein

I’m really taking to heart all of the articles I read about the most successful people and I’m trying to read one nonfiction book that will teach me something every month this year. I just looked back on all my stats from the last year and I’ve averaged 16 nonfiction books a year.

I’m still not 100% sure what list I saw this on, but I picked up a copy back in August of 2016. It was probably when I started reading about the importance of mental acuity and keeping your mind sharp and constantly learning how to do new things. That or it was when I was dealing with some craziness at work and needed all the advice I could get! Pick any number of these books and you’ll see what I mean, specifically those dealing with conflict.

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